I'm a snooping landlord AIBU

[justasking111]

We had some tenants. They never missed the rent but moved elderly dad and dog in without asking. It was covid so no problems.

Anyway they left, dad went into a home. The dog they cared for died.

They did a flit no rent owing but no forwarding address. We decided to sell but the post kept coming. I'd collect but there was a strange name so opened. It was bank statements to the ex tenant marked vets Bill sometimes twice a month around £900 a month.

We know for a fact that the dog is dead. So the elderly man in the nursing home is he being conned?

Should I do something about this or just let it go because the daughter would receive the money when he dies anyway.

We kept getting mail from the previous owner's pension company. For a long time I put it back in the post office now it goes in the bin. We've been here 16 years now so I have no sympathy if he's too lazy to have bothered telling them he'd moved.

OP, I had this with a tenant who flitted, letters from collection companies for debt. I contacted the debt company, explained the situation and returned the letters to them ( in an envelope, stamped, so I knew it’d get there) They’ll know who owns the care home, who’s making the claim, they can sort it out.
But yes, I understand the worry and the frustration.

I think the previous owner did a flit basically, they never left a forwarding address. They were letters about debt, credit card, bank account so I thought it was important that these companies knew he was definitely not here - the companies are so lazy though, I mean if they checked the electoral roll even a few months after they would see new occupants, never mind years after.

You said “there was a strange name so opened” sounds planned not accidental

No I meant could the daughter have a new dog which she's using the father's funds (with or without permission) to pay for?

That's all you need as he will have been placed in a home within his council tax area so all you need to do is bag up all the evidence and send to social services dept at your local council with a covering letter and leave them to sort it out. Sounds like they are creaming off his cash to avoid paying the care home fees🙄

Absolutely this. There are always some tossers on here that think theft and fraud are not as bad as being a grass. They either haven't left the playground or are swindlers themselves.

Do what your conscience and instincts tell you. If there's nothing wrong then it will just be an investigation and no-one will be hurt. But if they are swindling someone you'll have done a good thing.

Vets bill's dont die with the dog. What an odd way to look at it. If they come in the same amount every month its an outstanding bill that hasn't been paid.

The dog likely had bills (possibly even from being PTS if not any treatment in the run up). These are still obviously due if they weren't paid regardless of if the dogs still here or not.

If the new owners had bailiffs turning up on their doorstep looking for someone other than them, they just need to show their council tax bill and explain they’re the new owners of the property from xx date. This should be enough to prove to the bailiffs that the previous tenant isn't resident there any more and they should remove the address from their files regarding the debt.

@LovedFedAndNoonesDead is right. Speaking from experience.

You won't like my response but you need to hear it anyway. If I ran this country landlords would have to be licensed and what you did would get you banned from holding a license for 5 years.

Landlords in this country have become a power unto themselves in this country and they need reigning in. Who the bloody hell do you think you are reading other people's post?

I agree @FSTraining .

Landlords are something else. Alot, if not most of them, are horrid individuals.

Forward it all to the council. Ask them to pass it on to the gentleman.

Worked for a bank. When post is returned they should be putting a dormant indicator on the account , this will flag up when customer uses account and should have stopped all outgoing mail. I would write to bank’s complaints as someone not doing their job and you are being inconvenienced

I think the vet reference is a red herring... I know when I first set up a payment to someone I have to put in a reference. For subsequent ones (Barclays, Santander) done through the app the refence defaults to the last one used, unless I consciously change them. Which I seldom do. I sent a friend a couple of hundred pounds about 5 years ago for some gardening, reference 'gardening' and every other payment to him has said the same as I have never changed it!

I had a tenant who was a fraudster who disappeared overnight once he realised the police were on to him. The police were very keen to find him - the crime was in the millions. They asked for me, as I cleared the flat, to look out for any signs of where he might have gone, and even suggested that if I opened his mail accidently it might be useful.

To be honest if a tenant does not provide a forwarding address, and I always ask for one, I will open mail, especially if it looks as if someone is chasing a debt. I then phone the debt collection agency, the utility company or whatever and explain when they left and that there is no point contacting the address again. I return all subsequent letters with a "not-known". Lesser of two evils. I don't want my next tenant to receive lots of unwanted post, or worse still a visit from bailiffs, nor do I want the property address associated with a poor payment record.

report it and stop opening their post - their bank statements are private and what you are doing now out of curiosity is just wrong. you need to mind your own business and just....stop.....

I would add that I do not open banks statements, I can't be bothered. I simply send them back to the bank. It is only items that look as if they relate to debts or debt collection. And I would never do this if the tenant left a forwarding address or, better still, a set of printed sticky labels. The aim is to stop the flow of junk mail.

Is there a chance their father is in on it and it's a way of avoiding inheritance tax?

6 months in prison or a fine you can open someone else's letter and if they go to the police then I hope they treat you fairly.

https://howardssolicitors.co.uk/postal-offences/#:~:text=(3)%20A%20person%20commits%20an,and%2For%20an%20unlimited%20fine.

'They did a flit no rent owing'

That's not doing a flit...

"A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person’s detriment and without reasonable excuse, "

Got to prove that bit in order to get a fine or sentence.

If you don’t have a forwarding address, sometimes you have to open post eventually. Returning it to sender with ‘no longer at this address’ achieves precisely nothing, especially if it’s re debt.

I had endless post for a former owner of a flat who’d buggered off back to his own country, leaving around £20k of various debts. Only once I’d written to all the creditors with a copy of my CT bill did they back off.

I can't speak for every individual landlord, only that there are many who think using high risk finance to acquire the land (which remains on credit forever) has given some of them an inflated sense of entitlement to break laws and social conventions that the rest of us still respect.

Not