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  1. Hi, My landlord is wanting to send estate agents round to value the property because he wants to put it on the market. He has not yet served me with a Section 21 notice so I have no idea when he is expecting me to vacate but I would have thought a valuation would be more realistic once the house is empty and after he can do some redecorating, etc to get it ready for selling. At the moment, we have been too stressed over searching for a new home and we have been having a mad declutter and we have half packed boxes everywhere and the housework has become less of a priority, so all in all, the house no longer looks homely and I certainly wouldn't want any estate agents taking photos to use for selling purposes. Does my landlord have a right to getting a valuation, especially before he has issued a Section 21? I feel so uncomfortable about it and I really don't want anyone coming round while I still live here I have been looking through other tenants posts and came across this comment from one of CAGs members:- "Are you aware of this >> For example, a Section 21 notice cannot be served if there is no EPC or Landlord gas safety certificate in place for the property. Any non-compliance with this requirement will render the section 21 notice ineffective." Now my landlord has never done annual gas checks and the last one (for which I have a copy of the certificate) was about 2 years ago. Does the above CAG members comment mean that when I receive the Section 21 Notice it will not be legally enforceable? If so, what should I do and how do I respond to my landlord when I get the notice?
  2. Hi We moved in to our rented property at Christmas 2017. We both work from home and took the property based on being able to do just that. My fiancé has a photography studio set up here with regular clients coming to the house. In May we found out that the neighbours had sold a patch of their garden to a builder who is now building a house on the land. The noise is unbearable, we are woken up every morning at 7 and we can't use the garden because of the noise and dust. The neighbours are also having their remaining garden paved by a separate company who also make noise from 7am. To top it off, our other next door neighbour have just started work on their house so we have to deal with hammering and banging all day on that side too. The landlord claims he knew nothing about any of it, which is rubbish and the builders have confirmed that they have had extensive conversations with him as part of the planning process and he in fact moved out of the house because of the construction. We have already asked for a rent reduction as we have been deceived in to moving in and the worst part is we pay nearly £2k in rent to live here! In this beautiful weather, we haven't been able to enjoy the garden at all. I have spoken to a solicitor who has told me whilst the landlord did have a moral obligation to tell us about the work, he unfortunately didn't have a legal obligation, which I just cannot believe! We have spoken to the builders who have now said they will try not to do noisy work before 8am, but even minor work causes enough noise to disturb us. We have to have the windows open because of the heat and there is no escape from it! We've requested a rent reduction but the landlord said no and we would have to pay to get out of our contract. There is another month left of the building works and we just don't feel like we can cope with it anymore. We're both being woken up in a state of stress and anxiety and its impacting on our work and our health! Is there really nothing we can do!?
  3. hi everyone, I'm looking for my advice i have a shop food which has been open a little over 7 months and i have just seen my landlord is stealing my electric for the flats he is doing up. upstairs which is a full on building site and the wire coming out my meter is a very big thick one so i know hes running alot of juice i have no idea how long this has been going on but it looks like its been done very dangerously and a real bodge it job ive sent videos and pictures to 3 electricians i know which say he is for sure stealing my electric. Now i have no idea how long this has been going on so first thing im going to do is insist he re emburses me for every electric bill ive ever had as i have no idea what hes used and what he hasnt. also the shop has never really got off the ground and to be honest its absolutely dying at the minute were open 12 hours a day 6 days a week and its not uncommon to take £60 a day sometimes as low as £30 (terrible i know) and to be honest i would like to be able to get out of my lease because were getting deeper and deeper in debt and a rogue landlord doesnt help by stealing out electric. could i get out of my lease and demand by deposit back or threaten with legal action? because of course breaking the law? or will i at best get my electric bill re embursed? thanks in advance
  4. I rent a unit in a property and use it as a Hairdressers. I have a manager in and all is good. I have a few other interests and have decided to sell the business and have found a buyer. Now the hard part. We have 3 years of a 5 year lease left. The buyers are willing to take this on and have spoken to the landlord. He has no objection to them being tenants but he will only accept a 5 year lease PLUS he wants £2500 off of them, up front to extend the lease. He has made in categorically clear, he will not let them be tenants unless they agree the extension PLUS pay the £2500 in cash, no receipt. The buyers have said they can not and will not do this and have given me 1 week to sort it or the deal is off. I have emailed the landlord and said look, you can keep the month up front deposit we made (£500) I just want out. Im sure he cannot do this but he is the greediest individual I have ever met.
