Absentee cowboy Landlord issues

[HeadMelt89]

Hi.

I am going to be attending the CAB in regards to this problem, but since I have been reading this forum for sometime now, I felt I should join and ask about my situation.

 

We have a very worrying problem with our landlord who to put it mildly is a cowboy.

We moved into the property back in June 2011 and had signed an agreement and all was well. Since then we have not seen nor heard from him. Nor have we received any rental agreement to sign within the past 3 years. We are in N.Ireland so some of our rental laws do vary in accordance with Great Britain.

As of Febuary 2015 all landlords were meant to have signed up to the mandatory landlord register, ours has not. Nor have we had any mandatory gas inspection since January 2013.

 

I tried to contact him about the gas issue and everytime the phone rang it was typically hung up straight away. It was once answered and as soon as I said hello, hung up. I followed this up with text messages and finally received a reply two days later.

He is claiming we have rent arrears and that we should pay the gas servicing out of our own pocket and he will take the total off the arrears.

We did end up having to apply for housing benefit as I we are both at university and have 3 young kids and with education cuts, my wife lost her teaching job. I do accept that we did miss out on a few montly payments that were suppose to be £25. I believe we may owe around £300 but we were never contacted by him about this and around 4 weeks ago I sent a payment of £50 and a letter stating that if he could mail us the full amount owed, then we could pay him this.

4 weeks on and no reply. We are planing to move next year as this is just not worth it. With young kids I am worried sick.

 

I can't pay off arrears if I don't know exaclty how much it is I owe?

 

I looked into the guy and it appears, according to HMRC that he is the type of person to stop and start companies non stop.Very dodgy looking indeed.

 

As said, I am heading to the CAB this week and hope to gain as much advice as possible. I do not wish to legally challenge him at all untill we have a new home lined up and ready to move. My understanding is that since we have not had a legal agreement in 3 years that I do not need to give him any notice of leaving?

 

Any help would be great,

thanks

[citizenB]

Shelter might also be able to answer some of your questions.

 

https://england.shelter.org.uk/

 

0808 274 6218

[45002]

Hi.

I am going to be attending the CAB in regards to this problem, but since I have been reading this forum for sometime now, I felt I should join and ask about my situation.

 

We have a very worrying problem with our landlord who to put it mildly is a cowboy.

We moved into the property back in June 2011 and had signed an agreement and all was well. Since then we have not seen nor heard from him. Nor have we received any rental agreement to sign within the past 3 years. We are in N.Ireland so some of our rental laws do vary in accordance with Great Britain.

As of Febuary 2015 all landlords were meant to have signed up to the mandatory landlord register, ours has not. Nor have we had any mandatory gas inspection since January 2013.

 

I tried to contact him about the gas issue and everytime the phone rang it was typically hung up straight away. It was once answered and as soon as I said hello, hung up. I followed this up with text messages and finally received a reply two days later.

He is claiming we have rent arrears and that we should pay the gas servicing out of our own pocket and he will take the total off the arrears.

We did end up having to apply for housing benefit as I we are both at university and have 3 young kids and with education cuts, my wife lost her teaching job. I do accept that we did miss out on a few montly payments that were suppose to be £25. I believe we may owe around £300 but we were never contacted by him about this and around 4 weeks ago I sent a payment of £50 and a letter stating that if he could mail us the full amount owed, then we could pay him this.

4 weeks on and no reply. We are planing to move next year as this is just not worth it. With young kids I am worried sick.

 

I can't pay off arrears if I don't know exaclty how much it is I owe?

 

I looked into the guy and it appears, according to HMRC that he is the type of person to stop and start companies non stop.Very dodgy looking indeed.

 

As said, I am heading to the CAB this week and hope to gain as much advice as possible. I do not wish to legally challenge him at all untill we have a new home lined up and ready to move. My understanding is that since we have not had a legal agreement in 3 years that I do not need to give him any notice of leaving?

 

Any help would be great,

thanks

 

http://www.shelterni.org/

028 9024 7752

 

http://www.housingadviceni.org/advice-private-tenants

 

http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/landlord-and-tenant-obligations