Has anyone started using email to notify your tenant of your intention to enter a property to do repair, etc.? If the tenant acknowledges receipt of the notice, would this be legally acceptable instead of the traditional paper version? I find the email version much faster and cheaper now that many tenants have email already. Any thought on this option?
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Is email version of Notice to Enter accepted legally?
Collapse
X
-
Hi Fudosan
I presume using email is not legal because the present Tenancy Act was written before email.
Have you put in a submission for that form of notification to be part of the new act?
Regards"There's one way to find out if a man is honest-ask him. If he says 'yes,' you know he is a crook." Groucho Marx
-
Hi Fudosan,
A newbie on the forum...good fun watching the banter
Can't answer on the legality side, but will be interested in the answer(s)...I have one tenant that is neither on home phone OR mobile (hello ??? ) so email is the only way that I can organise access or inspection..
G
Comment
-
Email is perfectly legal - and can be a good option.
However - this is important - make sure you get confirmation of receipt otherwise you might find out that the person only clears their email once in a blue moon and has no idea that you are trying to communicate with them. And if you are using email for important stuff then you need proof of receipt via a reply / receipt / follow up phone call.
Like other written communication email can easily sound a bit terse at times - try and remember to make it sound friendly. :-)
Comment
-
Apologies Marcus...my info was probably a little sparse...for this tenant I have always used email (just a little to far away to pop in) and it has been an excellent form of communication for us both.
I was going to ask about the downside to email if all went pearshaped, but pixie seems to have given the answer
G
Comment
-
Contacting tenants by what ever means is always fine.
I use email for those tenants that seem to be on line a bit. In fact for one tenant this is my prefered contact method because he is always hard to get on the phone what with long work hours and so forth. I often put a request for acknowledgement on the emails to make sure he has got them.
HOWEVER from time to time his flat (four people paying four lots of rent individually) gets into arrears. In these cases I ALWAYS issue the 10 day notice from the standard carbonised pad I always carry with me in the car.
There really is no point in issuing a 10 day notice or any other form of notice if you can not use it in court.
I think it would be a fair statement that generally courts do not like emails as evidence because you do not need to be very clever or devious to create a forged copy. Also the issue of delivery / serving of documents comes into the story. Emails have from time to time have a funny habit of occassionally taking a little while to be delivered and can sometimes not be received or read at all.
The RTA recognises an odd standard. You stick that little bit of paper onto the door and it is counted as having been served. What a wonderful thing. Far better than all the other legal things that the court does that require summons to be served personally into the hand of the debtor.
by me having a numbered little book the tenancy adjudicator can see I have a little simple fool proof system. I have had an allegation in court that a tenant claimed he did not get the notice. I was able to show notices before and after his one with incrimental dates on all of them.
In some cases when I suspect this form of allegation might be made, I take a photograph of the notice stuck to the door and then produce a copy of the date stamped photo graph in court. This is very hard for the tenants to refute.
Comment
-
No No chapter 7 was about cat woman. Havn't you read it yet.
I had another stupid case that is unbeleivable in the last couple of days.
However the tenant is waiting for his supreme court case to come up so feel a tiny wee bit constrained about telling the world. Got a great chapter 8 though coming up on Friday. Wonderful pictures and all. Eviction due 9 am Friday morning. Watch this space for the next exciting instalment. You just will not believe this one.
Comment
Comment