Hope someone can throw some light on this for me. Details are limited as it relates to a case I heard about through a relative. The summary is that the tenancy has ended for a furnished property and the letting agency is retaining the entire deposit of several hundred pounds and is likely to be demanding an additional amount because of what seems to be fair wear and tear, for which a significant amount is cleaning costs. Something I immediately suspected was that if the landlord was claiming as expenses, a 10% allowance for fair wear and tear, or, renewal allowances, then someone (either the tenant or HMRC) will have been defrauded. Would this be a more effective angle to tackle the apparent greed of the landlord/agent than the tribunal type approach? Appreciate any help....

I'm trying to get a sense of what deductions are reasonable against a tenants deposit. I have an unfurnished flat that I let out and the tenancy just ended. The tenants created a 2cm diameter burn hole in the carpet, luckily it is covered by where the sofa typically sits. The tenants also did a poor job cleaning the flat both during their tenancy and as they moved out. Rent was in the order of £1000 in Reading and the property is billed as "executive flats". A deposit of 1.5 months is held in a TDS via the letting agency. Most of the walls were freshly painted, I had cleaned the carpets with a rental carpet cleaner and wiped down woodwork and doors before the tenants moved in. A fairly comprehensive inventory was part of the lease contract. Last week I cleaned the flat myself after the tenants moved out, spending about 15 hours doing so. I hired a rental carpet cleaner again and touched up the paint on the walls were it had been heavily marked and where blue tack had been used. If all light-bulbs were in service before the let, is it reasonable to expect tenants to replaced dead bulbs? I'm trying to figure out how to put a cost on what it has taken me to restore the flat to the condition the flat was in before the tenants moved in. I know wear and tear is to be expected but if it can be cleaned in a few hours then I don't see it as wear and tear. Is it reasonable to value my time at £10/hour and to assess a carpet burn at £75-£100? This is my first time as a landlord. I know most of these forums seem to be targeted more at getting the best for the tenant rather than the landlord but I'm hoping I can get some understanding of what is considered usual and reasonable. Thanks, Ryan

Hello, looking for a little advice here.... we are currently on a 1 year fixed tenancy agreement and 2 months prior to the end of the contract the landlord confirmed via his estate agents (who deals with it on his behalf) that he wishes to sell the property and not re-new. Annoying for us but he gave us the right notice etc and so as per our agreement have allowed viewings over the past month (this has not been hassle free as he listed the property with 2 estate agents and we have been inundated with calls / viewings etc to which we have been more than reasonable). The issue is now that he has sold the property and now it seems they want builder to come round and survey's done etc.... we still have a month left on the lease and frankly we want to be left in peace. Today I got a call from the estate agent saying he was with a builder and couldn't get into the property - I advised that no one had even asked us to allow this visit and he said something about leaving a voicemail (this was the 'usual story' when people turned up for viewing unannounced)...luckily we clued onto this and can lock the door from the inside and leave through the back (they don't have a key for this door) so no one can gain entry when we are not there. We have therefore said no more access until we move out which the estate agents are not happy about. We even offered the landlord to break contract to allow us to leave early but he refused. Where do we stand on our rights here? our contract only permits us to allow viewing to potential buyers and we feel we have been more than reasonable with this and do not want to be bombarded for the next month. Any advice would be gratefully received.

