Landlord not declaring me living there!

olly300

j3ayy wrote: »

Thanks for the response, there is no evidence that we live there, the house is split up into three floors the landlady lives on the bottom floor,another lass lives on the next floor & me & my friend live on the top floor.
we give her cash into her hand & she as a little black book that she crosses off when we've paid her.
As for certificates & stuff i dont know what she has but my boyfriend keeps asking me to ask her for a copy of the Gas landlord safety certificate!

I have every intention of paying her back but i dont like how she keeps saying shes gonna take me to court!

The little black book is evidence.

If she lived in the same building then you don't have the protection of an assured shorthold tenancy as you are what is called an occupier with basic protection. So you have very few rights. And courts aren't interested in Gas certificates etc once you have moved out of the property.

As long as she wasn't claiming single person's discount from the council then she was not breaking the law.

Just agree to pay her back rent in monthly instalments you can afford. (Don't take the !!!! though with the instalment amounts.) Put it in writing, state that you enclose the first payment as a cheque and put the cheque number in the letter. Send the letter with the cheque enclosed to her by recorded delivery and keep both a copy of the letter and the receipt.

She is unlikely to take you to court as long as you pay her according to the schedule you have set.

chewmylegoff

00ec25 wrote: »

leaving aside the rights or wrongs or you paying or not this sounds worse and worse!

a 3 storey property in which 3 households live, who are not related to each other, is classed as a "House in Multipe Occupation" or HMO

your council will enforce various rules and regulations over the standard of furnishings and safety of the property, could this be why it is cash in hand and the CT bill is still in her name?
I would inform the council if nothing else as my civic duty, the property (in the eyes of the council) may be a death trap

(PS I am LL for a declared HMO and have paid to get all the jobs done the little town hall egos demanded, I and my tenants are now much safer than we were before the rgs were introduced..... I have owned the property 15 years before the regs.... me? cynical? get out of here!)

BTW - if she ever went to court, the fact it is cash payment means legally she must give you a copy of a formal rent book - failure to do so is an offence

he says he was in a self contained flat so no HMO.

j3ayy

olly300 wrote: »

As long as she wasn't claiming single person's discount from the council then she was not breaking the law.

As far as i am aware she is claiming single persons discount as she is the only declared person at the house!

We had a shared bathroom & toilet with the flat down stairs!

owitemisermusa

Jayy, just make a plan to pay her and stick to it. Try and come to a mutually beneficial agreement and sort this out. Go out on a limb and be nice, who knows, she might see reason.
Ignore folks telling you to do silly stuff.

Jowo_2

So you now have the option of reporting her

- to the local council for HMO compliance (its quite complex and only a small percentage of properties require a licence though it is mandatory for 5+ tenants of 2+ unrelated households when there are 3+ habitable storeys but isn't required for proper flat conversions)
- to the benefits office for council tax fraud (though as I assume that tenants are free to register to vote and have mail delivered there, this makes it unlikely as its easy to detect other occupants)

- to the HMRC for tax fraud (where they are swamped with reports, many of them deemed to be false and malicious or too poor quality information to be of any use). You would not be in the position to tell if she did or didn't declare her income to them.

None of this, as far as I can tell, negates what you owe her - the problems with the council or HRMC will be between her and them while the problem of the arrears remain between you and her.

Whether or not she takes court action remains to be seen.

Jowo_2

Alright, I might be wrong about you not being able to wriggle out of the arrears but it hinges on you helping to bring a prosecution for the landlady not having a HMO licence if one is required for the property

Can I withhold rent if my landlord is not licensed?


No you cannot withhold rent. However, in certain cases, you or the local housing authority may apply to a residential property tribunal to reclaim rent via a rent repayment order if a landlord is found to be operating a licensable HMO without a licence.
You may only apply if the landlord has been convicted for having no licence. For more information you should contact your local housing authority.


http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/rentingandletting/privaterenting/housesmultiple/hmofaq/tenants/shouldmylandlord1/?id=465547#question

PasturesNew

If the deposit wasn't held in a TDS though ... that's leverage.

SouthCoast

Did the building need a fire safety certificate?

Jowo_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

If the deposit wasn't held in a TDS though ... that's leverage.

The landlady seems canny enough to be aware of the x3 sum of the deposit penalty from not protecting a deposit because the OP indicated earlier that she didn't take one. Not taking a deposit is highly unusual.

Plus, though it looks like it could be a tenancy rather than lodgings, if the OP was defined as a lodger, TDS doesn't apply.

barnaby-bear

Jowo wrote: »

Then head this off by negotiating a mutually acceptable repayment schedule with her and stick to it.

I take it that either your partner's income or the lack of a tenancy agreement hindered your applying for housing benefit (which I assume your landlady would not have been happy with anyway if she wants to be under the radar).

Sometimes one needs the subtle highlighted!!!