Our land lord lives on the premises, he is joint land lord with his brother who lives in Australia, The one here, is in massive debt, we are talking £50,000, he uses our front door to his granny flat but we have the run of the rest of the house, we are and have been happy for the past 12 years here, we pay minimal rent while basically keeping the house in sort of repair, we dont have the funds to keep the property as it should, we have just fitted a new kitchen and bathroom at OUR expense, along with many other repairs etc. He has been going down under to visit his brother several times over the past two year or so, I have even asked him if he was thinking of emigrating, he said no, which was obviously a lie, he told my wife yesterday he was moving to Australia on 5th Nov this year, this has come as a bit of a blow as we have lived her for 12 years, how can he just drop all his debt and emigrate....???????????????? we are talking £30-£40,000 on credit cards, which include 2 charges against the property, and about £4500 in water rates, couciil tax coming out of his ears, i mean mega debt (we have checked with the council that we are not libel for the CT arrears) he said we can still rent but we know his brother will hike the rent up to market value, but he wont do the repairs that need doing, we may have an option of buying the property, due to repair of the house that would valued at £100,000, but how would the debts that he has at the property and charges on the house if we buy it. But we think he is lying to appease us, to keep us on the good side and he will still go for good, we know the process of moving and getting accepted takes about 2 years for the application, he says it's all accepted and sorted Now, if he drops us in it which we know he will, is there any way we could put a spanner in the works for him regarding his emigration, if nothing else but to bide us time

Hi folks I would like an opinion on something I'm really not happy about... My daughter and her boyfriend were living in a flat (basically the lower half of a semi-detached split into two). The boyfriend was living in it originally and my daughter moved in, so all things relating to the let and the landlord and going through the BF. Towards the end of April the toilet blocked. The BF informed the landlord who told him to try and unblock it himself. He tried with no success. This plus the level of mould in the place finally led to them moving out of the property on 1st July. The toilet was not useable during this time. They gave notice that they were moving out but only a few days before they did. The landlord told the BF that they had to stay in the property until 27th July. The landlord is now after: £425 - March's rent (which they admit they owe) £425 - for July (technically the notice month) He's 'rounded' that up to £900 plus he now says he wants £200 interest for late payment He has £600 bond of the BF's. Things that I consider make the property uninhabitable/dangerous: Toilet not working for approx. 2 1/2 months - it seems that an incorrect waste pipe was attached to the toilet - rather than being ceramic it was the plastic 'flexi-tube'-type Awful level of mould, which the landlord is now blaming the BF for The gas mains pipes in the property were plastic Could someone give me their opinions on this as the landlord is now threatening court action (not that the threat bothers me at all, I'm a veteran!) Thanks

Hi Not sure if I'm posting in the correct forum apologies if not. Can a landlord of a property someone has moved out of contact utility companies and change the address on the accounts in the name of the old tenant even though the address they have given is wrong and nothing to do with the tenant? The address they have given was an old address that the estate agent had as a forwarding address some time ago, but the property has been sold and no longer relevant to the tenant. Also as the utilities have a new address, anything they send out will not be picked up by the post office redirection service so my friend (who this relates to) will not get her post?! And info anyone can provide would be greatly apprecited Thanks in advance Simon

My landlord has submitted a claim and now I have a form for defense. I have been abused by the landlord over 4 years and last year I finally managed to have the council serve a notice for repairs which were done in the worst manner possible. I know the following: 1. I was never given details of my tenancy deposit being protected until now where I have seen them for the first time 4 years on. 2. The name on the claim form for the landlord is the wrong surname 3. The council requires a landlord to have a licence prior to submitting a section 21 and this was not done. 4. The court application for possession was made prior to the end of the fixed term of the assured shorthold which is June 29th and this was submitted on 26th May. 5. The second landlord (as there are two), does not reside at the address stated on the claim form. There are two boxes for two people and the second one is blank. What about issuing a counter claim for breach of contract under the Housing Act and Landlord and Tenant act for failing to carry out repairs once being notified in reasonable time for a period for 4 years? When would one submit this claim as a counter or is that done as an entirely separate matter in the courts? Shall post in 2 seconds.. uploading now here are the claim form pages Will make into a PDF. two secs Ok attached attachment.pdf

