45002
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Posts posted by 45002
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I've received a notice stating that my landlord is offering me suitable alternative accommodation and I shall be required to move. That was two weeks ago.
1 Previously the landlord has written to me stating that they cannot require me to move and will not require me to move.
2 No alternative has in fact been offered.
I've done the obvious and emailed pointing out the above and also expressing surprise at receiving a notice without warning. I have had a reply stating that they have noted what I have written.
Now, what do I do?
I am a Housing Association tenant and have lived in my flat for over twenty years. They want me to move so that they can sell the property and move me to a cheaper area.
Any advice appreciated, please.
Hi Rexroth
Do you know what type of tenancy you currently have and do you know the exact date you 1st moved in
Can you upload a copy of the notice to the forums, blanking out any personal details
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no perjury in cilvil court as you dont swear an oath. You write a statement of truth but that wont win him any prizes if you can show that your version of events has some substance and the failure to protect the deposit will be a good one to use. The judge will then think the LL an unreliable witness and you win hands down.
Could you please explain how perjury does not apply in civil law thanks ...
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Can anyone comment on a landlords necessity to be licensed or section 21s being invalid?
It is quite new.
Think it may be in your best interest taking s21 and All your paper work nearest CAB or Shelter and getting there opinion.
Sorry to sound blunt, but you should start Know looking for somewhere else to live, as the LL will win in the end.
Good Luck ....
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What I would do is don't be afraid to contact your Local police and ask if you could have a chat with the crime prevention officer and inform them of there suicide threats and threats to yourself.
If they threaten suicide again then phone the police and the HA and inform both. (remember with the police it will be logged more evidence for HA)
OTT I think contacting the Police may push the neighbour over the edge.....
Does the neighbour have a support worker, you could try contacting MIND http://www.mind.org.uk/ see if they can help advise you
Some kind of 3rd third party mediation ....
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Hello Anna
Think you need to contact your local CAB office, Shelter or a solicitor, what ever you do know it's more important you find a roof over your head as LL will end up winning in the end with a s21.
Sorry to sound blunt, but im not sure what else you can do know ...
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Hi
I have been served with a notice to quit on my home, because the landlady is selling to a developer. I have been at the property for two decades. I signed one tenancy agreement in that time - with a previous owner - the original one when I moved in. It was initially for six months but he said if all went well after that I could stay as long as I want.
I have never missed a rent payment. Have kept the property in good repair - even paying for improvements like a new shower, new bath. Replacement of worn work surfaces in the kitchen, replacement taps. Plastering work after a flood. Plus countless other repairs like changing washers etc. The landlady did not refuse to do repairs she just ignored my requests. I am lucky I had family able to do the jobs for me.
The notice came completely out of the blue and I am devastated. Apart from the fact that I love my home I am suffering from chronic illness and am completely priced out of the area
because I am dependent on HB to pay the rent - the shortfall between what landlords want and HB pay is approx £100 per month.
There are a coupe of issues I would like advice on.
The landlady secured my deposit last year, but the letter from the protection agency came with the wrong address on it and it was for the wrong amount. I wrote and told them this and they said it was the landlady’s responsibility to sort it and she needed to submit a copy of the tenancy agreement. It would seem the agreement she used was one she claimed I had signed in 2003 - which I hadn’t. So my deposit was secured using forged documents. She refuses to give me a copy of this agreement and instead insists that I send her a copy of my original one with the previous owner. I have not done this yet.
My first question is this - is my deposit secured - do I have the right to ask the deposit protection company for copies of all documentation (is this covered by the data protection act) and do I have grounds to fight the notice to quit I don’t particularly want the stress of this but I need some time to get a deposit together and perhaps look at other alternatives via the council etc. 8 weeks may not be enough.
My second question is if I do fight the eviction what is the timescale involved. How long do I have before I will have to leave my home. Best case and worst case scenario?
Thirdly can I charge my landlady for the work I have done on the property? This would help no end toward the cost of moving. I have paid her almost £60,000 in rent since she took over (most of it from my own pocket- before I was ill) and she has paid nothing towards the upkeep.
Many many thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give me.
Best wishes
Anna
Hello Anna
Please have a read of what I posted below.
Assured Tenancy ?
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/private_renting/private_renting_agreements/assured_tenanciesyou moved in between 15 January 1989 and 27 February 1997 and your landlord did not give you a notice (section 20) saying that you have an assured shorthold tenancyIf a section 20 notice was Not issued at the start of the tenancy.
LL cant evict using a s21.
About 3/4 down this page http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1988/2203/schedules/made
FORM No. 7
Housing Act 1988 section 20 Notice of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy
If one of theses notices was served on tenant when the tenancy 1st started and LL would have to prove this in court, then they can use a s21.