Hi there, I recently finished a 2 year tenancy in a student house with 5 others. I'll answer the questions named in the sticky thread then I'll get into the issues: • Whether the tenancy was granted verbally or in writing. writing • If it was granted in writing, state the date on which the tenancy began, and the length of the initial term if any. 1st August 2010, 12 months - Then extended another 12 months to end 1st august 2012 • State the amount of the original rent and how often the rent is payable (e.g. per week, per calendar month, per quarter, etc). 6 people £75pppw Or £325pp every 4 weeks. Paid seperately by each tenant every 4 weeks. • If the tenancy has ended, state how it was ended (e.g. notice by the landlord, notice by the tenant, agreement of both parties, etc), and state the date on which the tenant moved out. Ended 1st August 2012 (agreed end date). Tenants moved out around June, but were back for graduation etc, and I wanted to enter the house near the end of july. as an inventory taken, and signed by the tenant? I rmemeber an inventory being taken in the first year, another inventory was not taken after the first 12 month tenancy had run out. - How much deposit was taken, and do you have details of the tenancy deposit scheme(if any) it is held in? £325 per person so £1950. Do not have any details of depopsit scheme, we dont seem to have been given any information regarding this. - In the tenancy agreement, how is the deposit held if held by agent - stakeholder or landlords agent? Don't know, landlord presumably as we have not used a letting agent. Firstly, the landlord has not mentioned giving the deposit back at all as of yet. The house could have done with a bit of a spring clean but we did make an attempt to tidy and clean the house. The landlord spoke to one of the other tenants on the phone a few weeks ago and said he was "shocked" by the state the property had been left in. He also mentioned damages but did not go into where these damages were or what they were. He has not given us any information stating that the deposit is in any scheme, and as we did not use a letting agent and went directly through him I have a feeling he may not have registered it. What is the procedure with this? As Ive seen if it is registered that is how you can query deductions to the deposit. Unfortunately we do not have any photos of the property after we moved out (everyone moved different days, people were going up and down for graduations etc and it was forgotten). Secondly I left our Television locked in my bedroom, and the landlord was told of this. I also left the television remotes and another tenants ipod (i found it while cleaning and knew he would be returning before the end of the tenancy). I wished to go up on sunday July 22nd (house was empty at this point), but was informed by another of the tenants who had been on the phone to him that the landlord was on holiday, and he had already changed the locks. Do we have a right to claim rent back as I had no access to a house I was still officially a tenant of? Finally, the landlord got back from holiday and I went to move the television into the new house (I'm doing a course which lasts longer than 3 years unlike the other 5 tenants). This was on Saturday August 4th, I ran the landlord beforehand and due to him being at the olympics he stated someone doing work on the house would let me in. The man painting the house (Do we have to pay for repainting? over 2 years I'd presume that a mark or two on the walls would be counted as reasonable wear and tear) stated that he and the cleaners had been in 'most of the week' and when i went into the living room it was an absolute state, so the cleaners definately had at least another day of cleaning due to the mess theyd made in there. Anyway, I went up to my bedroom, which had been unlocked. If the room had been cleaned it had only been hoovered again. The TV was still there (42", so pretty hard to get rid of with noone seeing), but the ipod and the tv remotes were not. I rang the landlord and he said thered been so many people in and out of the house over the past week that he wasnt confident it would be found, I stated in no uncertain terms it was left in my locked room (in a locked house) for safety and that is the reason it was in there. In fact it was so secure when the owner of the ipod went up for graduation he couldn't get it because I couldn't get my keys to him in time. The landlord mumbled something about ringing the cleaners up, and then asked if we had contents insurance on the house. The only reason i didn't get the items from my room during the tenancy was because the landlord changed the locks and I was away/working most days so only had a set few dates I could do. Is there any chance the landlord could be seen as being liable for the missing items? (Obviously the ipod is the most vbaluable, but the tv remotes were with it). And thats everything I can think of at the moment, we have not had any contact to or from the landlord since then. I read deposits are usually paid back within 10 days of the end of the tenancy so thought I would leave it until then to see if anything was mentioned. Sorry the rambling style of this thread, I just tried to get everything down I could think of. In summary; landlord changed the locks 2 weeks before the tenancy ended, unable to access the property so can we claim rent back? Landlord unlocked and left a locked door open, meaning an ipod has gone 'missing' is he liable? We do not have any information on the deposit scheme used and the landlord has not mentioned returning any of the deposit to any of the tenants. While accept some spring cleaning will have had to be done, all the halls and rooms were hoovered, bedrooms, kitchen and bathrooms surfaces were clean. I do not understand how the landlord could even try to justify spending almost £2000 to repair a property which was well looked after, fairly clean and had never even had a house party! Thanks For your help, John