A relative had been renting a house since Dec 2009. She was paying by DD until about 12 months before the end, when the agent started collecting cash, as they had a bank problem. This went on until the end in at the end of April 2016. A mistake there maybe, but he did provide a receipt every time, which she did not keep. Her bank statements will have the DD's on when she requests them. The deposit was not protected, she never knew it had to be, so I checked, it ain't. She phoned him continuously, without answer. When he finally answered, he said it takes 28 days. This has now gone, in fact it's 2 weeks past that. No answer again! I checked the company, it disolved on 1st March https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08781259 Any Idea of how to get her money back.

Our Landlord sent us this message last night, we moved out over a week ago and were told everything was fine at that point. None too impressed guys..I made no fuss or deduvtions for lack of cleaning but just gone to make up small room double bed and just realised you turned memory phone matress which covered in 'stains' ! New mattress will be certainly to tune of 150...I trust you will send this promptly! Rosie Implying that I flipped the mattress deliberately to hide "stains" (a glass of wine spilt during a tough essay time). This was not done, I left it on its side when we left the flat. can anyone advise on how we should proceed and where we stand? Thanks in advance

Can anyone cast any light on this My previous landlord has disposed of some expensive goods I was unable to remove from the property when I left. I have been trying to make arrangements to have them collected. I was sent a letter saying that if they had been removed, I owe charges for this, and if not collected within 7 days of the date of the letter, would be disposed of. There was no information on the letter as to where the goods were, collected by or stored at. I replied within 7 days of receiving the letter, but have been told that as that was outside of the 7 days from the date of the letter, they had been disposed of. It is my understanding that a landlord should provide at least 21 days notice, and 3 months if they claim I owe them money (which they claim I do, for rent - which incidentally I don't owe!) Can anyone help me out with this issue?

Last October, my then landlord compelled me to leave this property by threatening to ‘make your life hell’ if I stayed, as he was unhappy about me threatening to pay my final rent with part of my unregistered deposit. I loaded up my car with some of my belongings, gave the landlord back his key (as he'd threatened to change the locks), and agreed with my landlord that I’d arrange with him to return to collect my remaining belongings. My negotiations to retrieve my belongings didn’t run smoothly: - He repeatedly insulted me during the exchanges. - He was restrictive in terms of when I could attend to collect my stuff. - He imposed deadlines of when the items needed to be collected by, even though I'd told him that my work shifts meant I couldn’t attend at the times and dates he specified. - He told me that he’d only allow me to attend if I accepted a ridiculously low out of court settlement for the money he owed me for my deposit and unspent rent (but later relented). He and I finally agreed on a time and a date for me to collect my belongings, a couple of weeks after the eviction. He cancelled at the last minute, due to having lost his keys to the flat, without so much as apologizing. This was the final straw, particularly as I’d booked a day off work to attend. I told him that I’d be forfeiting my belongings. In response, he asked me never to contact him again. I’ve recently launched legal action against him, suing him for my deposit, my unspent rent and the distress and inconvenience his illegal eviction has caused. In response, he’s counter-suing me for £11 a day for storage costs, for between when I left and the date of the hearing! Does he have a case? Thanks, Jeff

