Rent arrears not my fault

[ukyankeebabe]

The property I live in, is residential massionettes over comericial properties. Last year the property was sold, I continued to pay my rent by check to management company as did serveral of the other residents. We began to notice that rent checks were not being cashed and bank debits were not being taken. This went on for about 6 mos or so. Now the new owners (a large Residential and Commercial Property Management Company) want to collect the back rent, which is in the thousands of pounds. We recently made a agreement that a little extra money would be added on to current rents arranging from £ 20 - £ 35 pounds (I am paying £35 and neighbour is paying £20). We have now recieved a letter saying that we must pay £50 pounds each month. And the rent has been raised more than £50 pounds in the last year. Many new residents pay £520 a month, but those of us who have been here for many many years were paying £350 they eventually want to raise it to £520.

Personally I feel we shouldnt have to pay these rent arrears as it was not our fault that payments were not taken by the old management company and passed on to new owners. Cause the checks were sent and debits were not cancled.

As soon as we notified of new owner and details of where to send rent we did. We are not in arrears under any current leases. But would find it difficult to have to pay the arrears. Can they evict us or take us to court over this or effect credit report.

Do we have to pay this debt as its not really our fault.

[MrShed]

- They can evict automatically if you are more than 2 months in arrears, regardless of reason.
- Why are you having trouble paying if the cheques werent being cashed?

[Conniff]

Hang on a min. 'The new owners'?

They can't be entitled to anything, any rent owing must be owed to the previous owner unless of course they have owned it for the past six months and have only now contacted you.

Do you know the date the new owner took possession?

The payments will belong to someone, so they will always be owed.

[MrShed]

Did you receive official notice of the change of landlord?

[ukyankeebabe]

Well there are serveral residents with the problem. The money was spent on other stuff eventually. After sometime we were notified that a new company/owners had taken over the property. When given the name of the new owners and where to send checks. They did not request back payments at the time. Its been nearly a year before any request for money.

It was a complete mystery as to why funds were not being taken or checks being cashed. As I said, it was nearly 6 mos before any contact. Not even notified by letting agent was happening.

What do u mean by offical notice of change of landlord. Basically a letter saying where to send future checks. And then sometime later new leases.

And a year later request for back payments.

[Conniff]

So you have had no notice of who your landlord is?
Are you sure that it was sold on and not just a change of agency?

If it has been sold, you have a right to know who your landlord is, so before you part with any back payments, ask the agency for his/her name and address and most importantly when they became the owner.

You will of course be able to check this with the land registry.

Just another thought, do you still have the name and address of the last landlord, if so why not drop him a line.

[MrShed]

Agree with Conniff, you need to find out when the property changed hands.

[MrShed]

The first thing you need to be aware of is that going by your description, as of this moment, rent is NOT PAYABLE AT ALL.

The new landlord is required by law to supply you with a S48 notice on acquiring the property. As a minimum, this requires the new landlord contact details, the date of completion of sale, and reference to Section 48 of the Landlord and Tenant act. Until this is received, rent is not payable, exactly to prevent the kind of problems you are having. Nor can they evict.

Whether this means you actually want to withhold rent is up to you(although I should make it absolutely clear that it is good practice that if you do this, you should put the rent in a seperate bank account each month). However, I think it without question means that you should refuse to pay the back rent, as until you actually receive the notice you have no idea how much is payable to the current landlord.

Also, if and when you do receive the notice, I would be checking the date of transfer with the land registry, in case they falsify it. The back rent is ONLY due to the current landlord if the arrears were incurred whilst they owned the property.