Just want to leave..:'(

itwasyou86

Hey, I'm new here I was just wondering if I could get some advice.
Last September I signed an assured shorthold tenancy agreement for 12 months. I am now 7 months into this agreement and cannot take living here much longer.

When I moved in, all the bills were split equally and everything was fine, the house had some minor problems such as the light switch in my bedroom became loose. This was fixed after a few months of my moving in after my mum came up to visit and kicked off when she saw it.

Now, however, I don't know how much more I can realistically take, yes, I'm a student, I know there is a bad reputation where we're concerned as we always seem to want to get out of things easily, this is not what I'm after. I genuinely can't take anymore and I feel that it's starting to affect my wellbeing.

Just after I went home for the Christmas holidays, one of the people living here moved out, she somehow put the gas and the electric in my name although that didn't concern me as it's pay as you go.
I was then (when I returned from my Christmas break home) pressured into having the Virgin Media put in my name, however this is not now a problem because my dad is helping me cover it and I can take it with me when I leave.

So now..after coming back after Christmas, I came back to find that the other person living here had lost his job, I thought fair enough, with the amount of unemployment at the moment it's easy to understand that he's lost it. So I went out of my way to cover the gas and electric bills, these are meant to be shared. This was on the understanding that he'd start contributing again once he'd found a job. He didn't. It wouldn't have been nearly as bad if he'd actually contributed to cleaning the house, afterall, I had to then spend more money on cleaning equipment to clean the mess he was making.
Now he has a 'Temporary' job and is starting to pay us a little amount each week. Last week the electric ran onto emergency, I had to get my mum to cover it because he'd ran out of money. I asked him for it back so I could pay my mum back and he got really rude and just said "I don't have any more til next week" so I asked him if he could cover it next week, again with the attitude; "I don't know, I'll see if I can afford it."
The next day, he brings his girlfriend home, and completely trashes the kitchen, I mean food and water all over the floor from where he'd washed up (The first time he'd washed up in a month because he had a big bowl of crap sitting in the kitchen for 3-4 weeks before he cleaned it just so he could use it then put it back again), onion, sauce and other bits all over the cooker, etc, he just completely trashed it. We phoned the landlady, saying that what was on the floor was just disgusting and we're not touching it. (We being me and my boyfriend, who both rent here), she phoned him immediately and told him to clean it. It's still in a state now.
It's not only things like this though, he knows that the amount of money going on the electric at the moment needs to be looked after and not wasted, yet he leaves the hot water switch on every time he goes in the shower, it runs on electric therefore wastes it. I've told him time and time again to turn it off, everyone else manages it okay, I understand once or twice but it's every single time he uses the darn thing.
He plays loud music for most of the night, where from the type of music it is all we hear through the wall is screaming.

Now onto the house itself, we notified the landlady months ago that there is considerable damp in the front room, this wasn't noticed by us before as the person who moved out at Christmas used it for a bedroom at the time, so until we got back after Christmas we didn't know of it. Now we do, and we notified the landlady in January, she said to us "Oh, you can just paint over that, chose a colour and we'll get the paint." "But" we said "It's damp, it'll keep coming through, and theres mould too. The wall is rotting for goodness sake." she said "Well I don't intend on getting it fixed until we sell the house."

?????????????/

Back to the bloke thats living here, through everything he's done, we've informed the landlady, now, when we came back after christmas, we moved into the bigger room at the front of the house, that means my old room went up for rent, it's been up for rent since christmas and no one wants to move in. This guy's contract ends in July, so he'll probably be leaving then, but his room is 3x smaller than my old one, so if no one wants my old one at it's quite decent size, who is going to want his room? We've told her about all the problems that he's been causing, and she said she cant sort him out until after the council have paid his rent because he lost his job he hasn't paid any rent since December 08, so she said if she comes down and has a go at him now before the rent is paid then he could just walk away and then the house would be repossessed.
So why can't we just walk away?
But no in all seriousness I suppose my question is, I've been reading up on Assured Shorthold Tenancies, and this is the contract I have, I've been reading up on them and I've found most places say with an AST, you can end the tenancy after 6 months if you give 2 months notice. Can I do this?
Because it says in my contract that we can move out after 6 months if we give 2 months notice but then theres another bit that says if we do move out after the 6 months but before the end of the contract then we'll be liable to pay legal costs and letting fees etc of trying to rent the room out after we leave. The problem with that is, if no one wants to move in, then they'll be advertising the room for ages, but also, she's been advertising my old room yet she's not been through any agents, all she's done is posted it up on websites etc and got a large poster blown up to stick in our front window.