Hi Guys, I haven't got a clue where we stand, but surely we have some rights. We have been renting our house for 10 years now from a Private Landlord. I say Private, it is in fact a man who owns a Property Company, and owns around 250 properties. We have paid around £66,000 pound in rent without missing a payment in all those years. I don't even think the house is worth £66,000 but there you go. For the first 7 years, we never asked the Landlord for anything whatsoever. However, over the last three years, things outside the house have suffered wear and tear, as would any property. The main problem we have is our back yard wall has fell down (well, half of it has anyway). The other half is loose and could injure someone if it fell on them. We reported this to the Landlords office 16 months ago, along with other less important issues. They sent somebody out who took a list of repairs to be done, and told us they would start as soon as they could. Well, to cut a long story short, 15 million phone calls (and being told that someone would get back to us) later, the repairs are all outstanding. They have even promised us a fresh lick of paint outside as we have decorated the inside ourselves on numerous occasions. We told them that we could maybe use the rent, and get a Builder etc to carry out the repairs to save them bothering, but they said 'no'. We cancelled the standing order on the rent last week because we knew that was the only way to get them to ring us, and they did. They asked about the rent, and we asked about the constant promises of repairs. They didn't want to talk about that, and said that nobody would come near the house if the rent wasn't paid. So, reluctantly we paid over the phone by card. they then promised that somebody would call out again to see the damage last Friday, and as expected, nobody turned up. Moving at this moment in time is really not an option, and we have invested a lot of our own money on the inside to keep it nice. I also cannot remember the last time we signed a contract. Surely they must regard us a decent tenants after 10 years, yet they treat us as if we are the worst. I'm just looking for some general and professional advice on what we can do. Or things we can say to the Company, that would make them realise we have some sort of right to have these repairs done. Hope somebody can help, and thanks in advance. SOD'EM

Hi! I need advice please, we have rented a bungalow from the same landlord for 15 years we originally rented the property through a letting agent paid a deposit & a months rent in advance. We needed to contact the landlord & the phone number he gave us was no longer in use so I contacted the letting agent for his new number & was told the landlord was dealing with his own property's & they no longer had his details. For 10 years we have had no contact with the landlord no phone number or address & all repairs to the property we have had to do ourselves last year alone we have spent around £800.00 on the property. The property is riddled with damp which we spent money on as well trying to rectify. Then out of the blue at the end of last year he turned up at our house just as we were carrying out the renovations, of course he was pleased, we got his new mobile number but he would not give an address we told him about the damp issue but he did nothing about it, the gas engineer who did the annual gas check said the gas fire had severe heat damage and needed replacing & he did nothing about that either. Then at the beginning of this year we had the chance to buy a bungalow from a friend and we jumped at the chance, I contacted our landlord at the end of March to tell him that we were moving out at the end of April he said we were making a big mistake at our age etc he didn't want us to leave. My husband asked what he was going to do with the property and he told him he was going to leave it empty until he decided. When we were clearing the house for the move we moved the wardrobes to take with us BUT underneath the robes we found white fungus growing on the carpet which had been eaten away by the fungus, now we knew where the smell was coming from, we could not take the wardrobes or anything else out of the bedrooms with us including the mattresses from the beds which were also covered in mold patches underneath so everything had to be dismantled and taken to the tip with a small trailer which we borrowed from a friend who uses it for his work & we could only borrow it every now & then, so instead of just moving furniture etc to our new home which would have been quick as we hired a removal van, we had tip runs which took ages to empty the house. Our rent was paid on the 1st of every month so I cancelled the direct debit for May as we moved to our new home on 22nd April, my husband took as few days off work for the move but as I said the tip runs took longer than expected & we had only just finished taking the stuff to the tip on the 9th of May & were going to go to the house to clean it on the 10th May & pick up two Virgin Media Boxes which have to be sent back to them or they are going to charge us £360.00. My husband went to the house to clean it yesterday & pick up the boxes and found the locks had been changed. Our next door neighbour said the landlord was kicking the door & had a bunch of keys in his hand trying them in the lock so she went outside to see what the commotion was & he said we had changed the locks which we haven't done she told him we were coming that day to clean up & would obviously have the keys (they are good friends) so he started hurling abuse at her and he went away and brought a locksmith with him. In hindsight we should have let him know what we were doing but we had a lot going on as when we moved into our new property the combi boiler packed up and we were without water or heating for over a week, I am disabled & was unable to contribute a lot with the move so it was all down to my husband & a friend. We have rung the mobile number he gave us & it is going straight to answer phone & my husband left messages saying we need to be able to get the Virgin Media Boxes but he is not replying to our messages. If we don't get the boxes Virgin will charge us £360.00 together with an early cancellation fee of £268.00 as they don't cover the area we have moved to or we would have stayed with them. I have not got that kind of money as I am a pensioner & it has all gone on buying the new property & buying new furniture to replace the ones that were rotten, I rang the police who's advice was to pay Virgin, so they are no help. Please can someone give me some advice? I am not bothered about getting the deposit back, I just want the boxes. Thank You!

