Urgent advice needed

[roboraver]

Hi All

Need some urgent advice as not sure what to do. Our landlord of 5 years has not carried out a gas safty check at all and although we have mentioned this to him on a number of times (As the boiler is making very loud banging sounds when in use) he has not done anything to date about it.

Further more we discovered over the weekend that the bedroom wall that is backing onto the bathroom has mould all over it so it looks like there is a leak from the bathroom somewhere. Bearing in mind this is a 1 bedroom property we have moved in the the main living room (myself, my partner and 3 year old son !)

We still do have the original tenency agreement but this ran out years ago and we have not signed another one in at least 3 years ! We are 1 month behind on rent, but came to a verbal agreement that this will be paid back once my son finished nursery (As the fee's are extreamly high !)

 

We are also on the council waiting list and have been for the last 3 years but are in a very low band. If we could afford to move out we would tomorrow !

 

Now before contacting the council can anyone offer any advice ?

[surfaceagentx20]

Have you made all of your concerns clear to your landlord, in particular, have you made a demand for a copy of the gas safety certificate? If not, do it all in writing today.

If you have already and the landlord has ignored you for in excess of 28 days, I recommend you contact your local council environmental health officer / department and tell them about your general concerns regarding the condition of your property and how you have been ignored. Your landlord has the responsibilities for maintaining the basic standards set out in section 604 (1) of the Housing Act 1985. If there has been a breach of one or more of these minimum requirements you may have a claim against your landlord for damages for housing disrepair.

I also recommend you refer the specifics about gas safety to the Health and Safety Executive. Frankly, whether or not 28 days have elapsed it needs seeing to right now.

x2-

[roboraver]

Than you for the reply, I have not sent a letter yet (As we do not have his current address and the letting agency that we 1st used has gone bust !).

 

I will write a letter today requesting it and will ask him to collect it (He normally only comes around on rent day to collect his letters and rent in cash at the end of month)

[surfaceagentx20]

If you have no address for the service of documents on your landlord and the letting agency has gone bust, this is a most unsatisfactory state of affairs. The failure to provide an address for service is a further breach of a landlord's obligations. It also enables you to withhold rent for so long as you do not have his address.

 

It could be some time before the landlord gets around to dealing with this and whereas ordinarily a landlord's obligation to attend to disrepair kicks in on receiving notice, if there is no address at which to deliver notice, it would be reasonable to by pass the usual requirement and unreasonable to expect you to deliver a notice to to a landlord whose address is unknown to you.

 

Trouble is, where would you address your proceedings?

 

If you've mentioned your worries to him before by word of mouth and he's done nothing, I'd get hold of the council and the HSE straight away without bothering with him collecting a letter from you etc. As you say, you only seee his face when he collects the rent. The housing conditions are dreadful. Involve responsible people at the council and HSE now and get thingsd moving. Avoid leaving things to an irresponsible landlord.

 

x20

[roboraver]

Thank you all, have just come of the phone with the council, they will pass on details to another department and some one will come around to inspect it, I hope it's sooner rather then later.

[MrShed]

Most importantly is what SA said above. Until you receive notification of a contact address for the landlord in England and Wales formally(via a Section 20 notice) you are NOT OBLIGED to pay rent, NOR can you be evicted.

[roboraver]

But doesnt with holding rent mean we could be evicted as it is a offence ? bearing in mind we are already 1 months rent in arrears (But have a verbal agreement to pay off) but he could use the 2 months of not paying rent t get us evicted ?

 

I mean does the section 20 take prefernece over a section 21 (I think, not sure if thats the one about landlords being able to evict tenants that have not paid rent for 2 months)

[MrShed]

No withholding rent cannot get you evicted, as you have no contact details for the landlord - it is unlawful for the landlord to charge rent without a valid S20 notice in place.

 

HOWEVER, if and when he DOES serve it, you must pay ALL of the rent including that backdated. With that in mind, pay it each month into a different account.

[roboraver]

Well things have moved on a fair bit.

 

I contacted the council who came around and were shocked about the boiler took his telephone number and said 'dont worry we will contact him'.

 

A few days later a odd job man appeared and said 'this pipe and that pipe need to be changed, will be back in a few hours with the bits'. Still waiting and no Gas Safty Certificate.

 

Called the Health & Safety people who came around and found mould / dampness in one of the rooms. Again they said 'dont worry we will contact'.

 

Roll on to today and just found a letter put in via the postbox from the landlord serving a S21 notice !! giving us until the 15th of Nov to move out. I though that it was at least 2 months ? and why do I get the feeling they are being rather bitter because I contacted the council about the gas safety check !

[MrShed]

IF he hasnt yet served you a S20, then you can successfully defend the S21 notice

[roboraver]

no he has not served a S20 at all, and we still do not have the address ! (shocking I know). The environmental health people are coming around tommorrow morning to look at the damp / mould and the blocked drains outside !

 

How do I defend it ? If I dont have his address to send any correspondence to ?

[MrShed]

Dont worry about it.

 

Await confirmation from the courts on the matter, then write back to the court stating that you wish to defend.

[roboraver]

OK thank you for the advice ! will update tommorrow after the visit of the H & S people !

[Just4Let]

Most importantly is what SA said above. Until you receive notification of a contact address for the landlord in England and Wales formally(via a Section 20 notice) you are NOT OBLIGED to pay rent, NOR can you be evicted.

 

Should this not be a Section 48 notice??

 

All tenants have the right to have an address upon which they can serve notices. This you can request from an agent/Landlord and by law they have to furnish you with such an address within 21 days of you requesting it.

[MrShed]

No - S48 is for when you request address details from an agent. S20 is the notice that must be supplied at the beginning of the tenancy with the valid address details to serve notice on.

[Just4Let]

Section 48 Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 states that: "A landlord of premises to which this Part applies shall by notice furnish the tenant with an address in England & Wales at which notices (including notices in proceedings) may be served on him by the tenant."

[MrShed]

Sorry - yes you may be right, wrong section quoted

[roboraver]

So I should ask for a section 48 , I will do but I doubt that they will comply at all so what is the penalty for non complience ?

 

A slight update, the environmental health and safety came again and say that although there is damp / wet wall its not that bad and we should leave the windows open ................yeah right.

[MrShed]

I personalyl wouldnt ask them ANYTHING. It is not up to you to tell them what they need to do. Without a valid name and address, they cannot legally charge you rent nor evict you. Let them figure it out when it comes to court and be confused when your defence is successful

[Just4Let]

I agree here.

Don't say anything.

The idea of a section 48 is that you can serve notices upon the Landlord etc but it's also there for you to send your rent payments to.

The law will look on this as you not having the facility to send payments as you have no address to send them to.

 

I would suggest though that you place the rent in a separate account and don't spend it, just in case!

[MrShed]

Definitely agree with J4L on the last point - apart from anything else, the back rental payments will become due when the notice is finally served.

[roboraver]

Well the 1st has come and gone and no contact yet, will print out the information about the s48 & s21 for when the date on the s21 which he served (Which I suppose is then he will come around for the keys).

 

Still no Gas Safty check yet and the damp is still bad (Leaving the windows open during the day when I am work is not really a option on a ground floor flat where I live !, I might as well leave the door open).

[MrShed]

Have you spoken to Environmental Health about this yet?

[roboraver]

Yes on a number of occasions over the last 3 weeks, they keep on trying to contact him but have not been able to........:-?, I have a feeling that as the boiler will need to be replaced, they won't do it until after the date of the s21 (e.g. they are expecting us to move so are holding out for that and avoiding any contact with Health people !)

[tiaposy]

bump