Hi, Thank you for this forum. I've read some interesting stuff here but I haven't managed to find quite what I'm after, so here is my situation and a couple of questions. I moved into a property to rent with a couple of my friends, the landlord wants to sell this property and is asking that we let him or the estate agent show some potential buyers around. I'm ok with this in principle and will move out when the tenancy expires (this isn't a situation where he has surprised us with this and wants us out early). There is a term in our contract that he must give us 24 hours notice to show people around, but doesn't say that we can ever refuse. The problem is that I would rather be in the house to keep an eye on things when people are over. It would be fine if it was just the landlord, but bringing potential buyers is bringing strangers and people that I do not know into the house. There is nearly half a year left on our contract and already people are starting to come round and look at it (it takes a long time to sell a house I gather). So far I have been able to arrange for myself or one of my housemates to be in when people are visiting. Soon it will not be possible for someone to be in, like when we all have work and suchlike. It makes me extremely uncomfortable to have strangers coming round to the house, the landlord has promised to keep an eye on them but there is only one of him and sometimes multiple people visit at the same time (like as a family (sometimes with kids), or as two different parties coming to view at the same time). I fear that people might take something or look at my personal stuff. I believe that I am within my right to tell the landlord that I do not want people to come round if I am not in, despite the term in my contract that he can show interested applicants with 24 hours notice. Is that correct? To be honest, I didn't think I would have to endure six months of this. When I signed the contract I assumed, perhaps naively, that it would just be in the last month. Had I known it would be as much as this I probably wouldn't have signed or I would have tried to negotiate some other terms. Regardless of if I can tell the landlord that I don't want the people in my house when I am not here, I don't really want to do that. I don't want to upset him, he's a nice enough guy and is just trying to sell the house, it must be pretty tricky for him to do that while there are still people living there. Besides, we are still here for another six months, I don't want to start a war. So, with that in mind, am I allowed to install CCTV in the house? I wasn't thinking of anything drastic, just a web-cam or two trained on our valuables. It makes me ill to think about having lots of people coming round to the house and being nosy or risk them taking things. I've lots of valuable items, camera gear, computer accessories, spare mobiles, models, etc, etc that would be very easy to steal or accidentally break and having some coverage would make me feel better if I could watch it at work. Also, if something did happen and I caught it on camera, I wouldn't feel so bad about telling the landlord I want him to stop future visits. My housemates think I'm paranoid :/ What do you think? Thank you for your time

Dear All I am in need of your advice/suggestion. I rented a property last year during April (2011) through a letting agent. It was a just an introductory type of letting i.e. all the initial paper work was done by the letting agents and than I was told that all the dealings are going to be direct with the landlord. Everything was fine until this year when he asked me to vacate the property as he wanted to sell the house. I was given 2 months notice. We found a house and left the property in a good condition. There were some marks on the kitchen wall which I said was my mistake and I am willing to pay for it and also there was a snag on a carpet due to carpet cleaning machine which I am sure can be fixed but I said I wont mind paying. I waited for more than one month to hear any thing back from him, during which I did txt him several time to let me know. And than after a month I send him a letter that if he is not going to reply, I am taking the matter to court. it worked and he replied the very next day. He said my money was not paid into the deposit protection scheme by the letting agent due to some administration error and the money is locked in the deposit scheme now (i.e. more than a month after I left the property). It was landlords responsibility to deposit the money into DPS scheme, but he never got the money from the letting agents. He also thinks that I owe him 750 pounds ( I paid 600 pounds deposit). He found some dust on the floor, there are few stains on the carpet ( I got proof that those stains were before I started my tenancy). Also, there was an old mattress in the house which was never used (it is more like 5 year old mattress) and he found a stain on it and wants to charge 260 pounds for it! I have replied him back saying what I agree with and what I dont agree with. He is not replying to me any more. Could any one please tell me where I stand in this case? Initially I dint wanted to take the matter to court, but now I am going to fight for my money and not going to let him any extra penny. Sorry for a wordy email, but I really need your valuable advice. Thank you

I'm not sure if this is the right section but I can't see a more appropriate one so forgive me if it is the wrong place. I'm writing this in the first person for simplicity but it applies to somebody else. I live in a rural area of Scotland (I only mention this because the laws may be different) and recently my landlord has started using a bird scarer. It starts as soon as it gets light (currently 5.00am) and goes on until dusk. It's located about 400m from my house. It makes a noise like heavy artillery fire - about ten times as loud as a shotgun and it is really disturbing for me and my animals as well as my neighbour who actually lives almost right next to it. It seems very inconsiderate of my landlord - I have lived here for ten years and this is the first time that a bird scarer this noisy has been used anywhere near my house. I am worried about complaining because I don't want to jeopardise my tenancy. What can I do?