  5. hello all, i have a valid gas safety certificate until November the 3rd 2018. my landlord(local council) uses a heating company for the gas safety check,... they are being very overzealous and have been calling to do an 'ANNUAL' gas safety inspection since the beginning of August...this seems very strange as its 3 months early and they know it expires in November.?? I have came home and received calling cards when I have been out and on one occasion a calling card was left when i was on holiday...as it was August. today i received a letter from the council saying they are taking me to court to apply for a 'warrant to authorise entry'? I would like to know if i can attend the court hearing (to show the certificate) and also can they do this with a valid gas safety certificate in force? thanks, Sonia.
  6. Hi all, I am posting on behalf of a friend who has been privately renting a flat for the last ten weeks. The flat is one room part furnished with communial kitchen and bathroom facilities. The room has no bed, just a matress on the floor, a sofa, a sideboard for storage and a chair, there is no radiators and no heating. There is no working shower and when you run the tap on the sink the toilet leaks ???. In the kitchen there is no working appliances (e.g cooker fridge etc.). There is no fire escape, so if a fire broke out downstairs, he would have to exit via a window with a twenty five foot drop. There is no lock on the door to his room so this can be accessed at any time by anybody with access to the building including other residents. He has no written tenancy agreement and the landlord just sends him a text when he is about to arrive, without prior notice. There are other issues but I think this initial post is long enough any advise would be much appreciated thanks in advance
  7. Hi I have recently moved out of a privately rented property and have paid the rent up to the 31st of August. I did do the check out last Thursday and have received no information as to whether the landlord is wanting to deduct anything from the deposit (which he shouldn't as the flat was in immaculate condition and clean - unlike when I moved in!). This morning I have received an email from NPower informing me a new tenant has moved in - my question is whether the landlord can legally do this as I am still paying rent? Any advice very gratefully received!
  8. Hope this is posted in the correct section. We own a property which we rent out, there is a problem with the next door gable end as the rendering has been falling off and has been crashing down onto the kitchen roof of our property causing broken tiles. We have repaired this in the past but the problem has got much worse and now our tenants are suffering with water seepage. We have managed to contact the landlord of the next door property and even though he accepts (on telephone) that it needs addressing he has done nothing but offer excuses as to why he hasn't had it newly rendered. Our insurance say it is a civil matter which is fine, we would take him to court for any more expenses to repair the damage caused. We are good landlords and don't like our tenants having to live in a property that continually needs repairing because of the next door landlords refusal to accept his responsibility to maintain his property even though he has tenants living in it. The problem we think we may have is that he lives in the Isle of man, does anybody know if we can issue a claim in the county court or is there another procedure we must follow, one that hopefully doesn't involve costs that would outweigh the cost of repair? Of course we would expect him to also be liable for the cost of repair to our roof. thank you for reading
  9. Hi I have posted about this before https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?488538-Misled-by-our-landlord-about-construction-noise-pollution-is-becoming-unbearable&p=5134398#post5134398 and now the situation has become even worse and we desperately need some advice. We moved in to a rented property at Christmas last year and soon after a builder came to the house to tell us he'd bough a patch of the neighbours land to build a house! He told us the landlord knew about it and it was why he had moved out of the property. There was a planing process which the landlord knew about and apparently he had arguments with the builder about it, at one point he said he would try and get an injunction to stop the works. After enduring construction works literally in our garden all summer, our enjoyment of our garden has been ruined, we've had to put up with the noise, the dust and the constant lack of privacy. NOW to make it worse, our adjoining neighbour has started renovating their house, so we are now woken up every morning to drilling walls. The whole house shakes and we are woken up in a stressed anxious state every day. We work from home and it's now impossible with the horrific noise. They're renovating their basement and bathroom which won't be a quick job. Im not exaggerating when I say this is ruining our lives. I don't sleep very well anyway so being woken up to this noise from one side or another every day for three months has made me a nervous wreck! The landlord knew about both plans and let the house to us deceitfully. Is there anything we can do? Ive checked about the noise and as someone has already said on a separate thread, they aren't breaking any laws so theres not really much we can do. We took out a 12 month lease and three months of those have been unbearable. We pay a fortune to live here and it's been totally ruined. Any advice would be appreciated! I was already told by a solicitor that whilst it's morally wrong that the landlord didn't tell us about the building works, there's not much we could do legally, however now the other neighbour has started works too, I'm wondering if we have more of a case for damages. Ive taken video and photographic evidence of the noise levels, dust and now the drilling from next door Thanks
  10. Do disabled individuals who are looking for their own home not exempt from paying deposits as they are on benefits and qualify for housing benefits? Can deposits be negotiated?
