I rented out a property in 2017 for 12 months to a lady who had sold her house. Due to a poor credit rating she paid 12 month upfront. It quickly became apparent that she had sold her house to then expect housing benefit to cover the rental at the end of the contract. I served her all the correct paperwork telling her she would have to vacate at the end of the tenancy. She refuses to leave, she is not eligible to the amount of housing benefit to cover the rental. The housing benefit she is receiving she is keeping it herself so is in arrears. Last week we were in Court for a possession order. She was given notice in September 2018 but simply doesn't want to leave. I ticked the box requesting that the hearing be heard in my absence but was given a hearing date. The Judge on the day said she didn't know why this was and was clearly annoyed. It all went downhill from there. The tenant just stated that she wanted to stay, was told that it was not an option and must vacate. With the minimum 14 days to the maximum 42 days, the Judge gave her 42 something I thought was for extreme cases of illness. Clearly there was an error somewhere along the line and if the decision had been made when the possession order was looked at, the week prior, I would be 35 days into this period instead of 42. She has had over 3 months to find alternative accommodation but with a worse credit rating than when she started, housing benefit, no reference and only trying private landlords she won't be vacating anytime soon. I feel I have been unfairly treated by the Judge. I would have expected 28 days for her to vacate and the Judge to see through the obvious lies the tenant was telling in Court. Have I got a valid complaint about the Judgement, I understand it won't change but I feel my position hasn't been taken into account.

Greater protection for renters thanks to plans to tighten tenant safety READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/greater-protection-for-renters-thanks-to-plans-to-tighten-tenant-safety

5 months into a 6 month AST, they are over 2 months in arrears. LL knocked on the door last night and the house is empty. All of their stuff is gone. Tenant unresponsive by phone has blocked numbers etc. Questions: 1) What to do about what seems to be surrender of tenancy? LL obviously wants to get in asap clean up and re-let, however I think ti is not as easy as that? I "think" that if we can get tenant to sign a "surrender of tenancy" form then that covers it? But I am unsure. 2) I assume small claims to recover the monies owed?

Hope someone can advise me please. I am a landlord who has rented to a 'guaranteed rent' letting agency and they have been fine up to now. My house has been let via the local council housing as temporary accommodation. But, now I find myself in a situation where I need to either sell or remortgage and the tenant's son is refusing entry to another agency with interested buyers and also the biggest problem I have is that a surveyor is due to attend to survey the property next Friday and the letting agent is advising that I arrange with the tenant's son for the surveyor, which he is refusing. The tenant's son was very abusive and aggressive to a prospective buyer who arrived to view as arranged with the tenant (viewer intended to still rent out as a landlord) and the selling agent and viewer were forced to leave the property. What can I do?

A local authority own a house adjoining mine and they had to carry out major structural work to their property. I was subsequently forced to move my tenant out to temporary accommodation for 3 months. I was in the process of putting on a new roof to my property. I then had to put on a temporary roof covering because it was agreed with the authority that there was no point putting on the new roof as they had to demolish and rebuild the adjoining party wall which was above my roof. It took the local council 21 months to sort their issues out from start finish. I wish to recover all my costs which amount to several thousand pounds. The temporary roof covering turned out to not be temporary at all plus we had loss of rents. Due to all the councils delays we incurred alot of hours travelling to the property for meetings where sometimes no one turned up. I really would be grateful if there is anyone who could help me . The stress for my tenant and myself has been awful. Thank you.

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!

I am acting as Guarantor on a rented property for someone who is now in serious rent arrears, to the tune of almost £3k. If I pay this off, does anyone know if can I then make a claim (small claims court maybe?) against them in order to try and get the money back? If so, has anyone done it? How easy is it? What power does the court have to compel the tenant to pay me? Thanks, dK

I have number of plastering defects around the flat that i rent from Radian housing association. Im a complete failure when it comes to anything diy related so have asked if they would do it as i feel it falls under their responsibility as quoting from their online documents i would only be responsible for 'filling minor cracks in plaster'. The defects are several 'plaster pops' where the head of a nail/screw protrudes out the wall with a head of plaster on it giving a kind of roundish raised head of cracked plaster which protrudes when any weight is put on the wall. you cant just plaster over it it has to be excavated, re-screwed then plastered over. Also lot of joins in the plaster where one or both edges move independently creating an unsealable crack unless the boards are fastened properly and then re plastered. They have ofc said that this dosent fall under their responsibility which from experience they always say when they feel they will get away with it anyway Should i chase them up on this? Thanks.

