Letting agent keeps trying to charge me renewal fee!

tbs624

barnaby-bear wrote: »

Unless he's the caretaker and lives there or owns it - his social club is not a servable address for court papers, LLs legally have to provide such a UK address....
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/landlord's_address.htm

oooh have you pointed out to the LA that rent isn't lawfully due.... :rotfl: Request his contact details in writing, if you don't do this and you have a problem it's hard to seek redress via the courts without a servable address....

Section 48 Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 - requires that the tenant must be given an address in England where notices can be served on the landlord ? the address does not have to be that of the landlord. Rent is not lawfully due until this is complied with.

My understanding is that for the Tenancy Agreement itself the LL can provide any address as long as letters for him/her can be sent there. The requirements of S48 of LL & T Act 1987 are that an address for Service of Notices must be supplied - this can be c/o an "agent" (and that's in the broader sense of the word, not necessarily a LA).

However, if as a tenant you specifically make a request under LL & T Act 1985 S1, the LL's name and address must be supplied to you within 21 days and this has to be either a home or a business address rather than an Agent’s, AFIAA. (And as B Bear says, this ought to be done during the tenancy anyway - you have no legal right to that info once you are an ex-tenant should you need to pursue the LL) Have personally assumed in the past that a Club address was insufficient for this part but turned out in that particular case that it was the family workplace & home too

For reference :
Landlord & Tenant Act 1987 S48.
Notification by landlord of address for service of notices.

(1) A landlord of premises to which this Part applies shall by notice furnish the tenant with an address in England and Wales at which notices (including notices in proceedings) may be served on him by the tenant.

(2) Where a landlord of any such premises fails to comply with subsection (1), any rent or service charge otherwise due from the tenant to the landlord shall (subject to subsection (3)) be treated for all purposes as not being due from the tenant to the landlord at any time before the landlord does comply with that subsection.

(3) Any such rent or service charge shall not be so treated in relation to any time when, by virtue of an order of any court, there is in force an appointment of a receiver or manager whose functions include the receiving of rent or (as the case may be) service charges from the tenant.

Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 S1
Disclosure of landlord’s identity.

(1) If the tenant of premises occupied as a dwelling makes a written request for the landlord’s name and address to—

(a) any person who demands, or the last person who received, rent payable under the tenancy, or
(b) any other person for the time being acting as agent for the landlord, in relation to the tenancy, that person shall supply the tenant with a written statement of the landlord’s name and address within the period of 21 days beginning with the day on which he receives the request.

(2) A person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with subsection (1) commits a summary offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.
(3) In this section and section 2—

(a)“tenant” includes a statutory tenant; and
(b)“landlord” means the immediate landlord.

However, if I were Poppy I would hold back on this bit for now & see what response she gets from a first letter.

Never assume that a LA knows what they are doing - a good proportion of them think that if they sound authoritative, tenants will simply go along with their requests/invoices etc. The sad fact is that some of them have a poor grasp of even the most basic of legal issues around lettings. It could just be a simple error on their part in Poppy's case.......;)

N79

tbs624 wrote: »

My understanding is that for the Tenancy Agreement itself the LL can provide any address as long as letters for him/her can be sent there. The requirements of S48 of LL & T Act 1987 are that an address for Service of Notices must be supplied - this can be c/o an "agent" (and that's in the broader sense of the word, not necessarily a LA).

However, if as a tenant you specifically make a request under LL & T Act 1985 S1, the LL's name and address must be supplied to you within 21 days and this has to be either a home or a business address rather than an Agent’s, AFIAA. (And as B Bear says, this ought to be done during the tenancy anyway - you have no legal right to that info once you are an ex-tenant should you need to pursue the LL) Have personally assumed in the past that a Club address was insufficient for this part but turned out in that particular case that it was the family workplace & home too

For reference :
Landlord & Tenant Act 1987 S48.


Notification by landlord of address for service of notices.

(1) A landlord of premises to which this Part applies shall by notice furnish the tenant with an address in England and Wales at which notices (including notices in proceedings) may be served on him by the tenant.

(2) Where a landlord of any such premises fails to comply with subsection (1), any rent or service charge otherwise due from the tenant to the landlord shall (subject to subsection (3)) be treated for all purposes as not being due from the tenant to the landlord at any time before the landlord does comply with that subsection.

(3) Any such rent or service charge shall not be so treated in relation to any time when, by virtue of an order of any court, there is in force an appointment of a receiver or manager whose functions include the receiving of rent or (as the case may be) service charges from the tenant.

Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 S1


Disclosure of landlord’s identity.