  11. We've been in the property 12 months, and 10 months in the landlord has served us with a section 21. So we have two months to leave. An estate agent has been in touch regarding viewings and we have been as accommodating as we can. We have found another place to rent and have asked if the landlord is willing to end the tenancy early, and the answer was no. We can leave early but still need to pay until the end of the 12 months. The new landlord doesn't want to wait that long and if we cant move in earlier he will have to let it to someone else. So, in an attempt to persuade the current landlord I have pointed out that we have been very flexible with the viewings, but have no reason to do this. If he isn't willing to negotiate the leave date, we have no reason to be as flexible as we are, even to the point of not allowing viewings at all. Am I within my rights here?
  12. I'm living on a private street which is a dead end but my landlord isn't the owner of it, it's someone else. From one side we have access to the side road for a cars, and from the other a gate which leads to the main road. Three years ago the owner of the street decided to weld the gate for no reason. He done it in the morning when everyone living on the street were at work/school. I contacted my landlord to see if he has contact details to the person that owns the street, but he doesn't. Few months later someone made a hole in a wooden fence next to the gate and straight away we started using it because it's much safer than the side road. Few months later the landlord came back to put a new fence. But yet again in the morning hours when no one living on a street was at home. Then I contacted local council, but they said that the street is private and they can't help me. Half a year ago someone made another hole in the wooden fence. Yesterday they changed the wooden fence to the metal one. Again they did it in the morning avoiding people. In conclusion: The owner of the street welded the gate without giving notice, he is constantly avoiding people living on the street and no one has got contact detail to him. Side road even there are houses there is not safe in the evening because one of my neighbours was assaulted down there. Also one of the neighbours travels on a mobility scooter and because pavement is narrow she needs to drive on the road and avoid cars.
  13. Hi, I wonder if someone can help me with this I am coming to the end of my tenancy and will not be renewing with my current letting agent. They have told me they will start arranging viewings within the next month, and that they will give me 48 hour notice prior to each viewing. I work 9-5PM and would much rather be in the property while someone is viewing it however they have told me no, and that they will enter whatever time is best for the potential new tenants. Is there anything I can do about this? There is a clause in my tenancy agreement that says I allow the landlord or letting agents or anyone with written permission from the landlord to enter the property at "reasonable" times of the day providing they have given 48 hours notice. Do I have a leg to stand on here? I would much rather they arranged the viewings while I am at the property? Many thanks for any advice!