Hi all, I rent a house. My landlady has some issue with Npower an an outstanding amount. There was a letter, which I opened at her request, from last month saying they were going to have a hearing on a date now passed (but not when the letter was sent) to gain a warrant of entry to enter your home. I went out today and when I came back there was a gas pre-pay meter installed (outside) and a letter on the table inside. all the windows were closed and the doors were locked. I think they must have picked the lock on the front door. Is this legal? is there anything I can do about it? I am currently on ESA because of serious back issues, and receive housing benefit. as I say it was my landlady's debt, but I am renting the house. thanks in advance

Hello I moved into a property as a tenant in London in February 2015. At the time another tenant was already at the property since 2013 but the overall tenancy has started in 2010. Several tenants had lived there before she moved in herself. Before me moving in we both signed an assured shorthold tenancy agreement, agreeing to continue the tenancy for another year until March 2016. At the time of signature we had heard of an inventory that had been made in 2010. It wasn't provided to us then and my housemate who had been there for two years had never seen it. With hindsight I should have asked to see it as it says - in the tenancy agreement we have signed - that we agreed to keep the interior and decoration of the premises including fixtures and fittings in the same condition throughout the tenancy as stated in the inventory. Although it adds that we are not responsible for fair wear and tear. So on 1st March 2016 we both moved out and the landlord decided to end the tenancy there and then. We were both responsible to empty an entire house of stuff left over the years by all the tenants that have been in the house before us. We were provided with the 2010 inventory three weeks before we left because I asked for it, as we had no way to know what furniture belonged to the property. The inventory showed that the place was already run down six years ago, with mentions of multiple marks on the carpet, the walls, 'off-white' sofas that was clearly white in the old days... Anyway, we really wanted our deposit back so we did pay £230 for end of tenancy professional cleaning and left the receipt with them. It didn't include upholstery but then I never sat on the sofa without a throw on it as it was so run down when I moved in. Now the landlord wants to deduct £510 for carpet and upholstery cleaning and said it was only an estimate so it could end up being more. She also said that we had two days to accept (over the weekend, sent last Friday) or she'd add £200 to fix other things including a rip under the fridge that was there before we moved in, etc. We were asked to accept on Monday but we refused, saying that we had 10 more working days to reply as per contract. Do you think we should pay anything extra? There are a couple of additional marks on the carpet that were there before we both moved in. Should we pay to fix that? Does that justify the £510? Thanks for your help.

