Can I get out of my tenancy agreement?

clutton_2

""
Originally Posted by tbs624
... quote the law at them and say that if they have not fixed it within the next 7 working days, and come to some agreement with you on the resultant high electricity bills then you will seek recompense through the courts and an early termination of the contract.""

this wont get miss ratty anywhere - if the LL knows she is gonna walk out why will he repair the boiler ? - he will just wait for the next poor sod to come along and sign an AST.

i agree that since you re-signed the contract this implies an implicit acceptance of the conditions and will go against you in court

i would find somewhere else asap and move on - surely you know that you are worth much more than to continue to live in this awful place and be treated this badly ? Stop wasting your energy here - this LL is rubbish- move somewhere else thats nicer and get on with your life. Take him to court for the extra electric expenses.

By continuing to stay here you are keeping your self in the role of victim which the LL has forced you into.

tbs624

Incisor wrote: »

Too short. I would say 14 [calendar] days to provide undertakings in writing and 28 days to fix. It's OK to say 7 days to fix if all you are going to do is throw a hissy fit. But here, the OP is terminating the contract so what is required is to show to the court that she is being reasonable if it goes that far.............

If this was the first, second or even third time that the OP had requested that the problem be resolved, and they'd been without hot water for a week I'd agree with you Incisor , but check back through what s/he said:

Miss_Ratty wrote: »

.............Basically, we haven't had any hot water at the property for 13 months, and when it came to renewal time, we were assured the issue would be resolved. It hasn't. I've written to Watchdog, the Ferret, CAB, etc etc, and to the letting agents, to complain.................We've received a bill for £1,800 for a quarter of electricity (this is due to the problem with the boiler), and we are still getting nowhere with the agents. Surely they have breached thier own contract by refusing to sort the problem? We have done everything by the book, and are just at the end of our tethers.

IMO that's a clear breach of one of a LL's most basic legal obligations to their tenants, and to suggest that theLl/LA then be given another 14 days to come up with a plan , & allow another 28 days to get it fixed is taking the concept of what's reasonable to absolute extremes.They've already had plenty of notice that the job needed doing. Emergency plumbers are there for ...erm....emergencies, and the LL needs to get his/her hand in their pocket and get it sorted pronto.

I personally wouldn't have renewed a contract with such an appalling LL/LA, and as the OP has said that they've tried everything the local Councillor and the local press should also be considered.:LLs like this deserve to go out of business and other tenants should be made aware.

alnorris

This is absolutely appalling! :mad: It's Landlords like this who give the rest of us a bad name! Yes, I'm a a Landlord and like to think I'm a really good one! I would never leave a tenant in this situation for so long. I have an apartment that I rent out but is managed by an agency as I'm so far away. However, the tenant contacted me directly last year as he had been having trouble getting repairs done via the agency. I was furious and contacted them immediately and it was sorted out pretty quickly, but he shouldn't have had to call me and I made that very clear to them. If they step out of line again, they've had it! :mad:

Anyway, back to your issue. As well as being a Landlord, I'm married to a Solicitor which is really handy! You may have signed the agreement for a further fixed term, but remember that this is a 2-way agreement between you and the Landlord (not the letting agency) and is a legal document. It would appear from what you've said that the Landlord is clearly breaching the terms of this contract and I firmly believe that you have a strong case to take the Landlord to the Small Claims Court. I would recommend that you get legal advice concerning this. It sounds like you have plenty of evidence to back up your claim. No Landlord in their right mind would want to be dragged through the Small Claims Court so I would suggest that after you've got your advice, you write to the Landlord (copy it to the Letting Agency) and say that you are giving 14 days notice for them to rectify the problem or you will be taking legal action against them in the Small Claims Court as they are clearly breaching their terms of the tenancy agreement and you may be eligible to rental compensation. Hopefully, this will be enough to make them finally take action.

Don't give up and good luck!

kmmr

I hazard a guess that this has been resolved!

BitterAndTwisted

Or the OP has died of old age since starting this thread