  14. How would i go about finding out if a landlord (housing association) is liable by law/regulations or contract to perform certain repairs/modifications on the property? I have a few issues that i would love to get remedied but have little luck getting them looked at seriously. One being a very common problem for all the flats i know in my block is that people upstairs simply walking quietly across the floor causes all kinds of very loud creaks and bangs. Very disturbing if your underneath even with tv or music on and ive seen how unavoidable it is from the other side too walking on such floors when visiting neighbours. I had a lot of trouble with a noisy neighbour years ago which culminated in noise equipment and so on being installed which picked up this noise (on top of the fights) but my landlords refused to even listen to the recordings offered by the local council. Secondly i live in my 2nd bedroom which is very small. Since they moved the boiler out of the large cupboard and into the bedroom (there was a CO leak from the waste gas pipe) and boxed in underneath it as well as boxing in pipes running along the floor the room has become massively unusable as a bedroom. Placement of door, window, radiator and said boxing making any kind of half sensible arranging of a simple bed and wardrobe very oddly laid out. i would like ideally to have the pipes running across the top of the wall rather than bottom. Lastly the flat has no drying facilities. No outside washing lines, no front/back garden or balcony. it had a simple line that crossed the bath at one point (it was crap and never used as someone was always wanting to shower or bath) but that was made unusable some months ago when they had to replace the shower and its now in the way. Just wondered how i would go about checking up on building regulations or similar to see if i can force a remedy on any of these problems. Previous experience has taught me they wont do bugger all until they have to. Thanks.
  15. (Hopefully this is the right place for this) I am a landlord. I had a managing agent (the Estate Agent). I am on a Guaranteed Rent scheme if you will but that't not the matter in hand. I usually get paid on the 5th of every month but I didn't this year and I thought like even they'll be a day late so I left it at that. After realising on weekend I haven't received anything, I called and called but nothing. I went to the estate agent yesterday and found out that they were closed. Automatically i knew they had not done a runner if you will but just packed up and left. I rang my tenant who are pretty good with me and they said they received a letter today saying the company is dissolved and that someone else was looking after the paperwork. I rang and went to the person who was looking after the paperwork. It was the old estate agents friend. I'll throw in now that the originally owner of the estate agents passed away like 3 or 4 months a go and his widow was now looking after everything. Basically this guy has his own estate agents but was just holding all the paperwork. i did have a choice to start a new contract with him or just do everything myself which I am still mulling over. Going back to my tenants they had actually paid to the old estate agents account on the 4th and now not sure what to do. I was told from the friend that the old estate agents account was in negative as well. I have told my tenant to ring up their bank and tell them of situation about the estate agents being dissolved and trying to get their money back so I can basically get paid as I have not been paid out of this whole situation. My query as you can sort of guess is their any way of me getting my money or is their anything else I can do to get my money? Insurance? Will the bank actually return my tenants money? Has anyone had this happened before? Hopefully I've not left anything out and am not sure where to turn for this one. I google looking answers and also came across this group. Can anyone give me any help or insight? Thanks
  16. New boost to rogue landlord crackdown READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-boost-to-rogue-landlord-crackdown
  17. My 84 year old Dad lives in a flat run by a housing association. They seem to have a company who come in and service/repair the gas boiler etc. Anyway, they came Tuesday and found a gas leak. Gas was turned off. They provided him with heaters and went away. So no cooker, or hot water but at least temporary heaters. Yesterday I phoned the company who seemed to have no plan in place but promised to send someone. Someone else turned up yesterday, made a few excuses and admitted they can't fix it either. No plan is in place for further work. Am I right to expect that, after two days, they should have, at least a plan of action in place here. At the moment, it just seems that no-one is particularly interested. Like I said he has a temporary gas heater but no cooker, no hot water so he cant wash.
