Desperate for some advice on a tenancy agreement problem

[twpburton]

Hi everyone, i'll try to keep this fairly brief.

 

I am in a tenancy agreement with my fiancee. She has been here for about 2 1/2 years. The original contract in 2011 was for 6 months and at the end she was offered a further 6 month extension. She requested a clause for her to be able to give notice of 1 month to move out. This was accepted and put into the extension. We have been offered 6 month extensions since. Our current one ends in August.

 

We are wanting to move out to a friend's house that he will be privately renting (bigger house, lower rent, no letting fees etc etc). We gave our 1 month notice a couple of weeks ago but had a phone call from the letting agent to say the clause was not present in the current tenancy agreement. They went on to say it only existed in the first 6 month extension (after original contract) and was taken out in further renewels.

 

Double checking this, to our dismay we have found they are right. We have signed them and there is no sign of this clause. First question, are they allowed to take this clause out without discussing with us first? We had no idea it had been removed although yes we should have noticed before we signed.

 

We then requested an early surrender to the landlord via our letting agent. He came back and said we could move out in mid July and pay him £225 compensation. This is no good to us as we were expecting to be moved in by mid June and don't want our friend to be out of pocket. We are getting married in September so can't really afford 2 x rent for a month. I counter offered £100 and let us move out in June. I also said that if he refused then I would like him to repair several things in the house which have been waiting to be repaired since the first inspection my fiancee had back in 2011!!

 

He came back and said he wasn't happy letting us leave in June, and he would "look into" (same as he's always said) the repairs but if he had to spend out then he would make us stay until August when our tenancy is up.

 

The repairs needed are as follows: Exterior of the house - window ledges are rotten and the yard is in a poor state. Cooker - leaking heat which causes the far end of the kitchen to become very warm, there is a cupboard over the cooker, the heat makes a lot of the food go off quicker but nowhere else to store food. Bathroom needs a complete replacement. Pipes behind bath/shower tiles are leaking and after early inspection, the engineer recommended a complete replacement of the shower/bath. We have a small victorian style bath, but he recommended taking it out and putting a shower tray in. Toilet pipes also leak.

 

Our only repair that has taken place is the boiler. We were without hot water from Sept 2012 - Dec 2012. 3 months in my mind is completely unreasonable. Would this constitute a breach of the landlords responsibilities? We were contacting the letting agency pretty much every 3 days to find out the status of the boiler repair and getting nowhere. Shortly after the boiler was replaced, the letting agent had a quote done on the bathroom. This was in January and nothing has been done since despite several attempts to chase up.

 

Landlord lives in Australia and letting agency are very difficult to communicate with. They put blame on the fact he lives on the other side of the world and is hard to reach, yet he hides behind the agency and lets them deal with us. I've requested a conference call at the agency with the landlord to which i've not had a response. They never phone us, it is always us chasing them up.

 

I'd appreciate any advice on this as we really want to move out in June. We are annoyed because its not fair on our friend and we feel because of the fact the clause was put into an extension the landlord must obviously have agreed to it in the first place. We are going to try and seek some advice from citizens advice but if anyone on here has some advice i'd really appreciate it.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom

[raydetinu]

It would appear that these are not extensions to an existing contract, but NEW 6 month contracts each time.

therefore as such you are bound by them.

Your only way out is to negotiate and early end to the contract or be liable to the end of the contract.

did you pay a deposit and was it protected? may be forfeit the deposit to leave early?

You may be able to sue for compensation for the lack of a boiler/heat, but you take your chance in court.

The other points should have been sorted, but not relevant now you want to move.

[twpburton]

Hi thanks for the reply, they are definitely extensions as they say extension on them.

 

I've got an appointment on Monday at citizens advice. Are they legally bound to tell us of changes if they are as I am sure, extensions?

 

Surely he is breaching sec 11 of the tenancy act saying repairs should be carried out as soon as possible? He has agreed to start the repairs now, but surely too late 2 years after first reporting them?? Especially as we will be gone in August. We are essentially paying for his repairs from the rent.

[raydetinu]

See below for advice about repairs-

http://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/23392/Shelter_Guide_Getting_Repairs_Done_Nov_2012.pdf

 

Clue: if as you say the contract was extended then there would only be a reference to the dates and the clauses would be the same!

no need to mention amounts, deposits etc.; however if they had changed something then yes that would have to agreed and be acknowledged by you.

A particular clause added or crossed out/deleted.

If you have signed an AST then it would be a new one. does it say extension on the actual contract or just in a covering letter.

perhaps you could post up the actual document.

If there is a difference of opinion between parties ( tenant and LL not LA ) then mediation or court would have to decide; no matter what others might say including me.