Are your tenancy agreements compliant with section 47 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987?
A shout out to all SESKU landlords , just to make you aware.
Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, section 47 states any written demand for rent or other monies payable to the landlord under the Assured Shorthold Tenancy (or other relevant tenancy) must have the landlord’s address and not that of the agent.
That means if you are a SESKU landlord, your home address, registered office or your usual place of business must be shown on all documents that are a 'demand for payment'.
This ‘demand of payment document’ ordinarily would be your tenancy agreement. If you haven’t got your address on the tenancy agreement, your tenants might not be liable to pay their rent.
However, that would be very unlikely in a Court, as the tenant would need to prove they had asked for it from the landlord, agent or rent collector first.
Therefore, if your tenant requests that information, the letting agent or the person collecting the rent on your behalf as a landlord is responsible for responding to that request within 21 days (under section 2 of the same Act).
Failure to supply the landlord’s information within the time frame without a rational excuse will land either the agent, landlord or designated rent collector a fine of up to £2,500 and could result in the tenant legally refusing to pay rent until the information requested has been provided.
It would therefore be wise to occasionally check that the information provided on your tenancy agreement and other tenant demands involving the identity and address as a landlord is up to date and has the suitable address for the landlord.
Before I go, it must be stress that not every document has to have the landlord's address on. Other tenancy documents that don't relate to the 'demand of payment document' can have the agent's address (as stated in section 48 of the same Act).
If you are a landlord and in doubt, we are more than happy to discuss further the differences between section 47 and section 48 of the Act to ensure you stay the right side of the law.
Feel free to give us a shout!