House Owners Post Received at Rented Property

franklee

G_M wrote: »

...
* supply pre-stamped/addressed sticky labels to forward the mail

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

I do realise section 21 can be threatened for any fault or perceived unhelpfulness on the part of the tenant but I think if a landlord really wants to evict a good tenant for this I'd conclude something dodgy. It's not as if the landlord doesn't have relatives prepared to deal with the post as they are dealing with it anyway. I can see no valid reason for a landlord to operate from a tenant's home. The landlord leaves himself wide open to identity theft - which an innocent tenant could get blamed for or a dodgy tenant could perpetrate. I would certainly not allow it should the resident have any responsibility for activities they allow to be carried out from their home. I'd be concerned also if the landlord was still on the likes of the electoral roll (worth the OP checking that).

tbs624

G_M wrote: »

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

Far better for the LL to have dealt with the issue appropriately from the start of the tenancy. I would not expect my Ts to forward my personal and/or business mail after a property has become their home and especially not to foot the bill for postage or take time out to drop it in at an LA's office. LL could quite simply have set up a RM redirection to their relative's home.

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....

That's the bottom line though isn't it G_M? That Ts should allow their LLs to impose upon them because they hold the power of the s21?

You are absolutely right that LL and T relations can be "amicable/business like" and it's fair to say that this LL should have been courteous enough and business-like enough to sort out their own mail arrangements once the Ts had taken up occupation.

G_M

tbs624 wrote: »

Far better for the LL to have dealt with the issue appropriately from the start of the tenancy.
Agreed. But he didn't. Perhaps because there "is something dodgy" (as some have suggested), but perhaps through oversight or ignorance. LL may not be British born/familiar with processes/HMRC etc. Yes, a decent agent should have advised him, but we all know about agents......
This could easily be an innocent, though frustrating, oversight
I would not expect my Ts to forward my personal and/or business mail after a property has become their home
Nor would I, but equally I would hope if I overlook something, my tenants would tell me/ask me, not just dump on me
and especially not to foot the bill for postage
also agreed - hence my suggestion of stamped/addressed sticky labels. Again, not ideal, but also not much hardship once a month to stick on labels and put in a letter box as you pass
or take time out to drop it in at an LA's office. LL could quite simply have set up a RM redirection to their relative's home.
Again agreed (though not sure RM will do this for more than a year...?), but he may not have thought of this? Or known? So why not suggest?

That's the bottom line though isn't it G_M? That Ts should allow their LLs to impose upon them because they hold the power of the s21?
Like you, I doubt a LL would use a S21 (& if he did it says something of the LL). But there IS a small risk of this, which the T may prefer to avoid given that it may be easy to avoid this small risk by..... a bit of communication.

You are absolutely right that LL and T relations can be "amicable/business like" and it's fair to say that this LL should have been courteous enough and business-like enough to sort out their own mail arrangements once the Ts had taken up occupation.

LL should indeed have been " courteous enough and business-like enough to sort out their own mail arrangements ".

But tit-for-tat is not a best solution.

T should now be "courteous enough and business-like enough to suggest or request new mail arrangements ".

If LL (or agent) still does not play ball, then yes, I agree T should take unilateral action eg RTS.

Windsorcastle

Cissi wrote: »

That sounds dodgy all right!
Also, if HMRC think the LL still lives at the address, then who else does? What about the bank - has the LL got permission to let?
..

That was my first thought too. If they're asking you to forward mail for 2 years, they are still using your address as their official address, probably haven't got permission to let and if HMRC thinks they live there, they are clearly not declaring rental income. You should send the HMRC letters back with "Not at this address - this address is privately rented from the addressees" written on the back. Then it's up to some dork at HMRC to put 2 & 2 together...

tbs624

G_M wrote: »

Agreed. But he didn't. Perhaps because there "is something dodgy" (as some have suggested), but perhaps through oversight or ignorance. LL may not be British born/familiar with processes/HMRC etc. Yes, a decent agent should have advised him, but we all know about agents......

......(though not sure RM will do this for more than a year...?), but he may not have thought of this? Or known? So why not suggest?".