I need to find my joint tenant that owes me money. I need to know the best way to get this money assuming he does get a CCJ. Background I moved in with a "mate" on fixed term joint tenancy and we agreed on 50/50 split for rent & bills. My "mate" lost his job a couple months in so could not afford his share of the rent. He said (I have email with this too) that he would pay me back once he got a new job. He borrowed some money from family and made some contribution but not the full rent. I had to make up the difference to LL. I had to borrow some money from my bank to cover this. He got a new well paying job but then decided to "forget" his promises to repay his share of the rent. However, ongoing rent was paid 50/50, same too for bills (except the final ones). We agreed to give notice to LL/LA that would leave end of fixed term. Two weeks before he moved out leaving keys. LL/LA did check out and there were valid deductions for professional cleaning and some small damage to curtain pull cord in his room (I didn't check before the inspection, he wasn't present.) There are also outstanding amounts for the council tax and gas/electric/water bills. Main issues This "mate" has disappeared, unfriended on Facebook, not answering personal mobile, personal email, no forwarding address. This was about a month ago. I'm assumed he has found a new place to live "permanently". I haven't yet got the final figure for the council tax, I've informed them I've moved out. Not sure how to get that finalised quickly. I'm owed approx. £3500 and I believe his new job pays about £4000/month net. (I helped him review his application for his new job.) I'd like to take him to small claims but not sure how to get his address to serve papers. I have his bank account number and I have his business card with work address. He is Italian from Milan. Although I'm sure he is still in the London area (I've seen his twitter feed) and working for this English registered company. I'm concerned if he does get a CCJ that he will skip back to Italy - then what? Also not sure best chance to get money back, I don't think he has much of value and probably owes family for past rent too. I'm thinking attachment of earnings but also maybe bankruptcy, or even DCA?

On behalf of friend.. Hi all, my friend owns and lives at in one of three flats at an address in Surrey. Repairs were needed to roof as was leaking. There is no freeholder/landlord - known as 'absent landlord' and a deed of covenant for the address was signed by all leaseholders. Within this document, the process for repairs and splitting payment is explicitly relating to such an issue. i.e. majority decision rules and costs to be split three ways. In any case, all three tenants agreed to proceed with repairs after reviewing quotes. All tenants were consulted and agreed to the repairs. now one of them is refusing to pay saying there was no proper section 20 notice. My friend is c£2.5k out of pocket The non-paying tenant's solicitors have written to him saying there is no liability to pay and for any correspondence to directed to them. Letter Before Action was sent before receiving this letter directly to the defendant - and then forwarded to the solicitors too. Questions are simply: 1. Who is 'the Claimant' when using MCOL - the person or the solicitors 2. Any other advice is welcomed thank you v much for reading

I hope someone can help. I have just served a tenant a section 8 before I go to court to evict them. They owe £3680 in unpaid rent and this will increase on the 8th by another £1000. The debt has gone on for over a year now and as they are on benefits I am wondering what my options are to try and recover the money owed. Has anyone had any experience of this. Thanks

Back in August I moved into a 2 bedroom flat that was sold to me as a 2 bedroom self contained flat. The landlady is now beginning to cause me some issues. She keeps referring to me as a lodger, and the 'Lodgers Agreement'. True, I do have a lodgers agreement, but she does not live in the property. The landlady is getting shirty with me having people round, namely, I have begun dating someone, and she has an issue with him staying. She was quite vile to him the other day, and made reference to the fact that he is 'moving in'. This is not true, he occasionally stays over as we haven't known each other for very long, and he lives 2 hours away from me. She also went on to ask what I was doing for Christmas ('I assume she'll be spending Christmas with you') and told him details of my rent payments. My agreement does not saying anything about overnight guests, and this was first an issue at the end of October - the first time I had anyone other than my parents stay over (a couple of friends that had been to thee Halloween party my landlady hosted - she had known for weeks that they were staying). She will often text me to say she is staying on the sofa, as she likes to go out and get drunk in the town I am in. She has demanded to have access to the property at all times. My issue is this; I found out yesterday that it is not actually legal to have a lodger if you do not live in the property, and that would in fact, make me a tenant (thus me having more rights). I believe she is actually subletting. I'm planning on leaving as soon as I can, but in the mean time I would like to enjoy my home without fear of her pretty much harassing me. Any advice???

I moved out of a rented property in Aberdeen on the 15th of September 2016. It was a short assured tenancy for 6 months My landlord did not secure my deposit of £650 in any deposit scheme and only returned part of it (£500). I would like to submit a summary application for the remainder of the deposit and compensation but have only 6 more days to do this as it will soon be 3 months since I moved out. I don't live in Scotland anymore. Is it possible to submit a summary application by post or electronically? moved out of a rented property in Aberdeen on the 15th of September 2016. It was a short assured tenancy for 6 months My landlord did not secure my deposit of £650 in any deposit scheme and only returned part of it (£500). I would like to submit a summary application for the remainder of the deposit and compensation but have only 6 more days to do this as it will soon be 3 months since I moved out can someone please suggest a solicitor that can submit the summary application on my behalf and elp handle the process?

