Snail mail

Recently, a senior housing professional told me that the rent increase letters that we send out must go in the post because this is a legal requirement.

I am not a solicitor but I have been reading through the legislation trying to find the part that says these letters must go via the post and I cannot find it. 

The Housing Act 1988 Section 13 states, “For the purpose of securing an increase in the rent… the landlord may serve on the tenant a notice in the prescribed form proposing a new rent to take effect at the beginning of a new period.”  (Interestingly, the words ‘rent decrease’ don’t seem to appear anywhere in the legislation.)

I think that perhaps the phrase “in the prescribed form” is perceived as meaning that we need to send these letters out in the same way we always have.

But the prescribed form relates to the words and layout that we need to use and not the medium that we need to use to communicate.

Specifically in this context this relates to Form 4 (a landlord notice proposing a new rent under an assured periodic tenancy of premises situated in England).

The latest version I have found of this form was issued in a statutory instrument (No620) by the secretary of state in March 2015.

The guidance notes for landlords on how to complete the notice say, “You can complete this notice in ink or arrange for it to be printed”, and to be honest I don’t really understand what this means.

This might be the part of the legislation that makes people think the form must be printed onto a hard copy.

“It seems to me that one way we could make a real cashable saving year-on-year would be to send out as many of our rent decrease letters via email as possible.”

After all, if you just email the letter it will only exist as pixels on the tenant’s computer screen, tablet or smartphone. But the guidance just says “you can” and not “you must” so it hardly seems legally binding.

Because the July Budget imposed a rent decrease of 1% year-on-year, many social housing organisations are looking hard for ways to save money that will not reduce the level of service offered to tenants or restrict their ability to build much-needed new properties.

It seems to me that one way we could make a real cashable saving year-on-year would be to send out as many of our rent decrease letters via email as possible. I would be really interested to hear from any other social housing organisations that are also considering the same thing.

I would also be really interested to hear from any social landlords which have sort legal advice about whether or not the rent decrease letters (Form 4) need to be sent in the post. Just use the comment section below.

Chris Deery, head of IT, Solihull Community Housing