Landlord lives in Isle of Man

[metalrat]

Hope this is posted in the correct section.

 

We own a property which we rent out, there is a problem with the next door gable end as the rendering has been falling off and has been crashing down onto the kitchen roof of our property causing broken tiles. We have repaired this in the past but the problem has got much worse and now our tenants are suffering with water seepage.

 

We have managed to contact the landlord of the next door property and even though he accepts (on telephone) that it needs addressing he has done nothing but offer excuses as to why he hasn't had it newly rendered.

 

Our insurance say it is a civil matter which is fine, we would take him to court for any more expenses to repair the damage caused. We are good landlords and don't like our tenants having to live in a property that continually needs repairing because of the next door landlords refusal to accept his responsibility to maintain his property even though he has tenants living in it.

 

The problem we think we may have is that he lives in the Isle of man, does anybody know if we can issue a claim in the county court or is there another procedure we must follow, one that hopefully doesn't involve costs that would outweigh the cost of repair?

 

Of course we would expect him to also be liable for the cost of repair to our roof.

thank you for reading

Edited August 2, 2018 by Andyorch
Paras

[unclebulgaria67]

Yes you can issue a county court claim at your nearest County court and provide the court with the landlords address for them to send the court claim.

 

I wonder whether the landlord has a letting agent in the UK and whether the court claim can be sent to that address.

 

What about the local council ? If the house next door poses a risk, would the council intervene if this was reported ? Pretty sure I have heard of councils intervening in such situations but not sure what legislation they use.

 

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part06/pd_part06b

Edited August 2, 2018 by Andyorch
Link added from following post..merge

[stu007]

Hi

 

Something to also consider checking is that most Local Authorities now require all private Landlords to be Registered as you are probably aware so check and see if they are registered if required.

 

Also with the Local Authority I would inform the Environmental Health that this render coming off is now a health & Safety issue to those resident in your property.

 

I would also suggest that you write to the Landlord and ensure to get proof of posting to see if they respond acknowledging the issue.

[metalrat]

Hi

 

Thanks for the replies, we have sent a letter to the landlord advising him we will take the matter to court should we not hear from him with a reasonable solution in the next 14 days. We don't believe he will reply as he has ignored previous letters. We did get the council involved and they agreed the render is unstable and would continue to fall off.

 

However because it was falling on our roof rather than the footpath to the front they said there was nothing further they could do and informed us it was a civil matter.

The insurance we have on the property took a similar approach and said they were not liable and that we should pursue the landlord through the civil court.

 

So this is where we are at present, we now are now waiting for the 14 days to elapse so we can start county court proceedings at the small claims.

 

I don't know how enforceable it is regarding Isle of man residents or even whether we could instruct agents if it came to that, if the case was ruled in our favor then how would we reclaim our losses?

 

Thank you

Edited August 16, 2018 by Andyorch
typo/Paras

[stu007]

Hi

 

Have you checked with the Local Authoirty if the Private Landlord is registered with them? (if required)

 

Have you checked the Land Registry on the property? (note: there may be a fee involved so check first)

 

Is the landlord looking after the property themselves or using the services of a Letting Agent?

 

Just remember the Landlord would have to pay Taxes & Vat so would also need to be registered with HMRC.

 

Your agreement should have a Registered Service Address (or similar worded), is the Registered Address the Isle of Mann?

[unclebulgaria67]

Pretty sure UK CCJ's can be recovered in the IoM. You would have to contact someone in the IoM that deals with debt enforcement there, as I expect there are local processes that have to be followed. Suggest you look into the costs involved and who would have to pay these, before you get a CCJ that due to costs, you then don't enforce.

 

You would hope the landlord would not be happy with a CCJ and would deal with it, before it got to the stage of enforcement.