Landlord showing tenants around before notice period starts

clutton_2

i think OP knows now that "what i sign binds me" is a good thing to be thinking when she next signs a tenancy agreement..... its all part of learning how the adult world works....... but this is a particular hideous way to learn about L&T legislation.....

What is OP studying at uni ? Maybe this experience could be useful for a dissertation ?

What also makes me cross is the number of housing "advisers" we read about on here who dont know their elbow from their bum...... Why do councils employ such half-educated "advisers" - they only make individual folks more stressed and uncertain and by giving both landlord and tenant the wrong information perpetuate the inherent confrontation between LL & T

cit_k

just a point about paying 100 quid in small coins (1p 2p 5p etc)

Coin
Maximum usable as legal tender[35]
£5 (post-1990 crown) unlimited
£2 unlimited
£1 unlimited
50p £10
25p (pre-1990 crown) £10
20p £10
10p £5
5p £5
2p 20p
1p 20p

as you can see from the list above, coins are only legal tender in small amounts, especially for smaller value coins, so the LL could legally refuse to take such payment.

StudentMoneySaver

Thanks for the help everyone. I'm going to sleep now but I'll let you know what's going on tomorrow evening.

Thank you.

enabledebra

clutton wrote: »

my suggestion that she needs a solicitor was based on her staying at the flat in the long term......

As a LL i have had run-ins with Legal Executives, with Housing Advisors, and Housing Assistants and have found that my knowledge of housing law and practice has general been as good, if not better, than theirs... If a tenant went to a solicitor i might, just might, take it a bit more seriously than if they used an Exec or Advisor

These landlords are clever.....

This is no disrespect at all to the previous poster.... and its great that you can find an advisor at OP's uni... but if she is entitled to free legal aid i would recommend that she get the best advice......

A N79 says - let the LL sue you for the £100 - he will not win without both check-in and check-out inventories signed by both of you - but he wont take you to court.... Not all posters on LLZ are lawyers and in any case lawyers will have different opinions......

Re a witness - a good friend will do.....

I would always recommend a specialist solicitor against an adviser if complex contractual issues were the issue (assumming it was a solicitor specialising in housing law- we get no end of family/tax/employment solicitors trying their hand because they work for the student's parents in their particular legal capacity- (for some reason people think any given solicitor knows about all areas of law ). If I'm generous I can say these letters to us are interesting in the extreme.

In this case (on the issues presented) there is no complex issue, just a
bog-standard student/landlord dispute which we are always bemused even get to court. A waste of everyone's time and public money.
Studnet landlords need to understand the higher risk of renting to short term tenants in HMO's (such as students) and accept this in return for the massively higher profit which comes with renting to students. If this risk is not acceptable get out of the kitchen! You can't have your cake and eat it too

clutton_2

""In this case (on the issues presented) there is no complex issue, just a
bog-standard student/landlord dispute which we are always bemused even get to court. A waste of everyone's time and public money.""

if you have read the whole thread in detail i am sure you will agree that it is not a bog-standard anything...

for a start there are issues around

unfair terms of contract
criminal harrassment
legality of the AST
breaches of Quiet enjoyment rights
possible breaches of Tenancy Deposit legislation

When this tenant is clearly being harrassed and made to feel absolutely frightened in their own home, i cannot see how you can possible justify your stance of ""we are always bemused even get to court"

Sometimes people want to stand up to bullies and see that justice is done and that bullies learn their lesson.... this should not be subject to other's amusement.......

When making a decision to go to court to assert ones rights, it is not always a clear cut decision - folks go to court for a number of reasons to get justice, money, acknowledgement, revenge, to prove a principle - it is not up to others to judge Claimants on their motivation......

clutton_2

how did you get on with your exam today ? i do hope you were able to finish the exam ....

bw

StudentMoneySaver

The exam went ok, I wish I could have done better but I managed to to attempt to answer what was required.

I'm really tired now. I spent a lot of my exam thinking about the flat and the landlord but weirdly I don't know what I'm going to do. I want it to be over but I also want to do something about it. I'm a bit confused. I'm in between fear of leaving the flat unattended and laughing at how pathetic these people are. Its weird.

I need to reread the last few posts but I think I'll do that tomorrow morning because I just need to relax this evening and have an early night (I was up at 4am).

Thanks for your support everyone

clutton_2

sweet dreams and sleep well.. i have sent you a private message...

StudentMoneySaver

Righty. I've been thrown again.

About an hour ago a man from the letting agency I used to find the property (apparently separate from the letting agent that has been causing all this trouble, but I'm not so sure now, I think it may be a front or he's gone to work for them) knocked on the door then, when my flat mate answered (there is a flatmate I've not mentioned before, we're on a joint tenancy) answered he claimed he had the wrong door. My flatmate is almost 100% certain he intended to enter the property if there wasn't anyone in, he apparently didn't seem uncertain about where he was and it seems strange that a person would take the time to go to a building and get the wrong door when they got there.

I forgot to mention, last week a woman from the letting agency came to the flat to see if we still lived there. They're behaving really strangely.

All this means that I actually too scared to leave the flat alone. Me and my flatmate have to arrange to have someone in the flat in a shift pattern because we think they would have entered without permission at least 3 times now.

I was intending to reread the posts I skimmed over but what they just did has annoyed me even more now.

sequence

Why not just change the locks ? It's not hard and would save you a whole load of hassle.