Help with my landlord

xela_17

Tassotti wrote:

Sure, but did you do reference/credit checks on the new tenants?

No, the landlord collected the reference and he didn't do credit checks. I would assume that's more of a letting agency thing, not when the landlord advertises in loot.

Tassotti

xela_17 wrote:

No, the landlord collected the reference and he didn't do credit checks. I would assume that's more of a letting agency thing, not when the landlord advertises in loot.

Credit checks/references can be done by the LL. (and should be for any BTLetters reading this)

What is so bad about this property?

llol_slim

lynzpower wrote:

At the end of the day, even if you gave your LL a months notice I expect they would have people viewing, what do you want to do, stuff the LL completely?

Have you only ever viewed empty houses then?

I think thats a bit unfair, you are talking about possibly reneging on an agreement, then not allowing the LL or anyone else to do viewings.

Yes, only ever viewed empty houses. How am i stopping them from allowing other people viewing? All i said was I would move out first.

Dead_Eye_Jones wrote:

god knows why you agreed to a 3rd 6month term, after a year surely you knew what the place was like, I think you deserve to stay in the place!

After a year, the problems starting occuring and they havnt been sorted by the landlord, but blamed on us. Apparantly, our house is moudly because we put washing on radiators.

lynzpower wrote:

I agree, you have chosen to renew your contract, not once but twice. You have seen something better value for money and now you are trying to get out of the contract a couple of weeks later.

its not a couple of weeks. It was march when we signed the latest 6 months, with the understanding we could leave within a month and we were warned by the agent if we did month by month the rent would very likely go up a considerable amount

What is so bad about this property?

Quite a few things but for example (BTW: these have been reported)
Mould on the bedroom walls
Radiators that we are "waiting" for brackets for that leak and put air in the system
Shower (replaced once already) which goes scalding hot
Cooker which doesnt have the right nozzles so only have fierce heat
Bathroom walls are cracking and have holes
Sewage drain cover is rusty and almost broken through - smells and dangerous

Oh and we will now bemoving in with my parents when we move out of here.

lynzpower

It does seem strange though that you chose again to live there. For this list of problems I would have been out after 6 months, but each to thier own.

You should speak to your local EHO team to see if the property is fit for human habitation as I suggested earlier. I dont see why you should have to try and palm off a duff property. However, as I understand it, you probably cant get away with not paying up for the rent whether you are living there or not.

musey

llol_slim wrote:

After a year, the problems starting occuring and they havnt been sorted by the landlord, but blamed on us. Apparantly, our house is moudly because we put washing on radiators.

Actually your landlord could be right, the water from wet washing has to go somewhere as it dries from the clothes and is basically in the air of the flat unless you open windows. It then moves to the coldest walls and areas with poorest ventilation eg. the outside walls, behind wardrobes, around the bed (if it's up against the wall) that sort of place et voila perfect conditions for mould growth!

To go some way to combat this in my properties I ensure that all my DG windows have a trickle vent that is fixed to open to encourage air circulation. Mould needs heat & moisture to grow, you provide the perfect environment for it when you dry washing on the radiators.

For the mould my suggestion would be buy a cheap dehumidifier and treat the mould areas with a mild bleach solution. I am positive you will be extremely surprised at how much water the dehumidifier will pull out of the air for around the first week. After that use it when drying your washing (if it absolutely MUST be dried inside - no washing line?) and you will find that your washing dries quicker also.

Your landlord has been fair in offering to accept new tenants, why not try to find some?

llol_slim

@lynzpower : Yes but the problems are more recent that the contract signing.

@musey : I know about the washing thing, they gave us leaflets. Great help they were. We now do not dry washing on the radiator, weve had low heating on all always (very expensive) and still have mould.

to put it blunty we've been shafted. Mis-informed and now we're stuck in until september.

clutton_2

""we've been shafted"" - from what you say i would not agree with this. An AST tenancy agreement is an agreement for a particular period, and is usually 6 or 12 months. You commit to pay the rent for that period, (whether you live there or not) and the landlord commits to give you full use of the property and agrees to give you quiet enjoyment of that property for that period. As others have said, since you signed 2 agreements already, I can only assume that you have read the document and understood it.

If it was the other way round and your landlord was trying to get rid of you after a few weeks, how would you view that ?

I'm sorry but I really cannot understand your difficulty.

lynzpower

thanks for confirming that AST issue clutton, I knew I knew that

llol_slim

clutton wrote:

""we've been shafted"" - from what you say i would not agree with this. An AST tenancy agreement is an agreement for a particular period, and is usually 6 or 12 months. You commit to pay the rent for that period, (whether you live there or not) and the landlord commits to give you full use of the property and agrees to give you quiet enjoyment of that property for that period. As others have said, since you signed 2 agreements already, I can only assume that you have read the document and understood it.

If it was the other way round and your landlord was trying to get rid of you after a few weeks, how would you view that ?

I'm sorry but I really cannot understand your difficulty.

yeh, sorry when i say weve been "shafted" i dont mean by the landlord, i mean by the agent.
I was going to do a month by month (rolling?) agreement, but was advised by the agent that there was no point in month by month because we can still give a months notice if we do six month contract and if we did month by month the rent would go up considerably.
She basically disuaded me to do month by month, reassuring me that I could give months notice to leave within the 6 months - which was a lie.
Hence .. shafted.
If i was to give you the entire account of whats happened you could probably understand why im as upset as a i am.
If you dont believe me fine, all i wanted was some advice, which is why i have posted here.
it HAS NOT been a "few weeks" we started the latest contract in March.

seven-day-weekend

>>Apparantly, our house is moudly because we put washing on radiators.<<

I rented out a flat to a young woman who used the tumble drier all the time without ventilation. When she moved out there was black mould all over the walls and some floors (laminate) and I had to have four rooms completely redecorated.

This flat had had two other tenants plus my son living in it at different times and it didn't go mouldy then.

I even paid for a surveyor to check the problem and he told her it was lack of ventilation when using the dier, but she apparently took no notice.

So....it probably IS your washing!