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Landlord Owes £4,000


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Hi Everyone, This is my first ever posting here, sorry its long.

 

We took out a 6mth Shorthold Tenancy in April 2009. The landlord was a little wary as it took them a year to evict previous tenants, so said 6mths first then a permanent agreement of 5yrs in rural property. The property had been in a severe state and they were doing it up, rent £800pmth. The landlords were taking along period of time to complete the property and offered us the option to do it up ourselves with them saying we can have first months rent free, so we did. The property had NO kitchen at all and the rest of the house was bad, but they had put new carpets in.

 

Anyway, we done it all up lovely goregeous kitchen and we finally felt we had a home and a great landlord, bought chickens, kittens etc etc, fab.

 

Now, 5mths into our agreement they have put the house up for sale AFTER we done it all up and spent £4,000 in the process and they want us out!!! We are having to put up with viewings 3/4 times a day and it looks like they have had several offers now. I'm distraught to say the least and feel totally conned, they will not reimburse us the costs.

 

My husband is now refusing to pay the rent until we have clawed back our money and it will be used for a new deposit, all this before xmas with 3 kids, I'm worried sick and can't cope.

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Firstly, welcome to CAG.

 

With regards to your situation, it seems that you have been treated very poorly by your landlord. If you have no fixed term contract for rental then it is going to be difficult to prevent the landlord from selling the property. This being the case, you should now focus on recovering your costs. Can you in anway prove the state of the house before you signed the agreement. I assume you have kept all invoices for works done to the property. Make sure you take as many photos as possible, you can't take too many - detailing every aspect of work that you have done on the property.

 

With regards to the impending eviction, I believe the landlord is obliged by law to give you two months notice.

 

If the landlord wont shift on his position of not reimbursing you, it is time to take him to court. This will probably sound a lot more daunting than it actually is. There are 1000's of people on this forum that have taken big businesses to court (including my partner) and have won.

 

As for practical advice, try not to worry, get down the local council and ask them if you can have any assistance with finding a new property. You will find somewhere I'm sure, I dare say that with a scope of £800 per month you will have a reasonable scope as well. I know you are probably very upset and anxious but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

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We are having to put up with viewings 3/4 times a day and it looks like they have had several offers now.

 

First - REFUSE ALL VIEWINGS. These are a gross interference with your right to quiet enjoyment. Just say no. Whatever it says in your AST, you do not have to agree to them. Nor do you have to allow LL or LL's representative to enter your property. Change the locks if necessary.

 

Second - Get together all paperwork, invoices etc. etc. and work out what you consider LL owes you (don't be tempted to bump it up or lie) and then sue him - now!!

 

Thirdly - Remember, LL has to give you 2 month's notice to evict you via the s.21 route UNLESS you are not paying the rent! I understand your wish to claw back the money but it is a dangerous game.

 

If LL is on the ball, he will wait until you owe one month and one day's rent (which assuming your rent is due monthly in advance will mean your rent is 2 months unpaid) and issue a s.8 notice, ground 8. LL only has to wait 2 weeks before going to court and a s.8, ground 8 is mandatory - i.e. court has to award LL possession!

 

This LL is a rat and you need to get your money back, but you may be going about it the wrong way. Please think about this very carefully. It may be worth you getting some proper legal advice.

Kentish Lass

Information given is based on my knowledge and experience and is not to be considered as legal advice

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Thank you both for the reply, I have every single receipt and haven't lied about a single penny that's why we are so angry! I don't want to stop paying the rent I'd rather just leave now and sue them they are millionaires!! My friend said to put a charge on their house or threaten to bankrupt them if they don't cough up. She is also holding our £900 deposit which is not under the DPS and we don't have a proper tenancy agreement its a one page piece of paper!

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If the worse scenario happens and you do have to vacate the property I'd take everything you've paid for,as you have the receipts you can prove it's yours.If they insist on sending people round for veiwings I'd point out that they would be moving into a property with no kitchen for a start and anything you've forked out for.

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Ah, this gets more interesting!! Please tell me you live in England or Wales???:)

 

In the absence of a proper AST agreement the law assumes that you have an Assured Shorthold Tenancy. (This is designed to prevent LLs from pretending that you don't have a tenancy unless you have a written agreement!) If you moved in and LL accepted rent, you have a tenancy!

 

Under the Housing Act 2004, LLs are required to protect the deposit in one of the three government approved deposit protection schemes. If your deposit is not protected, you can sue for deposit + 3xdeposit penalty for non-compliance with this legislation. However, I think you should leave this till later!

 

Am I right in thinking that you have no written record of your agreement with LL regarding the renovations you have carried out? How many months was your rent waived?

 

I think the first thing you have to do is sue for the money you have spent. The amount has to be under £5,000 to use the small claims route, but using MCOL (Money Claim Online) is easy. You can take a look at the website and work your way through what you have to do.

 

I would suggest that you fill in the form, and then attach it to a LBA (Letter Before Action) and send this to the LL. This will show that you mean business.

