*Updated*Council billed me £6500 for work I didnt ask for? Rental house

travelchick

Another weird bit...............
Part of one of the bills says i am to pay £183 to cover the cost of the notice being served?

Well where did they serve it to? as I know i didnt receive it and they have no idea of my ex whereabouts as he is in the army so they wont have his address

moneyistooshorttomention

!!!!!! wrote: »

I wonder if the council have royally screwed up and thought they still owned the house and installed the CH as part of one of their upgrade programs.

That is indeed a possibility worth investigating. Don't put it past them to make such a mess-up.

Gigervamp

I think, before the OP rings the council tomorrow, she needs to clarify if central heating HAS actually been installed in her property.

That will mean ringing the tenant.

OP, someone further up the thread suggested a way to word the question to your tenant. Why don't you ring her and find out? You can also ask her if any letters addressed to you have been delivered at her address.

I don't understand why you haven't done this yet.

BigAunty

Although a verbal agreement is 'worth the paper its written on', if you've promised the tenant she could pay £200 less than the rent on the tenancy agreement, then she's not actually in arrears. The accelerated S8 process of eviction will not be suitable. Instead, you are looking at the S21 route if you feel the relationship has broken down with the current tenant and she is paying way under market rent.

What does your ex think about selling your jointly owned property? Will be consent and be happy with the equity you offer? Otherwise, seeing as you are a reluctant, accidental and amateur landlord, your other option if you want to sell and he won't consent is to get a court order to force the sale and that can be long-winded and expensive.

did you protect their deposit in a registered scheme? do you have a signed inventory? have you ever inspected the property since she moved in?

Otherwise if you aren't in the position to sell up, after the tenant leaves, I suggest you employ an ARLA letting agent to manage the property on your behalf. After the length of her tenancy, quite a lot of wear and tear can be expected so you may have to fund redecoration, recarpeting, new curtains, new furniture that type of thing. If you don't have a signed inventory then if the property is trashed, you don't have much of a leg to stand on as you've no proof when it comes to any legal action about the condition of the property on entry. There's also hell to pay if you didn't protect the deposit, and also hell to pay if the new central heating system (if gas) doesn't have an annual gas safety certificate (criminal offence).

See the landlordzone website about how to find an agent. Also, you should join a landlord association and attend a training event so you understand tenant's rights and landlord obligations.

EDIT - are you going to seek half the cost of the central heating installation from your ex and enforce this through the small claims court (if that's appropriate for the financial limit of that type of court action, I don't know the level)? Not sure if you'd win or not but if the judgement goes in your favour, as he's in the Army, it should be easy enough to get an attachment of earnings if he tries to wriggle out of it. The armed forces takes a dim view of debt.

travelchick

My biggest mystery is where or who they served notice to?
How can you bill me £183 for serving notice (so i assume this was done by hand?)
Then several months later bill me £190 for land registry fees because you couldnt locate me?
both letters arrived yesterday but the invoices dates on the statement shows what order things where done?
I can only assume they served the original notice to the tenanted property?
Gosh my heads going round in circles none of it makes any sense :-/

BigAunty

Did you have permission from the lender to rent out the property?

Jim_Jupiter

Since you still haven't I'll repeat previous advice; contact your tenant.

travelchick

BigAunty wrote: »

Although a verbal agreement is 'worth the paper its written on', if you've promised the tenant she could pay £200 less than the rent on the tenancy agreement, then she's not actually in arrears. The accelerated S8 process of eviction will not be suitable. Instead, you are looking at the S21 route if you feel the relationship has broken down with the current tenant and she is paying way under market rent.

What does your ex think about selling your jointly owned property? Will be consent and be happy with the equity you offer? Otherwise, seeing as you are a reluctant, accidental and amateur landlord, your other option if you want to sell and he won't consent is to get a court order to force the sale and that can be long-winded and expensive.

did you protect their deposit in a registered scheme? do you have a signed inventory? have you ever inspected the property since she moved in?

Otherwise, after the tenant leaves, I suggest you employ an ARLA letting agent to manage the property on your behalf. See the landlordzone website about how to find an agent. Also, you should join a landlord association and attend a training event so you understand tenant's rights and landlord obligations.

I dont wish to evict her, I will simply enforce that she now pay the rent as per her tenancy agreement.
She didnt have a deposit, the woman was homeless when she moved back in.
As I said it worked well for me the mortgage was being covered the house wasnt sat empty and she only contacted me when she had problems.
Its taken me a long time to get my ex court over the house, he has agreed that I can have the house however we are only in the very early stages of getting it sorted and I may not be able to get it as Im not sure I earn enough to secure the mortgage alone ( even thought the rent covers it)
What I am going to do it contact a few rental companies as ask them to take on the tenancy then if she refuses to pay the difference in the benefits and the rent I will look to evict her. but that really is a last resort.

( I know im being soft and shes walking all the way to the bank but while the house wasnt causing me issues it was easier to just forget about it)

travelchick

Jim_Jupiter wrote: »

Since you still haven't I'll repeat previous advice; contact your tenant.

I have left her a voicemail, and text her which has shown as read but she hasnt replied as yet?

Gigervamp

Ring the tenant and ask her if the letters arrived there!