whos in the right?

[sarahgailey]

hi, i am currently renting off a private landlady. our tenancy ran out at the end of march and she has allowed us to stay on a month to month basis (no idea why she didnt renew it). there are a few quires on which id like to know.

 

* we have had a text from the landladys son saying that his cousin will be round to do an inspection at 8pm tomorrow evening.. are we within our rights to refuse due to it being an unreasonable time as we have our kids in bed by then.

and is she allowed to send someone else to do the inspection for her?

 

* we have held the last 2 months rent back, due to her failing to provide her reciepts. atleast once a week we have her son or his cousin kicking our door, threatening aggressive behaviour. is this harrasment?

 

* her son has tried saying tonight that he has full owneeship of her house as she has signed it over to him.. although we have not seen anything to prove this. are they within there rights to do that without informing us?

 

thankyou for your time reading this, any information would be truly appreciated.

[Kitten1]

Why are you witholdind the rent? Which reciepts are you waiting for? IMHO I'd say witholding any rent is going to cause you problems straight away. There are certain situations when this would be justified such as failure to make repairs but otherwise it could put you at risk of eviction.

 

Nobody should be kicking your door tho.

[brokebutnotbeatn]

Once a tenancy agreement comes to its term it usually converts to a rolling monthly tenancy.; this is normal You were not within your rights to withhold rent (receipts for what?). If the receipts are payments you can show these via bank statements - I've never received or sent receipts for rent. You have to give 24 hours notice of an inspection but of course you are within your rights to reschedule. However if your kids are in bed then you could grant the inspection but exclude their rooms. If you have not withheld your rent then you would be in a stronger position. There are some good websites that can advise you further regarding tenancy rights. Unfortunately when relations between landlord and tennant break down it is apt to get messy. I would be inclined to pay the arrears and then try and understand what the issues actually are. If it is because the son has taken the property on then she may well be looking for you to move, in which case she should give you notice (usually 2 months) but you should be prepared for this I think.

[sarahgailey]

we are withholding the rent as 1 the landlord wants it cash in hand, so we have nothing to say we are actually paying. and 2 because we have waited for our lock on our front door to be fixed for two months, still not been done and it is completley unusable so we are having to use back door.

[brokebutnotbeatn]

OK. So you could have repaired the lock yourself after giving the landlord approrpaite notice to arrange a repair? Withholding rent puts you in a very vulnereable position. The lanldord cannot evict you without going to court as long as you are meeting the terms of your tenancy agreement and they do not have good reason (such as they are selling the property!). Nor can they harrass you as they have been doing. Incidently not carrying out basic repairs is also a form of harrassment. There are lots of good advice sites on line including direct [dot] gov [dot] uk. If you have been paying cash, do you have a rent book? Did you put your complaints about the broken lock in writing?