Shelter/CAB or Housing Solicitor need to look into this for the tenant.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/section/20
1988 Housing act
Section 20
(2)
(b) is served before the assured tenancy is entered into
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To explain further;
We live in England
My neighbour's tenancy is an Assured Tenancy which he took up in Feb 97
My tenancy is a regulated tenancy taken up in March 88 (the other neighbours in adjoining blocks & flats will be a mixture of both depending on if they moved in prior to Jan 89).
Both my neighbour's and my own gross rent is split into 2 parts consisting of the actual rent and a service charge.
He has no problem with the actual rent charged for his flat, his dispute is with a specific item on his service charges.
His rent is regulated by the HA, my rent is a registered rent set by the Fair Rent Tribunal.
Both our service charges are dependent upon the services used, for instance, we both pay a proportion of the costs for the cleaning of the common parts hallway and the cleaning of our own property's windows. These are discretionary services and can be discontinued if all the tenants in the block take a vote to do so and choose to do it themselves.
We both have to pay a proportion of the costs for the electricity used to power the common parts hallway/stairway lighting (basically used every time we switch the hallway lights on via the switches outside our flats). We can ask to change the actual supplier if we feel the cost of the electricity is too much but we have to pay for the electricity we use.
We both have to pay a management allowance of 15% on top of the actual cost for each service which is paid to the HA for their "management" of the services. We cannot change this (despite the HA's continued refusal to explain what it is they actually "do" to be paid the extra 15%).
He has now been charged for a new "Service" listed on his service charge sheet as "Maintenence Contract Service Charge". I and other neighbours in adjacent blocks do not have to pay this despite being under the same maintenence contract as his block.
This "Maintenence Contract Service Charge" is £3 per week per flat (there are 3 flats in his building so £9 a week) and it is being levied to pay for the "maintenence" of the common parts hallway/stairway statutory emergency lighting and smoke alarms. From what we have observed this "maintenence" is the once yearly statutory check on whether the alarms and lights work - basically a man comes around and switches off the mains power to the common parts hallway/stairway, the battery powered emergency lights then cut in and he allows the battery to run flat before restoring the power which recharges the batteries in the emergency light fitting. he then presses the test button on the smoke alarm to see if it beeps. The man does the same in my own and adjacent blocks.
This yearly statutory check was previously done by the HA without cost to the tenants (my neighbour has been there 19 years, myself I have been in my property for 28 years and we have the service charge sheets for all of those periods, none of them have any reference to costs for upkeep of emergency light/smoke alarms).
We believe the HA is now attempting to charge the tenants for the cost of the maintenece it has a statutory duty to do. It states in our tenancy agreements that the HA is responsible for the upkeep and maintenence of all common parts hallway/stairway lighting fixtures and fittings, we believe that includes the smoke alarms and the emergency lighting. The Rent Services Manager says that the statutory emergency lighting and the smoke alarms are now a "service" and he believes the HA can charge for this as a "service" charge.
In regards to a regulated tenancy that's assuming the rents are registered here https://ebusiness.voa.gov.uk/err/ enter your full postcode and click Find (do not post any personal details) boxes A to H should show All the charges "services and rent" you should pay.
If your paying more than is set out on the register something is serious wrong !
As for you neighbours Assured tenancy was it before or after 27 February 1997 they 1st moved in.
What does it say in your neighbour tenancy agreement about All service charges and any increases.
It does sound like the HA are trying it on ....
If this is any help to you I have a Regulated Tenancy myself, rent registered as a fair rent, been through two sales of the property I live in and both LL's have tried to bring in service charges and failed as there where No service charges showing on the rent register in the 1st place ...
Just to point out your under no obligation to expect or sign any tenancy agreement, they cant evict you for not doing so.
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Hi everyone,
I live in a flat which i have to pay ground rent every 6 months.
I've always paid on time over the space of 6 years.
The account was setup to have payment requests sent via email, a work email.
Since October last year that email address no longer existed,
better put i had no access to it anymore.
I then received a Payment request through the post
demanding what is rightfully owed to them
but they have added "Ground Rent Arrears Fee" x4 of them totaling to: £330.00,
i disputed this amount and sent a cheque of the original amount due of £200.00
saying there was no access to emails since this had become due.
They sent the cheque back and demanded the full payment
and still are with arrears fees still being added.
In answer to my first letter to them explaining about the email,
they said i was bound to the terms when registering for an online billing account
that all bills would be sent to that email address only.
Do i have any space for argue here?
