Forwarding -On

Tenants come and go: sometimes it’s a disaster and sometimes it’s a blessing! Whether you’re pleased to see the back of your previous tenants or not, though, there is a bit of admin that goes with the process and something that a lot of landlords forget to arrange is a forwarding-on address.

Why do I need to worry?

Tenants who leave will often forget to rearrange their mail to be sent to their new address and even if they do, junk mail and spam often still get sent to your address. Junk mail is no problem, but there have been issues with landlords who have failed to send on job acceptance letters, bills, communication from medical authorities and personal post. Your Landlord Insurance should cover a legal dispute, but it won’t cover the loss of your time.

How can I arrange this?

The best thing to do is ask for an alternative address when signing contracts – this might be a parent’s address of a next of kin. This gives you a last resort. On moving out, however, ask your tenants to leave the addresses of their next property (or properties) so you have somewhere to send on any mail.

Is this a lot of hassle?

Yes, in principle, sending on post can be a problem, but you are only expected to send on up to three month’s worth of mail. After this time it is expected that tenants will have arranged for mail to be forwarded to alternative addressed and so the post should dry up anyway. Equally, if no forwarding addresses are left then you should keep post for this time and wait for it to be collected. If it’s no problem sitting around then it’s best to leave it be, but you would be at liberty to destroy anything that was not collected after a year or so.

The little things sometimes make the job of being a landlord the hardest job of all, but getting these things in shape can help everything else run a little smoother. Even when your tenants are just moving in, start making plans for when they move out and then when they do, you won’t be surprised!