I purchased a leasehold house last year. The purchase/sale was held up by Morgoed Estates because the previous owner had not paid the ground rent (£12 p.a.). I have just paid this years £12 fee, but included with the demand was an offer to buy out the ground rent for £600 (plus a £40 land registry fee). When I emailed Morgoed Estates and told them I thought £600 was a bit ridiculous (it represents 50 yrs worth of £12 payments, I'll be dead long before then!) they wouldn't budge. My understanding is that ground rents of this nature were abolished by the Rentcharges Act 1977 and all of them will cease in the year 2037 (a mere 22yrs from now, I hope to still be alive then). Morgoed Estates say that my ground rent is not covered by the Rentcharges Act 1977 as it is a 'leasehold interest'. Is this just bull or do they know something Google doesn't? I don't mind paying the £12 a year, but I'd rather not have to deal with a company which others have not had good experiences with. Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, it was hard to find the right one

The new tenant moved in on the 30th November (I have checked, I live nearby). I have informed the MyDeposits that I have moved out and new tenants are in. Agent ignores requests for return of deposit by stating "waiting for landlord to make a decision on deductions for gardening". It's been 4 weeks since I handed the keys in!

Thank you mariner51. I have already sent a letter asking for return of deposit, which has not been acknowledged. I've opted for the MyDeposit dispute resolution rather than court proceedings at this stage (but this does not seem to preclude me from raising court proceedings at a later date). Rent was paid 20th November for a full month (but as I vacated early, with letting agents verbal agreement, am I therefore due a partial refund?). Standing Order has now been cancelled, there will be no further rent payments.

I signed a 12 month AST which was due to expire 19th December 2014. Once I had given my notice to the letting agent that I was not going to renew (I have bought a house) then agent asked if they could begin viewings for a potential new tenant, so we allowed this. They found a new tenant quickly and asked (via telephone) if the new tenant could move in at the end of November. We completed on the house in October and so the keys were handed back on 25th November 2014 on the basis that this was a joint and voluntary surrendering of the tenancy agreement. This was all done via telephone and nothing received in writing. I wrote a letter, which I took with me when I went to the letting agent to handover the keys (see attachment). The letting agent wrote 'return of keys only' underneath and signed it. I have received no other communication from the letting agent to say that the tenancy agreement has ended and I presume I am still bound by it. The deposit has not yet been returned, despite me asking for it. I have cancelled the standing order for the rent and am worried that I am still liable for the last month of rent. Have I been evicted? Where do I stand legally?

Thanks for the help Pal, I'm happy that I haven't missed anything important. Wth regards to your point number 1, about it being illegal to open other peoples mail, I am surprised at this law. Personally, for 2 years, I have been returning his mail unopened "back to sender" for virtually all of these companies, yet the companies seem to ignore that and keep on re-sending them back to my address. But the one time I open his mail, I discover what he has done - this seems to be when the companies start to take action. As an example, I rang up the Baillifs that are chasing him for unpaid council tax and it seems the only way to stop them sending the same baillif letters again and again is for me to send a utility bill to them as proof of my own residence at the property. This all seems to make a mockery of the fact it is illegal to open someone elses mail! Oh well, hopefully my letters will resolve this. I'll be getting my credit reports to see if they have "linked" me to him

Subject says it all really. I bought my current house 2 years ago and have discovered today that one of the previous owners has successfully received a £2K loan from Nat West using my address. I'm assuming he must have walked into a Nat West branch and used out of date ID with his old address/my address. How did he get credit checked with this address? He is off the electoral role? Someone suggested the banks use out of date electoral role data to check identities. Anyway, his statements are coming to my address and he has already missed at least 1 payment. So seeing this I started opening his other mail. Some of his debts I already know about (the local council are still chasing him for unpaid council tax). I discovered another letter from Advantage Loans telling him to contact them as he had been approved for another £2K loan he had applied for. I called the Police today (waste of time) and while I have a crime number for this, they say technically it's the Nat West that have been defrauded not me - so it's the Nat West who need to pursue this matter. From my point of view, I am sure this has damaged my ability to gain credit - just at a point in my life where I was starting to see my own credit status back to a good rating. Now this has been (potentially) ruined. I intend to write to Nat West and Advantage to tell them they have been defrauded and, of course, need to get my credit reports to see what damage this person has done to me. What else should I be doing to clean this mess up?