Tenancy confusion

_Penny_Dreadful

marleneb1 said:

_Penny_Dreadful said:

marleneb1 said:

_Penny_Dreadful said:

marleneb1 said:

SDLT_Geek said:

marleneb1 said:

SDLT_Geek said:

Have you been paying rent to an agent?

 If not and you have been paying rent direct to a non UK resident landlord, have you needed to deduct tax at source?

I've been paying rent into a UK bank account in the joint names of my original landlord (now deceased) and his agent. I have not been asked to deduct tax.

It sounds as if you have been paying an agent, so the responsibility to deal with any deduction of tax at source is the agents.  

Do be alive to this issue though if asked to pay rent direct to an overseas landlord.

That is precisely what I am being asked to do from now on - landlady has provided me with a new bank account to pay the rent into - Commonwealth Bank which I'm assuming is in Australia?

Commonwealth Bank is an Australian bank but it does have a presence in the UK.  Have you been supplied with a 6 digit sort code and an 8 digit account number? Australian bank accounts in Australia have a 6 digit BSB and usually a 9 digit account number.

No sort code, just a 14 digit smart access account number and a BIC/SWIFT code.

That sounds like she is expecting you to pay money into an Australian bank account.  Is she offering to pay the fees or allow you to knock the fees off the rent?  I don't know if there is some legislation that says your landlord has to use a UK bank account.  Perhaps @propertyrental knows?

Before doing anything I'd suggest getting your ducks in a row.  The Assured Tenancy or Assured Shorthold Tenancy is an important question to answer because it will determine how easy it is for your landlord to evict you.  Once you have established that then you can write to the address for the serving of notices, which must be an address in England or Wales, telling your landlord about the tax deduction and politely telling her to poke it about paying your rent into a non-UK bank account because of the charges.

I'm not sure how I'd establish whether the initial tenancy agreement was assured or assured shorthold. Would it be worth asking for a copy of it do you think?

You mentioned in an early post, which I missed, that the last tenancy agreement you signed was in 1995 and it says it’s an AST so unfortunately I think you have an AST and your new landlord is gearing up to evict you. 

The deceased’s estate could well have taken 6 years to wind up if he had assets in the UK and Australia and died without a will. Your new landlord is possibly not communicating with you because she wants to evict you and then sell the property. It might make things to personal for her to start thinking of you as a real person who is about to lose their home. Not that it makes this any easier for you. I’ve managed let’s in the UK whilst living in Australia and it can be challenging due to the distance. 

The return of your deposit certainly sounds like she’s trying to get her ducks in a row and unfortunately since your last signed agreement pre-dates the Deregulation Act 2015 there is little else to invalidate a Section 21 notice providing she uses the correct form. 

Is the property in a good state of repair? 

https://nearlylegal.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/s21updatedOctober21.pdf