Hi there, Please help me to sort this out... really appreciated your time and opinion on it. I have come to know about this forum while i was looking for some tips for the appeal to tribunal. I was a tenant of a multiple dwelling home. I was introduced by a college mate to this house and the contract was under 3 names and we were students. The landlord come to introduce three other guys who is also living there and looking after the property, collecting rent on behalf of landlady. Every month we are paying rent and other bills which includes council tax, gas and water etc to them. I have come to know about the students get discounts on council tax and that'y why they separated contracts to only our names. We used to pay in cash and sometimes transferred to bank accounts as well. As far as landlord is happy, we didn't find any difficulty after words and didn't provide and recipe for the payments. In November, the other two guys finished studies along with me and they left the house. Subsequently i was informed the same to landlord as well as council to update on the same to the system. In may, 2012 before i go on a holiday, i informed guys about a new agreement as the old one was expired in March 2012 and i want just one for all other tenants as i finished my studies. However, the landlord phoned up and promised me they will make it ready once i come back and will update to council also. In the end of 2012, i started seeing unpaid council letters coming from ealing council under my name on it. I discussed the situation with both landlord and guys but they didn't provide an adequate information and also while was a search for job, i didn't pay more attention on that. As time went by, i saw another letter also at home under my name on it. So, i decided to call council to know the situation. They have informed about they holding the same old agreement and no new contract hasn't sent to them. In April 2013, i was following landlord for the agreement copy but didn't respond instead of merely saying she has already sent to council and they might have failed to update it on the system .Again i called up council and informed the situation of other people living there apart from me and landlord wasn't ready to make any changes on the contract. So, i informed the same to council and requested to come and view the dwelling to verify the living of other people .At last they found other guys living there and said to me this is multiple dwelling home and they will inform the landlord of this and she should be the liable person over due council tax. Even though i made couple of payments when i saw it become due and didn't have any intention for the guys to do so. In July 2013, council send a confirmation letter to me that informing my account is now closed and all liabilities put to landlords account. So, i left the house with any more conversation with both guys or landlord. But, in 2015 dec, again they sent a letter that i still owe them £1328.00 towards council tax and when i contacted them that said the landlord sent a letter of possession from county court which i never new. I phoned them again and explained the problem with landlord over tenancy agreement and unknown situation of the county court judgement. But, again they sent me a letter of final decision and i have to pay that amount though i contributed towards my share. So, i have to appeal against this decision and deceitful actions of landlord. Please advise me , what to do next as the time is rushing on..got 1 more week to appeal. with regards das

APologies for a long post but I have actually tried to keep this brief! In March last year, we had a leak reported in our roof, despite instructing the agency to repair, it took a complaint to the director and several months until it was fixed (in July). At the end of October, we had a leak reported in exactly the same place, the agency called back the contractor who said the work was fine and he could see no problem. We were left to ask agent to find another contractor - it took a while for them to come out and do the repair - at one point I even phone the agency who told me the work had been done and the tenant had told them how happy they were - this was simply not true, when they did it didn't work and we were left weeks waiting for them to come back, they never did, despite repeat assurance from the agency that he was coming. (we refused to pay for this work). Despite chasing the agency regularly and even sending photos of the damage that was getting worse there was no urgency on their part - they even sent us an email to say they had emailed 3 contractors ... no urgency despite the weather being terrible and the damage getting worse. Eventually at the turn of the year we had to step in despite being 300 miles away and get the repair done ourselves. The problem was the ageing of the brick work so that when consistent rain, the chimney could only absorb so much and then began leaking through. There was no sign of any other leak either internally or externally - yet due to the time taken by the agency to fix the original repair ie not until summer, we could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the original repair was not uo to standard. So we are left with costs, damage, an unhappy tenant at being messed around by the agency. On a separate note, when it became legal requirement to have carbon monoxide alarms, they emailed to say they would be fitted when they came into stock - by January they had still not dealt with this and again we had to take action ourselves to rectify this. Our agent had left us in breach of the law and also potentially put our tenant at risk. We gave notice of repudiatory breach of contract as we were now having to manage the property our selves, they had failed in their duty of care in numerous ways and neither us nor the tenant simply trust them to manage the property anymore. They however of course have disputed this and stated that they expect the management fee to be paid until the end of the tenancy - ie we would have to evict our tenant. I'm concerned as to the best way to go forward - the property ombudsman is incredibly slow and in past experience tend to side with the agents. I am considering the county court route but am then concerned that if they dispute this I will then have to incur serious legal costs to get this through with the potential cost of losing. I don't want to just stop paying them the fee and then risk a CCJ against my name either. Does anyone have any experience of this kind of matter or can advise on the best options?

Hi all, We moved out of our house in Jan and have received our full deposit back. Our ex-landlord is now asking for £60 due to damages. Has she got the right to ask for this? She said she should have taken it out of the deposit...is it not just tough that she didn't?! Thanks in advance!

Can someone please clarify exactly what Form I am supposed to complete for a section 214 claim against a landlord for non-protection of deposit monies. Is it N1 or N281? I obviously need to do it the cheapest way possible. I am also representing myself. Thank you.

