Missing landlord.....

00ec25

Planner wrote: »

Im affraid im not clear why you have taken it upon yourselves to stop paying rent? Your potentially setting yourself up for trouble.

I disagree, on the story outlined the OP has taken reasonable steps to a) show they have every intention of continuing to pay rent by ringfencing it in a separate account and b) have (apparently) tried contacting the LL in writing at various times and to various addresses - hopefully they have a proof of posting to confirm this if needed.

I would support the idea of a letter to the LL's bank to see if they will forward it obviously without asking them for the LL's details as they will, of course, not provide that.

as for your rights:
- in respect of repairs you have followed some but not all of the legally required process by which you can deduct cost of repairs from rent you withhold - see shelter wbsite here
- in respest of withholding rent payment simply because he is not contacting you, then you do not have any legal right to do this, but as you have ringfenced the money, then any action taken against you for rent arrears would be stopped the minute you show the court you have then cleared the arrears. But if the LL wants to take action for anything other than rent arrears, then you would probably be best out of their property anyway.
Sounds more likely that a repossessing mortgage company will be writing to you rather than the LL resurfacing IMHO

poppysarah

Obviously the steps of ringfencing rent and attempting to contact them first. Thanks

00ec25

poppysarah wrote: »

Obviously the steps of ringfencing rent and attempting to contact them first. Thanks

sorry not aimed at you - between typing and posting I missed your post so simply quoted the last post without looking again, I meant to quote planner!

RobertoMoir

Planner wrote: »

Im affraid im not clear why you have taken it upon yourselves to stop paying rent?

Maybe you should read the thread carefully. I think it's pretty clear.

Planner

00ec25 wrote: »

I disagree, on the story outlined the OP has taken reasonable steps to a) show they have every intention of continuing to pay rent by ringfencing it in a separate account and b) have (apparently) tried contacting the LL in writing at various times and to various addresses - hopefully they have a proof of posting to confirm this if needed.

I would support the idea of a letter to the LL's bank to see if they will forward it obviously without asking them for the LL's details as they will, of course, not provide that.

as for your rights:
- in respect of repairs you have followed some but not all of the legally required process by which you can deduct cost of repairs from rent you withhold - see shelter wbsite here
- in respest of withholding rent payment simply because he is not contacting you, then you do not have any legal right to do this, but as you have ringfenced the money, then any action taken against you for rent arrears would be stopped the minute you show the court you have then cleared the arrears. But if the LL wants to take action for anything other than rent arrears, then you would probably be best out of their property anyway.
Sounds more likely that a repossessing mortgage company will be writing to you rather than the LL resurfacing IMHO

Again I would continue to disagree. From the story outlined, the majority of which is hearsay, I can see no reason why rent should be withheld:

1) There is a valid contract in place;
2) The O/P has an address for service of notices on the LL;
3) They have bank account details for the payment of rent that appear valid.

There is no requirement to be ring fencing the rent, it should be being paid into the LL bank account.

As per the rest of your post, I agree in part, a proportion of the rent should be withheld to implement repairs, the rest should be paid.

Planner

RobertoMoir wrote: »

Maybe you should read the thread carefully. I think it's pretty clear.

No it isnt clear at all. From the reasons listed there is no reason to withold rent. All that we appear to have here is an O/P, deliberate or otherwise, using the present 'situation' to, apparently take advantage of their LL.

All that rent should be being witheld for is repairs. There is no justification what so ever for not paying it to the LL as per terms of their AST and the, apparently, valid bank account details that they hold. The O/P is leaving themselves wide open to a s.21/s.8. They gain nothing by ringfencing the rent.

Rather than trying to score points, can I suggest you:

1) provide some advice;
2) leave your critical comments to the forums where you may know what you are talking about?

00ec25

Planner wrote: »

All that we appear to have here is an O/P, deliberate or otherwise, using the present 'situation' to, apparently take advantage of their LL.

All that rent should be being witheld for is repairs. There is no justification what so ever for not paying it to the LL as per terms of their AST and the, apparently, valid bank account details that they hold. The O/P is leaving themselves wide open to a s.21/s.8. They gain nothing by ringfencing the rent.

