Thread: Commercial Landlord Problems!

Hello,

Ive basically been having a nightmare with a bully landlord who doesnt like anyone questioning why how and when etc.

Im not the sort of person to pay and ask questions later but I will always pay a bill that is valid.

My case is:

I have signed a 3 year lease which started in May 2005. The landlord insisted on a 6 month break clause for himself which all the tenants got, this I assumed was his get out of jail card for when the offer comes in for re developement so I have always been wary of him.

One thing has lead to another and we have been hit with out "leave in 6 months" letter.

What has caused this is the fact that I have questioned some bills!

1. First there was the driveway resufacing of the yard for the whole est (about 20 units all old and run down really of mixed use) which he wanted £212 or so. However we insited on a capped service charge which covers all maintainance or yards/roads/toilets etc as we didnt want to pay towards other peoples building work of work he decided to undertake. This was in July 2005 and we have told him we do not have to pay for this but he seems to think we do.

2. We recieved a electric bill for 3 times the amount with no explaination.....all I asked for was a copy of the bill (as we are metered with 3 other units we pay the landlord directly) when I said in the letter we will not pay until we have found out if the costs are valid but we would pay right away if there where I came down in the morning to find that he has accessed our unit and taken out a FUSE in the phasebox causing us to have no power....is this legal???? We paid the bill a few days later after Eastern Electric came back to us explaining that they had under read the meters and its more of a one off thing.

3. 2 Weeks later I caught him in the electric cupboard again and later discovered he has losened a fuse causing the whole unit to short out every time we plugged anything in...on the same day we have hired £10,000 of vintage music recording equiptment which could have blown up! And left us with costs of £££££££'s When Challenged he admited being in there but didnt comply to giving me a invoice or details of what work was conducted in there! (Note that the electrician he uses is his son in law)

4. Last point was that the toilets for the site where HORRENDOUS! Smells and Rats had been reported leaks and open drainage. Since we have alot of meetings it was simply not acceptable to send our clients to these outhouses...so I decided to go round and get names of people who agreed they where not up to standard, everyone said "Ive been meaning to say something" but most of them are spineless to be honest but I just wanted them sorted out, turns out another tenant had called the H&S and they issued the landlord notice to clean it.

He spent prob £100 max sorting it out then had the nerve to add £2 to everyones maintainance bill....plus the fact they are not even cleaned regulary!!!!

So after all that he just decided to kick us out on personal reasons, in hindsight maybe we could have just paid and not bothered but when peopel are getting in your unit and messing with electrics its not really acceptable!

Overall I want to know of anyway I can bring him to justice on any points, like accessing the units without telling us and messing with the electric supply

Thanks so much and really sorry for all the info but once I started it was hard to stop.

I would like to just legally stand my ground and make a point as he just thinks he can bully people. Not me!

Thanks again

jake

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Cheers mate thanks for your help, I will check it out


J