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

I am helping someone out. This one is abit over my head. Tenant took out a tenancy with a relative and also payed 1 months rent in advance and deposit of £900 ish. So far no payments have been delayed etc or have been held back. They moved in approx 3 years ago. As soon as tenants family moved in they took pictures of things that needed doing or proof of what condition the house was in. The landlord has been cooperative upto a point. Problems that have started to arise are : Floor boards creeking(loudly) : Steps moving up and down when used in stairway. : Several places where there are depressions as if the floor is giving way. : the carpets need repalcing in several rooms. (Every time carpet is worn landlord comes along and cuts the bit of and replaces with a small patch) There are other niggles etc. The main door which was replaced last year made of wood lets a lot of cold air in. Etc. Everytime this has been raised with the landlord he makes some sort of excuse. A week b4 xmas the cieling in the bedroom caved in due to a leaking water pipe. The land lord only took action when the tenants had a row with him in front of their children with the landlord being very very obnoxious. The landlord has now said that he is not happy and wants the property vacated. He is due to serve them with a s21 two month notice. What do they do ? There isnt a papr trail of any complaints made. The tenants would rather stay where they are than move. I am completely stuck as to what i could advise them about ?

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?

My Partner has rents out a small flat the previous tenant stopped paying rent for the last three months and did not vacate the flat until a Court Order was issued. The tenant overstayed by over two months from the end of the lease on top of being well out of pocket on the let, the Estate Agents are asking for another £400 for their fee because the tenant stayed on longer! They know the tenant did not pay, they know about the Court Order so to try and stick on an extra cost when the tenant was not wanted plus the loss of earnings my Partner incurred during the time the tenant stayed on because a new tenant could not be installed is adding insult to injury. Can that charge be challenged?

I need to serve a section 8 notice, I'm on the premises & can open the door to allow them to serve the tenants notice. The residence is a private residential address. I'm already staying on the premises, & I can open the door from the inside, & allow the bailiff in to serve notice. Is this legal? The tricky part is, I dont have a tenancy agreement to prove I live on the property, but I can prove I'm the landlord. & the tenants still have a tenancy contract AST on the property. Basically can the tenants claim forced entry, or something, if I allow a bailiff entry to serve notice?

Me and my ex have been renting a flat for just over a year, we have a child and have recently split up. When it was clear the relationship couldn't be saved I put in notice to end the tenancy agreement (It's a big expensive place that I didn't want to continue with on my own and she wouldn't be able to afford), she was asked to confirm which she did and we were given a moving out date. She confirmed she had arranged to move in with family with our child until she was able to arrange a place, I know that this is fact as I actually double checked and confirmed everything was in place to ensure both would be sorted when the flat was gone. She's now gone to the council in an attempt to obtain a council house and has been advised by them to not leave the property, even after our agreement has ended and the flat has supposed to be handed back. They'll then sort her a place when she has been evicted. This obviously isn't on. My guess is I can wave goodbye to my deposit if she goes through with this which in the grand scheme of things I'm a bit annoyed about but it isn't the end of the world. I'm more worried about if I could be taken to court for failing to leave the property (although I will have left) or if I could be liable for any rent she may tot up or anything along those lines? Will they take legal costs etc out of the deposit? Could I be blacklisted anywhere? Thank you!

My son rents out a property via an estate agent, despite repeated requests they are not releasing the rent. They have held this cash for 22 days now, blaming everything from money laundering to slow bacs payments. What can he do to make them pay the rent into his account.

Hi I have been staying at this property since 2009. I have a AST since. When I moved I paid a deposit to the landlord. Unfortunately I have lost receipt to the deposit but all the AST I have signed since state "Deposit: You will pay a deposit of £1150" and then it follows with what the deposit will be used for. All AST I have since 2009 include this statement. Is this proof that I paid this deposit? The reason I ask is that I have given notice to move out and I am worried that Landlord might create some issue if he finds I have lost the receipt. Also the landlord didn't use Deposit protection so if I have to reclaim deposit using court do I have enough to evidence to claim deposit? Thanks

