Important looking mail for landlord

Oryx48

Hi,

I've been renting my apartment for two years, and every now and then I get mail addressed to my landlord. When it has a return address I've written on the envelope 'not at this address, return to sender' and mailed the letters back. For the last year or so it hasn't been a problem.

However, today I received an A4 envelope filled with quite a few sheets of paper, addressed to my landlord. I haven't opened the envelope, but the address is a bit misaligned from the see-through letterbox thing, and I was able to see that my landlord hasn't been paying property management fees, and owes the company around £600. It looks like this is a legal firm working for the property management company and they are demanding the money, saying that they have asked for it repeatedly.

There isn't a return address on the envelope, so I've emailed my letting agency to say I have this important looking mail, asking what I should do with it. I have my landlord's address, but she lives in New Zealand, so I'm not going to pay to forward the mail to her, especially with the envelope being quite heavy. I guess the property management company doesn't know that the apartment is rented out.

I just wanted to ask if this would have any consequences on me? I'm assuming that it won't, but I'm just worried that if the property management company doesn't know that I rent the apartment, and the problem escalates further, that they might start sending people to my apartment or threaten eviction or something like that. I'm not really sure what kind of powers property management companies have. Also, beyond getting in touch with my letting agency about it, is there anything else I should do?

Thanks!

G_M

Not your letter, not your business.

Be a nice person and forward it to the letting agent for them todeal with.

In the highly unlikely event that your landlord has his property repossessed eg for mortgage arrears, then read this:

* Repossession: what if a LL's mortgage lender repossesses the property?

martindow

I'm not sure I entirely agree G_M. If the LL is not paying fees they may not be paying a mortgage and if I were a tenant I would want as much warning of a repossession as possible. I would be opening letters.


It is not clear if there is an agent in the UK or not. If not there could be tax issues with an overseas LL.

parkrunner

martindow wrote: »

I'm not sure I entirely agree G_M. If the LL is not paying fees they may not be paying a mortgage and if I were a tenant I would want as much warning of a repossession as possible. I would be opening letters.


It is not clear if there is an agent in the UK or not. If not there could be tax issues with an overseas LL.

If the LL wasn't paying the mortgage the tenant would receive a letter from the mortgage provider addressed to "the occupier".

Carrot007

G_M wrote: »

Not your letter, not your business.

Be a nice person and forward it to the letting agent for them todeal with.

Or alternatively. it was sent to your house it is yours. Open it but don't use the knowledge against the intended recipient.


It is very much your business why the lardlord is sending letters to your address. But it is probably nothing good. It could just be incompetence though, if you are lucky.

nrsql

Carrot007 wrote: »

Or alternatively. it was sent to your house it is yours. Open it but don't use the knowledge against the intended recipient.


It is very much your business why the lardlord is sending letters to your address. But it is probably nothing good. It could just be incompetence though, if you are lucky.

Addressed to Landlord so not yours - don't open unless it's not clear that it's not addressed to you or you don't notice it.

I would take it to the letting agent and forget about it or wait to see if they reply to your email. It's likely that they will try to contact the landlord who won't reply and it will take ages to go any further.
Does the letting agent have a nearby office - if so I would drop any further mail off there or redirect there. Also ask them to get a redirection set up for the landlords mail - but maybe you'd like to carry on getting it so you have a clue who is trying to make contact.

£600 isn't a lot and it could be that the payments have been dropped (moving accounts by either party maybe) or maybe the agents are meant to handle it. Could be that the landlord doesn't know they are outstanding - that happened to me when I went abroad.

Slithery

nrsql wrote: »

Addressed to Landlord so not yours - don't open unless it's not clear that it's not addressed to you or you don't notice it.

Why not? In this situation I'd personally find it reasonable to open the letter to see if it had any implications for me.

nrsql

Slithery wrote: »

Why not? In this situation I'd personally find it reasonable to open the letter to see if it had any implications for me.

I think it's illegal to knowingly open someone else's mail. Hence my "unless ... you don't notice it". I don't think there's any chance of being prosecuted for it but it might come up.

LandyAndy

nrsql wrote: »

I think it's illegal to knowingly open someone else's mail.

It isn't. .

davidmcn

nrsql wrote: »

Addressed to Landlord so not yours - don't open unless it's not clear that it's not addressed to you

It's addressed to the OP's address therefore they can legally open it.

They can't steal it / use it to commit fraud etc, but nothing intrinsically unlawful about opening it.

Oryx48

nrsql wrote: »

Addressed to Landlord so not yours - don't open unless it's not clear that it's not addressed to you or you don't notice it.

I would take it to the letting agent and forget about it or wait to see if they reply to your email. It's likely that they will try to contact the landlord who won't reply and it will take ages to go any further.
Does the letting agent have a nearby office - if so I would drop any further mail off there or redirect there. Also ask them to get a redirection set up for the landlords mail - but maybe you'd like to carry on getting it so you have a clue who is trying to make contact.

£600 isn't a lot and it could be that the payments have been dropped (moving accounts by either party maybe) or maybe the agents are meant to handle it. Could be that the landlord doesn't know they are outstanding - that happened to me when I went abroad.

The letting agency's office isn't far away, I think I'll head over on Monday and drop it off. I just hope this doesn't escalate. I've read online that this can lead to a repossession, and then an eviction, and if the solicitors (I assume this is who the letter is from) keep sending letters to my landlord at this address, then I might be in for a nasty surprise!

I'm not going to open the letter. I know it's not illegal to do so, but I don't want my letting agency questioning why I'm giving them an opened letter that's addressed to my landlord.