(1) If the tenant of premises occupied as a dwelling makes a written request for the landlord’s name and address to—

(a) any person who demands, or the last person who received, rent payable under the tenancy, or

(b) any other person for the time being acting as agent for the landlord, in relation to the tenancy, that person shall supply the tenant with a written statement of the landlord’s name and address within the period of 21 days beginning with the day on which he receives the request.

(2) A person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with subsection (1) commits a summary offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.


(3) In this section and section 2—

(a)“tenant” includes a statutory tenant; and

(b)“landlord” means the immediate landlord.

However, if I were Poppy I would hold back on this bit for now & see what response she gets from a first letter.

Never assume that a LA knows what they are doing - a good proportion of them think that if they sound authoritative, tenants will simply go along with their requests/invoices etc. The sad fact is that some of them have a poor grasp of even the most basic of legal issues around lettings. It could just be a simple error on their part in Poppy's case.......;)

TBS - We have debated exactly what the address obligations are before but I think you have nailed them on the head with this post. This is exactly my understanding.

Compliance with S 48 of the LL and T act 1987 makes rent payable - this address need only be a servable address for the LL within England and Wales (Barnaby-Bear never forget poor little Wales!) and is often the agent's address. Non-compliance with this term means that a T can withhold rent.

Under S1 of the LL and T act 1985 Tenants have the right to find out who their LL is. However, this section does not require the LL's address to be within the UK as otherwise all of use absentee LLs would be stuffed. Compliance with this term is not necessary in order to be able to collect rent but non-compliance is a criminal offence.

And for the OP, don't pay. The LA has no way to enforce this request for money.

N79

noyk

Is it Romans letting agents? They did this to me and i refused to pay saying i was happy with a periodic tenancy. On leaving they tried to charge me for outstanding contract agreement amount, i told them i was going to take them to court along with the landlord (for other reasons) and they retracted the charge.
It's a shame because some of the individuals working there were quite nice, just the busines setup/directorship is completely up it's own a**e.

clutton_2

""I strongly advise you ignoring the LA. Just keep quiet and call their bluff. They have no sanction they can use to collect this fee."" - i utterly agree with this.

they cannot enforce a 2 months notice - irrespective of what is in their tenancy agreement - as the law is absolutely unequivocal a tenant gives ONE months notice - a LL - two.

poppy10_2

It says on the invoice "Please note that non-payment of this invoice will result in a deduction from your deposit."
I've decided to hand in my notice today, but I'm not relishing having to battle them to get my money back. The money is protected in the TDS.

barnaby-bear

poppy10 wrote: »

It says on the invoice "Please note that non-payment of this invoice will result in a deduction from your deposit."
I've decided to hand in my notice today, but I'm not relishing having to battle them to get my money back. The money is protected in the TDS.

They have to justify any deductions, clearly since no new contract has been done an admin fee for one is not going to be justified....

barnaby-bear

poppy10 wrote: »

It says on the invoice "Please note that non-payment of this invoice will result in a deduction from your deposit."
I've decided to hand in my notice today, but I'm not relishing having to battle them to get my money back. The money is protected in the TDS.

Ask for you LLs address now though - you are only entitled to do so whilst a tenant.... it may rattle their cage too

tigerpuss_2

hi i have the same problem i moved in to my house 20th august 2007 and my tenancy contract finished 19th august 2008 i received a phone call last week 23rd september asking me to go into my LA office to renew my contract and also to bring £45 when i asked what this was for they just said for admin.

Ive read through the previous posts and have read my contract the only part in it regarding the terms and tenancy was this:

under the heading Definitions there was this

references to "the Term" or "the Tenancy" include any extension or continuation thereof or any statutory periodic tenancy which may arise following the expiry or determination of the period of the Term specified in clause 2.


clause 2 says

the tenancy shall be from and including the monday 20th august 2007 ("the Commencement Date") to and including tuesday19th august 2008 ("the Expiration Date").

there is no mention anywhere else in the contract regarding renewel or any monies/ fees.

can anyone please advise me on where i stand.

thank you in advance for any help

poppysarah

Tell them you'll save them the admin time and go onto a periodic tenancy thanks.

Ring shelter if you want the official line.

poppy10_2

tigerpuss wrote: »

there is no mention anywhere else in the contract regarding renewel or any monies/ fees.

can anyone please advise me on where i stand.

Call their bluff. I did and they backed down straight away. I just sent them a letter stating simply that there is no mention of any renewal fees anywhere in my contact with them, and I have never agreed to pay such a fee, and therefore there was no fee payable. A lot of EAs are trying to charge fees wherever possible as they are in real financial difficulties. You don't have to pay anything.