Where to send notice?

<sebb>

I'm preparing to hand in my notice on my current rental property as we are in the processing of buying a house.

The tenancy agreement doesn't have the landlords address on it at all, but I do know what this is. The address for serving notices is the letting agent who advertised the property.

The problem is, the LA and the LL had a big falling out last year. Both the landlord and the LA told me the LA was not managing the property at the time we took the tenancy. About 14 months in, I got a frantic call from the LA saying that my tenancy had expired and he had been remiss in not picking this up earlier. He said that as I had no contract I would need to sign a backdated one immediately as I had no contract and shouldn't be living there. He also said the LL had instructed an inspection of the property so he would need to come round and could bring the contracts.

Of course I knew this was absolute tosh and said I was happy with an SPT. He backtracked a bit then said the LL didn't want that. I hung up and we contacted the LL to say that he had no dealings with the LA and that they were just trying to extract more fees and to ignore them, so we emailed them to say not to contact us again without prior permission from the LL.

We then got copied into an email exchange between the two of them arguing (until I told them to keep me out of it). The LL has told me verbally not to have any more contact with the LA and we've not heard anything from them since.

Anyway, to cut a long story short - do I still really need to give my notice to this LA? I will of course copy in the LL but I don't want stir things up again by writing to the LA.

We called the landlord - he's very amatuerish and doesn't really have a clue about letting (Gas safety cert requires constant chasing, no deposit protected etc), and he just said to call him when we had a leaving date - he doesn't need anything in writing as we've been such good tenants etc, but I would rather protect myself just in case.

ValHaller

Pragmatic answer: Send a copy to the 'address for serving of notices' - ie the Agent and a copy to your LL. Post from a post office and get certificates of posting

Werdnal

If the LL has not given you a new address, use the one you have, which is the only official and legal address you have received.

Indeed, assuming you are in England/Wales, if the LL changed the arrangements and you have not been given any new address to serve notices on him, under tenancy legislation he should not have been receiving rent from you until he did so.

If you are in regular contact, phone him and ask for his address, as you will need it to launch a claim when he doesn't return your unprotected deposit ... but thats for a whole other post!

<sebb>

ValHaller wrote: »

Pragmatic answer: Send a copy to the 'address for serving of notices' - ie the Agent and a copy to your LL. Post from a post office and get certificates of posting

That's what I'm thinking of doing, but it did get quite nasty and I'd rather not stir that up again. I do believe this is the safest option for us, but our landlord is willing to be very flexible on dates which will help with keeping the overlap minimal on the rental and new house, and can't help thinking this will just antagonise him.

Getting anything in writing from him is virtually impossible, he really is an amatuer. I had to write 6 times to get hold of the GSC on moving in (it had been done, he just didnt send it) then it lapsed for 4 months before he sent someone round for the next one.

I've told my husband that we do have the trump card of the non protected deposit but he's not keen on pursuing that as he said it feels like blackmail

I did write 4 times asking for the deposit to be protected but in the end gave up as I actually felt it would give us an advantage in the end. There was also no inventory and the place was disgusting when we moved in so I was confident that he couldn't claim for damages. He owns the place outright, and the house next door so know I could get the deposit back if I put my mind to it.

ValHaller

<sebb> wrote: »

That's what I'm thinking of doing, but it did get quite nasty and I'd rather not stir that up again.

If the LL did not update the address and won't update it in writing by the time you need to serve notice, then you have little option but to risk stirring it up.

dimbo61

If you have the Landlords address then write to him with your notice and keep proof of posting ( send 2 copies from different post offices)
The LL is an idiot but you want your deposit back so you doing everything right means if it does go to court it is the LL who will look stupid!!