UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi All,

Firstly, Happy new Year!

Quick question regarding rent-books - I have a tenant living at a property who pays rent weekly through Standing Order.

I supply him with a receipt via email, every week (on a friday as this is the day payment goes in) which states all the information (and more) found in rent books.

Is it ok legally to keep doing it this way?

Or does it have to be a hard copy signed by both landlord and tenant, like the type you can buy online?

Thanks

Be wary of advice from a forum (especially my own)
Always do your own research..

The requirement for "rent book" comes from the LTA 1985 which technically doesn't require a rent book per se (see the words in bold)

1)Where a tenant has a right to occupy premises as a residence in consideration of a rent payable weekly, the landlord shall provide a rent book or other similar document for use in respect of the premises

There is technically speaking no legal requirement for anyone to sign anything.  in fact it actually doesn't even legally require you to keep it up to date(!)

The contents of the Rent Book are (again being legally pernickety but you did ask "legally ok") are set out in LTA 1985 section 5 and must be in the prescribed form for which the Notice that needs to be included is set out in The Rent Book (Forms of Notice) Regulations 1982 amended in 1988.

Basically that's a long way round of saying technically there is no form of the Rent Book per se other than that it must contain the Notice (properly filled in).  However it does seem that a Rent Book is meant to be a record of payments and therefore sending a receipt by email doesn't truly qualify as the original law was the LTA 1962 during which period it was common (still is) to have a physical book/log book.

It's exceptionally unlikely a tenant will know all this and so it would require a helpful chap from the local citizens advice bureau to point out how a tenant might raise for the authorities to bring a case for such a breach which by the way (bizarrely) is set out in LTA 1985 and is a criminal not civil law breach and so as well as a fine for up to £2500 under Criminal Justice Act 1962 so you get a nice criminal record in return for your £2500  . (There no benefit to the tenant so it would be a pretty much spiteful act on their part or a good negotiation chip if they needed one).

If push came to shove you could always "create" a rent book by printing off all the invoices and stapling them together but then someone could argue you never gave a log book (Rent Book) in the first place at the start of the tenancy.  Legally though if you just provided a Rent Book at the start of the tenancy (and could prove you had done so) and never saw it again and then provided receipts only from then on you would be technically/legally ok.

Look the aim of a Rent Book is to clarify what Rent was paid and when - that primary objective you are meeting and by including all the information required again on every receipt you are LIKELY to be ok - just recognise you are not 100% guaranteed to be OK (which is why I assume you are asking).

Incidentally when you email the receipt are you attaching a PDF (or other) receipt or simply sending a text email that says 'thanks for payment...'?
It's just the latter can easily be "reproduced" by an unscrupulous tenant.

Hope that helps
Best of luck

Oh bugger I just noticed your name is 1702Wales...
The prescribed notice requirement is different in Wales and pursuant to The Rent Book (Forms of Notice) Regulations 2014.
My Welsh is not so good and I don't have any properties in Wales so you may want to do some research yourself.
I think there is an additional statement required in the Notice

“You may be entitled to get help to pay your rent through the housing benefit scheme or through Universal Credit. Apply to your local council or to the Department for Work and Pensions for details. The Gov.uk website provides further advice: https://www.gov.uk”.


But best you check this out yourself

Sorry and best of luck

Thanks for your response theangrylandlord

Much appreciated.