I agree the OP appears to be being opportunistic however I sympathise with their stance and think they will get away with it because:

a) ringfencing the entire rent shows a willingness to pay, albeit they are not actually paying it for opportunistic reasons but a s8 will fail becuase they will simply pay off the arrears. Undoubtedly they do risk a s21 but then the LL appears to have other things on their mind and again I'll bet if served the clearance of rent arrears and resumtion of normal payment by the OP would make the s21 go away

b) a portion (and only a portion) of the ring fenced rent can legitimately be used for the repairs providing the rest of the rules are followed

Planner

00ec25 wrote: »

I agree the OP appears to be being opportunistic however I sympathise with their stance and think they will get away with it because:

a) ringfencing the entire rent shows a willingness to pay, albeit they are not actually paying it for opportunistic reasons but a s8 will fail becuase they will simply pay off the arrears. Undoubtedly they do risk a s21 but then the LL appears to have other things on their mind and again I'll bet if served the clearance of rent arrears and resumtion of normal payment by the OP would make the s21 go away

b) a portion (and only a portion) of the ring fenced rent can legitimately be used for the repairs providing the rest of the rules are followed

Again I disagree. Paying the rent as per the terms of your contract shows a willingness to pay, there is no justification in this case for ring fencing rent. Every s.8 claim for rent arrears in the country would fail if such a simiplistic execuse as 'Ive ring fenced it' was allowed to prevail.

You need to remember that rent arrears isnt the only s.8 reason and after such a long tenancy s.21 is much more likley anyway. Your solution to making the s.21 go away seems strange 'resumption of rent payments', surley the easy answer is to not have stopped rent payments in the first place?

Agree with your b), apart fron it shouldnt be 'ring fenced rent' it should be rent that is being paid.

I dont understand what the 'aim' of witholding rent is in this situation? it appears neither related to repairs or otherwise? again it appears merley oppurtunistic?

chappers

In your position I would write to your LL at his last known address with regards to the repairs, get them done and deduct the cost from the rent.
I would then send your required notice to the last known address for your LL, retain your deposit from the rent and then find somewher else to live and move on paying the remaining rent into his account.

lilysgarden

Planner wrote: »

Again I would continue to disagree. From the story outlined, the majority of which is hearsay, I can see no reason why rent should be withheld:

1) There is a valid contract in place;
2) The O/P has an address for service of notices on the LL;
3) They have bank account details for the payment of rent that appear valid.

There is no requirement to be ring fencing the rent, it should be being paid into the LL bank account.

As per the rest of your post, I agree in part, a proportion of the rent should be withheld to implement repairs, the rest should be paid.

Actually, the contract we have is with the original letting agents. The ll stopped using them about three years ago and asked us to pay the rent directly into his bank account. As he's always been a good ll till recently, we agreed on condition he give us some kind of new contract to this effect, even if it's just a handwritten note....we're still waiting on that! However, because we haven't had problems getting hold of him etc, we didn't keep pushing for a new contract, just kept reminding him occasionally and even offered to write something up ourselves that he could read and sign.

We DON'T HAVE any address for the actual ll. The only addresses we have are for properties he owns. There is no sign to say he actually lives at any of them but we have sent letters to them in case he pops in or any tenants have a contact number for him. We have noted every address we've written to and when we put letters through the doors. Some tenants have replied and said that they too have problems with their properties but cannot find the ll. We've even been to the pubs he frequents...he hasn't been seen for months!

Yes we do have bank account details that appear valid. We've also found a statement in the empty office downstairs which shows this account to be 95k in arrears. The only payments that have gone into this account for the past year have been our rent and the rent that the guy upstairs was paying up until december.... I've alreadt called the bank and asked if they can forward on a letter if I post it to them etc. They refused point blank as they say they cannot look at his bank account details without his permission, even though we can give them these details and are not asking to be given any information!

Personally, I think it's perfectly fair to be with holding the rent and putting it to one side. No body who has left his properties in the last 4 months has got their deposit back from him. As we've only ringfenced one payment so far, this is our deposit returned as far as I'm concerned. At the end of the day, the guys got a shed load of properties, all of them in some state of disrepair, some of them probably not even meeting legal standards in regards to boilers etc. We've made every reasonable attempt to contact him, even contacted the police who weren't interested. For all we know, the guys done a runner to Cuba or dead somewhere. In which case, why pay rent to a con or a dead man when no one's had the decency to let his tenants know what's happening?