Landlords and tenants need to check addresses on demands for rent and other payments, warns the Residential Landlords Association (RLA).
A recent lands tribunal case has ruled wrongly addressed requests for payment can stop a landlord taking tenants to court for rent arrears or failing to pay service charges or other management costs.
The case that has changed the rules is Breitov Properties v Elliston Bentley Martin, heard in the Upper Tribunal.
The tribunal found that landlords must give tenants an address for contact in England or Wales, but when depends on the type of payment demanded.
● A fixed payment, like monthly rent, comes under Section 48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, which says landlords must give tenants an address for service in England and Wales, regardless of where the landlord lives.
Standard assured shorthold tenancies and licences come under this section. Failing to give the tenant a service address stops a landlord resorting to court to reclaim arrears.
The landlord only has to give the address once - generally at the start of the tenancy, and the address remains the place for serving documents until another is offered.
● Variable payments, like service charges, come under Section 47 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987. In this case, the landlord must give the service address every time a demand for payment is made - and this must be the landlord’s address and not an agent’s office.
Failing to give the address only affects recovery of a service charge through the courts, not unpaid rent.
“It is important to understand that the case concerned the payment of service charges for a flat. In practice a written demand for payment for service charges is required because the amount payable will vary, unlike rent which is fixed so that does not need a formal demand for it to be legally due,” said the RLA.
“The tribunal decided that the landlord in that situation could not use an agent's address. The demand has to show the landlord's place of residence or place of business, if the landlord has one, such as an office-owned or rented by the landlord where the landlord carries on business.