But also, it's not just the bloke and the damp, we've got holes in the walls letting all the heating out, we've got a large hole in the floor in the front room, not extremely huge but big enough to break something if you tripped over it by mistake.

Plus, when I moved in there was a ton of trash in the alleyway, this was promised to be cleared last year, it's still there rotting away now. I believe this is a health hazard?

Honestly though it's gotten to the point where I'm having nightmares about this place and money, I woke up crying this morning just from a dream that I went significantly overdrawn and got taken to court. All I really want to do is work on my degree and live in a warm house that doesn't have a complete **** living in it and that doesn't give me a cold every few weeks. I also don't want to have to blow half my student loans just to pay 3 shares of gas and electric every week.

Please help me out? Can I leave? If I give my two months notice now will I be bombarded with legal costs? I don't know...I just need to leave before it drives me insane.:mad:


Thanks for reading, I appreciate any feedback.

Gangstabird

I think I would write all of this down, send it recorded delivery to your landlady and leave straight away. Tell her to get lost and take you to court. It's my bet she will not.

itwasyou86

To be honest I don't think we'd lose even if she did take us to court but it'd just be the stress of it with uni aswell.
If it wasn't for the fees etc which I don't even know if we'd have to pay, I'd pack up and leave tonight, it's just beyond a joke.

Errata

If you got the room through the University Lettings Office, speak to them.

Gangstabird

What fees?

itwasyou86

In the contract, it says we can leave after 6 months if we give 2 months notice, but then under that it says if we did we'd have to pay a portion of the legal fees for reletting the room, but no one wants to live here.

Pigster_2

I think Gangstabird's first post is spot on. Just get out of there and move on.

Pepzofio

Does your Uni have a welfare officer/lettings department? If so, take your tenancy agreement to them and ask what they think of the breakout clauses - hard to say exactly what you would be liable for without seeing it, but given the state of the place as you describe it LL could have more to lose by taking you to court...

If they can't help, try your local CAB or the Council's Housing Section for advice. Take pics of all the things you've mentioned (hole, in floor, rubbish in alley, mould/damp on walls etc) and keep a record of when you've reported what to the landlady. Try to put things in writing & keep copies if possible. This all just covers you in case she does try to take you to court for rent/relet fees.

You mentioned it was an AST so presumably you paid a deposit - do you know if this has been put in a tenancy deposit scheme? As if so you could potentially sue LL for 3xdeposit...

neas

sounds like you sharing with a bum :P.

sandraroffey

lanlords are supposed to be registered with the local council. and they are also supposed to keep the place up to scratch; thats why they are registered. get onto the housing/health department at the council. they can make thelandlord put it right.

ninky_2

This reminds me of my experiences of shared living and why I have every sympathy for people who don't want to live in shared rented accommodation. Being pretty antisocial I much prefer being on my own / with a partner.

Remember it is only temporary (hard, I know, when some selfish half wit has made a mess in the kitchen or playing !!!!!! music through the night).

Whatever you do make sure the bills that are in your name are settled and that they you inform the utilities yourself when you want them cut off (from your name). I was naive / stupid as a student and got stung before by others who agreed to pay things and didn't and got left holding the (financial) baby.

I would give notice to your landlandy now (and tell her why). I don't know about the legalities of your AST. You could try asking your LL first. If she says you must stay to the end of the tenancy then seek further advice.