When Tenant’s Don’t Communicate! Very Annoying!

Is it sunny in Blackpool at this time of year?

Benji: Can you not read? He had his holiday in the Far East, not the North West. So how was Sunderland, then?

Sunderland is not in the Far East. Far East, that clearly would have to be Norwich!

Just 10 Days of arrears, Can we do a Tenant swap?

lol, I hope you had a good holiday. As for frustations of them not contacting you, I think you need to lower your expectations. Its embarasing and no one wants to make embarassing calls about being LATE and especialy beig SHORT.

Id rather know too, I do make a point of saying "thanks for letting me know" a few times in a call, even if I initiate it.

Unfortunatly majority of tenatnts in low income housing are in arrears. We keep it at a minimum but landlord wants "long term tenants" rather than us putting foot down and scaring them away.

Since its coming to xmas i've had what id call some of my "best" tenants being late or prosponeing payments.

A letter going out now to a tenant who he and his mum prommissed payment 3 times and was yeaterday now in two months arrears. Late fee going his way, unfortunatly.

Yes, its in our AST we use a customised version of the AST from the "Residential Landlords Association" so im sure they have tested the "legality" of such terms, here is the wording:

"2. Pay our reasonable costs for sending reminder letters. These will be £10.00 for each reminder.
3. Pay our reasonable costs for any cheque that does not clear or any unpaid direct debit or debit or credit-card or standing order payment. These will be £10 each time this happens."

I dont realy enforce the "fee" that often as you have to give some flexibility but make sure they know I have NOT enforced it. Its only £10 but..

hope you enjoyed holiday
1 dont tell tenants when you may be away.
2the tenner threat is good but dont enforce imho,suggest you may ask agent to look after property, that will scare the hell out of him.
3.the guy was not too bad ,prob felt scared /guilty ,he sounds ok?
4.great site missed your posts
regards

If you're that pedantic over your easterliness then you need Lowestoft, not Norwich.

I went to Elveden Forrest for holiday this year, so I think I'll shut up and go stand in the corner!

I haven't been on a holiday since 2006. Holidays are for rich people, like LL.

Armin, Get to Butlins, "All work and no play makes Armin a dull boy".

They shut Butlins at Blackpool. All the more reason to go to Lowestoft instead

Just come across this blog - brillant. I love it

I know 3 landlords that all have a penalty clause in their agreements for late rent, one for example is 4% of the rent, which then compounds for every day the rent is late.

However my point is, the times where rent has been a day late or more, none of these have been enforced.

Perhaps it is just a scare tactic.

I can only think of very few examples where the tenant has told me before hand that they were going to be late, every other time it's me chasing them!

"The tenant(s) are jointly and severally liable for the payment of rent and a late payment fee of £20 will be made against each late rent payment."

If they're a day or so late I don't mind too much but three days or more without any communication then I'm usually pissed off enough to enforce it. Depends on the tenant and my mood mostly. If it's one of their first couple of rents though I'm always of the mind to enforce the first one to make them weary of being late again.

Hello Mr X and pab,

The Office of Fair Trading has a stance which is rather against liquidated damages for late payment being defined in the tenancy agreement.

They tend to take the view that any amount must reflect or be close to the direct costs (not overheads or consequential costs) of the rent being late.

So should a tenant ever refuse to pay the penalty amount and the issue go to court, the landlord would have a burden of proof to show how £20 / 4% / wahtever is reasonable and not just an exercise in leveraging more cash out of the tenant.

Yeh that does make sense Jeremy

@Jeremy, I imagine that stems from the debacle the banks had justifying/refunding those unauthorised overdrafts charges. Funnily enough I reserve charging interest on late rent for my commercial tenants only. Don't think I'll be changing either lease agreement anytime soon - good to know though.

Hello pab,

Yes, you're right. It's exactly the same principle. And it's cropped up again in the news with airlines charging us £25 to use a card when they're charged 50p by their banks for the same transaction.

I made an assumption (never assume!) that you are a residential-only landlord. As far as non-consumer contracts go, the OFT offers more lattitude. They make an assumption that a business deal is between parties with equal trading strength and interfere less in the fairness of contract terms. So if you ever wanted to enforce these terms, you proably could.

Sticky fingers on the keys scenario!

I believe that a £20 penalty fee is reasonable and possibly a whack on the backside if it is necessary?

Never draw up an agreement that can be subjected to 'loose' conduct from the tenant, you have to be assertive and forthright in your manner as well as lay down the law right foot first.

To the Landlord,

Sometimes, extended holidays can result in catastrophic events whilst away, so always a great idea to make necessary calls to tenant/s if certain that things haven't been communicated well, before your absence commences are conveyed well and truly clear.

I twice had the misfortune of buyers turning up to one place I had rented, and they wanted to speak to the landlord, yet he was some place I couldn't reach him over the telephone. He had been away for at least two months and did not mention about the buyers: Perhaps it had slipped his mind, I don't know?

Unfortunately, the downside of being a landlord is the fact that not all tenants are happy to take control of a ship, especially if it requires navigational strengths. Not that all tenants are this incapable, yet some will allow a vessel to sink if there are good signs that it is about to sink anyway.

I am positive that you are a savvy man and only pick people you know and have exchanged a great deal of trust, yet that also means allowing tenants the right of access to your whereabouts, weekly schedule - You can't expect or demand a good return on a venture that has no mutual equity.

Funnily enough I reserve charging interest on late rent for my commercial tenants only. Don't think I'll be changing either lease agreement anytime soon - good to know though.
couchsurfing

So should a tenant ever refuse to pay the penalty amount and the issue go to court, the landlord would have a burden of proof to show how £20 / 4% / wahtever is reasonable and not just an exercise in leveraging more cash out of the tenant.
detox bali

Hello josen,

A clause which says x% of the rent looks like a fee chargable to cover general financing costs. It's about the same cost to chase £400 as £900. So that might be worth challenging.

YesAdam's example of £10 for a set of defined events looks far more reasonable to me. If you assume a proptery manager earns c. £20 per hour (gross, before tax and both streams of NI), then this gives about half an hour to spot the late payment; read the case file; draft and send a letter.

If a tenant goes to court and the fees are found reasonable then the tenant stands to lose all their costs, probably the landlord's costs, too and still owe the fees.

The opposite would apply if the costs were unreasonable.

So the most important decision the tenant can take is to work out if they are objectively reasonable before taking the issue to court.

My tenant has blocked my phone number for no reason, also rent has been short on two separate occasions when ask her she said she had to get sink un blocked said she needed to call me first for me to sort out not to do herself she agreed then the following month did the same thing saying the dryer wasn’t working please any advice,