So we have a tenant who has been served a section 21, whilst he has been a tenant he has decided to use the communal bike store to store his possessions. We have wrote to him and verbally asked him to remove his items due to health and safety and misuse of communal property. I emailed the other week and said we will start to add charges per day if its not cleared, this got a response saying he wont be paying any fees. My question is can I email him with a daily rate of charges , or does this need to have been done on the contract ? It was our first tenancy and it was not something we expected to happen. The tenant has a guarantor and wants a break down of costs to date, do i include 1. the storage fees? and 2 can we include the legal fees for serving section 21 via solicitors?
I don’t really think a daily fee is appropriate or contracted. If you’re charging a fee you’re essentially saying it’s fine to use it but there’s an agreed charge…
How are you calculating these fees? I really don’t think it will hold.
Does the contract specifically exclude the use of communal spaces?
Is the bike store within the property boundary? Are any rights of use granted in the tenancy agreement? If no to both then its trespass and you can give a reasonable deadline for removal and then dispose of the items. You need to be careful you dont breach the Interference with Goods Act though. You might be able to impose a fee, but you’d need to consult a solicitor and if he didnt pay, you wouldnt be able to take it from any housing deposit you might hold.
A communal area suggests its a leasehold flat not a freehold house. If so the abuse of the communal area is a matter for the management company although they may wash their hands of it and say you need to instruct your tenant to abide by your lease ( not his tenancy agreement ).
What a weird situation to find yourself in with your first rental property . Your section 21 could take a year or more to get enforced through the courts .My advice is not to wind the tenant up or he will dig his heels in and stop all communication.
Welcome to life as a Landlord .
Is the area actually officially a bike store as in signage etc or is it just a convenient place for people to store bikes?
Is there anything in writing to say this area must ONLY be used for that purpose or that any contravention will result in a daily charhe being applied? What if he was storing say 3 bikes in there would that get the same response?
Habe you asked him why he is storing items in there? Maybe there is some way you could actually help him?