How Can The Bank Find Out I Don't Have Consent to Let?

propertyman

Henman_Bill wrote: »

Right, but for the serving of notices I can just use my parent's address, so no issues there, right? Is this serving of notice address going to be publically available or accessible to the bank? Who does it go to, the tenant and the agent?
.

No, you must give, under section 47 and 48 Landlord and tenant Act 1987

1: Your address, wherever in the world,
and

2: as you are outside the UK, an address in England and Wales for service of notices inc proceedings.

It must go on invoices and notification to the tenant and therefore might become available.

If you do proceed you must have a foolproof method of diverting any or all communications to you, you cannot reply on the tenant.

One chap I know has a mail box fitted to the outside of the house and asks that any mail to him be left in their and he picks it up every Saturday .

Henman_Bill

Missyv, the bank is not going to allow me to let for £100, if only they would. The point is they want to move me off the tracker mortgage which probably means around £2000-£3000 annual charge in effect, for right to let. If they were offering anything more reasonable I wouldn't be considering letting without telling them.

Henman_Bill

Thank you Property Man.

Henman_Bill

Coming in for a bit of stick here - some of the insults/comments are a bit harsh. The only organisation I want to withhold anything from is the bank that wants to charge me £2000-£3000 a year for the consent to let, something other lenders charge £100 for, or nothing at all. Are they really being fair to charge me £2000- £3000 every year for the consent to let? Over a number of years, perhaps they would end up charging me £10,000 (more than 10% of the value of the house) for consent to let. I doubt anyone can justify that?

I am going to treat tenants, letting agents, HMRC, land registry and others fairly and honestly. I will tell everyone - except the bank - that I am going to live abroad.

As I explained, I have a plan to deal with almost any eventuality and the chances of tenants having to go through a very fast departure are very low and in the unlikely event it comes to that I will compensate fairly.

Comments like "I dislike people like yourself" (I assume that was directed at me) and "you are a disaster waiting to happen" and "jerk" and whatever else there was are not really necessary or helpful.

As a result of what I learned from this thread I think I have gone from about 80% sure that I will go ahead with letting, to 60-65% (I will continue to evaluate), and, although most of the nightmare/bad scenarios talked about I had already thought of, I think I will probably now put a higher monthly payment from my salary into the contigency fund for repairs/problems than previously thought of, and spend perhaps a little more money than I thought of on the insurances, and really make sure they are as watertight against all eventualities as they can be.

Thanks to everyone for responses so far. Much appreciated.

fawd1

Henman_Bill wrote: »

. Even if that failed my gran is always saying to me "why don't you take your inheritance now" and in addition to that my parents have tried to give me £15k to help with housing. I always turn down that family help, but it is always there as an emergency barrier? What about credit? I get tons of letters offering me credit cards and loans, which I never use. Overdrafts I never use. I could get £10-20k in no time at all if I ever had to. Bottom line - me not being able to pay a £300-400/month mortgage is just never going to be an issue.

Just a thought but I'm assuming that with a mortgage payments of 3-400 per month the mortgage itself is not for a massive amount? If so, why not take your nan and parents up on their offer and try and pay the house off. That way you can let it without worry and use the rent to pay back parents if needed.

Henman_Bill

fawd1 wrote: »

Just a thought but I'm assuming that with a mortgage payments of 3-400 per month the mortgage itself is not for a massive amount? If so, why not take your nan and parents up on their offer and try and pay the house off. That way you can let it without worry and use the rent to pay back parents if needed.

Thanks. We would need around £80k to settle the mortgage. It started at >£90k in 2007 and was a 30 year mortgage. The family money available might be around £25k. I prefer to stand on my own 2 feet, but it's nice to know that is there as an emergency backup incase I ever have any dfficulties with tenants. It would need a huge amount to go wrong and other backups to fail first, and seems to be very unlikely, but it's nice to know I have yet another security net for myself and my tenants should I ever need it.

G_M

propertyman wrote: »

No, you must give, under section 47 and 48 Landlord and tenant Act 1987

1: Your address, wherever in the world,
and

2: as you are outside the UK, an address in England and Wales for service of notices inc proceedings.

It must go on invoices and notification to the tenant and therefore might become available.

If you do proceed you must have a foolproof method of diverting any or all communications to you, you cannot reply on the tenant.

One chap I know has a mail box fitted to the outside of the house and asks that any mail to him be left in their and he picks it up every Saturday .

Thanks propertyman. I had overlooked 1) above even though I've included it in my post for new landlords...

There's more here for those interested:

Written demands (for rent etc: LL's actual address needed) Beitov Properties Ltd v Martin

Henman_Bill

One thing I am still not 100% clear on is the Land Registry issue. So if I am going to let the house out and move abroad I have to notify the land registry of my new address. When I do that, will this info be automatically shared with my bank?

If that's the case, then do most letters without consent simply not inform the land registry, increasing their risk of identity theft?

GDVS

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

It could certainly be reasonably argued that opening your landlords mail deliberately, and using the information within to his detriment such as notifying a bank or using it as leverage in negotiations, is against the law.

In which case the tenant would be found guilty of a criminal offence and.....

Not unless your lawyer couldn't argue his way out of a paper bag: "I opened the letter in case it was important, to my horror I discovered my tenancy was invalid and acted accordingly to protect my interests".

mildredalien

Henman_Bill wrote: »

Coming in for a bit of stick here - some of the insults/comments are a bit harsh. The only organisation I want to withhold anything from is the bank that wants to charge me £2000-£3000 a year for the consent to let, something other lenders charge £100 for, or nothing at all. Are they really being fair to charge me £2000- £3000 every year for the consent to let? Over a number of years, perhaps they would end up charging me £10,000 (more than 10% of the value of the house) for consent to let. I doubt anyone can justify that?

I am going to treat tenants, letting agents, HMRC, land registry and others fairly and honestly. I will tell everyone - except the bank - that I am going to live abroad.

There are consequences for wanting to let a property out rather than live in it yourself, and one of those is usually paying more for their additional properties in some form. Why should you be any different and circumvent the additional costs that any other landlord would need to pay? Morals (or lack thereof!) of banks aside, I'm not sure why you feel you are entitled to special treatment. You want to let your property out, you apply for consent and pay the appropriate costs, what's so hard about that?

'I never agreed to not XXX' is not an excuse for behaving in a morally dubious or even illegal way.