Private residential tenancy model agreement: easy read notes

4. Communication

You can sign this agreement "electronically" by typing your name - instead of signing a paper copy. It will still be a legal document that the landlord and tenant must comply with by law.

The Agreement should say whether notices and letters must be sent in paper letter form only or whether emails will be used instead.

The tenant does not need to agree to receive notices under the Agreement by email. If the tenant agrees to receive notices by email this could include important messages. For example telling the tenant that the rent is to go up or that the Tenancy is being brought to an end. You should think about whether email would be the right way to receive important information. The landlord and the tenant must tell each other about changes to their email addresses.

If you don’t inform your landlord about a change of email address you might miss an important email such as a Notice to Leave. That would mean that the Notice to Leave sent to the old email address would still be accepted by the Tribunal as having been properly sent even though the notice was not actually received by the tenant. In this case you can still be evicted. In the event that the email correspondence method is unavailable or unusable by either party, the Tribunal may take a view that recorded delivery would be acceptable. This is at the discretion of the Tribunal.

When the notice is sent by email or recorded delivery post, then an extra 2 days should be added to the notice period to allow time for delivery. This is required by law, even if it is not stated in the tenancy agreement. This applies both when a tenant is sending a notice to their landlord, or when a landlord is sending a notice to their tenant.

For example, if one months' notice needs to be given before 31 December 2017, then if the notice is being given by post or by email, it should be posted or emailed no later than 28 November 2017. If the notice is being delivered by hand (this would normally involve a Sheriff Officer if a landlord was giving a notice of removal - Paragraph 34.8 of the Act Of Sederunt (Sheriff Court Ordinary Cause Rules) 1993 No.1956 (S.223) refers), it should be delivered no later than 30 November 2017.