Private landlords with an interest in landlord insurance are being urged to get their paperwork in order after a recent landmark court case. The court ruled that a landlord seeking to recover service charges from a tenant was not entitled to it because the landlord used the letting agents address instead of their own.
By using the agents address, the landlord was deemed not to have served a valid demand and so nothing was due from the tenant. Section 47 of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1987 requires a landlord to give both their name and address in any written demand to a tenant. Using a managing agent’s address will not be good enough as it is not the landlord’s address. It is common practice for a private landlord seeking payment for sums due such as rent or service charges to ask their agent to do the work and for them to be named as the correspondent in all payment notices. The outcome of this case serves as an important reminder to landlords to get the technical details right or they may well lose out on money that is owed.
Caroline DeLaney, real estate disputes partner at London law firm Kingsley Napley, said: “Landlords and managing agents need to take urgent note of this case or suffer the consequences if their demand notices to tenants are found to be technically defective. An astute tenant can defer payment successfully, or at worst may be able to refuse to pay monies at all, if demand notices are not fully compliant with the Landlord & Tenant Act in terms of correct address details.”
The implications of the court’s decision may be much more far-reaching than is first apparent. For example, it may not be possible simply to re-serve the demand with a correct address; also if a tenant has already paid pursuant to a defective demand, they may be able to claim back the last six years worth of payments on the basis that they were paid under an invalid demand. Many private landlords are not happy because they do not want to disclose their home address to their tenant.