Care of address on tenancy agreement?

Care of address on tenancy agreement?

10:13 AM, 12th September 2016, About 8 years ago 6

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I wonder if someone can advise me if this is Ok to do, I have always managed my properties myself over the last 15 years and have always put my home address on the tenancy agreements and was wondering is it o.k to use an address of a company I own (which has no connection to renting houses) so the rental agreements will still have my name on, but will say care of my company address.address

Was hoping someone could advise me on this as I would hate to do it and find out that if I have to go down any legal routes with any tenants I have messed the paperwork up.

Many thanks

Steve


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Comments

Neil Patterson

10:20 AM, 12th September 2016, About 8 years ago

Hi Steve,

My understanding is that you have to provide an address where tenants could serve a notice on the landlord and at the tenants request you cannot refuse to give the landlord's address.

However this is explained more fully in Tessa Shepperson's blog >> http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2014/05/29/a-tenants-right-to-know-his-landlords-address/?doing_wp_cron=1473671635.7176680564880371093750

Kelly Joanna

12:08 PM, 12th September 2016, About 8 years ago

You can use a care of address, however, if requested, the tenant is entitled to your actual address. They are not legally entitled to your phone number or email though.

Charles King - Barrister-At-Law

12:23 PM, 12th September 2016, About 8 years ago

Hi Steve. You only need to provide the tenant with an address in England and Wales for the serving of notices. That means if the tenant serves notice on you at that address (e.g., notice of disrepair, or court proceedings against you) the notice will almost certainly be regarded as 'validly' served on you, even if you have not seen it. You do not have to give your home address. Using the expression "care of" does not mean anything technically, and I should avoid it: the reason being that I have heard District Judges refuse to make possession orders even where there are significant rent arrears because "a 'care of' address is not the landlord's address". You could and should simply specify on the tenancy agreement that the company address is "the landlord's address for the purposes of s.48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987". Job done.

Ian Narbeth

12:31 PM, 12th September 2016, About 8 years ago

Read Tessa's helpful note. I would just add that s38 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 says that:

“address” means a person’s place of abode or place of business or, in the case of a company, its registered office;

This means the landlord can give his place of business. If the landlord is a company the tenant can ask for the address of the directors and company secretary.

Section 1(2) of the 1985 Act gives a defence of reasonable excuse so if the landlord is concerned for his personal safety he may have a reasonable excuse.

Big Blue

9:49 AM, 17th September 2016, About 8 years ago

Charles King's advice is perfect and almost word for word what I was going to write. Any legitimate address where notices might be reasonably received is allowable, but note that PO boxes are not considered valid addresses for service. The words 'care of' - that we might use quite naturally in ordinary life - are actually unwise in this example for the reasons given by Charles - pedantic judges can be sniffy about this. I'd stick to your name, the address of your company, and a tenancy clause as suggested by Charles. Should a tenant request a home address (which technically has to be in writing) - and this applies particularly to agents - you are required to provide it within 21 days of the request, unless, as Ian says, extenuating circumstances apply.

Industry Observer

16:13 PM, 19th September 2016, About 8 years ago

There is no obligation AT LAW for a tenant to demand a Landlord's private, personal address. All a tenant is entitled to is an address in England and Wales for the purposes of serving notices on the Landlord.

There is nothing in the Statute which requires a personal land address, if an agent receives such a request they confirm their address as the address for service of notices. Because that is the landlord's business address.

There has never been a Court case to confirm otherwise.

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