Forwarding Landlord Mail 9 June at 11:09AM in Budgeting & Bank Accounts 49 replies 2.4K views

pochisoldi

Alice_M77 said:

I have rented my house for 4 years, my landlord has lived in America for 3 of the 4 years and for 3 years I've forwarded their mail but recently, they sent an email wanting me to forward it quicker as they're expecting important mail. After mentioning the forwarding to friends, they said it shouldn't be my responsibility as a tenant to pay to send my landlords mail to America. I looked it up and it has me wondering why hasn't my landlord just set up a RM Redirection service? How do I go about mentioning this without souring the Tenant-Landlord relationship? 

Dear Landlord,
We'd love to help you out, please provide a UK based agent for us to forward your mail to.
Regards
Ms Alice Tenant

Then simply cross out the landlord's address, write "Forward to <uk address>" and then stick in a postbox or in the outgoing mail at work. That way, there's no charge, and the only cost is your time.
If you want to make the landlord's life a misery (not recommended) cross out the landlords address and write "return to sender".
In my experience (idiot neighbour who did that to correctly addressed mail pushed through the wrong letterbox), the next step is "unable to login to online banking because he's gone away without a proper forwarding address" and having to visit the bank in person to get the mess sorted out.
IMHO the landlord is the one gaming the system, and I wouldn't want to be his/her unpaid lackey.

PochiSoldi

Alice_M77

missile said:

Presumably you agreed to this when you arranged the tenancy?
I would e mail back and say you are unhappy to continue doing this and ask him to make other arrangements.

I didn't agree to do it when signing the tenancy, landlord mentioned it a few weeks after and wanted it sending signed for to ensure it arrives safely, its just too much money! 

Alice_M77

Grumpy_chap said:

Does the OP deal directly with the LL, or is there a UK-based LA?
If so, just send everything to the LA to deal with.

I deal with the LL's friend. They request i send all mail signed for, the price is mounting up as time goes on.

Alice_M77

colsten said:

lr1277 said:

As an aside, unless your landlord has made arrangements with HMRC, you should be paying the tax on the rental income to HMRC. That means deducting the tax due from your rental payment and sending it to HMRC. I am not sure how you do this, what reference numbers you use or calculating the amount of tax

Whilst this is, too, a subject better posted on a different board: it sounds a) totally wrong that a tenant should have any responsibility whatsoever for the landlord's tax affairs, and b) a surefire way to sour the relations with the landlord (for reasons given in a))

It's not even the fact that it's forwarded it is that they request i send it RM Signed For, I've been doing this so long that ive spent easily £100 sending her mail and it's too much as I don't earn much.

Alice_M77

pochisoldi said:

Alice_M77 said:

I have rented my house for 4 years, my landlord has lived in America for 3 of the 4 years and for 3 years I've forwarded their mail but recently, they sent an email wanting me to forward it quicker as they're expecting important mail. After mentioning the forwarding to friends, they said it shouldn't be my responsibility as a tenant to pay to send my landlords mail to America. I looked it up and it has me wondering why hasn't my landlord just set up a RM Redirection service? How do I go about mentioning this without souring the Tenant-Landlord relationship? 

Dear Landlord,
We'd love to help you out, please provide a UK based agent for us to forward your mail to.
Regards
Ms Alice Tenant

Then simply cross out the landlord's address, write "Forward to <uk address>" and then stick in a postbox or in the outgoing mail at work. That way, there's no charge, and the only cost is your time.
If you want to make the landlord's life a misery (not recommended) cross out the landlords address and write "return to sender".
In my experience (idiot neighbour who did that to correctly addressed mail pushed through the wrong letterbox), the next step is "unable to login to online banking because he's gone away without a proper forwarding address" and having to visit the bank in person to get the mess sorted out.
IMHO the landlord is the one gaming the system, and I wouldn't want to be his/her unpaid lackey.

PochiSoldi

I do have a UK based address but when I forwarded it that way, they complained asking that i only send RM Signed For from now on to ensure they receive it. I'm now questioning if this is even my responsibility

Alice_M77

lr1277 said:

You have posted your question in the 'Budgeting and Bank Accounts' board. You may get better answers in the 'House Buying, Renting & Selling' board, if you repost your question on that board.

As an aside, unless your landlord has made arrangements with HMRC, you should be paying the tax on the rental income to HMRC. That means deducting the tax due from your rental payment and sending it to HMRC. I am not sure how you do this, what reference numbers you use or calculating the amount of tax.

Perhaps whilst asking about postal arrangements, you could ask if you need to pay the tax on your landlord's behalf?

I will do that, thank you! 
As far as i am aware, they do pay the tax to HMRC. 

Grumpy_chap

Alice_M77 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Does the OP deal directly with the LL, or is there a UK-based LA?
If so, just send everything to the LA to deal with.

I deal with the LL's friend. They request i send all mail signed for, the price is mounting up as time goes on.

Then get the friend's address and simply write "moved away - now at (friend's address)" and pop in the post box.

This is not your responsibility and nor should you be out of pocket.  

greyteam1959

Certainly not your responsibility.
The landlord is having a right laugh I bet.

brianposter

Simply explain to the landlord that you are finding the forwarding expensive and would he please make arrangements to refund you.

Technically it is not your responsibility, but landlords and tenants who do not forward mail are a pain in the a..e.

missile

Alice_M77 said:

missile said:

Presumably you agreed to this when you arranged the tenancy?
I would e mail back and say you are unhappy to continue doing this and ask him to make other arrangements.

I didn't agree to do it when signing the tenancy, landlord mentioned it a few weeks after and wanted it sending signed for to ensure it arrives safely, its just too much money! 

That is taking liberties.
I would e mail LL and tell them you can no longer afford to forward mail by RM, ask him make alternate arrangements. You will keep his mail safe for him to arrange collection.
You could suggest he might like to arrange RM collect mail from your address. See here > Parcel Collect: Book A Parcel Collection | Royal Mail Group Ltd