Do I have to provide a forwarding address?

delirious

I have recently moved out of a rental house and I have had an email from the letting agents asking for a forwarding address. I have set up royal mail redirection for a 3 month period so any mail sent (in my name) will be forwarded to my new house so I am wondering, do I have to provide the LA with my new address or can I just instruct them to send anything to my old address, which will then reach me?

pyueck

Firstly the legal standpoint.

No you do not need to provide a forwarding address and witholding returning your deposit because of your refusal to provide a forwarding address would be an unfair term, no matter whether this was in your tenancy agreement or not. You cannot withold a deposit for anything that is not directly to do with a tenant fulfilling their contractual obligations to the landlord. So in effect even if you were to default on paying all the bills, as the bills are in your name, its the problem of the utlity company and not the landlord. This is because debtors follow people not buildings. Look on the OFT website for unfair terms in tenancy agreements for this. While a landlord may like to know where you live, so they can send you any bills (unfortunately baliffs turn up all to often at rented properties where the debtor has fled), can ask you to provide a reference (I have learnt a big lesson, before you rent the most important thing to do is ask for a reference from the previous tenant) and can market future properties to you.

The obvious question is why you are not wanting to provide a forwarding address. Unfortunately, not that i think this is right, many agents will find this behavior suspicious and may hold up returning your deposit until they are sure you are not trying to hide anything. If you want your deposit back quick there is only one sure fire way to do it. Send the agent AND the landlord a recorded letter saying:

Dear Sir,

It has now been 10 days since I moved out of X, and I have fulfilled all my contractual obligations. I have not yet had my deposit refunded, and this is outside the guidelines of the scheme.

The deposit is my money and as I have fulfilled my contracual obligations I am entitled for it to be returned to me in full without delay. Unfortunately if I have not received my deposit back in full in 7 working days from the receipt of this letter I shall have no option but to launch a legal case to reclaim the money and any costs incurred. I trust that this course of action will not be necessary,

Many Thanks

xxxxxxxx

Make sure you send it to the Landlord as most people freak out at the idea of receiving a court summons and will 99 times out of 100 give in, normally even if you are not entitled to all your deposit. Tenants 1-0 Landlords. Giving landlords the revenge they deserve!

clutton_2

""witholding returning your deposit because of your refusal to provide a forwarding address would be an unfair term,""

so how exactly would a LL refund a deposit with no address to send it to ? not all LLs do internet banking..

""Make sure you send it to the Landlord as most people freak out at the idea of receiving a court summons and will 99 times out of 100 give in, normally even if you are not entitled to all your deposit. "

most landlords would not bat an eyelid if they are told they may receive a court summons, we hear it all the time from angry tenants....

we are much more accustomed to dealing with court paperwork than tenants and its not at all scary going to a small claims court.......

i think if you look at tenancy deposit schemes T&Cs that 14 days are allowed as a LL needs time to do an inventory, collect quotations for repair work if any, and accept a quote... all this cannot be done at the drop of a hat..

pyueck

"so how exactly would a LL refund a deposit with no address to send it to ? not all LLs do internet banking.."

If a deposit is protected, the landlord simply releases the amount for payment from the tenancy scheme. There is no need for the landlord or agent to have a forwarding address.

"most landlords would not bat an eyelid if they are told they may receive a court summons, we hear it all the time from angry tenants....

we are much more accustomed to dealing with court paperwork than tenants and its not at all scary going to a small claims court......."

Disagree, you are probably right for full time landlords with hundreds of properties, but if you are a small landlord with one or two properties, the stress and hassle of a court summons is huge. Plus watch out, a CCJ doesn't look great on your next buy-to-let mortgage application.

se999

delirious wrote: »

I have recently moved out of a rental house and I have had an email from the letting agents asking for a forwarding address. I have set up royal mail redirection for a 3 month period so any mail sent (in my name) will be forwarded to my new house so I am wondering, do I have to provide the LA with my new address or can I just instruct them to send anything to my old address, which will then reach me?

We've used Royal Mail Redirect a number of times, and it doesn't work 100%, especially if it's not the regular postman due to holidays/sickness. So don't expect all of your post to get redirected, some is likely to get delivered to the old address.

We did it initially for a minimum of 6 months, to ensure any delayed quarterly bills get through. Now we tend to use 12 months as some friends and definitely some relatives lose the new address details. Also it's easy to forget some odd annual bills. It's worth including reminders of new address when you send Christmas cards out.

Fortunately when we've moved out we've left forwarding address details, and the next occupiers have kindly forwarded the post to us.

sooz

pyueck wrote: »

If a deposit is protected, the landlord simply releases the amount for payment from the tenancy scheme. There is no need for the landlord or agent to have a forwarding address.

This only applies if the deposit is held in the custodial scheme. If it's in an insurance based scheme, the LL returns it, not the scheme.

sooz

se999 wrote: »

We've used Royal Mail Redirect a number of times, and it doesn't work 100%, especially if it's not the regular postman due to holidays/sickness. So don't expect all of your post to get redirected, some is likely to get delivered to the old address.

Redirection is notoriously rubbish.
I ask all my leaving tenants to leave a stack of pre-printed new address labels either for me or the new tenants. The amount I end up forwarding, despite a redirection in place, is astonishing!

Sammy85_2

I second that!

We get post all the time for the old owners of our house despite them having RM redirection in place.