Landlord holding mail - theft? whats our rights?

ShaShaSha

This isnt relating to money as such, but it has caused us several money issues

We rented a house from a friends Mum, and although she said she would get a tenancy agreement written up, she never did. We had several problems with her including us having no heating or hot water over christmas with a newborn, because of a dodgy boiler she said there was nothing wrong with.

We appreciated her help in letting the house to us, but she did nothing to fix anything we said was broken or not working correctly. We went 3 weeks without heating or hot water in march (when it was snowing!), and decided we had to move. We let her know we were looking for somewhere else, and asked how much notice we would have to give. No reply. We then text when we had found a house and phoned to ask how much notice, and she ignored our calls.

So we spoke to someone at CAB and they said we had no agreement, so she had to rights for any notice. So we arranged a move in date for the new house and messaged her to let her know, all hell broke loose and she said she needed 3 months notice and that we would have to pay three months rent even after we have moved. We told her what CAB had said and she didnt say much else. She came to inspect the house and said it was 'spotless' even though we had pets and a baby, and gave us a glowing ref for the new house. We moved out 12th July this year.

Then the day after we handed back the keys she said we had broken the boiler, broken the radiator cover because it was warped (which it wasnt, but even if it had been - thats not our problem the radiator cover couldnt take the heat from a radiator!) and said the place was filthy and cupboard doors were hanging off!!!! I called her and said to put it in writing because I wasnt going to pay out any money without seeking advise, and asked her to mail it to me - which she didnt.

A week or so later she text to ask for our address because she had mail for us, I text back with our address - but we have still not received any of the mail and she is now ignoring all calls and texts. This mail has been at her for months.


We also found out she had called up the electricity company to give my new address, but she gave out my mums address who I dont speak to now. My mum was furious about this, and I have no idea why she would do this considering she had our new address?

We know with the tenant before us she opened there mail and phoned up companies to tell them the guys new address, but we felt it was really wrong to be opening his mail instead of returning to sender?

We have lost healthy start vouchers which were sent before they got the change off address form, and bank statements, a giro cheque and important mail about my partners neurosurgery appointments




What can I do to get my mail back? what if she has opened them like expected??? Hope you can help xxx

jenhug

theft of mail is a criminal offence? call the police.
get a redirection of your mail incase any stray mail is still going there.

creditboy

The simple thing would have been to set up a redirection order with Royal Mail to your new address in which case the mail would never have gone to the other address. I just did this at it was around £7 per month for every different surname that was at the previous address.

This gives you time to change all your addresses in the meantime. Im not sure how you will now get you mail back, maybe someone else will offer better advice.

GDB2222

She is under no obligation to forward your mail, but she should hand it over to you if you go round (with prior agreement) to collect it. She is perfectly entitled to simply put it back in the post box, marked 'gone away'. As others have said, get redirection, and it's actually quite a cheek if you expect her to act as a poste restante for you free of charge.

If the boiler kept breaking down, why did you stay on from March to July? How long did you originally agree to take the place for?

custardy

perhaps the postie is now returning all your mail sice they would see the returned mail.
exactly how do you think the mail gets redirected? via elf's?
if you are not paying for a redirection then why do you expect your mail to be redirected?

Angelhales2601

Tbh I'm in a similar pickle, but with a company that dontallow you to go back in, I didnt set up mail redirection in time and have lost bank cards etc to my old address! My fault!

custardy

Angelhales2601 wrote: »

Tbh I'm in a similar pickle, but with a company that dontallow you to go back in, I didnt set up mail redirection in time and have lost bank cards etc to my old address! My fault!

you could have set up a temporary call and collect until the redi kicked in

ShaShaSha

GDB2222 wrote: »

She is under no obligation to forward your mail, but she should hand it over to you if you go round (with prior agreement) to collect it. She is perfectly entitled to simply put it back in the post box, marked 'gone away'. As others have said, get redirection, and it's actually quite a cheek if you expect her to act as a poste restante for you free of charge.

If the boiler kept breaking down, why did you stay on from March to July? How long did you originally agree to take the place for?

We agreed to take the house on for 6 months then month by month after, but wenever got the agreement she promised despite asking repeatedly

We started looking for a new place, but because of my disability and having pets - this was difficult to do, so took some time

and we didnt expect her to re-direct mail, it was mail which was delivered before the redirection at royal mail fell into place and after we had moved. She didnt just write 'no longer at address' and return it to sender, nor did she give the mail to my friends who lived next door - she took it home and is now ignoring my calls.

ShaShaSha

custardy wrote: »

perhaps the postie is now returning all your mail sice they would see the returned mail.
exactly how do you think the mail gets redirected? via elf's?
if you are not paying for a redirection then why do you expect your mail to be redirected?

We had redirection in place, but this mail was delivered before it started

custardy

ShaShaSha wrote: »

We had redirection in place, but this mail was delivered before it started

so you could have had a call & collect inplace to cover this period

toby3000

Doubt you can do much about it, I'm afraid.

She probably isn't declaring the income from the property though, so you can inform the HMRC. Won't help with your situation, but might make her get her act together more generally.