Seeing as the fees are so high every time,
i have no means to pay it at the moment due to my working hours have been heavily decreased.
Can i argue to the fact of the email account or the extremely high charges?
Your help would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Hi, thanks for your reply.But can i argue the arrears based on me saying the email address has not been in use since October last year? They're simply telling me that when i signed up for an online account I've agreed for them to send email bills only.
They've just kept racking up these fees, to them decide to write to me with this large bill.
You knew back in October 2015 ....
So why didn't you just set up another Email account Before you no longer had access to the old Email saving you any grief
Plenty of free and paid for Email accounts around .....
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As stated my neighbour is in dispute with the HA, he holds an assured shorthold tenancy.
If at a later date (as we suspect) the charges are going to be applied to his neighbours in adjoining blocks (ie myself and others) then we will also be appealing the same decision. The majority of us hold regulated tenancies.
If we fight the decision for him and win then the HA will not be able to apply the same charge to the other tenants in adjoining properties.
Your neighbour may have a Assured Tenancy and not a AST, need to know the exact date they moved in ..
As for Regulated tenancies they can only charge what is set on on the Rent register and not what's on a TA, that's assuming the rents are registered ?
Are you in England/Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, the law may be different in the part of the UK you are living !
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My neighbour and myself are both long term tenants of the Housing Association with a tenancy agreement, his tenancy is an assured shorthold tenanacy (post 15 jan 1989), my own is a regulated tenancy (pre 15 Jan 1989)
It took them 10 months before they finally acknowledged that he had made a complaint and that was only because he had was witholding the disputed service charge (which he is allowed to do according to our HAs Tenant's Charte) and after I wrote a second formal letter on his behalf (prior to that he had just spoken to various HA officers either via email or via telephone). I was lucky to be able to retrieve most of his emails from his email account and the replies of the HA officials however he did not record many of his telephone conversations as he believed that it would all be worked out if he just "had a word with the right person" (he is 70). I now help him with all his letters and hand deliver them to the HA's office in order to get a signature (they have already pulled the "Sorry we didn't get that letter" routine with him on a couple of occasions, the last of which led to the HA serving him the initial papers for repossession).
We have already applied for a subject access request for all the relevent documentation that we thought we had a right to but we have received nothing yet. I can see form your list that we have missed others which I did not know we could ask for. Thanks
Are you in dispute with the HA with theses charges.
Regulated Tenancy moved in before 15th January 1989, which part of the UK are you living in and is your rent registered as a fair rent with the rent service ?
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rachman
Brings back memories of Peter Rachman during the 1950's - 1960's
Have a read of Shirley Green book called "Rachman"
Where going backwards
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It's only a matter of time, not having a TV license will become a civil offense
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Not if it is transfered up to the High Court no notice required...
It's only discretionary to transfer a case up to HCEO, Judges can and do refuse such requests .
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Hi.
I am going to be attending the CAB in regards to this problem, but since I have been reading this forum for sometime now, I felt I should join and ask about my situation.
We have a very worrying problem with our landlord who to put it mildly is a cowboy.
We moved into the property back in June 2011 and had signed an agreement and all was well. Since then we have not seen nor heard from him. Nor have we received any rental agreement to sign within the past 3 years. We are in N.Ireland so some of our rental laws do vary in accordance with Great Britain.
As of Febuary 2015 all landlords were meant to have signed up to the mandatory landlord register, ours has not. Nor have we had any mandatory gas inspection since January 2013.
I tried to contact him about the gas issue and everytime the phone rang it was typically hung up straight away. It was once answered and as soon as I said hello, hung up. I followed this up with text messages and finally received a reply two days later.
He is claiming we have rent arrears and that we should pay the gas servicing out of our own pocket and he will take the total off the arrears.
We did end up having to apply for housing benefit as I we are both at university and have 3 young kids and with education cuts, my wife lost her teaching job. I do accept that we did miss out on a few montly payments that were suppose to be £25. I believe we may owe around £300 but we were never contacted by him about this and around 4 weeks ago I sent a payment of £50 and a letter stating that if he could mail us the full amount owed, then we could pay him this.
4 weeks on and no reply. We are planing to move next year as this is just not worth it. With young kids I am worried sick.
I can't pay off arrears if I don't know exaclty how much it is I owe?
I looked into the guy and it appears, according to HMRC that he is the type of person to stop and start companies non stop.Very dodgy looking indeed.
As said, I am heading to the CAB this week and hope to gain as much advice as possible. I do not wish to legally challenge him at all untill we have a new home lined up and ready to move. My understanding is that since we have not had a legal agreement in 3 years that I do not need to give him any notice of leaving?