Hi folks, Can you help me out here in respect of the data protection act? I'll explain in simple terms. My partner has recently (a few weeks ago) added my name to the tenancy on this local government landlord property. We live together at this property and have done for a few years, our landlords are very well aware of this by the way. All of our income goes into my partners bank account and she pays all of our bills from her bank account. its simpler tnat way and she micro-manages well. Yesterday right out of the blue we received two seperate bills from our water supply company. One to my partner and one to me. My partner rang the water company to ask why and was told that our local government landlords had emailed them with my details and told the water company to add my name to the bill. The water company closed my partners account and opened a new one with my name added to it. Now, my partner is very angry about this because she pays the bill and not the local government landlords. It is her bill and she pays it from her bank account. The problem we have is the local government landlord did not tell us or discuss it with us and neither did the water company. What legal right if any does the landlord have to pass my information on to a thrid party and instruct them on my partners behalf or on my behalf? As fas as we are concernd the water account has nothing to do with our landlords, they don't pay it. If any arrears were incurred it would still have nothing to do with them. We are not in arrears with any payments by the way. We are well aware of the dirty dishonest business of our local government landlords and have just won our compliants against them through one Ombudsman. Our complaints against them is under investigation with another Ombudsman. We do not trust our landlords at all in any way and I can't go into details for obvious reasons. Lets just say they behave much like rogue private landlords and very childishly. I will go to the ICO if needed, not a problem. Any advice will be much apprecaited.

Hello I'll try to keep this simple but would appreciate some thoughts on the matter. 6 years ago I moved in to new property and the agreement was that I paid two months rent upfront half for the first month and the other half for the last month, so when I gave my motive to move out I did not need to pay for that month. For 6 years we kept the house clean n tidy and never gave the landlord reason for concern. To the extent that he never renewed our tenancy agreement. . So in September we told him we were moving out n that the last months (Octobers) rent was paid and we will be out of there by end of October. We moved told him that e were leaving a bed and wardrobe which he welcomed. 2 days ago I receive a letter from an estate agent saying I owe £850 for November rent and tax, money for having to paint the house because children had scribbled writing on a couple of the walls, in 6 years he did not decorate/paint the house for us even though he said he would and for changing locks. All this because we left a couple of boxs and furthermore we didn't return the keys even tho he was on holiday in October and never told us when or where to leave the keys. Trying to charge for clearing out mess which is a lie Really don't know how to approach it I spoke to him and said that I was upset and asked why is a third party getting evolved

I have received a letter where my previous landlord is making a claim against me for a property that I moved out on the 25th of Sept2016. The said property was a temp accommodation through the council so he had put the claim in to the council but I want to appeal this as when I moved out I offered to repaint the flat but he said that he was remodelling the whole flat that I didn't need to paint it so I did not have it done but I did hire a cleaner to make sure that it was clean when upon moving. The landlord did do a walk-around with my son upon our vacating the property and he said it was all okey. The landlord even brought me the cupboards out of the flat to my new home as I needed some in the kitchen. I have been by the old flat to see the new construction and he has totally redone the place... knocked out walls, resized the stairwell, made the two bedroom into one and put in a larger bathroom ... now my problem is that he has claimed against me for re-dec in both bedrooms, lounge and hall, stairs and landing due to heavy marks in the amount of £384.00 (I was in the property for 3 years) also, for the replacement of the carpet in all the rooms listed above too due to heavy marks it says (there was a previous tenant of two years before me and my move in sheet says small marks on carpet several spots) £996.00 What I am wanting to know does he have to show pictures of this damage or will the court go by his word? as I know that it isn't true but I did not take pics thinking that he was satisfied with the property. I am going to appeal the claim but I am wondering if anyone could tell me if I had a chance of winning this as I am disabled and this letter has upset me and I don't have 1380 to pay to the council as they are the ones trying to collect the payment now since it was a temp accommodation through them. The flat, as I said, has been totally remodelled and I don't feel that I should have to pay for his remodelling of the flat since I did offer to paint it before moving and he was fine with how I left it.

