UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi (newbie user here)

Some Background:
My previously reasonable tenants moved out of the property in December this year after renting my 4 bed house for 9 years. Relations soured after they moved due to issues with the deposit, I eventually gave in and just paid back in full.

Although I knew he had become self employed and worked from home frequently I didn't realise they had registered their consulting company to the address. I sent them an email stating that it must be removed and links to the forms at Companies House. They subsequently changed it to a mail forwarding PO Box company.

During the Summer I noticed that they had returned to the UK, (via our street WhatsApp group) and saw them go to the property and pick up post from out new tenants. I asked my tenants about it and they told me they had been asked to hold any post and giving it to someone from their church, but that they had turned up in person that day. I asked her to just put any further post through our letterbox (we live next door).

We came back from holiday and our tenant had dropped in two letters, one from HMRC. I phoned HMRC and in giving the reference and I gave them the new address in the USA, as well as phone numbers and emails but obviously they couldn't discuss anything about the contents of the letter. It concerns me if they are being chased for non payment or something similar.

I wrote them another email as I discovered they still have the address on their website (offices in the USA and UK) and their directors correspondence address was listed as my rental property. I got a very flippant reply and was told it was 'just admin'.  Since then (4 weeks) nothing has changed so I sent another email today.

I'm at a loss to know how to proceed with this as they are in the USA and would probably just ignore a solicitors letter.

Any suggestions very welcome

If you are admitting, on a public forum, to opening mail addressed clearly to someone else... I wouldn't do that. Postal Services Act 2000 and all that.

Quote from: Hippogriff on August 15, 2022, 02:30:03 PM
If you are admitting, on a public forum, to opening mail addressed clearly to someone else... I wouldn't do that. Postal Services Act 2000 and all that.

I'm guessing the OP simply rang HMRC based on what was visible on the outside of the envelope. At any rate, that's what I'd tell the magistrate.

I'd just tell your current tenants to mark any incoming mail that's not for them as "Gone Away" and stick it back in the nearest post box. I keep a sheet of pre-printed labels for the purpose.

Quote from: Hippogriff on August 15, 2022, 02:30:03 PM
Postal Services Act 2000 and all that

Quote84 Interfering with the mail: general
(1) ...
(2) ...
(3) A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person's detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him.
(4) ...
(5) A person who commits an offence under subsection (1) or (3) shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both.

"intending to act to a person's detriment" ?  Presumably it would be OK to open incorrectly addressed/delivered post for the purpose of determining, for example, to whom you might return it, or otherwise notify the sender that the intended recipient is no longer at the address used.

Quote from: Hippogriff on August 15, 2022, 02:30:03 PM
If you are admitting, on a public forum, to opening mail addressed clearly to someone else... I wouldn't do that. Postal Services Act 2000 and all that.

I didn't open the letter, I could see it was from HMRC from the cover

Update - since posting this I sent another email asking if they were going to resolve this before it escalated and they replied saying they had submitted the forms to have the details changed at Companies house. They also deleted the address from the website today, I mean it's only taken them 6 months!

I think a lot of the issue was there was some unpleasantness right at the end after they moved out.

I had carried out a landlord inspection and accepted that there was some redecorating required but that a wall in the family room had a large wall mounted TV removed which they agreed to pay for the repair. There was a very short period between them moving (last minute visa issues) and the new tenants moving in and they suggested a local painter they knew from their church. They also assured me that the house would have a professional deep clean.

I said that on that basis I would release the deposit once I knew what the repair cost, they suggested just paying the painter directly which I foolishly agreed to. At this point they had generally been excellent tenants, we even bought them picture of the local landscape as a moving present.

They then suddenly bought forward their flights by three days. I suspect one of them was suffering from an early dose of Covid and wanted to get to the USA quickly as they all contracted it within days of arrival (as did I over Christmas).

The cleaning hadn't been done and I couldn't get a response from them regarding the booking. Eventually I managed to find someone to clean the carpets and we did the rest ourselves (the toilets were particularly nasty). I sent a copy of the quote for the repair and redecoration of the family room but they contacted the painter directly and told him they would only pay for one wall rather than the whole room. I sent them the cost of cleaning the carpets and told them they would be expected to pay for the painting of the whole room, not just one wall. I suggested I could deduct it from the deposit or they could send the money to me directly. They then launched into an email assault accusing me of with holding the deposit and telling me I'd already agreed to release the full amount, telling me I should be glad they had rented it for so long (even though they got a great deal on the rent),

By this point I was suffering with Covid and was so stressed I didn't have the energy to fight them, I just wanted the whole situation to go away so I released the deposit.

Lessons learned I guess,
1. don't 'help them out' by inspecting early
2. don't agree to let them settle tradespeople directly
3. make sure future tenants don't register a business at my property, even though it was already prohibited by the lease.

For committed Christians they certainly had some pretty ruthless and unchristian values!

Christians are just the worst... with the bloody bells and stuff.

Satanists can make nice tenants as long as they don't do animal sacrifices.

Quick update

I finally got them to change the details at Company's house and on their website, mainly by pointing out that any of their clients doing due diligence would soon realise what they were up to.
Interesting as their website said:

What Matters To Us
Ethics, and an unrelenting focus on honesty and integrity, underpin everything we do. We tell it as it is. Sometimes that makes for difficult conversations, but we have built a reputation where we know that the PE, VC and trade markets trust us. We will never deviate from this path, even if it means losing business.

Anyway good riddance to them and I'm glad to say that having a Doctor as a tenant has ben helpful especially when we need urgent advice for out 91 year old neighbour.

PS I'll try advertising for satanists next time 

Very trustworthy those Satanists.

Are there any consequences for tenants when they breach the contract and use the residential address as a company address as well?

In a word,No.