landlord wants to come round and collect his mail

zappahey

Biggles wrote: »

Just say, "OK, I'll have it for you between 6 and 7pm tonight" (or whenever else is completely convenient for you). What's so hard?

There are a number of reasons it's "so hard", the main one being that it's the tenant's home for the duration of the lease. The landlord may own the asset but he has, in effect, ceded "ownership" for the duration of the lease.

It's no different from me telling you that I'm getting my mail sent to your house and can we arrange a mutual time for me to pick it up. Would you be happy with that?

Others have covered the likelihood of not having proper mortgage arrangements in place so I won't repeat that.

I had a similar situation*, in that my LL's mail came to our house. I gave him fair warning that if he hadn't sorted it out by a certain date then it would be returned to sender. He didn't, I did and he ended up paying 2% more on his mortgage as, due to his mail being returned, they assumed he had an unauthorised let in place. On the day we left, another letter came asking us to help the bank trace him so he obviously still hadn't resolved it.

*Though we had the luxury of knowing it was only temporary as we were house hunting.

Naf

googler wrote: »

Is there some reason they can't use the notices address for their mail, or some reason that the mail HAS to go to the tenant's address....?

No, they already said this. The T in this case has kindly accepted just to put mail addressed to their LL into a box provided which is collected periodically. I wouldn't find this a particular problem, myself, either.

tbs624 wrote: »

Ts are absolutely not obliged to agree to a similar imposition.

It's not an imposition if they were asked politely, and it was clear that no pressure was applied to consenting, and they agreed. All things that its reasonable to assume happened in the particular case; a bit of a poor state of affairs when everyone seems to assume the opposite and the worst in people.
Similarly above where a poster has jumped in scaremongering that they think the LL doesn't have CTL. It's a bit unfair on the LL who you know next to nothing about to assume this of them; and unfair on the T, the OP above, to scare them. Certainly it is possible, and possibly worth the OP checking the return addresses on the LLs mail; but its not automatically a conclusion to jump right to.

OP, personally I would see no problem with doing this as long as the LL is accommodating and collects it at a time suitable for you, and as long as everything else seems proper and above board. With that in mind it's worth checking your deposit, gas safety certificate etc. but if it all seems OK, there's no reason to assume the LL is doing anything shady. But if you don't want to, then you don't have to and it shouldn't be held against you at all. Unfortunately, though, it is a fact of society that declining to go along with it could possibly mean your LL wants you out at the end of your AST. It wouldn't be fair, wouldn't be nice, and most LLs wouldn't do it; but its certainly a possibility - and likely to be the case if he doesn't have CTL.

propertyman

Why get into an argument with the landlord? ( shakes head)

"Can I come round"

" Sure, we're in tonight"

Ding dong " Hi there you go"

" Thanks, bye"

Life is too short.

zappahey

propertyman wrote: »

Why get into an argument with the landlord? ( shakes head)

"Can I come round"

" Sure, we're in tonight"

Ding dong " Hi there you go"

" Thanks, bye"

Life is too short.

Do you see the first few words in your signature. In my view they apply in this case.

anselld

Naf wrote: »

It's not an imposition if they were asked politely,

OP, personally I would see no problem with doing this as long as the LL is accommodating and collects it at a time suitable for you,

Not a problem to ask politely, neither is it a problem to decline politely. The OP has stated that they feel that there is NO suitable time and it IS an imposition. It is a personal preference and it is entirely up to the tenant to decide if they wish to agree or not, and if they wish to change their mind later!

theGrinch

just agree a time and date and thats it. Im surprised tenants and LL arent more flexible given the importance of the relationship.

sometimes its easier to get world peace.

franklee

Naf wrote: »

No, they already said this. The T in this case has kindly accepted just to put mail addressed to their LL into a box provided which is collected periodically. I wouldn't find this a particular problem, myself, either.

I'd not be happy. How does the tenant know what the landlord is up to using the address?

A landlord may be taking out credit agreements and not paying them off. If for example the bailiffs are at the door how is a tenant going to prove the debt is nowt to do with him if he had control of the address at the time the debt was run up? How to distinguish between a case where the tenant has really run up debt using the landlord's name and the rental address. I do not see claiming to have redirected the mail would let either tenant off.

Naf wrote: »

It's not an imposition if they were asked politely, and it was clear that no pressure was applied to consenting, and they agreed.

Was the OP given this choice?

