Landlord not declaring me living there!

tbs624

olly300 wrote: »

And courts aren't interested in Gas certificates etc once you have moved out of the property...

Its an offence to not be able to produce gas safety certs for the last 2 years so the HSE and /or the local Council would be very interested to hear of any LL who has failed to get checks done and/or get the certificates provided to Ts

tbs624

Draw up a rent schedule with what you have paid so far & on which dates, and then have a list ready of what you definitely owe. Then write to the LL recorded delivery offering a payment plan, but mkae sure that itis one that you can, and will ,stick to. Keep a copy. See a debt adviser locally if you need help to work this out.

Next, make yourself an appointment with the private sector rentals team at the local council and explain to them about the LLs specific method of rent collection, lack of gas safety cert etc.

jamesd

You left due to loss of job and lack of money. That means that if she takes yo to court the court will compare your income with your expenses to see if there's any excess income that can be used to pay her by instalment. The answer is likely to be that there isn't much left over, if anything, and she should know this.

Invite her to take you to court so that the court can establish an amount within your means that you can afford to pay her.

Offer to pay her the amount you can afford to pay after essential expenses. That's what the court would do anyway.

theartfullodger

If you pay weekly she also has to give you a rent book..
(Landlord & Tenant Act 1985, Section 4)

4 Provision of rent books

(1)Where a tenant has a right to occupy premises as a residence in consideration of a rent payable weekly, the landlord shall provide a rent book or other similar document for use in respect of the premises.
(2)Subsection (1) does not apply to premises if the rent includes a payment in respect of board and the value of that board to the tenant forms a substantial proportion of the whole rent.
(3)In this section and sections 5 to 7—
(a)“tenant” includes a statutory tenant and a person having a contractual right to occupy the premises; and
(b)“landlord”, in relation to a person having such a contractual right, means the person who granted the right or any successor in title of his, as the case may require.

Landlord can be fined up to £2,500 for not supplying rent book: See how she likes that if weekly is the situation!

If you are sharing facilities (bathroom, kitchen) you are a lodger not a tenant...

Cheers!

Lodger

tbs624

theartfullodger wrote: »

...If you are sharing facilities (bathroom, kitchen) you are a lodger not a tenant...

Except that the OP says

j3ayy wrote: »

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

The OP has said that s/he occupied the top part , there was a flat below that and then the LL on the ground floor, so if the shared facilities are between the two flats only, rather than with the LL, then they are likely to be Ts, rather than the LL's lodgers.

00ec25

chewmylegoff wrote: »

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

self contained flats do not have a bathroom & toilet you share with the people downstairs!

j3ayy

Thanks for all the comments im gonna talk to the LL & come to some sort of agreement!

Fire_Fox

If you have a lockable door you are classed as being a separate household for some purposes, including TV license, does this also help distinguish between lodger and tenant?

Mips

What do you mean 'fined' for not providing a rent book?

What is that? Does DD not count?

00ec25

Dippychick wrote: »

What do you mean 'fined' for not providing a rent book?

What is that? Does DD not count?

the OP is paying by CASH in hand, in that case (only) there is no record of the payment hence the legal requirement for a LL to provide their tenenat (or lodger) with a rent book as a record of the payment given and received - obvioulsy also helps out HMRC if they investigate but that's not the primary reason for the book yea right!