  18. Hi everyone. I'm a new member on here. I came across the site when researching tenancy deposit schemes and I've read through several threads but can't seem to find and guidance in relation to my particular problem. Briefly, in September of last year I agreed to rent a property with a private landlord. I had a few concerns about the property but the landlord assured me they would be dealt with once I moved in. But I needed somewhere to live quickly and my mother paid the deposit. The rent was to be paid by housing benefit. There was mould throughout the property, there was a leak from the soil stack or a blockage causing it to seep out from where the two pipes join, a couple of electrical sockets that were loose from the wall etc. I paid the deposit in cash and received a receipt. After several weeks the landlord had not repaired any of the above despite my texting and phoning him. At the same time he began to phone and text me demanding the rent but there was a delay at the housing benefit and the payment had not yet come through. He threatened in the text messages to come round to the property on specific dates and turf me out and take the keys back. I felt intimidated by him and told him by recorded delivery letter that I was going to give him 28 days notice to leave because he hadn't fixed any of the things he had promised. He had no problem with this and texted the sooner the better and that he still hadn't had the rent. I left the property and asked him for the deposit back and he said he was keeping it because he was still owed money. I then found out online that the deposit should have been protected. I asked him about this so that it could go to a resolution but he would not give me the details but kept on saying that he had protected it. He then came back to me and said that I owed him four months rent for leaving early, fees that he had paid to an electrician to fix a pendant - which was one of the jobs I had asked him to fix - fees for a skip to empty the property even though it was empty when I left etc. I realise I'm rambling on. What I'm trying to determine is whether the tenancy was valid when he didn't protect the deposit? Has he a right to claim back four months rent from me when he didn't protect the deposit in the first place? Did the agreement lose any legitimacy when he failed to do that? I ask because despite my continued asking him he will not return the deposit and I'm thinking about taking it to court. All I want is my deposit back. Nothing else. He has since had the back payments up until the time I left the property. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks
  19. Hello all, I was recently recommended to look at this page first time poster, just quickly want to say how great it is. I am having a problem with my landlord trying to deduct almost my entire deposit for work he supposedly carried out to the property following us leaving. I have lived at many rented houses before and I have never ever had a problem with getting my entire deposit back previously, so clearly something isn't right. What’s worse is the house in dispute I actually went above and beyond the call of duty to make it nice before I left. The reason I did this was because we got on with the landlord and even recommended him to our friends to do work for them (he is a kitchen fitter by trade) so because we have a decent relationship with him I went the extra mile to get it way nicer than any house I have ever left previously. I filled in all the holes where the pictures had been and even painted them with the same paint so you couldn't even tell they was there. I bleached the whole kitchen and even got a special hoover to suck out all the dents were heavy stuff like the bed and wardrobes had made the carpet flat. Unfortunately our relationship soured soon after hearing that he is trying to take us for almost all of our deposit. Supposedly his claims when asking him to send evidence were 1 - Full days kitchen cleaning - He sent me a picture of 1 cupboard with a slight few marks from where the bottom of the tins had sat, we did clean the whole kitchen with bleach but we didn't get it professionally steam cleaned or anything so potentially there may have been a few stubborn marks that didn't come off initially, but having checked the tenancy agreement there is nothing in here saying that it needs professionally cleaning. He said there was mould in the kitchen? Having looked at the picture it doesn't look like there is. We have a baby so the kitchen is kept clean. We turned the kitchen off at the plug after leaving so not sure if maybe something formed in the time it was left off, but if there was something then it evidently is very small, and was missed on the initial clean we did, even on the close up of the picture it's not obvious that the fridge is unclean. I asked him to send any evidence he has to me in full, but he only send 1x close up of some small marks in the cupboard and 1x picure of the fridge, which doesn't even look particularly dirty. 