There are certain times and circumstances in which you or your managing agent will need to contact the tenant in your property.
Common reasons to enter the property include routine inspections, maintenance access for contractors, and chasing up rent payments. We usually have no issues, and tenants are happy to speak with their landlord and the managing agent, but sometimes they ignore attempts to contact them.
It's best not to assume malice as the tenant may have simply changed their phone number or email and forgot to update the landlord or the letting agent.
We are highly experienced in dealing with all kinds of tenant issues, so if your tenant isn't responding it's best practice to contact us and let our expert letting agents deal with the issue.
At Reeds Rains, we believe it's essential to create and maintain a good line of communication with the tenants living in our landlords' properties, and it's a rare occurrence to have them completely ignore us. But, if it did happen, here are some key things to know and steps that we can take:
- We are very clear on the law around a landlord/agent's right to enter the property. If the tenant hasn't given permission to enter, or their isn't a genuine emergency such as a gas leak or flood, we/you cannot enter the property - even with the right amount of notice or if we believe the tenant might have left.
- We ensure that every method of communication is attempted before proceeding: phone, email and hand-delivered letter.
- We keep a detailed paper trail to prove we have been reasonable in our efforts to contact the tenant.
- You should never harass the tenant. This could be as simple as calling them repeatedly or knocking on their door several days in a row, especially into the evening.
- If the tenant has missed rent payments for at least two months, we can explore serving a Section 8 Notice to start the process of regaining possession of the property. Given they pay rent monthly, that can be as soon as one month and one day from the first missed payment. You can send a copy of the notice via email, requesting a 'read receipt' and deliver a hard copy via recorded mail.
- Even if we are trying to contact the tenant about a maintenance issue, such as repairs, the tenant is within their rights to refuse entry. In this scenario, we send an email and letter to clearly state the reason for our attempts to contact and that, if they continue to ignore us, the landlord will not be held liable for any subsequent damage to the property. We'll also state that the landlord won't be held liable if the tenant suffers injury or their possessions are damaged because of the fault with the property that the landlord hasn't been able to fix.
- If the tenant is still ignoring you after an extended period, we recommend getting in touch with us to discuss your options for regaining possession of the property.
We are always happy to help and advise landlords. If you have a problem with a tenant not responding, or any other lettings questions, please contact your local Reeds Rains branch and we'll do our very best to resolve the situation.
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