Hello Im hoping someone can help me with advice regarding my Business Premises Landlord changing the locks and denying me agrees to my business and stock. I do owe the landlord money for rent and has been lenient until now. He has told me that he is going to sell/clear my stock and equipment to cover the arrears. My stock value is far more that i owe him and i am worried he will clear it bellow its value. Please can someone advise what to do. many thanks Jay

Hi, Was just wondering if someone could help me and my flatmates with a situation we're having with recovering our deposit for a flat in London. The three of us are students at present, but the rental was a private one. We vacated the flat without the landlord or a representative from the letting agency present, but did our own full inventory and took photos of this. The landlord (who deceitfully is also a director of the letting agency company) is disputing claims that the deposit will not be returned because of his own costs: £850 to repaint it?! - but we haven't consented to this or at least discussed it - or seen a vat receipt of the company that did it, as well as others for 'professional cleaning' - all despite us leaving the flat in an arguably better state than which we received it in (on moving in the boiler was barely functioning and the kitchen and living room infested with cockroaches - despite reporting it to them and they eventually being sorted. Do we have any grounds to contest this with? Can the landlord charge himself whatever amount he likes for these ridiculous 'repairs' and non-acceptance of general wear and tear. The deposit is registered with a scheme and they have means to dispute it, but we'd like to keep it amicable if we have any chance of recovering it? Any help would be really appreciated.

I have been in my current council house for 5 years. Every year when the weather warms up i get black ants and flying ants that come in from where my back boiler and gas fire are situated in my living room. Every year I have had to call the council to get them to send a gas engineer out to disconnect the gas fire and put ant powder around the back boiler to kill the ants off. Now that the weather has warmed up i am getting lots and lots of ants. More than I have ever seen in my living room before. I called the council yesterday who informed me due to budget cuts they would not send an engineer out to let me put ant powder behind the fireplace. I have also noticed that the plaster around the back boiler and underneath is crumbling away. Myself and my daughter both get allergic reactions to ant bites and the pair of us are currently on medication from the doctors to settle the bites down. My daughter has since retreated to her bedroom so she does not get any more bites. I called a local gas engineer who told me he would do the job for £40 he even said he would repair the crumbling plaster. My question is can I withhold the £40 it is going to cost me for the gas engineer from the rent I pay the council?

I have lived with my husband in a private rented property for 6.5 years. We are joint tenants. We normally sign our contract every 6 months. In Feb this year we did not sign due to the possibility of moving. We paid rent month by month. 4 Weeks ago my husband kicked me out. He denied me access to the property and a few days later bagged up what he thought were my possessions and left them all outside. He had also removed the contents of the property that are ours, and hidden them away. (TV, Computers, anything of value basically) I had a call from our landlord last week stating she had been told by my husband that I had moved out and I should now return the keys. I told her I had not moved out, and my possessions were still inside our home. She then told me 'well, your contract is up on August 14th anyway" and a new lease could be signed with my husbands name only. I did tell her that day on the phone that my husband was claiming he would change the locks, She told me this would not happen as he needed her permission to do so. 2 days ago I went to my home to see what was left inside, to check the loft and to see if things had been returned by my husband (tv, computers etc). I found the locks had been changed and I could not enter. I have contacted the landlord and left voice mails but there has been no reply. My husband states it is now his house, the landlord was within her rights to change the locks and his name is now on the lease and there is no more of my possessions inside.. and any of our joint possessions will be divided during our divorce. If this is true that it is the landlord who has changed the locks, he has obviously fed her one hell of a story. I believe this is illegal? I do have a solicitor but letters are going out very slow. My husband has 7 days to respond to concerns over various things like my access to money, but one of my concerns is after the 14th comes, am I still allowed access in order to check nothing is left of mine, and also to make lists of our joint possessions? These 3 weeks I have been thinking after this date I could not get access, but after speaking to a lady at shelter today she has now made me think it will be possible. I can't get an appointment with shelter face to face for 8 days. I do understand it is a complicated area of law but right now I am hating the waiting game. I do not trust my husband anymore, and I believe he will take 12 years of our joint possessions and bin the lot if I do not get some sort of access to make a list and see if I actually have everything that is mine! Thank you for any advice.