 

You can use recorded delivery, but she may refuse to accept the letter. You can send it from a Post Office, obtaining a certificate of posting (free). Then send a copy from another Post Office (maybe the next day) and again obtain a certificate of posting. If at a later date she tries to claim she did not receive the letter, a judge is not likely to believe that two letters sent from different post offices on different days both went astray!! Keep the certificates of posting of course.....

 

Prepare a schedule and attach copies of all receipts - be short and succinct in your letter stating that in accordance with your [verbal] agreement, you have carried out considerable improvements upon her property and that since she is reneging on your [verbal] agreement that your tenancy would be extended to a further 5 years you now seek recompense for such improvements (details attached).

 

Say that unless you receive this sum within the next [14?] days, you will start court proceedings to recover your money. Do remember that any rent waived should be deducted from the claim (show this on the schedule) so she cannot counter claim. Putting a charge on the house is a good idea, but if you are not familiar with these processes, you will need a solicitor - and then the costs can start to build up - especially since they obviously have more cash than you!

 

Of course it won't hurt to look up on the internet all these options and how to action them !!

 

Don't waffle, and don't get into arguments etc. If they start harrassing you with phone calls etc., keep notes of EVERYTHING and write saying that in future all communication should be by letter.

 

And remember, if they go the s.21 route, they have to give you two months notice - and if you don't go, they have to get a court order and that can take ages!

Kentish Lass

Information given is based on my knowledge and experience and is not to be considered as legal advice

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Thank you so much everyone I feel so much better!!! Yes I live in South of England does that matter? I've just looked everything out again, we have hundreds of receipts amounting to £3,892.28 that does not include the two weeks my husband took off work to do all the work to fit a kitchen and tile it and the tile the floor and utility room and downstairs loo, can I charge for his labour? We definately do not have DPS we hav a receipt from her that's it

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Thank you so much everyone I feel so much better!!! Yes I live in South of England does that matter? I've just looked everything out again, we have hundreds of receipts amounting to £3,892.28 that does not include the two weeks my husband took off work to do all the work to fit a kitchen and tile it and the tile the floor and utility room and downstairs loo, can I charge for his labour? We definately do not have DPS we hav a receipt from her that's it

 

Just checking you don't live in Scotland - tenancy law there is totally different from England and Wales, and they do not yet have deposit protection.

 

Yes I think you can charge for the labour. Not sure how you base the cost - whether on what he would earn at work for those two weeks, or what. I would charge a minimum of £10 per hour anyway.

 

Do take my advice re viewings though. If you do change the locks, keep the old ones to put back when you leave.

 

Re the deposit, I just think you should keep that up your sleeve for later - also - if you go for the deposit +3xdeposit, these claims seem to be multi-tracked now, not small claims, so it is more expensive and lays you open to the costs of the other side if you lose so needs to be thought about more carefully. Of course, you could do both claims together.... but I would have to recommend some proper legal advice first - and from a solicitor who specialises in tenancy law, not just anyone!

Kentish Lass

Information given is based on my knowledge and experience and is not to be considered as legal advice

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Thanks Kentish Lass, I will ring around tomorrow for a specialist Solicitor, don't need this stress before xmas and I have 3 kids who have no idea what is going on. Hubby has changed the locks 2nite and we have put the old locks in cupboard, two viewings booked in for friday but she has already had 4 offers so will probably go with one of them anyway. I have told every viewing what she is doing and they are disgusted, also told them she had buyer last year before we moved here and 24hrs before exchange she pulled out, the estate agent told me that himself but couldn't tell new potential buyers so I did.. let's them know what they are dealing with.

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All very difficult for you. Let us know how things progress.

 

I am moving back to the UK from abroad in a week's time so will be offline for a bit, but will try and catch up with what is going on when I can. Good luck.

Kentish Lass

Information given is based on my knowledge and experience and is not to be considered as legal advice

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If the deposit is not protected they cant evict you period. however they can soon place it in a deposit scheme, but for tha they would need a contract and you would need to sign it?!

You could always play hard as well and just not move out and wait till it goes to court and then hit him wiyh the costs of renevotion. Did he agree he would pay or just that the first five months rent free would cover it, so any extra would be down to you. defo continue to pay rent. If there is a sitting tenant, you, then the prospective sales may falter as it will cause delays in completion. it would therfore be in his interest to come sort of agreement with you before it all gets out of hand. Suggest you arrange a meeting with him and outline all of these points so at least you know where you both stand and hopefully resolve the situation before any litigation. I think you have a very strong position, but you must realse it is his house at the end of the day. Just use your position to get the best deal in terms of repayment and time to find somewhere else.

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Yes, they can, just not with a Section 21 Notice, they can do it under a Section 8 Notice Section 8 notice Landlord Advice UK download free section 8 notices free downloads section 8

 

A warning I gave in my first post regarding the idea of withholding the rent!

Kentish Lass

Information given is based on my knowledge and experience and is not to be considered as legal advice

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Yes. Agree. But OP did mention withholding rent to recover monies owed which could lay them open to a s.8 notice. As you say, it seems this is probably going to end up in court, one way or another.

Kentish Lass

Information given is based on my knowledge and experience and is not to be considered as legal advice

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