2 - Toilet seat broken - I admitted that if he wants to he can deduct us for this, however arguably this is wear and tear and wasn't fitted properly neither was it photographed. The toilet seat to say the whole house had recently been refurbished wasn't on properly when we moved, it was one of those special soft closers and it looked to me as if the landlord or whoever fitted it hadn't got the fixins secured properly so it was actually stuck to the toilet instead using silicone - Regretfully though we never got round to telling the letting agent about this as it just wasn't that broken to be unusable so wasn't a big deal to us at the time. 3 - He said the bathroom cabinet was split at the bottom, however having looked at it it seems very minor and was certainly not something we ever noticed 4 - He says the blinds needed cleaning? we cleaned the entire house including the blinds, granted they were not professionally cleaned but this wasn't in our contract also he hasn't sent us any photo evidence of this 5 - He said the bracket that holds the integrated fridge in place was broken and the corner moulding needed putting back on - When we put the washing machine on due to very poor foresight john had sat the plug for the washing machine that the fridge was plugged into directly on top of the fridge, I had to manoeuvre the fridge slightly out in order to get the plug for washing machine in. The corner moulding then fell off because it was only glued on with no more nails, it wasn't fixed on with brackets. When I put the washing machine back in I re glued the corner moulding back on. I did not break any brackets. I suppose it's possible they could have broken over time but they are under the worktops so out of view so I didn't notice until we moved when I took the washing machine back out. I think he is being very harsh charging me for this especially considering it was very difficult getting the washing machine in and out in the first place. worst case scenario a couple of plastic brackets aren't going to cost more than a couple of quid if he wants to get so pedantic over it. 6 - The paint being a different colour - we asked the landlord when we moved in if he could put pictures up to which his response was "make the place your own". as mentioned before I went to more effort in this house to make it nice due to our relationship (ex relationship) with the landlord. Obviously when a picture is hung on a wall for 2 years the sun stains & trace dirt discolours the area around it, however unlike any other house with this one I went above and beyond by filling all the holes and smoothing them then repainting the area with the same colour paint which had been left for us in the cellar so it was definitely an exact match. Landlord is claiming he had to spend 2x days redecorating the bedroom the living room and the kitchen because despite them being the same colour due to the age difference the difference can be seen in certain lights. He didn't even send any photo evidence of this despite it being by far the biggest thing they are trying to deduct from us. Alternatively if i had left the marks & nails where the pictures had been wouldn't it had needed re decorating anyway? Feels a bit like a no win situation unless i was expected not to put pictures up and perform a full redecoration upon exiting which again wasn't in the tenancy agreement. Contradictory to this in fact the agreement says that reasonable allowances should be made for wear and tear by the landlord, something I feel he hasn't done. He is not an experienced landlord, he only has 2 houses and we are his first in this house as it was a restoration project when we moved so potentially he hasn't had anyone move out of one of his houses yet so part of me thinks he is not properly in touch with reality on what he should and should not claim for. I feel like he is trying to take us for a ride here and he is putting claims in for the most ridiculous things. Being an experienced tenant, I have never ever had my deposit docked for anything, and ironically despite my current landlord trying to charge £550 for 3 days labour and materials I have never ever left a house in such good condition as this last one. I want to know what options are available to me and even the potential for compensation. I am not the sort of person to normally seek this but the amount of inconvenience and stress he has put me through has been beyond reason.
  20. Hello all. I submitted a claim using MCOL a few weeks ago for a Deposit I gave to a Landlord (LL) when I lodged with them for 6 months, a total of £600. I am claiming that amount, including interest and court fees totalling just over £700. I took all reasonable steps to get the deposit back but the LL started blanking me and made promises to pay but never did. I started the MCOL process and they submitted an acknowledgment of service, stating they are going to defend the entire claim. Fair enough, thats their right. However herein the problem lies. I had been using the LLs current address to send all my formal letters and put it into MCOL with served the particulars of claim to them at that address (thus enabling them to submit an acknowledgement of service). However in their acknowledgement of service they put changed their address to their old address where they no longer live and havent done so for a year. This now means further documentation from the court will go to their old address - and my best guess is that when it comes to it they will try and get the claim set aside because they haven't received further court correspondence (because they've intentionally put an old/false address). Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this? Thank you!
