Landlord entered in the house without notice

Nettletea_2

the lease said he should give us 24 hours notice.

we only found out he was in the house because some small stuff have been moved away from original places.
disgusted with landlord doing this. could we do anything to stop it happening again.

more info on our current situation. lease has expired end of last month, landlord didnt contact us and we stayed in the house without doing anything, assuming we are now on rolling contract. are we right to assume it?

I am a bit concerned about the deposit. The landlord didnt give us receipt of the deposit, which we paid by cheque on the day we sighed the contract. His excuse of not giving receipt was because the contract stated we should pay deposit before moving into the house, now we living in the house was the proof of our paid deposit.

I doubt the landlord has the deposit protected, and we are on rolling contract ( if we are), will we have trouble in getting our deposit back one day when we move out. he can say we didnt pay deposit.

by the way, we are good tenant, we pay rent timely and keep the house in good conditions.

missymugwump

No matter what your situation your deposit should have been protected in a scheme
At least you paid by chq so have a paper trail
You need to write to him giving him 7 days to provide the informtion & certificate to prove your deposit is secure

You have right to quiet enjoyment of the property so no your landlord cannot just pop in when he feels like

theartfullodger

Gee guys, sorry this is happening to you! Nasty..

Assuming you are in England...

Entering property without permission is illegal & can count as harrassment (& I'm a Landlord..!)
see..
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/eviction/harassment_and_illegal_eviction/what_counts_as_harassment

You need to be given 24hrs notice before he can come in. Unless there is, for example, a date in the tenancy agreed upfront (say every 1st Wednesday of the month at 14:00).

re. the deposit if (I assume tenancy was after April 2007) is not in a protection scheme landlord can be fined 3 times the deposit.. see..
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TenancyDeposit/index.htm

and...
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/housing/privatehousing/landlord/protectionscheme.asp

Quote "
Penalties
If the landlord fails to comply with the legal provisions there are remedies available to the tenant.
A landlord must provide information about which scheme they have joined, in a prescribed form within 14 days. If they do not do this then landlords will be unable to use a section 21 notice to end the tenancy. The tenant can apply to the court asking for the prescribed information. Failure to comply with this request within 14 days means the court must either
Order the landlord to pay the deposit back to the tenant

Or

Order the landlord to pay the deposit to a scheme.
The court will also be able to order the landlord to pay to the tenant a fine of three times the deposit amount with 14 days.
We recommend you use these sites to find out more or risk the penalties being applied. Use the links provided in the right hand panel 'other useful websites'.


"

Cheers & Good luck! Nobody should be treated the way you are treated....

Lodger

Rick62

Change the locks (very easy), keep the old ones to change back when you leave.

Snooze

Rick62 wrote: »

Change the locks (very easy), keep the old ones to change back when you leave.

Just make sure you don't tell him, your neighbours nor anyone else that knows him and don't let anyone see you do it :eek:.

Btw there's another thread on this subject about LLs entering property without prior arrangement on the first page of this forum which is worth your while reading.

Rob

poppy10_2

Snooze wrote: »

Just make sure you don't tell him, your neighbours nor anyone else that knows him and don't let anyone see you do it

As long as the original locks are restored and the property is returned to the LL in its original condition at the end of the lease, then it is none of the landlord's business. He has committed an illegal act of trespass by entering the home without permission.

frank.hopper

we only found out he was in the house because some small stuff have been moved away from original places

Did you call your LL and ask why he had had entered your home?

blondali

Sorry to hear about your situation it can be very upsetting to know someone has entered your property without your permission! Similar thing happened to me a few years ago when I was renting a flat through a letting agency. The problem was the agent though an not the landlord, the agent kept sending people round with keys so they could just let themselves in without giving any warning! We changed the locks an when the agency and landlord found out they came round to make us change them back but we refused point blank and told them to take it to court if they felt that strongly but we would not put the original locks back on as we could not trust the agent and believed they had breached the contract! They gave up after that and we lived there happily from then on.

poppysarah

I think if they took you to court the judge would say "you have to give access for repairs" and "change them back when you go" and if the landlord happens to be walking past when an emergency strikes "he can break in and charge you for the repair"
Which I'd be happy to deal with.

Re: landlord & keys - I'd want to know where the keys were stored, whether they had an address attached, who had access to them and what security measures they took to safeguard them.

For the record: council's don't keep copies of your keys and I think that's a good enough comparison to make. If you lose your key you can either get a locksmith yourself or get the council to do a lock change. They would charge for it - but I think it's the right thing to do.

If people aren't convinced then they should ring their insurance and ask them if they're covered if someone uses a key to enter the propery and something gets broken/stolen.