Myself and three other students currently occupy a privately rented property in Southwark, London. The flat is pretty run down and we seem to have been stuck with a landlord who doesn't want to shell out any money despite the fact that we are paying £145 a week each! As soon as we moved in we noticed the washing machine door was bent and didn't catch properly, so we immediately informed the lettings agency who informed the landlord on or behalf that it was damaged, however he declined to have it looked at or repaired. After one initial breakdown that I managed to repair it packed up for good 02/10/15, so I immediately got onto the lettings agency again who informed the landlord that day that the washing machine had totally broken and there was nothing we could do about it. A couple of days later, instead of taking our word for it he sent a repairman round who took one look at it and said it was beyond repair and would have to be replaced, which was communicated to the lettings agency that day. After several more days we had heard nothing more on the situation and with mounting piles of washing I again contacted the lettings agency who said that the landlord was ordering the white goods (the engineer also recommended replacing the freezer) that evening - 12/10/15. After hearing no word from the company for three or four days I emailed them again, to which they replied that they would chase up the landlord. Now finally after weeks of pestering the landlord has finally ordered the goods to be delivered this Sunday (25/10/15). We have gone over three weeks without a washing machine simply because the landlord was too lazy to sort out a replacement despite being given several reminders, and we have had to pick up the cost of that. The house was furnished with white goods as part of our tenancy agreement and it is the landlord's responsibility for their maintenance, would we be entitled to ask for compensation? As essentially the landlord has failed to provide a service that we have been paying a huge amount of money for. All help would be appreciated, Cheers!

Okay here goes... After 13 years being a private tenant with a private landlord he decided to re mortgage the property. He's spent zero over that time except installing a new (£3500) boiler. He was a bit upset that as we smoke the place is simply ageing and has not been redecorated since god knows how many years before we moved in. He gave me the intimation that we should redecorate and keep the place 'sparkling'. It's a ground floor flat and since 2005 have never received an annual tenancy agreement. The annual gas safety check is sporadic as well ranging from 12 to 20 months. So as there was a deficit in rent totalling some 30% of monthly rent he decided to (on the cheap) issue an eviction notice (2 months). Since that I've spoken to him and actually he's very pleasant. He's agreed that with the arrears (now) paid and £100 extra a month in rent to forego the so called eviction. The months have passed however I feel a bit 'miffed' that he was IMHO pressuring us. Could someone tell me if his actions were warranted as he claimed he made so little he had no other choice than to consider selling the property? Okay I understand that in the area we are in the rent should be a lot more than we pay even with the £100 a month increase however he uses no agents so all it is, is we are paying his mortgage. M

I have been reading through the threads and I couldn't see anything to answer the current predicament I am in. I moved in as a new tenant on the 30th January 2015 and setup gas and electric with scottish power through a company (tenant Shop) who was given my details through the lettings agency. Scottish power setup electric and gas (or so I thought) through direct debit and then all was in place till about one month ago when we had a visit from MeterPlus who are partnered with Npower looking for a Mr Patel (previous tenant). He was informed that he no longer lives here and that was the end of it till yesterday morning when I heard some rattling outside they had returned and changed my meter to a prepayment meter and were unable to change it back unless I contacted Npower. After speaking to the reps (Npower) he said we received two requests from Scottish power and both were rejected on the grounds that debt was owed but, because the debt on the gas was apparently less they allowed that to be changed to Scottish Power but left the electric and continued to supply it until today. I explained I am a new tenant and had setup a connection with Scottish Power for electric and gas and I am not the previous tenant but they said I needed to inform them that I was a new tenant and now I need to pay the bills accrued for the last 6-MONTHS even though I never requested this from them and neither did they have authorisation from me. I have already spoken to members of their department and management team and filed a complaint due to their lack of communication and apparently not knowing I moved in as a new tenant even though their representative was informed and they accepted the application for changeover to gas but not electric. Based on this scenario my question is 1. Am I liable to pay this 6-month bill which has been accrued due to Npower assuming I am the original tenant and subsequently kept supplying me until yesterday when they changed it to a prepayment meter 2. They are requesting a meter reading from when I moved in if I am unable to provide it what is the next step to get an accurate bill (if I am liable) 3. Can I take any legal action against them for their clear failings to investigate thoroughly follow information through and for the unecessary time wasted and harrassment to me and my family. Any info would be greatly appreciated Thank you in advance

The number of tenants evicted from their homes is at a six-year high, according to new figures, as rising rents and cuts to benefits make tenancies increasingly unaffordable. County court bailiffs in England and Wales evicted more than 11,000 families in the first three months of 2015, an increase of 8% on the same period last year and 51% higher than five years ago. The increase in the number of tenants losing their homes means 2015 is on course to break last year’s record levels. Nearly 42,000 families were evicted from rental accommodation in 2014, the highest number since records began in 2000. http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/may/14/tenant-evictions-reach-six-year-high-rising-rents-benefit-cuts