I wanted to ask a simple question. I moved in to a bed sit just over a year ago now its not that bad but the land lord seems more interested in money than he does on keeping up repairs ect. Now when i moved in to the place i was told by the landlord that one of the last tenents had blown up the boiler and he was not going to replace it instead he put in an electric water heater in to the room i have but i have nothing in the kitchen of hot water so all washing up ect i have to boil a kettle each time i need to wash up, like wish in the bathroom he put in a electrics shower but no hot water for a bath or to wash in the sink. I was wondering if he was allowed to do this ? as well as things like the window frame rotting as its an old wood one he treated it with wood rot ect but i still have a draft coming though from it as he is not bothered to sort it out. Then there is the problem of damp in the walls cos he has not bothered to damp prof the wall outside at all though my main concern is the hot water Thanks in advance also ive been here for a year no children ect and its a short term teneny agrement

I am a landlord of one residential property. This is my first post and concerns my right of access to the property for the purposes of inspection and to discuss other issues with tenant. I have read the sticky regarding Landlord access and this really does not help as it primarily concentrates on the rights of the tenant. My situation is that I live a considerable distance from the property and have employed a management agent. The agents are basically incompetent and my relationship with them is deteriorating sharply. They receive rent payments and don’t forward them to me. I do not believe this is a dishonesty issue rather it is general incompetence. They managed to visit and inspect the property -once after I had nagged them to do so – which went OK but I never received a report it seems I pay them a fee and they do nothing. Is there a professional association that I can complain to? The tenant does not reply to mail and does not answer the door. I have read the advice that repeated access to the property by the landlord is unacceptable and should not happen. I am not trying to do this, far from it. I have informed the tenant of my intention to visit and given them more than a months’ notice - I have received no reply. The agent has also supposedly written to the tenant and I have heard nothing back. I have mailed a final letter stating the day and time that I will visit and asking if this is convenient - stating that if I receive no reply I will assume that it is OK. Having travelled half way across the country and then to find that there is no answer from the tenant - do I have a right to enter the property? I have tried to do everything reasonable in the matter. The tenant is generally OK but there are some arrears issues and maintenance issues that need sorting. As I see that most of the posts are with regard to the unacceptable behaviour of landlords I have tried to be as patient as possible but this seems to be getting me know where. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I'm a newbie on here, so any help would be appreciated. Its a bit complicated so bear with me. We have been dealt a blow by our landlord in terminating our contract. We handed in our notice 4 days after the contractual period notice deadline ( last day of the month), offering to pay for the additional days we would be here. We understand that legally we have to pay the rent up until the end of the month. We had assumed mutual surrender as he did not inform of us this when we first served notice, and listed the property with two letting agents as the being available from the 1st September, suggesting that he accepted us leaving the property and him having time to make the appropriate repairs and retouches that needed to be done on his part. We placed a holding deposit on another property and gave him and letting agents free access to the property to show potential tenants around whilst we were away on a weeks holiday. We can only assume he has done a survey of the property in our absence. He pulled out lavender bushes and fiddled with the guttering, so he used that time to do some jobs ( without our consent) He waited 16 days to draw our attention to the clause stipulating his right. We understand that it is not mandatory for Landlords to highlight contractual clauses, but it was misleading, underhand and has put a total blow on our finances, having to cancel the removal services and do the removing ourselves, because we simply cannot afford it. We are a family of 5 with 3 young children. It's really disappointing as it has been a home that we have been very happy in despite the tardiness of the Landlord in the properties maintenance. (Part 2). Obviously we have to pay the rent up until the end of the month otherwise we will incure all the nasty charges he has put into the new contract ( £5 per day for late payment, £15 charges for letters sent etc). We would also lose our deposit if we failed to pay the rent and he can still come after us for damages to the property if the cost exceed the money held in the deposit scheme. This is the position he has us in legally. We of course want to protect anymore money being lost through the deposit holding scheme. Problems with the Property. Whilst we have been living in the property, we have been living in damp drafty conditions. We made him aware of this, but he chose to do nothing about it. We have lived with rising damp (salts and mould spores appear on the wall, with wallpaper / plaster peeling and rotting away) and falling damp ( failure to clear the guttering from the slate residue). We have 3 small children, one of which ended up in hospital suffering from Pneumonia in 2010, and more recently, this weekend my husband also came down with Pneumonia, hospitalised for the night and is physically unfit to help with the moving of the house ( which we have to do ourselves, see above). Would we be in our rights to claim for compensation for ill health caused by unfit living conditions? There is a gap between the floorboards and the skirting board in the bay area that caused a considerable draft to the single glazed property in the colder months, with astronomical heating expenses. Again we made him aware of this, but he said we had take the property as seen and that the weight from our storage units had caused the joists to bow. Is this relevant to his obligations in maintaining a livable temperature ( It was literally freezing in the house with the heating on). We have proof of our bills - can we claim expenses on lack of proper draft exclusion? On Mice: Who's responsibility is it to sort out problems with mice? The tenant or the Landlord? Because when we asked, he said it was our responsibility and that we needed to ring the council. We have written him a letter offering and asking for an explanation to the circumstances surrounding the date of our notice. He has not responded. Does he have to respond within a certain time? He still has not made it clear whether that he does not surrender the property, his correspondence simply draws our attention to the clause, but does not request that we remain liable for the property until August 31st. He is still advertising the property as available 1st Sept after telling us we are liable for the property? This is confusing. We have used our discretion as tenants, allowing major jobs on the property that would improve his rental chances in the future, but never did any of the jobs that would have looked after us. Feel like fools. Any help would be appreciated, as we are due to move very soon, and have limited windows to come to some negotiations. Many Thanks