Given it isn't that hard to arrange another address (relative etc) then why not just do it?

terryrees

Your landlord has the right to access the property, whether you are there or not, provided he gives you 24 hours written notice. As far as I'm aware, current statutory law doesn't specify whether or not a text message is an acceptable media to constitute written notice (I suspect that it would), and I don't think a judicial precedent has yet been set on this matter (I might be wrong). However, if his visits are constant or very frequent, you might might have grounds to claim harassment.

I supect that your landlord has purposely directed some of his mail to your address to give him a non-confrontational reason to visit the property to make sure that his business, and his considerably expensive asset, is in good hands. Therefore, I suspect that even if he were to have all of his mail redirected, he would still find a reason to need to visit occassionally, which is a perfectly reasonable request.

As a landlord myslef, I really don't blame him. I have just had cause to evict a tenant that, for the first half of the tenancy, was all a landlord could wish for. We built up a good trusting relationship and so I then left her to her own devices after an inital period. I wish I'd never taken my eye off of that ball. She subseqently made some highly inadvisable life choices and my house was turned from a lovely family home into a house of squalor, regularly visited by the police. It has cost a LOT of money to get the house back in order over a considerable period of time. Perhaps your landlord has been burned before too.

My advice would be to maintain a good friendly relationship with your landlord - it makes his life and yours so much easier. If he is perceiving that you are resistant to his visits, he will become suspicious that you have something to hide, which will make him even more keen to investigate.

I don't understand why tenants seem to see their landlord as the big bad wolf? I'm sure there are some wronguns out there, but most of us are just trying to earn a living. Speak to him and reach a mutually convenient arrangement - he's probaly a decent bloke if you get to know him.

At the end of the day, if you become a sufficient annoyance to him, providing he follows the correct procedure he can quite easily evict you. And, you could be the one footing any court costs. Surely it's far less hassle for both you and him if you are happy that he drops in to pick up some mail once in a while?

seriousDFW

Some people won't mind, some will. It's not fair to be put in the position where you feel the LL is imposing on your life because of something as easy to change as redirecting important mail.

I would hate my LL coming to collect mail on a regular basis, especially as there's no need for it.

I would also ask the LL to redirect mail. If it doesn't get done, start returning to sender.

seriousDFW

terryrees wrote: »

Your landlord has the right to access the property, whether you are there or not, provided he gives you 24 hours written notice. As far as I'm aware, current statutory law doesn't specify whether or not a text message is an acceptable media to constitute written notice (I suspect that it would), and I don't think a judicial precedent has yet been set on this matter (I might be wrong). However, if his visits are constant or very frequent, you might might have grounds to claim harassment.

I supect that your landlord has purposely directed some of his mail to your address to give him a non-confrontational reason to visit the property to make sure that his business, and his considerably expensive asset, is in good hands. Therefore, I suspect that even if he were to have all of his mail redirected, he would still find a reason to need to visit occassionally, which is a perfectly reasonable request.

As a landlord myslef, I really don't blame him. I have just had cause to evict a tenant that, for the first half of the tenancy, was all a landlord could wish for. We built up a good trusting relationship and so I then left her to her own devices after an inital period. I wish I'd never taken my eye off of that ball. She subseqently made some highly inadvisable life choices and my house was turned from a lovely family home into a house of squalor, regularly visited by the police. It has cost a LOT of money to get the house back in order over a considerable period of time. Perhaps your landlord has been burned before too.

My advice would be to maintain a good friendly relationship with your landlord - it makes his life and yours so much easier. If he is perceiving that you are resistant to his visits, he will become suspicious that you have something to hide, which will make him even more keen to investigate.

I don't understand why tenants seem to see their landlord as the big bad wolf? I'm sure there are some wronguns out there, but most of us are just trying to earn a living. Speak to him and reach a mutually convenient arrangement - he's probaly a decent bloke if you get to know him.

At the end of the day, if you become a sufficient annoyance to him, providing he follows the correct procedure he can quite easily evict you. And, you could be the one footing any court costs. Surely it's far less hassle for both you and him if you are happy that he drops in to pick up some mail once in a while?

The LL has a responsibility to maintain the positive relationship too, by not expecting the tenant to be his secretary.

The frequency of visits is relevant, but the OP has implied that the situation is causing distress.

Just because the LL may have been burned before is not grounds for this type of pressure on the tenant. It is a risk of letting property out, and the LL needs to arrange a regular, reasonable inspection (every 3, 6 months or whatever) so he can check his asset is being looked after.

If the LL can't cope with this type of risk, he oughtn't be a LL.

My suspicion is that the LL is either having mail sent to the address because either he hasn't got CTL, he has dodgy mail delivered there so it doesn't get delivered to home address where is wife might see it, or he is just disorganised. Any of these is not a suitable excuse and he needs to sort it out!