Asked to pay rent to a third party

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Twoflutes

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I have just got a My new landlord has asked that I pay my monthly rent not to her, but to her fathers bank account by direct debit. Is this particulary irregular or something thats not uncommon ?
 
Twoflutes said:
I have just got a My new landlord has asked that I pay my monthly rent not to her, but to her fathers bank account by direct debit. Is this particulary irregular or something thats not uncommon ?
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Seems a little strange - is this requirement mentioned in writing in the lease?

Slight nitpick - you probably mean standing order rather than direct debit. You can't 'direct debit' to someone else's account. They can 'direct debit' your account with your permission, but that would usually apply to variable amount transactions like utility bills.
 
RetirementPlan said:
Seems a little strange - is this requirement mentioned in writing in the lease?

Slight nitpick - you probably mean standing order rather than direct debit. You can't 'direct debit' to someone else's account. They can 'direct debit' your account with your permission, but that would usually apply to variable amount transactions like utility bills.
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It is not mentioned in the lease, but she did mention it verbally. Then she sent me the bank details for the deposit and rent to be sent, it was her dads account
Yes Standing Order, correct
 
Ask her why she wants the rent paid to a 3rd party account.

Is it a case that her father owns the property and she rents it out for him?
 
Maybe they are joint owners of the apartment. Or maybe he owns the apartment and she does all the letting and vetting for him.
 
Twoflutes said:
It is not mentioned in the lease, but she did mention it verbally. Then she sent me the bank details for the deposit and rent to be sent, it was her dads account
Yes Standing Order, correct
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Who is (or are) the named parties on the landlord side of the lease? Are you contracting with father or daughter or both?
 
It's no big deal really. Just pay it into whatever account she asks you to. Keep a record of her request just so she can't claim you didn't pay the rent!

Technically, the law says you should get a rent book or other receipt for rent paid, but few landlords actually do this.
 
Twoflutes said:
She is named on the lease as 'The Landlord', there are no other names
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Seems strange to me - I've no relevant professional expertise, but it just seems off to be paying the rent to someone else. Could there be a money laundering issue going on here? Could the lease be invalid because you haven't been paying the nominated rent to the nominated landlord? It might be worth asking the daughter, as others have suggested in the first instance. Or getting advice from Threshold or your own legal advisor perhaps?
 
But she is paying the nomibated rent into an account of the nominated landlords choosing. I dont see an issue here. Its the landlords responsibility to be paying tax and being above board. But no harm asking threshold if this is an issue.
 
Can't really see what the issue is here as long as a record of payment is available..... Maybe she's just like our former Taoiseach and hasn't a bank account . :).
 
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Perhaps the rental income is going into her father's tax return? He may have large age related credits & little or no other income ?
 
She could be trying to dodge tax, hide money from an ex or any no of things. Or it could be legit.
We had a childminder once who gave us an account to pay into as we didn’t want to pay cash. After a while she asked us to revert to cash. Reason being the account was actually her mothers and her mother started spending it. She was on SW so didn’t want it going to her account. Needless to say she wasn’t our minder did much longer. We weren’t going to pay her twice.
 
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