  21. Hi everyone, My case is turning quite complex and I would appreciate any support anyone has for me. I will try and lay everything out as clearly as possible... 1) Viewed a property on the 21st of October, and noticed some issues with the property (cracks on the outside walls), we asked the estate agent who said it was just “common shrinkage”. As the current tenants were in with furniture / laundry around we didn’t see the full extent of this. 2) The following week we decided to make an offer on the property, and stated that “this offer is contingent on the following: …”. Our contingencies included: a professional clean, painting over some obvious large internal cracks, resealing mould in bathroom and cleaning the garden. The landlord confirmed in writing to do the contingencies before our move in date. We also asked for an inventory, and received a list of items, before going ahead with putting in our deposit etc. 3) Upon moving out of my rented flat and into the property 6 weeks later (25th of November), we discovered that 1) no work that our offer was contingent on had been completed and 2) Two 12L dehumidifiers had been placed into the bedrooms (RRP: £139.99), alongside 9x mould absorbency gels dotted around the flat, indicating that there was a mould / damp problem in the flat (neither the dehumidifiers or gels were in the flat advertisement, nor were they present when viewing). 4) I have severe Asthma and a mould allergy, and my boyfriend has also been to hospital with a mould allergy in the past, so obviously had we known there was an issue we would not have made any offer on the flat. 5) We immediately got in touch with the estate agent in writing, who stated the dehumidifiers were there upon viewing (not the case). The dehumidifiers were also not included in the inventory we received (although that included kettle/toaster and other small appliances). Irrespective of that none of the work the landlord said they would do was done. In addition, I immediately begun suffering from my allergies in the flat due to mould / damp (asthma, hives etc). 6) Once we were in the flat without the previous tenants’ belongings, we began to see many more issues in there that were concealed by the previous tenants furniture and items on walls (e.g. cracks in internal walls that were concealed) as well as many probable hazards with the flat (e.g. excessive cold, windows not shutting properly, suspected subsidence and suspected penetrative damp / mould). 7) We got in contact with the estate agent the evening we moved in. The estate agent denied all of the above and stated that the dehumidifiers were there upon viewing (they weren’t). There was some back and forth over the next 24hrs but the consensus from the estate agent and landlord was that nothing was wrong with the flat and that we were not misled. We asked to know what would happen with the flat and the estate agent told us that landlord “believed and understood the property was in a fine state of repair from the outset”. 8) After moving in on the Saturday the 25th Nov, and getting nowhere with the estate agent/landlord we decided for our health (mine especially – I had gone through a full inhaler and multiple antihistamines in the 24 hours I had been there) to leave the flat as we realised we had been sold a lie, it was clear the landlord wasn’t going to do anything and we could not stay due to our health. 9) We moved our belongings into storage at the earliest opportunity (Monday the 28th Nov) and went to stay with family so we didn’t have to live there and struggle health wise. We also received an email from the estate agent that the landlord was going to re-let the property with a different estate agent and that we would get 24h notice before any viewings take place. That email was the last we heard from either the landlord or the estate agent. 10) 5 days later we went back to the property and realised we had been locked out (they had used a lock to which we were not provided a key) so could not gain access to the property even if we did want to remain in the contract. 11) We also realised the landlord had been negligent on a number of other things: Hadn’t given us prescribed information on the deposit, had put the deposit in the wrong scheme (i.e. not the one they put in our AST), we had no gas safety certificate, and there was further misrepresentation (said there was a fridge freezer and chest freezer, there was neither). 12) We tried to contact them and were ignored. Finally, we sent a pre-action protocol letter outlining our claim and restating that we were open to negotiate rescission of the contract and our monies paid back. This was ignored. 13) 14 days later we filed a court claim against the landlord which included all the money we paid and damages (around 7k) and also the fines for them not giving us the proper prescribed information (£6.6k) so our case is currently in the fast track (we found out after this may not be the best thing). 14) The landlord is now defending and counterclaiming (we are waiting for the details of their defence and counterclaim in the post but assuming this is for loss of rent up to the new tenant move in date, irrespective of the illegal eviction). 15) One last point is that the MCOL apparently made a clerical error and accidentally discontinued our claim on the 17th of Jan without telling us, and we spent the last week or so reinstating it. I am now unsure of what our next steps should be so any advice on what you think we should do would be hugely appreciated. Thank you all!
