Landlord hasnt fixed boiler and other complications

gill5blue

Hi
HELP PLEASE!!!
This is on behalf of my daughter.

My landlord has not fixed the boiler, it has been broken for 4 weeks, 2 weeks ago an engineer turned up and said it will be cheaper to replace than fix. But when we chased the LL he said he waiting for parts, but we dont believe him.
Since then, we have found a new place to rent and can move in in 2 weeks and we are very happy to do this, and we would prefer to do this.
It is too cold now to stay at our rented property (I am 5 1/2 months pregnant) and we have moved back to my boyfriends mums house.
What I want to happen is to have my 'deposit back' and to give 2 weeks notice to leave-I have paid rent until end of December.
We have found out that our deposit is in the LL bank and not in a government bond
How do I go about achiving this?
Gill5blue

planning303

I don't know the exact law regarding this and i'm sure someone will be quick to correct any mistakes i make..

I'm pretty sure that if the LL's not used the government scheme he is liable for deposit x3, not exactly sure how to go about getting it but would probably involve courts.

How did you find out that he has the cash himself?

gill5blue

Hi there,
Thanks for replying.

As i am 5 1/2 months pregnant with no boiler working meaning i have no heating or running hot water so i went to Citizen Advice, in my tenancy agreement i have to give a months notice , as we can move into a new home with heating and hot water in 2 weeks i wanted to see if there was a clause that we can leave on those grounds, but myself and my partner were concerened we wont receive our deposit back, Citizen Advice said what scheme is your deposit held in? we were unsure and believe that it was not held in one.. i believe in the uk there is only 3 holding deposit schemes that landlords and agencys can use, so Citizen Advice gave us these numbers, we phoned every one and they all confirmed they did not have it.. so we spoke to our landlord and he said no it is held in a bank.

BitterAndTwisted

When did you sign your tenancy agreement and how long is the agreement for?

gill5blue

we signed 28th September 2008. orignally 6 months from 15th October.

Hope that helps

planning303

(just seen above post) give the notice and move out.

Assume that the LL is going to pay the deposit, give him a week or something (as he might have the money and pay out)

if he doesn't do the following (following quote taken from similar thread)

Enfieldian wrote: »

Send the Landlord a Letter Before Action (LBA) requesting the return of your deposit within 14 days or else.

(The else being that you will start proceedings for non protection which would cost them the 3x fine plus your costs.)

Fire_Fox

If you ran a search the almost identical question comes up every week or so, you will get a full range of answers.

Are you still within the initial six month (sometimes twelve) AST? If so you can't just give notice and stop paying rent or you will be in breach of your tenancy agreement. If you are out of the initial period and on a rolling periodic tenancy you can give one months notice, starting from a rent day. Regardless of what the landlord has or has not done, you do not should not breach the tenancy agreement, it is a legally binding document.

The landlord has a legal responsibility to keep the property in good repair and to provide you with heating and hot water. Did you put your complaints into writing, sending the letter recorded delivery? If not you should. Also contact Environmental Health at the local council and they will enforce the repairing obligations. If the tenancy started after April 2007 the landlord has to lodge the deposit, if not you can take him to the small claims court for three times your deposit.

planning303

Ignore me.. do what firefox says

gill5blue

it gets more complicated, it states in our agreement that we have to give one months notice a day before our rent is due, our rent is due on the 30th of each month.. so we would have to give our notice 29th december and still pay him januarys rent.. i do not wish to do this as he may not give us our deposit back. and that means i can not move into the new property untill end of january.

BitterAndTwisted

When you said you originally signed a six-month rental agreement did you then go on to sign another or go onto a rolling periodic agreement?

gill5blue

To Fire fox, i understand i should abide by our tenancy agremment, we are now in the periodic tenancy, but as our landlord has not complied to his side of the agrement, why should i?? would it not cancel out the whole tenancy agreement?