Council letter as valid proof of address

JuicyJesus

waseem432000 wrote: »

I actually live in a room in shared house with landlord and his family and I signed a proper lease of six months on proper form signed by me, landlord and witnesses and I have requested him to help me get my proof of address and even delayed the last rent payment by couple of days to force his hand. I am new to country so don't know if there is any legal complication or tax payment thing which he is avoiding by not adding my name on utility bill. All i want is a proof of address which can help me get a high street bank account where could help me start building a proper credit history. Monzo has helped me get my salary payments sorted which is a relief and I thought their bank statement was sufficient enough to be a proof of address but sadly it isn't.

OK, this is different - you're a lodger, and as such are treated more as a paying guest of his than an actual tenant. He is quite right to not have you on the utility bills in this case. I would absolutely not try delaying rent payments to "force his hand" on basically anything as you have very few rights as a lodger and can be evicted very quickly and with far fewer protections than a full tenant.

This is unfortunately an issue all lodgers will have.

Will Monzo not send you a stamped bank statement? They mentioned to me that if you contact them via the live chat they can do this.

EachPenny

waseem432000 wrote: »

Worst thing is how misleading bank's own staff can be. I called Lloyds bank helpline last night and according to on call staff, any government communication with your name and address is sufficient. I wouldn't mind popping up into their branch in coming days too.

I'm not sure if it is misleading, or a misunderstanding. Banks are normally quite clear about it being Local Authority Council Tax bills rather than any letter from the Council.

The reason for this is you can write to your local council about some things (say a broken street light) signing the letter with any name you like (Elizabeth A M Windsor if you so wish) and the Council will write back to you addressing the letter to that name. There is no checking to ensure the named person actually lives at that address. This checking only happens if the letter relates to specific personal/financial things like Benefits, Council Tax, Electoral Registration, where there is a need to check ID.

Also, there is a clear split in the UK between Local Government (your local council) and the National (Central) Government. In general conversation (as you might have with a call centre person) the phrase "any government communication" is likely to be meant as "any National government communication".A bank might say they accept any National government communication because these are almost exclusively things to do with taxation, pensions, benefits and licencing for which your ID will have been verified at some point. But even then, the ID requirement lists are usually specific about document types.

waseem432000

That explains why he hasn't put my name on utility bill. I already mentioned in the previous comment that I have a signed and stamped bank statement from Monzo but no high street bank branch has accepted it so far. When i call their relevant helplines, they informed me that branch staff should accept it as long as it's a regulated bank and has your name, address and account number on it which is all there. Looks like I will have to wait for my provisional driving license now,

teddysmum

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

The only council letter that is normally acceptable as ID or address confirmation is the current year's council tax bill.

Which must, lie utility bills, ban statements etc be no older than 3 months, I believe.

eskbanker

teddysmum wrote: »

Which must, lie utility bills, ban statements etc be no older than 3 months, I believe.

I believe that you may have a broen ey on your eyboard!

JuicyJesus

waseem432000 wrote: »

That explains why he hasn't put my name on utility bill. I already mentioned in the previous comment that I have a signed and stamped bank statement from Monzo but no high street bank branch has accepted it so far. When i call their relevant helplines, they informed me that branch staff should accept it as long as it's a regulated bank and has your name, address and account number on it which is all there. Looks like I will have to wait for my provisional driving license now,

I do feel your pain - the one thing stopping me from using Monzo as my "permanent" bank account is that because they are not seen as a "proper" bank and such, and they don't issue proper postal statements but instead printed and stamped PDFs, their statements aren't accepted by a lot of places. In my case, I have to submit mine to UK Visas and Immigration for my partner's visa, and there is absolutely no way I'm chancing having some spod at UKVI decline our application because they don't know what a Monzo is.

I do rather understand why a bank wouldn't be willing to accept what does, in the final analysis, just look like a printout from an internet banking service with a funny-looking stamp on it, to be fair. Is there any reason you can't just keep your Monzo account and use that as your main account though, rather than faffing around trying to open another bank account?

waseem432000

JuicyJesus wrote: »

I do feel your pain - the one thing stopping me from using Monzo as my "permanent" bank account is that because they are not seen as a "proper" bank and such, and they don't issue proper postal statements but instead printed and stamped PDFs, their statements aren't accepted by a lot of places. In my case, I have to submit mine to UK Visas and Immigration for my partner's visa, and there is absolutely no way I'm chancing having some spod at UKVI decline our application because they don't know what a Monzo is.

I do rather understand why a bank wouldn't be willing to accept what does, in the final analysis, just look like a printout from an internet banking service with a funny-looking stamp on it, to be fair. Is there any reason you can't just keep your Monzo account and use that as your main account though, rather than faffing around trying to open another bank account?

Actually I have exactly the same reasons . I plan to apply for my wife's dependent visa in couple of months and I would rather submit a bank statement from a high street bank to UKVI than presenting them with Monzo which is a great bank to be fair. You get your contact less card, 400 cash limit isn't too bad either and it took me 15 minutes to have a current account where I could receive my salary and all that, without paying a penny. I plan to use that card for my monthly expenditure so even after my main account in any high street bank is up and running, i would receive my salary and transfer the amount i wish to spend that month to Monzo account.

eskbanker

waseem432000 wrote: »

Monzo which is a great bank to be fair. You get your contact less card, 400 cash limit isn't too bad either and it took me 15 minutes to have a current account where I could receive my salary and all that, without paying a penny.

This becomes a bit circular though - it's presumably not a coincidence that other banks are apparently reluctant to accept a Monzo statement as proof of ID if it's so easy to get one of their accounts with a lower standard of ID verification....

waseem432000

eskbanker wrote: »

This becomes a bit circular though - it's presumably not a coincidence that other banks are apparently reluctant to accept a Monzo statement as proof of ID if it's so easy to get one of their accounts with a lower standard of ID verification....

They still asked me for a proof of ID which was my BRP and a selfie picture which they apparently feed to run some face recognition algorithm but to be fair, it's easy to open a bank account and use it for illegal purposes if someone is looking to do that but the whole point I am wondering is that these things are responsibility of British government. They need to enforce their policies to tackle such loopholes and perform check and balances before granting any institution a banking license but once they have granted it, customers shouldn't suffer. I can't even imagine the pain I would be in if I didn't had my Monzo account to receive my salary.

alphabravocharli

Waseem as an expat we are not accustomed to the banking traditions implemented in UK. I had same feeling when i came to UK. You will be surprised if you put cash in the bank it will be a big red flag for them and they can close your account even or if you have too many international transfers and their system flag it they will close your account. They will not ask you anything. Simply they will say Dear XXX, we cannot continue business relationship with you and will be closing your account in 2 month time.