  22. I think my landlord or someone else may have entered my property without my permission and this has made me feel very uncomfortable. Obviously at this present time it's just a suspicion. I think this because I have a coin meter for my electric, it doesn't seem to read the amount of coins entered well but it says not to exceed 80 coins. I have been in this property over 7 months and at a guess I have probably put in 150-200 coins and it doesn't sound anywhere near full, leading me to think someone might have let themselves in without my permission to empty it and I don't know how many times they have done this if it is the case. I have emailed my Landlord to ask what the procedure is with the meter and that it's never been emptied since I have been here (to my knowledge) It will be interesting to see his response. What also concerned me a little was on Monday I heard 2 people talking and they were knocking on the door of the flat that's right next to me and the lady wasn't in, they let themselves in, after that they knocked on my door and I said just a minute as I had just got out of the shower and they said oh sorry wrong door, I found this very odd too. If people acting on behalf of the Landlord or my Landlord have been in here without my prior consent and without giving the required 24 hours notice, I feel it would make it untenable for me to stay here as not only is it a breach of tenancy but I would feel it's a breach of trust and a lack of respect, nevermind not obeying the rules of the tenancy. Thanks for reading.
  23. I live in a privately rented house. I have been here for just over a year, I recently requested the landlord whether I can install a few fixtures including a TV bracket on the bedroom wall. I also requested that a tap be fitted outside the house so that I can use it to wash the car, water the backyard plants, etc. I have offered to pay for all fixtures as well labour involved. The landlord has refused both of these. I would like to know whether I need to seek permission for every little thing that I want to do in the house, or if such requests only need to be made for major structural changes. Additionally, the tenancy has not been renewed since January 2018, when it was up for renewal. The landlord almost never answers phone calls, or replies to text messages. And the requests for the works that I've mentioned above had to be made through one of his workers who came by the house. Therefore, it seems to me that the landlord is specifically avoiding contact with me. I am not sure where to go with this, and to be fair, I am not sure that I wish to make any formal complaints, etc. He holds my deposit (not in DPS) and the tenancy agreement has expired. Does this mean the tenancy goes on to a rolling monthly contract? Is my deposit safe? Sorry for the long post!
  24. Help please. My Landlord is being really awkward after I moved out! Here's the background. I moved out on 4th December after my Landlord told me they were giving me notice. A few months ago I lost my job and fell behind with payments, but recently caught up to the point where I owed £400 plus my deposit (£895). The landlord said they were coming to give me notice and so I did what I thought was right and found a cheaper place to live. I was paying £895 per month and found a house for £500 per month. So, I thought this would be ideal as I could keep paying old Landlord back without £895 per month racking up. At this point I have to say that the Landlord has never protected my deposit, made me get the Aga serviced if I wanted central heating, let the roof continue leaking and did nothing about the crumbling walls (damp) and the water coming down the front of the chimney breast each time it rained. I also had no smoke alarms at all and the electrics were really old..................no idea if they'd been checked. Me being me, I just cracked on with the house. I also should add that before moving in I'd had to help paint and strip all the carpets. The landlord promised she'd pay me for the help......never arrived! I did sign an agreement, but it was never copied and sent to me. Ok, so today the old Landlord came to my house and took the key to the old house. I still have stuff in their which they knew about. He won't answer calls or texts. He was abusive and then went straight to my new Landlord, telling him I'm an unworthy person. What can I do please? The items in the old house are required. The landlord (a Husband and Wife) can get pretty nasty, and to be honest, I'm beginning to get fed up with bullying etc, especially as I'm not someone who would just up and leave. Any feedback and advice appreciated.
  25. Hi my landlord is saying me and the people I live with have abandoned the house and that we also owe her rent and wants us to sign over the deposit to her as she believes we have left damage in the house. This isn't true because the contract we had with the landlord ended on the 31/07/2017 and in mid-September the landlord came around and said she wants use out by the 02/12/2017 with no reason on why she wasn't going to renew the contract. So, we found a new place and moved are stuff into it for the 01/11/2017. The landlord came around on the 01/11/2017 saying the above and threatening court action if we didn't sign over the deposit from the house agents to her. She also took the keys of my mum when she was there and then told the house agents that we have left damage and she hasn't got the keys. Flat out lie right there. I'd really like some advice on what to do because she’s coursing stress for everyone and my sister isn't mentally well and all this is making her worse. Also, the house agents have e-mailed me wanting my side for the 10/11/2017. Thanks Andrew
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