House Owners Post Received at Rented Property

Mojisola

Jana83 wrote: »

When we moved in, they left us a note asking us to forward any of their post to a relative who doesn't live too far from us.

They should have paid for redirection to their relative's address and changed their contact address to the relative's.

After all this time, I would start sending everything back to the sender - no stamps needed.

aldredd

franklee wrote: »

If you let a property here and live abroad you should know all about the non resident landlord scheme. Either the letting agent or tenant deducts the tax or you register with HMRC that you will do so. As HMRC are writing to the OP's landlord using rental address so I would not bet they've been told.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/international/nr-landlords.htm
"If you have rental property in the UK but your usual home is outside the UK, your tenants or the letting agents you use will need to operate the Non-resident Landlord (NRL) Scheme. They need to deduct basic rate tax from rental income before they pass it onto you. You can set this tax off against your own tax bill at the end of the year."

Thanks - wasn't aware that option existed - I'm not a LL myself, but do get asked various question about letting income at tax-return time! I guess there could be some overseas LL's who don't have an HMRC relationship, so guess it does make sense to do it at source - but can the tenant be help liable for this?

RAS

Yes

The tenant needs to stop paying rent until they have conformed the HMRC situation.

Put the rent aside and if the HMRC documents are not forthcoming use the accrued sum to pay the tax. HMRC can bill the tenant otherwise.

G_M

The non resident landlord scheme does not appear o be relevant here: the tenant (presumably) pays the (UK based?) letting agent.

Thus the letting agent is responsiblefor tax. Not the tenant.

To play devil's advocate:

why is everyone being so hard on the LL? He is abroad, so it's not easy to give everyone a foreign address (yes, OK - he could give HMRC his relative's adress but..)

Why be so confrontational?

A friendly chat with the agent (better still enailthe LL if possible) and explain. Ask if the LL could kindly

* arrange Royal Mail forwarding or
* give HMRC etc the agent or relaltive address or
* supply pre-stamped/addressed sticky labels to forward the mail

or similar.

Far better to reach an amicable arrangement than just start dumping someone's mail, returning unhelpfully to sender etc etc

We read so many problem stories on here that welose sight sometimes that LL/tenant relations can be amicable/business-like, and we don't need to just jump to the "insist on your rights/demand they do X" solution.

After all, the OP does not want to receive a (perfectly valid) S21 Notice in return for being unhelpful....

Jana83

Thanks for all your replies.
As I have the HMRC letters with me today, I have crossed through the address and put R.T.S on the front. I have also attached the following letter to the brown HMRC envelope using another, smaller envelope with "F.A.O HMRC" on it:

ADDRESS 1
ADDRESS 2
ADDRESS 3
ADDRESS 4

Dear Sirs,

Please find attached post addressed to “JOE BLOGGS”. A Mr & Mrs JOE BLOGGS own the property as detailed above but do NOT live there. It is rented out through a Letting Agency called BLAH BLAH & Company, who can be contacted as listed below:

BLAH BLAH & Company
ADDRESS 1
ADDRESS 2
ADDRESS 3
ADDRESS 4 0123 456 789

If you need to confirm the correct contact address for Mr & Mrs JOE BLOGGS, please contact the Letting Agents who should have their details on file.

Any further correspondence received from HM Revenue & Customs will be returned to sender.

Many Thanks

Hopefully this helps!

As for the rest of their mail (junk mail & whatnot), I won't bother forwarding it on - it can be returned to sender.

Cissi

OP, please confirm that you pay your rent to the Letting Agent and not directly to the LL? If not HMRC could come after you for the LL's tax (unless of course you have been deducting it from the payments).

Jana83

We pay our rent via DD directly to the Letting Agent, not to the house owners.

tbs624

wannahouse wrote: »

he said he's renting via a letting agent, and therefore THAT is the only address he needs to know!

For the purposes of s48 of the LL and T Act 1987, then yes, either the address of the LA or of the family member will be fine

wannahouse wrote: »

his landlords live overeas, and the lettings agent is acting on THEIR behalf, therefore there address to contact suffices!

What's with the exclamation marks, wannahouse? Such punctuation does not make your point a correct one.

If T writes to the LA requesting the LL's address under s1 of the LL & T Act 1985, then LA has 21 days from receipt of that request to give the T the LL's address. The LA's address will not "suffice" for this - the Act specifically states that the

“address” means a person’s place of abode or place of business or, in the case of a company, its registered office;"

The LA's office is unlikely be the LL's place of business or registered office, unless the LL is in some way involved with the LA's own business.

just drop the mail off at the agents every now and then..thats what we do..and they can forward it on.

It may not be convenient for the T to do this and after two years it's an imposition for the LL to expect them to IMO.

tbs624

Cissi wrote: »

OP, please confirm that you pay your rent to the Letting Agent and not directly to the LL? If not HMRC could come after you for the LL's tax (unless of course you have been deducting it from the payments).

.....or unless the LL has met the requirements of the HMRC Non Resident LL Scheme and is legitimately able to receive the rental income without UK tax deductions.

Edited to add: As the OP has now confirmed that rent is paid to the LA, rather than direct to the LL, this is one thing they do not need to worry about.

franklee

wannahouse wrote: »

he said he's renting via a letting agent, and therefore THAT is the only address he needs to know!
his landlords live overeas, and the lettings agent is acting on THEIR behalf, therefore there address to contact suffices!

I would always recommend a tenant letting a property managed by an agent gets the landlord's address. To get this a tenant should write to the agent at the address for the serving of notices (typically the agent's address) and ask for the landlord's address. The agent should supply this within 21 days. I recommend a tenant has this so he can contact the landlord directly in the event of problems with the agent, e.g. not allowing a periodic tenancy to extract renewal fees, repairs not organised, deposit disputes when deposit scheme arbitration is refused, or whatever. This can also benefit the landlord as many inexperienced landlords may not know how incompetent their agent is.