Landlord showing tenants around before notice period starts

lynzpower

OP, I think you should take this contract to your local HOUSING ADVICE or PRIVATE SECTOR OFFICER at the council- usually based in Environmental Health.

Those charges :eek: Good grief!

Fire_Fox

StudentMoneySaver wrote: »

The guarantor is my Mum, where I'll be returning once I'm out of this hell.

This flat seems to have had a high turnover of tenants, judging by the amount of post I receive addressed to other people. Perhaps they regularly do this in the hope someone will pay the increased rent.

Thanks for the advice, hopefully someone will clarify whether the break clause should apply to both.

Is this official student accommodation? If so I'd suggest taking a copy of your AST to the student lettings officer at your university along with a printout of this thread. Many students are young and inexperienced, hell I am 37 and as you can see I am still learning from people like GM! The general consensus is your AST is crammed full of unfair and unenforceable clauses: seems to me this AST is taking advantage of young people's naivety.

G_M

olly300 wrote: »

Read the OP tenancy agreement and you can see why we are going :eek:

While your explanation about the other things are correct this below is wrong:



The tenant is not allowed to do that under this contract as the landlord/letting agent will ask for the keys and if they aren't received after 7 days will call out a locksmith to change the locks.

That contract clause is unenforcible. The LL needs to request access. The tenant can refuse. If the locks are changed the only way the LL would know would be if he tried to (illegally) gain access! No court would support a LL in this scenario.
Plus if the LL requested keys from the tenant and the tenant refused, the LL's only recourse would be to request a court order for possession for breach of contract. No court would grant possession for such a breach.

Oh and if the LL called a locksmith, effectively locking the tenant out of his own home, THAT would be a breach of contract, as well as harassment which is a criminal offence!

This is a rogue LL trying to use terms in the contract to over-ride a tenants legal rights. it does not work in law. It only works through the ignorance of the tenant of those rights.

StudentMoneySaver

I may do that. I wanted to call the advice line but it had closed by the time I was able to. I've already reported them to Environmental Health for other issues relating to the external areas, not sure what will come of it though.

So, if I chose to leave I could use the Protection from Eviction Act, listing the dodgy clauses you guys have extracted (Thank you for that!). I'd rather not go to court so I probably won't do that unless I know I can be in and out without losing anything.

StudentMoneySaver

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Is this official student accommodation? If so I'd suggest taking a copy of your AST to the student lettings officer at your university along with a printout of this thread. Many students are young and inexperienced, hell I am 37 and as you can see I am still learning from people like GM! The general consensus is your AST is crammed full of unfair and unenforceable clauses: seems to me this AST is taking advantage of young people's naivety.

Unfortunately no, that is my other lesson from this. Use the University's letting service. I think you're right about taking advantage of students, they have done this to everyone I have spoken to. Thankfully home is within (an awkward) commuting distance of University so I can happily return home, for others they'll have to find other accommodation to tide them over the summer. All this is happening while I have essay deadlines and its all I can think about. Next one is on Thursday and I haven't even started it.

I'd glad I posted the contract now. I'll get my paper copy out and mark out the problem clauses so I have them to hand.

edit - I contacted the accommodation service at Uni about this Landlord, they said they cannot name and shame individual landlords. I may see if the student paper is will to do so though, if only to protect students from using this rogues next year.

Fire_Fox

StudentMoneySaver wrote: »

I'd glad I posted the contract now. I'll get my paper copy out and mark out the problem clauses so I have them to hand.

edit - I contacted the accommodation service at Uni about this Landlord, they said they cannot name and shame individual landlords. I may see if the student paper is will to do so though, if only to protect students from using this rogues next year.

I think that is a brilliant idea! Even if the newspaper won't name they might right an article on unfair clauses using your AST as an example? I'd send a copy of the article to the landlord suggesting he doesn't use those clauses any more and stating the student union and accommodation service are monitoring his activities.

Good luck and post again if you have any more problems.

StudentMoneySaver

olly300 wrote: »

Finally be aware that you will be charged £100 when you leave for the landlord to clean the property. (Look under Repair of the Premises)

Do you think it will be ok if I handed this over in an assortment of 10p, 20p, 50p and £1 coins?

Fire_Fox

StudentMoneySaver wrote: »

Do you think it will be ok if I handed this over in an assortment of 10p, 20p, 50p and £1 coins?

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Can I watch? You could sell tickets and we could pay in paid in tuppences ....

StudentMoneySaver

I think I have information overload now. I feel a lot better for reading all this but I'm not entirely sure what I should do next.

kmmr

Take some time to think about it. Be confident when you deal with the LL. G_M is right, the reality is this LL relies on you not knowing your rights to make money from students.

What is your ideal solution here? Do you want to stay or go? Do you want to get money from the LL, name and shame him, or just get away?