Any help would be great,
thanks
028 9024 7752
http://www.housingadviceni.org/advice-private-tenants
http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/landlord-and-tenant-obligations
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Just caught up
I am really quite surprised that neither Shelter or CAB have taken up the banner on this one - they advertise they are the champion of the unrepresented !And me .
Have you told us Every think that's gone on or missed something out !
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One of the problems the series has highlighted and even HCEO have said this needs to change.
Is when a tenant does not leave by date ordered by county court, LL have to go back to court and apply for a warrant county court bailiffs to remove a tenant.
County court bailiffs would give the tenant written notice they are coming around on such a date to take possession of the property, this could All take several months.
Not any more ...
Once LL have been granted a warrant, they can apply for HCEO to take possession and with in a matter of days tenants are evicted with in one hour of the HCEO turning up on doorstep
HCEO should have to give some kind of notice to a tenant, at the moment they don't have to give notice they are coming to evict a tenant
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New series Is back on Channel 5 ...
http://www.channel5.com/shows/cant-pay-well-take-it-away
If you not watched Series 3 - Episode 1 http://www.channel5.com/shows/cant-pay-well-take-it-away/episodes/episode-1-829
Your see HCEO evicting a tenant who turned out to be a Letting agent and had been forging TA in some else name, so he could live there virtual rent free !
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If you update, you then have 30 days to decide if you like it or not and if not then you can revert back to your original version.
If your talking about going back to previous version of windows ie 7 or 8.1, then yes you can go back anytime If you still have the original windows installation disk or have made a back up/restore disk for W7/8.1 .
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That's brilliant. Just used that and it states I might be eligible for legal aid. What will solicitors do that Police can't ? Excuse my ignorance. The basics are easy to look up online, when it gets to this stage, I am not so well informed......
IMHO.
Courts and Bailiffs end a tenancy, gain possession of a property and not the way your LL did it, that even includes rent arrears.
Solicitor would be able to start civil proceeding for damages/money against the LL.
Obtain a injunction forcing the LL to allow you back into the property.
All this would be best discussed when you see the solicitor on Tuesday...
PS: Have a read of a slimmer case to your's here http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?69617-Landlord-changed-locks
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I have an appointment with a solicitor next Tuesday for a free first half hour, after that, if I don't qualify for legal aid I would have to go it alone. Not afraid to do that, just need to know how !
That good your seeing a solicitor that soon.
Try this checker https://www.gov.uk/check-legal-aid for legal aid....
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I certainly won't give up now, was ready to, because everyone said the same thing," yes the law exists, but no one will prosecute him" It is a sad state of affairs that on paper there is a law preventing someone from doing illegal things, but no one wants to take the responsibility of punishing those that do. Was ready to give up and accept there was nothing I could do, then thought I would ask here and what do you know ? in One hour I had the advice I needed to move forward. I will keep everyone posted as I feel my experience might help someone else in the future. It's good to see how things start, where the best advice is and what outcomes you can hope for. I would say the same thing to anyone reading this. If you know you have been wronged, act on it, don't give up. If the Police won't take action against him I'll be back to ask what next ?. Thanks all
If it was me.
I would start Now looking for a Solicitor (Legal aid if your on low income) with a view to starting civil action for damages against this LL.
Solicitor may also be able to push the district council in the right direction .....
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Thank you, hopefully the Police will now deal with him accordingly, but if not I will pursue this. Out of everyone I have spoke to, my local council were the least interested. Told me point blank they would not intervene and did not have a specific department dealing with evictions. At least to their credit Shelter and CAB showed some empathy, even if they could not help. The council not at all helpful and no empathy to my situation at all. Does make me wonder what the eck I am voting for ! Thank you for the links, I will follow it through if the Police decide not to prosecute him.
Please don't give up, Keep at them and keep us All updated on CAG
Good Luck .......................
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reg.05783665
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Notice required to move as suitable alternative accommodation available
in Residential and Commercial lettings/Freehold issues
Posted
NO, IMHO do not have a meeting with HA until you had legal advice of your own....
Hello Rexroth
It does sound like there HA are trying it on
Suitable alternative accommodation is discretionary grounds for eviction only, you do not have to comply with their notice if you don't want to.
The only time you have to move out is if a court orders you.
Don't sign anything, don't agree to anything until you had your only legal advice and not from the housing association, IMHO do not have a meeting with HA until you had legal advice of your own don't let the HA push you around.
You need to get All the paper work together and find a Solicitor and fight this, your 1st place of call would be is you local CAB or Shelter office and ask them to recommend a Solicitor, you should be able to get legal aid, don't delay this start know.
Keep us posted...