 |
|
| Author |
Message |
BristolKitten
Joined: 21 Jun 2009
Posts: 13
|
 Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:42 pm Post subject: :oops: check my profile |
 |
|
 check my profile |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
chocye
Joined: 25 Jun 2009
Posts: 1
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 4:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I completely agree that it is wrong that the landlord pretends to live at your address : one big reason is that if s/he is accumulates debts and bad credit record then you can be affected by this because you share the address. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bluey
Community Moderator
Joined: 21 Mar 2006
Posts: 5643
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 12:12 am Post subject: |
|
|
| chocye wrote: | | I completely agree that it is wrong that the landlord pretends to live at your address : one big reason is that if s/he is accumulates debts and bad credit record then you can be affected by this because you share the address. |
Not directly. The historic practice of blacklisting an address has long gone and it is always between the named person and the companies that are owed money.
Indirectly, perhaps, because debt collectors will call looking for the person. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bluey
Community Moderator
Joined: 21 Mar 2006
Posts: 5643
|
| Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:57 am Post subject: |
|
|
When a tenant rents a place, it may be the owners property, but by law, it's the tenants home where they are entitled to quiet enjoyment of it.
There is no obligation for an occupant to forward mail to anyone - there is a Royal mail post redirection service for that. It's totally cheeky for a landlord to expect to be able to fetch mail from the property.
It is up to the landlord and tenants to agree who is paying the council tax. It's fairly common for tenants to pay it because, in most circumstances, if the landlord does not pay it, the council tax payment hierarchy, puts the onus on the occupants to pay.
The problem with landlords pretending to live at the property when they don't is that they invariably don't have permission from their lender to have tenants. If the landlord has the property repossessed when there is no consent given to let it, the tenants are swiftly evicted - the AST is worthless.
A similar problem is when the 'landlord' is in fact a social housing tenant and hides the fact that they're not permitted by their social housing landlord to sublet. Social housing is supposed to for those in housing need, not to allow their tenants to earn a private income. Southwark council, who has thousands on its waiting list for housing, repossesses dozens of its properties every year where their tenants don't live in them anymore.
I see where you are coming from, Hairylandlord, and I bet tenants only complain when they've got a grudge against the landlord and keep quiet when they are happy with a good property with cheap rent even if they suspect that the landlord is doing something dodgy. And I bet they'd be annoyed as hell if the landlord thought they were up to something and then notified the relevant authorities, or if they wanted their mail forwarded after they moved out and the landlord refuses. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bluey
Community Moderator
Joined: 21 Mar 2006
Posts: 5643
|
| Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| HairyLandlord wrote: | ...However, if these perfinicky tenants want to pick at minor things like the LL's post coming to the property, they are within their rights to do so, but that they must understand that doing so will likely have repercussions for them...
There are only two pieces of mail that should concern them.
1. Letters/Bills from the Council Tax office
2. Letters from the mortgage company
I would suggest the tenants open a couple of these to see if there are any problems with either organization and if not, throw the letters away and pretend they didn't arrive.
|
I agree that if tenants annoy landlords, even when the landlords are in the wrong, they risk having their tenancy ended.
Tenants don't have to facilitate the landlord using the address for the purposes of avoiding Capital Gains tax and collecting the rent in cash to avoid the taxman if they don't wish to.
I understand that it's not permissible for people to open up post addressed to other people. Presumably you'd not have been too impressed with your previous tenants intercepting mail at their address?
"The Postal Services Act 2000:
"A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person's detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him."
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts2000/ukpga_20000026_en_8#pt5-pb1-l1g84 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Penant The Tenant
Joined: 14 Mar 2008
Posts: 111
|
| Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:06 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| HairyLandlord wrote: | | Bluey wrote: | When a tenant rents a place, it may be the owners property, but by law, it's the tenants home where they are entitled to quiet enjoyment of it.
There is no obligation for an occupant to forward mail to anyone - there is a Royal mail post redirection service for that. It's totally cheeky for a landlord to expect to be able to fetch mail from the property.
It is up to the landlord and tenants to agree who is paying the council tax. It's fairly common for tenants to pay it because, in most circumstances, if the landlord does not pay it, the council tax payment hierarchy, puts the onus on the occupants to pay.
The problem with landlords pretending to live at the property when they don't is that they invariably don't have permission from their lender to have tenants. If the landlord has the property repossessed when there is no consent given to let it, the tenants are swiftly evicted - the AST is worthless.
A similar problem is when the 'landlord' is in fact a social housing tenant and hides the fact that they're not permitted by their social housing landlord to sublet. Social housing is supposed to for those in housing need, not to allow their tenants to earn a private income. Southwark council, who has thousands on its waiting list for housing, repossesses dozens of its properties every year where their tenants don't live in them anymore.
I see where you are coming from, Hairylandlord, and I bet tenants only complain when they've got a grudge against the landlord and keep quiet when they are happy with a good property with cheap rent even if they suspect that the landlord is doing something dodgy. And I bet they'd be annoyed as hell if the landlord thought they were up to something and then notified the relevant authorities, or if they wanted their mail forwarded after they moved out and the landlord refuses. |
I agree with your final paragraph but for the rest is too much "by the book" and we know what the books says but that human beings don't always follow the book for various reasons - sometimes the reasons are fairly harmless, others can be quite serious.
However, if these perfinicky tenants want to pick at minor things like the LL's post coming to the property, they are within their rights to do so, but that they must understand that doing so will likely have repercussions for them, since the LL clearly has a reason for doing what he has done, whether these reasons are acceptable to the tenant is for them to decide.
There are only two pieces of mail that should concern them.
1. Letters/Bills from the Council Tax office
2. Letters from the mortgage company
I would suggest the tenants open a couple of these to see if there are any problems with either organization and if not, throw the letters away and pretend they didn't arrive.
If there is a problem, then they will know and can take whatever action they deem necessary for their interests.
If they choose not to open the letters, they have to decide if having the LL's mail coming to the rented property is worth fighting the landlord for.
I used to rent rooms in a shared house and so the common areas would be free for me to enter and inspect/maintain as I wished. I also had all the bills for the property come there in my name (because I worked out the bills for everyone and then added these to the rent each quarter) and since I knew when the bills would come, I would go to the property at that time, usually during the day when no-one was there and pickup the bills and any other post. I also picked up rent from the property too.
I explained this to each person that came to live there and where to put any post for me or for ex-tenants, for whom I would also forward mail for.
At no time did I feel I was doing anything wrong, inconvenient or troublesome for the tenants and I had zero complaints from anyone about this arrangement. This arrangement worked fine for about 15 years after which I then rented the whole property to a group of sharers who knew each other and then all the bills where their responsibility.
I can see if the tenants in this case are worried about their tenure from any problem with council tax payments and mortgages being paid and this is why I suggested they open a couple of letters up to see what the state of these two things are.
If they have in writing that the council tax is included in the rent, they have nothing to worry about. If not, I would say to them to ask the LL to write to them confirming this. If he doesn't, I would think he has something to hide and perhaps consider moving if they think they might be liable and if there is any problem with the mortgage side of things. |
I thought interfering with mail not addressed to you was a criminal offence that can lead to a fine or up to two years in prison. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
Gumtree
Search
Register
Log in
Profile
Memberlist
FAQ