A little backstory I left my previous tenancy in November of last year. The agency didn’t put in a repayment request for my deposit until January; too late for me to use the ADR. The landlord wants to deduct £160.00 from the original amount of £325.00. I immediately clicked “dispute”, of course this was ignored and the request for £160 was resubmitted. Now: The following “reasons” for the deduction are as follows (quoted directly from an email sent by an agency representative): 2 x Walls required re-painting, appeared you had attempted this and check out was done when paint was wet, on drying the quality was not in keeping with the condition of the walls when the room was let.* This is considered tenant damage/tenant repairable/chargeable. The mattress and bed base required replacement – this is considered a landlord expense, fair wear and tear. A hole was found in the wardrobe – this was not noted on the original inventory so considered tenant damage/chargeable. Room and windows required re-cleaning. Are these legitimate reasons to charge £160? The agency hasn’t provided any itemised invoices, reciepts or quotes, something I think they’re required to do? Are they essentially trying to charge me for redecoration? Also, can they assume that I was responsible for the hole in the wardrobe door?* I’m not, but I don’t think I have any evidence to dispute that, unfortunately, however the inventory at check-in made no mention of any damage to any part of the room. I think the only thing they can charge me for is cleaning costs, but I’m not sure. Incidentally, I think it’s worth noting that the deposit paid is actually for a different property. When I first moved to Nottingham I rented a property, through the same lettings agent, at 160 Burford road, under one landlord. A month later I moved to 44 Maples street, again with the same agency, but under a different landlord. Can the deposit be transferred between properties? The rent was different for both properties so should I have had part of the deposit returned? Not sure if that makes any difference. Apologies for the long post; I tried to cram in as much relevant info as possible. Any help/advice would be hugely appreciated. Thank you.

My partner and I live in a 1 bed flat in a house conversion. Our bedroom is above the kitchen/living area of the problem tenants below us. For about 2 years we have been complaining to the landlords about the noise from these tenants. They run a loud extractor fan at all hours of the day and night, bang doors and cupboards, shout at each other and their kids. Now they have a crying baby!! The walls are paper thin to the point where the heating cannot keep the room warm at all. The landlords have written them multiple "warning" letters and had one meeting with them, where they agreed to keep the noise down. This didn't happen. We kept complaining so there was a meeting between us and these tenants, which they denied making the noises. Again it didn't change. I then wrote a formal complaint, in which they reply was saying we are now alleging the noises are happening, even though in the past we have provided recordings of their noise! They also said if we agree to have the landlords come around and do a sound test (which involved one person in our room and one below shouting and banging doors). It clearly to them failed. They have now organised their building contractors to come around to investigate further - but their solution was a bead of silicone around the skirting boards?? This is yet to happen but will not solve the issue. Are we within our rights now to start formally telling the landlords that we are withholding rent payments until this problem is fixed?? It's reached a point where my partner now sleeps on the couch in our living area because the noise is just too much. The other issue is parts of our flat and the building are i believe not up to fire safety standard. By the way the landlords own the entire building. When we first moved in the building inspector and the boss builder did an inspection. The large window in our bedroom needed to be replaced - it was classed as a fire escape and should remain completely open to roll out of. But it just keeps shutting. The builder was told to replace it. Also our front door should have a furry seal around the edge, but didn't and again, should have been installed. To this day, 2 and a half years later, they have still not been corrected. Are the landlords in breach of our contract and fire safety standards?? Could we ask for a rent reduction perhaps?? And should we seek some form of legal advice?? We are at a loss here - the landlords do nothing and the only time you really here from them is to do with rent payments. We are contracted until mid 2107, and couldn't afford to move now, unless the landlords gave us our full deposit back before we moved out - not going to happen! If anyone has any sort of advice, it would be greatly appreciated. Or any more elaboration about anything i have written, please leave a post. THANK YOU!!!!

