Missing landlord.....

chappers

However your own assumptions and the hearsay of others is not a good enough reason to withold rent and why he has a £95k overdraft is none of your business either.
As I said i would take your deposit and find somewhere else to live.

lilysgarden

However a ll who is not keeping his properties in a legal state is a perfectly acceptable reason to with hold rent....it's not like we haven't tried to contact him! And we are actually looking for somewhere else however many ll's want a reference from your last ll. This could be a problem for us when he's no where to be seen.
As for using the rent to carry out repairs that are needed for the property, the rent wouldn't even begin to cover these costs...the entire flat is rotten with damp, the roof needs the leadwork replacing, the plaster and wallpaper is starting to fall off at the back of the flat, there are leaks everywhere, the whole building is insecure and we are continually calling the fire brigade out to stop leaks from the empty flat above and the empty shop below. Are you seriously telling me you would continue to pay rent on a flat like that? Sadly, finding a new place to live does not happen straight away. Checks etc take time, it's bit of a problem trying to view properties when you don't finish work till 7pm and you can't get viewings after 5pm on a weekday! And if he leaves open letters lying around in our building saying how little is in his account (especially when he doesn't live there), that's his problem, as is the fact that the only reason we found this paperwork was because we'd had to break in with the fire brigade to stop a water leak. Again....

Planner

1) You have a contract, why try and claim otherwise?
2) You have a list of issues with the property as long as your arm... and yet you are pushing for a renewed contract?
3) You have an address for service of notices? - makes no difference that the LL doesnt live there
4) Shed load of properties in terrible state of repair, including your own - yet you have lived in it for 6 years AND where pushing for a new contract?

You are obviously trying a vareity of angles to justifty witholding rent, none are particularly good though are they?

Apparently, after happily paying rent for 6 years, and living with the property in a poor state of repair with various other issues, something has changed in the last couple of months. From your post that appears to be that He said, She said, They said the Dog said that they cant get hold of the LL.... and suddenly your rent payments stop? - Oppurtunistic?

Lets hope this doent come back to bite you.

chappers

I do feel for you and the things you mention are unacceptable but there is a proper way to go about things.There is a procedure to be followed with regards to disrepair, have you spoken to the private rentals officer at your local council, or as has been previously said write to your LL stating you will carry out the emergency repairs and deduct from the rent.
Arbitrarily witholding rent is not the way to go about it, there are very few situations where it is ok to withold rent.

lilysgarden

To Planner; Firstly, we don't have a contract. The last one expired about three years ago and the ll hasn't renewed it. Secondly, I'm not looking to renew the contract. Sadly with the job that I do, I'm lucky if I get a tea break, never mind anything else. For the last month my b/f has been viewing flats because the agencies are unwilling to let me view properties at either weekends or after 7pm. As for how long we've lived here, it's for two simple reasons. One being that the majority of the problems have only come to light in the past year or so. Second being that we started looking for a new flat around 3 years ago. Sadly, the whole county flooded at the same time. Landlords straight away nearly doubled their rent, meaning we couldn't afford the majority of the available properties (those that hadn't already been leased to people made homeless by flooding!).

And to Chappers; Sadly I've already tried the council. As they haven'y bothered to collect any rubbish from our street for the last 4 weeks, they are even less interested in the state of the flat. We tried contacting them about the recent rat problem. Their '24hr emergency pest control' line simply told me I'd have to give them at least 3 days notice of needing a pest control officer...yeah like I knew we were gonna get rats? When I tried calling the council they simply said it's the ll's problem!

This is where all my frustration lies. No one wants to take responsibility or help in any way. As for the ll, we did see him in town recently aand he totally blanked me. Despite me walking behind him calling his name and asking him to fix the numerous problems in the house. Also told him about having to get the fire brigade out to stop a leak and calling the police to noises in the empty flat above. Despite me walking on his heels, he blatently ignored every last word I said, even when I said the bank had deleted the details for the standing order. Where the hell do we stand when the ll is clearly ignoring us, is clearly REFUSING to repair his property and is subsequently damaging neighbouring properties? If I had a problem paying rent, I would have stopped it months ago. However, the ll (until recently) was a good ll and until recently spotting him I was genuinely concerned he'd topped himself...

Fire_Fox

You do have a contract, a fixed term AST rolls over to a periodic tenancy if a new one is not signed. You have had some excellent advice on this thread about forming a paper trail, but it's not what you want to hear! Just because one department of your local council are overstretched does not mean the entire council is a waste of time, try cutting the attitude when you next contact them. Perhaps you could make use of the thanks button for all the kind folk who have given up their free time to help you?

Planner

As said on numerous occasions throughout this thread, you do have a contract.

In terms of you not looking to renew the contract (your post 21):

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.

Anyway, the point is:

1) You should only be witholding rent in order to impliment repairs. There is a correct process for doing this on the shelter website.

2) IF and only IF the LL remains completley uncontactable AFTER you serve notice, you should hold on to the last months rent for your deposit. Thats last months rent only, not anymore.

3) If your LL/Excutors suddenly appear, I think you may find yourself in a difficult position re rent arrears and references.

4) We are here to give advice for free. And happily do it. You need to post with a open mind i.e. the correct answers you get, might not be to your liking.

Best of luck.