Hi, My landlord passed away a couple of months ago. I have a common law tenancy agreement with him that is still valid for another two years, but today have received a letter from his estate solicitors that they consider my "tenancy agreement of no effect and my occupation of the Property as licensee or tenant at will". They have given me notice to vacate within 14 days. My landlord was my partner who worked abroad and I lived at his place. We had a peppercorn tenancy agreement so I would be able to change names with suppliers, etc. Is this legal? Thank you for your help.

Hi All, This is very complicated: We rented a property for 3.5 years off a first time landlord found through an Agent who did not manage the property). We had inventory completed at the start which I amended and we all agreed to. We had a deposit of £1250 which was held by the T.D.S. During our tenancy we had quite a few issues with the property and a lot of repairs that were required. Stupidly we only spoke to our landlord on the phone and he promised again and again to complete these repairs. We chased, informed the agent (who told us that they could not be involved) and then gave up. At the end of our tenancy the landlord decided he wanted to enter the property early to complete all the repairs which we have an e-mail about. He entered two weeks before the end of the property (something we agreed to be nice as we had already moved out) and then called us with a loads of reasons he was going to keep our deposit. We requested an exit survey (this was never offered and the agent and landlord did an exit inspection without us present). We sent a letter to the landlord at the end of our tenancy (30.11.2011) saying that the deposit money was ours and he would need to prove a claim to it in order to retain our deposit. Things went very quiet. He sent one e-mail with a list of values and costs: Dining Room Floor - Whole flooring need re laminating as water damage to floor. Dining Room Table - Stored in garage water damage Mark on kitchen wall - From BBQ Marks on sofas Damage to sliding doors. We took pictures on exit, he did not. We admitted to the damage to the sofas but disputed the rest as the flooring was extremely cheap and glued together. It had already been damaged in the kitchen in a similar fashion to us moving in and we asked for proof of age and value. We have asked for proof of the value of everything which has never been provided and he has only provided his values along with a few quotes which seem very high. After I sent many many e-mails asking for proof/clarification in December I took this case to the T.D.S. It was then that the agent got involved and said that she was impartial. She rang us every evening during a time when our son had been born. We asked for everything to be put in writing. She ignored this and kept telling us that our taking this case to the T.D.S had made our landlord angry and he would take it to court instead. He did this after allowing the T.D.S 5 weeks of involvement. The agent was very aggressive and served the court papers on his behalf. She has obtained high quotes and has accepted his verbal values of everything. The courts served their papers and we stated that we could not defend as no particulars had been served ( this was in March a month and a half after the original papers). I recently served notice on the Claimant saying that unless we received the particulars the claim should be struck out. That he had not followed the CPR's correctly. A week later to my horror the agent served the particulars on his behalf along with a letter stating she had telephoned us twice to confirm we had received these and that they had been sent a while ago. She also accused the court's administration of being slack and losing papers (our have always been received and we return promptly). I could not believe this and wrote a letter stating that we had asked for all correspondence to be in writing, a request which has been ignored. I also said that we had not got any calls and I feel that this agent is acting as an legal adviser and this is a conflict of interest. I had written a complaint to the agent as well as sending a letter requesting more detail in the particulars. The thing is I've researched more and think that his particulars are written wrong. He has listed the points he is claiming for and has included not background or information. he is also choosing the courts in order to claim more money from us and has deliberately wasted time. He has used photos we have never seen and a few overpriced quotes (he is a builder by trade). Is there anything else I can do as my letters are being ignored by the courts and I'm worried that they will let this hearing 17th July just go ahead without any more information from him! Also should I served my defense on these points or the previous e-mail arguments?

i am having a problem with my sons landloerd he has been recently sent to prison the landlord has said he his keeping his 420 pound bond for some minor damage which we have agreed to but when i went to remove his belongs the locks have been changed ,i contacted the landlord who told me my son should of given 4 weeks notice on the property and untill i give him this money he wont let me take any belongins from the property is this allowed ?

