Landlord/rented house question

tbs624

magicgenie wrote: »

Sheesh! Can't get a bit of friendly advice here can you?!!? ;-)

< you need to contact them by phone and maybe fax as well, as a matter of urgency. They will take you to court if you do not pay this, and then you will have a CCJ. They really dislike what they see as incompetent landlords.... i have personal experience of manchester council - they are particularly pro-tenant. >
So are you experienced in these dealings. Are you saying they do not respond to the email address they put on bills?

Most people who deal with Councils know that the email addresses receive hundreds of messages. You *did* get advice - you are in debt to the Council so get in touch, in person, asap because if you fail to pay on time you’re likely to end up in court

magicgenie wrote: »

< Don't you keep in regular contact with your letting agents?>
No, I pay them to manage it, I don't want to hear from them unless tehre is a problem out of the agreement we have.

Well, clearly there was a problem - a hole in the roof. You still haven’t said whether the LA and/or your sister let you know that repairs were necessary, prior to the tenant involving the Council. Was it a case of “ tenant is in arrears so I don’t see why I should effect any repairs” ? If yes, then the Council were quite right to pursue you. Tenants should pay their rent on time, but when they don’t it doesn’t mean that a LL can ignore his own legal obligations - the two matters are separate.

magicgenie wrote: »

< Don't you have money set aside for meeting your legal obligation to keep the property in a good state of repair? >
I do have money. But what business is that of yours. And how does this question relate to my question?

How rude. You post on here that you want Council Tax payers to effectively fund a credit agreement so that you can take your time paying off a bill for work that you, your sister and your LA should have dealt with in the first place? IMO Firefox raised a valid point.

magicgenie wrote: »

< Hang on, "works forced on" you? If your sister acts as your "correspondence address" whilst you are abroad, surely she would also have received the formal Notice of Action from the local Council? >
No, she did not.

Councils do not just go from “we have received a tenant’s report of a repair not done “ to “we will do it and charge you” : there’s in-between correspondence on the matter. It either went to your sister or to your LA, but the responsibility for sorting the repair rests with you. The LA acts for you: if you as LL said “do the repair, here’s the money” then the LA would get on with it on your behalf, negating the need for the Council’s further involvement.

magicgenie wrote: »

< As you are abroad you'll be familiar with the HMRC non-resident landlord scheme & having 22% rent withheld for tax purposes....
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/CNR/nr_landlords.htm&gt;
Yes, many thanks.

< Glad to here Manchester are pursuing another excellent Landlord...
Cheers!
Lodger >

Bit unfair. I've been very unhappy with this agents help with managing my house (they are the only agent who will manage houses in this area - what to do?) after all, look at this small mess I'm in because they did not inform me.

< Glad to here Manchester are pursuing another excellent Landlord >
The tenant in this house of mine caused thousands and thousands of pounds worth of damage before he left. He cost me nearly another thousand going through the courts getting him out, when he left he owed more than 4,000 pounds worth of rent, so far i'd say i'm up to 8-9,000 pounds that this tenant has caused me. But thanks for your input.

I don’t think any of us would condone tenants who trash rental properties, & run up rent arrears, but other posters could only respond to the limited amount of information you gave in your first post.

Your LA must indeed have been somewhat lacking, but then anyone can set up as a LA - no qualifications, regulations, training, expertise or even basic common sense required. Maybe you need to check the small print of your contract with the LA and look to recoup some of your losses from them if they have failed to meet their own obligations to you.

Good luck with any future tenancy , but maybe you should join a national LL association so that you can be more aware of the potential pitfalls of property letting (membership fees are tax deductible and you should get cheaper LL insurance premiums)

chappers

To be fair to the OP he did say in his post that he is aware he will have to pay

magicgenie wrote: »

I'm sure I have to pay and will. But wondered on methods available.
Alex

He did only want some advice on paying not a full scale investigation into his private business dealings.

Fire_Fox

magicgenie wrote: »

< Don't you keep in regular contact with your letting agents?>
No, I pay them to manage it, I don't want to hear from them unless tehre is a problem out of the agreement we have.

< Don't you have money set aside for meeting your legal obligation to keep the property in a good state of repair? >
I do have money. But what business is that of yours. And how does this question relate to my question?

Bit unfair. I've been very unhappy with this agents help with managing my house (they are the only agent who will manage houses in this area - what to do?) after all, look at this small mess I'm in because they did not inform me.

The tenant in this house of mine caused thousands and thousands of pounds worth of damage before he left. He cost me nearly another thousand going through the courts getting him out, when he left he owed more than 4,000 pounds worth of rent, so far i'd say i'm up to 8-9,000 pounds that this tenant has caused me. But thanks for your input.

I'm sorry that you had dodgy tenants, unfortunately those are the risks you take when deciding to become a landlord, especially an absentee landlord. Unfortunately the tenant breaching the tenancy agreement does not you absolve from your legal responsibility to keep the property in a good state of repair.

The letting agent works on your behalf, so legally any failures to maintain or repair the property are your failures: ignorance is no defense. Your beef is really with the letting agent - not Manchester Council - perhaps for not credit checking your tenants properly, perhaps for not informing you of the hole in the ceiling at an early stage.