NLA accuse Government of ‘not being bothered’ to help Landlords

"NLA accuse Government of ‘not being bothered’ to help Landlords"

Finally sunk in.

I haven't had a change of tenants for years, but I now have a signing sheet, which the tenant signs and dates to prove I have provided documentation, eg the new EPC. I wonder what, if any, other proof would be accepted? Proof of postage, or photo of a letter being pushed through the letterbox?

Reply to the comment left by Annie Landlord at 09/01/2019 - 10:36
I believe a form N215 Certificate of Service, completed at the time would be acceptable.

I personally use a letter stating the documents the tenant has been provided with dated and signed by the tenant when I sign them up (as you do), but if I were sending out documents where I wouldn’t see the tenant I’d also complete the court form for the file as it’s considered ‘proof’.

I now have a property folder for each property which includes all the manuals for any equipment supplied, How To Rent Guide, EPC, Copy of the Gas Safety Record, Legionella Risk Assessment Form, Tenant Fact Sheets re condensation & bed bugs, maintenance notice, privacy notice, a cd containing the inventory photos and anything else that may be relevant to that particular property. These contents are also listed on the inventory which is signed by the tenant at check in so hopefully I've dotted all i's and crossed all t's! I also provide a couple of extra plastic folders in the file for the tenants to keep their tenancy agreement and inventory in (and some actually do this!)

To meet with latest 2015 Deregulation Act, terms, rules or whatever you call it, for all existing tenancies that began before 1st October 2015, I tried to update my existing tenant with this latest requirement by personally serving these on him, and requesting him to sign a declaration that he has been served these, but he refused to accept them and refused to sign for them, I warned him by refusing to accept and signing acknowledgement would go against him in a court should I need to serve him a Section 21 notice in future. I left the documents with him, deemed as served, and took a witness with me who saw him refuse to accept or sign for them, what would the Courts do now? I cannot stuff those paperworks down a tenants throat can I ?

Of course the Judge could say did I try to serve these on him using postal method, well no I did not as I thought serving in person guarantees that tenant received them as post can go missing or delivered incorrectly, I regularly have to return letters shoved through my letter box addressed to altogether different streets and often different towns! No kidding.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 09/01/2019 - 11:36
Hi Mike, did your tenant explain why they didn't wish to accept the documents?

In this case I would post them out using first class post, (not signed for though as the tenant could refuse to accept it), and also complete a form N215 Certificate of Service which you can download from the GOV.UK website. Clip the post office receipt and copies of the documents sent to the form and file it all in your tenant file for your records and future use should you need to issue your tenant a section 21 notice (which it sounds as though you may be planning to do).

Once posted and the requisite amount of time has passed to allow for delivery (two business days), service is deemed to have occurred regardless of the potential for items to get lost in transit.

Don't think this is an oversight by this government. It is waging a war on landlords, presumably thinking that we have nowhere else to go (Corbyn's Labour, Libdems, Monster Raving Loonies?) and hoping to pick up some cheap credit with the BBC and the like. Even the NLA (of which I am a member) has managed to express strong criticism in public.
Do councils, housing associations, etc. face the same requirements?

Thank you kate, yes I am in the process of evicting him, I had to use S8, but I have a feeling the case will be rejected by a court.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 09/01/2019 - 15:29
Nightmare! Were you able to use a mandatory ground or only a discretionary one? If it was discretionary I’d suggest you get on and serve everything you need to and give notice under section 21 as a back up in case your section 8 fails. Section 8s are notoriously difficult to succeed with. A former Shelter worker told me that they used to rub their hands together with glee when someone came in with just a section 8. Your tenant seems unusually well informed & may well have been primed by Shelter.

Kate this tenant eviction is not going to be an easy one, this guy has some mental problem, he thinks no one can be evicted if they pay some money or part rent regularly, he does not know what paying rent regularly means, it does not mean one can pay any amount less than the full rent due each month, piling on rent arrears, he is now 4 months behind on rent arrears!
His excuses are always that he had other emergencies and had to divert money allocated for paying rent to someone else, he thinks his rent can wait, whilst he will never cut back on his cigarettes and drinks! Hopefully he will not have enough money to pay me all the rent arrears on the day of the hearing and the court must then act on the mandatory ground i.e. owing rent for full two months and make a possession order.

My biggest problem is that I filed an application using PCOL (possessions online) where only simple rent arrears are dealt with, just on ground 8, if you need to add other grounds like Ground 10 , 11, 12 and 14 then other grounds cannot be taken into consideration, the tenant has breached many AST conditions, has been involved in two serious assaults, has been intimidating me and other tenants, abusive, vile, dominant, and horrible to everyone now, he simply needs to be taken out as no one can stand him any more .