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Landlords Letter to Tenants Regarding Bad Behaviour

By: Jeff Durham - Updated: 3 May 2012 | comments*Discuss
 
Letter From Landlord To Tenant Letter

Everybody who lives in a rented property will have a ‘landlord’ of some kind be it a private individual, a council or a housing association. Likewise, all people who rent a property will, or should, have a tenancy agreement which states in full detail the obligations of the landlord to the tenant and the obligations of the tenant to the landlord.

These ‘obligations’ will include things like how much rent should be paid, how often and on what date. It will include other things such as how much notice needs to be given if the tenant decides to leave, whether or not a bond is payable and if so, for how much and what the bond is designed to achieve and somewhere, perhaps buried deep within the agreement, there will usually be a section on what the landlord expects with regards to how the tenant treats the property and how they behave both within the property itself and with respect to their immediate neighbours and environment.

How to Write the Letter

It’s very important to read through a tenancy agreement very carefully because, in signing your name at the bottom, this states that you are willing to comply with all that is contained within the agreement and that you are aware of any consequences of failing to honour the agreement.

And, whilst the majority of tenants have perfectly amicable relationships with their landlords, things can often go wrong. Reasons for this might include late payment of the rent, damage to the property or the contents within it. Disagreements might also be caused by anti-social or unacceptable behaviour by the tenant.

Whatever the issues are, it is sometimes necessary for a landlord to have to resort to sending a written complaint to the tenant before the matter gets out of hand, although, where possible, you should try to seek a resolution in person first.

A letter of this kind should be formal, polite but also firm. The contents of the complaint should only refer to matters which directly contravene the tenancy agreement and the landlord should take care not to comment on any other aspect of their relationship with the tenant which falls outside the remit of the tenancy agreement as this could be ammunition for the tenant if both landlord and tenant are unable to settle the dispute amicably and the case subsequently has to go to court.

Here is an example of a letter from a landlord to a tenant concerning the late payment of rent. Depending on your relationship with the tenant, you can address them by their first name if you feel it’s more appropriate.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith,

I have tried to reach you by phone 6 times and have left 2 messages on both of your mobile phones since we last spoke 2 weeks ago ( on February 17) with regards to the late payment of your rent.

Regrettably, I have yet to hear back from either of you, in spite of the fact that you told me you would be paying your rent arrears directly into my bank account on February 24.

Therefore, I have now decided to formally write to you with regard to this matter as your rent is now 6 weeks in arrears. This contravenes the agreement as set out in our tenancy agreement of December 13, 2005, page 4, paragraph 5.

I now require you to pay the overdue arrears plus the rent for the month ahead, both of which are now overdue, no later than March 14.

Your failure to do so will result in the termination of our tenancy agreement with immediate effect and legal action will be taken against you. Please note that, in accordance with our tenancy agreement, legal action will be sought immediately on March 15, if you do not comply with the above.

I very much regret having to take this course of action but feel that you have left me no alternative option given your failure to rectify matters to date in the way you had promised to.

Thank you in anticipation of your co-operation.

Yours sincerely,

Thomas Lockett

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