Irresponsible Tenant

Landlord Discussion
1

As a first-time landlord, I’ve realized I’ve overlooked some important details, particularly regarding council tax and apartment management fees.

I forgot to pay the council tax and received a final reminder from the property debt collection company (PDC) at my home address. When I called them, they informed me that they had sent several reminders to my rental property. However, my tenant claimed they never received anything. Regardless, I ended up paying the debt collection agency ~£350.

Then, I discovered I also neglected to pay the management fee for the apartment. After contacting the management company, I learned they had already passed the case to the debt collection agency (another PDC) . When I followed up with that PDC again, they reiterated that they had sent multiple reminders.

I feel incredibly frustrated. Why the management company did not call me / email me for not paying them ? Why didn’t my tenant notify me about the letters that didn’t concern them? Because of their inaction, I now have to pay a ~£450 penalty.

To make matters worse, the tenants left the apartment in a messy state already , and I’ll need to cover the costs of repairs on top of the penalty. I’m feeling anxious and disappointed in myself for being so careless.

The debt collection agency mentioned I could send a dispute email regarding the management fee, but I’m unsure if I’ll follow through. I just feel really down about the whole situation.

any advice for me? or Am I hopeless in not paying PDC?

2

You failed to give the respective parties your home address. The blame ultimately lies with you.

You could have had a postal forwarder set up.

Never rely on tenant to pass on your post, they generally couldnt give a hoot about this.

Did you have a deposit from the tenant which was registered with a scheme?

Getting it wrong sometimes is inevitable, especially when you are new to it. it can all be sorted. Next time it will be different.

2 Likes
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Learn from it and move on. Don’t mope. Do some landlord training.

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4

Why are you paying the Council Tax, not the tenant?

You can usually specify contact details with management companies and even Council Tax offices.

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5

Because there was a 2 month gap before the property rent out

Yes i know everything now,

6

I am also a new landlord and experienced something similar. I completed on a property in November '22 and I paid the service charge for the remainder of '22 to Company A on completion. I didn’t receive a demand for service charge for '23 so I contacted company A and set up a DD for it to be paid monthly. Some months later I received a demand for service charge from another company. Company B and (my error) I ignored it because I knew that I was paying my service charge to Company A. Over the following months Company B sent further demands for service charge with the final one threatening court proceedings and that’s when I took notice.

It turns out that Company A which I had been paying monthly, maintain the internal areas of the block.

Company B maintain the external areas which includes the car park and gardens etc. So I should have paid them also.

This is fair enough but my conveyancer didn’t explain this to me during the sale. I ended up paying what I owed plus a further £160.00 to the dept collection agency. I protested and Company B conceded that the process was confusing.

Company A and B then came together and changed the service charge collection process. Going forward Company A would collect all the service charges from the leaseholders and then pay Company B so that each leaseholder only pays one service charge which is better all round.

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that would be an error of judgement.

I recommend you take LL training via joining one of the LL associations that offer it. What you don’t know will surprise you, but it’s better to be surprised while training than while letting property. It’s also much cheaper.

8

“I forgot to pay…”

“I also neglected to pay…”

& you call them an Irresponsible Tenant. In my view it is only the Landlord whom has been irresponsible.

Don’t blame others for your oversights.

9

Any property . You have you ask…is it leasehold or freehold, any service charges, any charges against the property, ,check land boundary, who are the services with,.?etc. Who has the deeds? Is the property registered? A good solicitor will have all the answers, but check the checkers. . I always pop into properties to see if any mail for me ,once a month

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