I was hoping someone could give me some factual advice. I moved into a flat mid-February, 2012. From the start I had a problem with an old man neighbour telling the landlord I had 4 men living in the flat. The joker, I had 3 men help me move in fridge, washing machine etc. The old man concocted all sorts of stories and told the landlord. To cut a long story short after 2 months I gave in my notice to leave on the last day of the 6month AST agreement. The landlord text me last week and wants to visit the property, I said I hadn't found anywhere yet to move to and if I hadn't by the end of the notice period/last day of tenancy agreement then I would have to stay on a periodic tenancy. He text me that he could do me new 1 month contract. I've never heard of it but I suppose it's feasible. Now he wants to bring round an estate agent to take photos etc. on Saturday. Basically I would like to know if legally I had to give any notice at all. If i didn't then it strikes me that I can stay up to the last day of the contract and if i don't then move out the perodic tenancy will kick in. Is this correct? I told him 11am Saturday is not suitable but he keeps insisting he's coming round. I'm thinking of changing the lock. i don't want him or estate agent taking photos or looking at my property. Your advice would be greatly appreciated. I told him he is harassing me and that i am turning my phone off and won't put it back on until i have found a place to move into. I intend to do this as i don't use that phone much so no big deal really.

Hi all,i hope i have put this in the correct area of the forum! So, the time has come around again for me to get on to my landlord to fix the list of repairs in the property,most of if not all he was known about since i moved in on Feb 2011. I will try and not be long winded about the situation but will try and get all the details in. These are just 2 of the problems but these are the 2 most important. After a month or so of moving into the property and getting everything unpacked etc i had noticed that at our front door the slat that sits inside the property on the floor was cracked and had quick a fair sized piece out of it and that it was no longer secured to the floor as it should be,because of this being broken i am experiencing a unhygienic problem with slugs. This is where it gets stomach churning,for me anyway! Every night without fail if i come downstairs there are countless amount of slugs crawling (? sliming or whatever they do) all over the floor at the front door,making their way up the stairs on the first and second step,up the side of the front door and the window at the side of it and up the hall wall. Now when i say countless amount of slugs,last night i counted 21 and they arent little ones either.At the worst i counted 25. I am actually feeling sick thinking about this. I informed my landlord of this when i first noticed it around march/april 2011. I have the same problem in the kitchen,the kitchen units where my sink is situated are missing the kick plate at the bottom which when you when down you can see it leads to the outside wall.My landlord new about this before i moved in because it had been damaged by flooding and i was assured that it would be fixed before i moved in. Slugs are getting in through this and are all over the floor,going up the side of the back door and i found one in my sink before so i had no idea if it had crawled over the dishes in the drying rack or the drying rack itself so they were thrown in the bin just incase. Last night i counted 12 slugs in the kitchen in total,which 2 of were in the sink AGAIN!!! and one actually on one of the few dishes i had sillyly left out before going to bed.So again they were thrown out! Problem number 2 i had the decorators in last oct/nov to paint out stairway and landing.On inspecting the wall at the top of the stairs they said it was absolutely soaking so they would have to wait til it dried out.They went to find out where the wetness was coming from,the wall that is/was soaking is the wall in my bathroom the bath and shower is on. On further inspection they found that the seal around the bath so when any of us have a bath or shower water is going down the back and sides,the worst part is where the wall is soaking wet there is a plug socket,which i was using unaware that the wall was wet!!! I went downstairs the minute i was told about this to inform my landlord and was told it would be fixed and yet here i am waiting. If i was not having the walls painted i would have never have known about this and continued to use this socket and i cant bare to think would could have happened.Even though i obviously don't use this socket anywhere,there is still a fear that there could be a power surge and boom my house is up in flames. My children live with me who are 3 and 19months so it is not only me at risk of getting sick from the slugs or god forbid if the house caught fire it would be fatal. I have informed my landlord of these repairs and the rest of them which is a list the length of my arm 10+ times and nothing has been done! I dont expect anything to be fixed as they left us without a working oven for 7months! Please any advice is welcome! I was planning to contact him again today but i wasn't sure of a time scale to give him to get these repairs done or how to go about it. thank you in advance for your replies. EDIT: i have put 2010 instead of 2011

My landlord/letting agent has said they would like all my my deposit as the house was not sufficiently cleaned. I would like to dispute this. My deposit is registered with the DPS. The problem is reading through the contract, it states that if the letting agent is required to submit information to the ADR, I would be required to pay £100 plus VAT.It also states that if there is no deposit left, I would have to pay for it out of my own money. Is this legal?

ive been having trouble with my landlord. Is it legal to find him coming into my back gardern often via a gate and even looking into my bolted door sheds?