I private rented from Oct 2014 to July 2015 & landlord got £243 of deposit after using Deposit Protection Service & adjudication. (Email sent to me Dec 2015) This so wrong, it is for gardening and when I moved in the landlord (couple) said Mr. Landlord was going to do one more mow and then after a week or two I was told a man was booked to come and cut the hedges. He never came round. On day I went to sign assured shorthold tenancy agreement the landlady seemed to have changed her mind about me even though they chose me out of people they chose to show the house. I said I was not happy about a clause in the agreement & she said that I could stop now and not go ahead. I was taking tenancy from this date and had given notice on previous tenancy. They did not give me a written inventory and took the tenancy agreement away so I had to ask for a copy later. There were a few things that happened that they handled in a non-professional manner and I gave notice as soon as I could. The amount they got from adjudicator was for gardening. It was very rainy leading up to me leaving also I was busy organising move. I did a first strim of the garden which is very large and had already cut some of the hedge before. When the landlords came there at end of tenancy I was strimming still doing a second go but had not finished. They would not let me stay to finish or come back to finish even though they said people were coming to look at the property (in 4-5 days). It was July and I mentioned the nesting birds I had seen. The landlords claimed to have both spent hours and hours totalling £243 cutting 2 hedges and doing grass. In effect I've paid them to do their own garden. The Deposit Protection Scheme wrote to me from 9 different email addresses! A lot of the time from their do_not_reply email so I was not sure which email to reply to them on. I found their website hard to see, written in light grey and small writing. I was not clear what was happening as the process went along and if they had received all my evidence which was done by email. Please can someone tell me who to appeal to. I have written to the DPS saying I want to complain and can they send me a copy of their complaint procedure and they have replied saying they will reply to complaint and if not resolved will send me full policy. Am I able to take landlord or DPS or both the a Small Claims Court? I used one years ago but don't know if they operate in a similar way now. What about the Financial Conduct Authority? An ombudsman? Thank you for reading.

Morning all, I'm new to the site so please forgive me if I have posted in the wrong section. I am currently signed off work and have been since June 15 with Joint Hypermobility Syndrome, Chronic Pain Syndrome and depression. Recent blood tests also show that I now have (what my GP called) 'A very severe vitamin D deficiency' I am a social housing tenant and live on the top floor of a 2 story block of maisonettes. There is no communal lift in the block and I have to walk up and down over 50 stairs to get in/out of my property. The pain I constantly suffer makes it difficult to move very far or at any speed and I only usually go out to GP appointments. My condition has gotten worse over the past 7 months and I have been moved up a band on the housing register, but am still a good year away before my bidding makes any difference. I have also joined Homeswapper, but unfortunately no joy yet. I approached my housing officer to try and get a managed move due to my condition and she said that the HA no longer accepts managed move requests on medical grounds? Does the HA have a duty of care to move me to a more suitable property? I explained to my HO that I have no quality of life as I am virtually imprisoned in my home. I sleep on the sofa downstairs (which doesn't help my condition) because I have started having panic attacks that there will be a fire in the block during the night and I wouldn't be able to make it out of the property quick enough. My depression is getting worse because of this situation. I asked her for the names of the people responsible for the decision on managed moves so that I could make a complaint, but have not had any response and I would appreciate some advice if possible before contacting them again. If anyone has any advice I will be extremely grateful Thanks, Cay

Hi There Not sure if this the right board for my question so sorry in advance if not. I'm single mum, I rent privately a 2 bed flat with my 7yr old daughter. I've been living in the flat 8yrs this year, I work pay my rent never been in arrears till unfortunately beginning this year 2015 I got put on 0 hrs contract. I've stupidly fallen behind with the rent because of Housing Benefit issue which I said I will pay back but has to be in small instalments as only working 16hrs at the mo. I'm owing over 2 months about £1100.00, the Landlord just called yesterday to say he wants his flat back because of divorce and he needs to move back in.. I said fine but can he give me a letter to state this so I can bring to show the council. OK, the problem is he keeps coming round unannounced for things like, he wanted something from the loft, and another time he said he come round to check if I still live here, another time he asked me out for a drink...sorry if I am all over the place but it's really stressing me out. I know it's his flat but is he allowed to do this?

how do i get contact details for my next door neighbours