Think you may be right that residential redirections are for a max of 1 year, but the business mail redirection can be put in place for up to two years and for both an address abroad may be used.

However, poor LL. Not familiar with "processes/HMRC/mail redirection"? You mean LL failed miserably to undertake a bit of pre-tenancy/pre-move abroad homework?

It is really not that difficult, as most of us know. See this link and this one.

It may simply be that this LL did not want to cough up for both personal and business redirection and prefers HMRC not to be kept updated.
Simply easier and cheaper to make use of T's goodwill for an extended period.......

Yorkie1

Residential redirection is max 12 months at a time, for up to 2 years max.

G_M

tbs624 wrote: »

Think you may be right that residential redirections are for a max of 1 year, but the business mail redirection can be put in place for up to two years and for both an address abroad may be used.

However, poor LL. Not familiar with "processes/HMRC/mail redirection"? You mean LL failed miserably to undertake a bit of pre-tenancy/pre-move abroad homework?

It is really not that difficult, as most of us know. See this link and this one.

It may simply be that this LL did not want to cough up for both personal and business redirection and prefers HMRC not to be kept updated.
Simply easier and cheaper to make use of T's goodwill for an extended period.......

I don't disagree with any of what you say. But still maintain that where you (rightly) state:

"LL should indeed have been " courteous enough and business-like enough to sort out their own mail arrangements ".

tit-for-tat is not a best solution.

T should now be "courteous enough and business-like enough to suggest or request new mail arrangements ".

If LL (or agent) still does not play ball, then yes, I agree T should take unilateral action eg RTS.

franklee

G_M wrote: »

T should now be "courteous enough and business-like enough to suggest or request new mail arrangements ".

If LL (or agent) still does not play ball, then yes, I agree T should take unilateral action eg RTS.

Well courtesy from both sides is always a good thing (idly wonders if the landlord will forward his tenant's mail when he returns from abroad and evicts a tenant to move back in - somehow I have my doubts LOL). However it's a shame your suggested solutions included "* supply pre-stamped/addressed sticky labels to forward the mail" as that doesn't remove the underlying problem of the landlord using the tenant's address. At least if there is Royal Mail forwarding the tenant can demonstrate they haven't tampered with the post as they didn't ever receive it. Perhaps the way forward is for the tenant to inform the agent that his mail forwarding services will end in one month after which it's RTS. That should be long enough for the LL to make other arrangements to correct his "oversight".

EDIT: Also idly wonders what these idle landlords do when they have a long void - perhaps the agent is expected to visit weekly to collect the post LOL.

I'd like to be binning the letters and if challenged say the dog ate them - except the tenancy agreement bans pets

Jana83

UPDATE

Well, we've not had anymore post from HMRC since my last post (yey!) but.......

We came home from work the other day to find a handwritten note to myself & my BF (just our names, no address so obviously hand delivered) from the house owners, saying that they'd forgotten to update their car insurance contact details. So if a letter addressed to them was received, could we forward it on using the SAE provided?

So strange! A) the Lettings Agent told us they now lived abroad - why would they need to insure a foreign car from the UK? And the address on the SAE envelope is different to the one they gave us when we first moved in!

I now seriously doubt that they live abroad and to be honest I'm a tad peeved as we were told that we couldn't use the loft for storage as the house owners needed it to store their stuff!!!! The house we rent is "part furnished" which was great at first as we didn't have to buy a TV stand, sofas, wardrobes, beds etc but now the novelty has worn off as I'm sick to death of trying to store our things around their stuff! We have had to find space for a table and four chairs, multiple small side tables and even their old TV and pictures! Even the other sofa gets on my nerves now.

Gah! I don't know what to think anymore! Sorry for the rant but sometimes it just gets to me. Would it be unreasonable for us to ask them to remove some of their things into storage so we would have more room?

Thanks

[Deleted User]

indsty wrote: »

I never use more stamps to redirect mail. Just score out the address and write REDIRECT .. and the new address. Put it back in a postbox and it gets delivered. As far as I know this is perfectly OK so long as it has not been opened first.

I've been doing this for the past few years with former housemates' post and it has never come back to me here so I assume it's being delivered okay.