Hi, My current tenancy ends on 17th of July and I've just today received this: ********** Assured Shorthold Tenancy: Notice Requiring Possession: Periodic Tenancy To: *my housemate and I* Of: *our address* From: *our landlord* Of: *his address* I/we give notice that I/we require possession of the dwelling house know as *our address*. After the end of the period of your tenancy which will end on the 17th July 2012 Dated the twenty eightth day of May, two thousand and twelve Signed, either by, or on behalf of, the Landlord Date: 28/5/12 Signature of Landlord (no printing of name afterwards) ********** This is verbatim, complete with shoddy spelling and grammar. Apart from the period of notice not being 2 months, is there anything else I need to query? Oh and the original 12 month contact gives the end date as 17 July 2011, one day before the contract started - only noticed that today. Thanks for any help.

Hi, We are having a really bad experience with a lettings agent at the moment. We are relocating to a new county and have found the perfect place to rent. We travelled to view the property 2 weeks ago, but an hour before the viewing (when we had arrived in the county), we were called by the agent to inform us they had to cancel the appointment as they didn't have the set of keys in the office and the MD had disappeared with them. We were naturally furious - my other half had taken the afternoon off work to view the property and we are in a hurry to move. There are no other properties in the area we want to live that are suitable/available. Finally, a week later we were shown around the property and we filled in the Homelet applications and provided the £120 cheque for the fee. We then made an offer in writing to the agent. There are some sticking issues with the overgrown garden, rubbish to remove, and a bathroom that really needs updating, we are happy to sort the garden etc. and put up with the bathroom but asked for a discount on the rent. It has taken a week (after several calls and emails to the agent) to get any response from the landlord. The property has been on the market for 6 months so we can't understand why they are so slow in getting back to us! Today, I upped the offer to nearer to the asking price and chased up the agent again. I was informed over the phone by the agent that she had discussed our credit application with the landlord and they were unhappy that there were some very old defaults that we honestly placed on the application. 1) Is the agent allowed to discuss our application with the landlord before it is processed? I know that the landlord lives very local to the property and as it is a small village, I don't want my personal finances being known, especially when the offer hasn't been accepted or not and the application hasn't taken place. 2) Is this poor service common? I cannot believe how we are being treated. I have offered to pay 6 months rent upfront to cover any credit worries and now having to wait yet again for a response. I know that we should walk away from the property and find something else but I am concerned that from a data protection point of view, our financial records have been shared with a complete stranger, who I believe currently has no right to that information? Am I right? Many thanks

I had a letter last month from fredrickson so I called them and told them i will only deal with them through letters only. I live above a small post office so my post is collected from the shop, when i went to collect it this morning my landlord said he had taken a call from fredrickson they asked him to tell me to contact them. I have since called them to complain, as its caused a bit of hassle for me, Is there away of taken this complaint to a higher level, as i think they have broken some kind of law here, im a right and what should I do now thanks Louthy

I live in a shared property (HMO) there are 5 of us in here. It's quite a nice place, we all have our own bedrooms & bathrooms. It's all furnished by the landlord to a good standard. However,the landlord is in the habit of entering the property, without notice, and removing and or replacing furniture and equipment. The first we know about it is when we arrive home (we all work normal office hours). Today we got back to find that the tv & recorder had disappeared from the living room. There is another tv in the dining room but that's hardly the point. The vacuum cleaner has gone too. In the past they've changed furniture including beds without any warning and various other stuff has disappeared or been replaced without any reference to us. Occasionally we return home to find that the living room or dining room has been re-organised. We normally put it back the way it was but it doesn't stop it happening again. Now I know that the landlord is supposed to give notice that they want to come in (they never do) but should they be removing anything without our say so? Oh, and the oven is broken. They've told us it will be repaired but that was about six weeks ago and we're still waiting. And they constantly leave vehicles parked here. Any thoughts would be appreciated.