Tenancy problem- can i dissolve agreement

jaynemacdonald1979

Hi everyone this is a bit of a long story i hope someone can help. moved in to 4 bedroom house in october. in november bad weather arrived and the patio door started flooding in arggg. i reported it non stop until around feb. end of feb gets gas bill in for 450 i called provider to set up direct debit, they requested a meter reading , i gave it over the phone. for them to tell me the gas bill for november 2009 until feb 2010 was actually for £698... i freaked out. i explained i was a tenant and that the boiler seemed quite old. they told me to request a service history and gas safety check certificate from agency. I had no idea what these were. bill was put on hold wile we had it investigated. letting agency are acting on behalf of owners who are now in OZ. everything has to be spoken over with them in oz first so we are always havning to wait and wait... i then became aware that no gas safety check had been done at all. and i had a newborn sleeping in the room were the boiler is housed. i freaked out and called british gas. agency were fuming????. BG said boiler was ancient and not energy saving. roughly about 20 years old.. finally on 25th feb gas safety check was done. i had been there since oct!!! boiler was deemed safe however very noisy. thank god.
finally gets patio fixed apparently the owners lived with it for 10 yrs n used towels to mop it up?? they didnt think to warn us it happens. and didnt think it was an issue...
boiler then packs up the week later, fan had gone. left with no heating for over a week, radiators given which blew electrics for a whole day...
finally fixed, boiler finally fixed. is now much quieter. owners email agency to say there gas bills per month were about £135.
heating system was then switched off as its summer no heating needed however the hot water switch was left on after few weeks hot water became colder and then finaly freezing cold. by accident discoverd only get hot water when central heating is switched on, so what is point of having 2 controls....???
contacted agency last week still waiting on it being fixed. owners have contacted agency and said they ran there entire heating system 24 hrs per day to get hot water they didnt find it a problem to do this they just turned off all the radiators in the summer.???
when the cetral heating is on and kicks in the gas meter spins round at some speed??? i am not running a very expensive old boiler 24hrs a day to simply get hot water. it is crazy... to turn radiators off doesnt help the heating is still running and the meter dials are spinning around crazy... i am not doing this.
there are 5 of us in the house. 3 kids under 4, my rent is 650 per mth and the gas provider have requested we pay 185 per mth for gas alone. i cant afford it...not to mention the house is a complete dump which had been ran into the ground. we didnt see inside as we were living down south and it was all quckly we moved however i still feel a lack of care. and i still feel there should be a level of standards in here. AM I WRONG??? i have had enuff. what can i do. we have no money to rent elsewere and they will keep our deposit of 650. i am at my wits end. what can i do. my hubbie wants to move but how can we cancel aggreement??? lease began oct 16th ended 16th april. we didnt sign a renewal just a verbal over the phone. and that verbal runs out on october 16th again. they said a new contract would be sent out but never have done.
please can sumone help us.
i feel they havent provided us with a good service as they say there hands are tied and have to liase with owners in oz b4 dealing with us... were are now sitting with a big gas bill for 800 pound and if we stay here by next winter we will be in major debt simply for gas. the gas providers have been brill they advise we tell agency to scrap boiler as we shouldnt have to pay large bills. and we are entitled to a energy saving boiler. as per usual agency have said we have to contact owners in oz before we can do anything... !!!!!!!!!!!!??????

Jowo_2

If your fixed term tenancy agreement expired in April and you did not sign a new one, then your tenancy automatically became a periodic tenancy. This is how you can end it. You don't need to give a reason.

Info applies to England/Wales but Shelter have a site for scotland, too.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/renting_and_leasehold/ending_a_tenancy_or_licence/ending_a_periodic_agreement

Get advice from Shelter on the verbal agreement. My understanding is that 'verbal agreements are worth the paper they are written on' (i.e. hard to prove).

Is your deposit protected in a tenancy deposit scheme?

N79

Are you a lady of your word? The verbal renewal is perfectly valid but, of course, unprovable. Whether a court would put you on a periodic tenancy which you could end by serving notice now to leave on Aug 15th or whether they would rule that you have a tenancy until the 15th October is very debatable and depends really on whether you stand by your word.

Of course, there is nothing stopping you serving notice now and seeing what your LL says - they may be willing to accept the situation.

Could you also confirm if the tenancy is under Scottish or English law and if English law whether your deposit was protected?

Planner

Various issues:

Not sure if I am reading right - are you saying you think that a gas bill from november 2009 to February 2010 (over one of the worst winters on record) of £698 for 5 people is to much? - Could you be a bit more accurate with your dates and did it include the October period you where there? - BG wanted £110 per month from me for a one person two bed house two years ago.

Patio door leaking - is it that major concern? - should be repaired under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Advise it needs repairing, if they wont, follow the protocol for disrepair in rented property - Not reason enough for you to 'dissolve' (what ever that means) the agreement.

Gas boiler is working I gather, just old - again not reason enough to 'dissolve' agreement as there is no requirement to have a new or newish boiler.

Is it a combi boiler? - thats the tank and boiler in one so hot water and heating? I think you are a little confused over what you have or need to explain a little clearer - If you did have two switches, one for heating one for hot water, I suspect that the water would have gone to freezing significantly quicker than the 'few weeks' you state - nevertheless there appears to be a functional space and water heating system in palce so you have little comeback.

Gas saftey certificate now sorted - Tick

House complete dump and didnt look at it before you came up - They have no duty of care to you in this respect. Persumably it was a dump before you moved in and if you looked at it before hand you would have realised this - So you are wrong.

All the above aside, you appear to be out of your agreement with nothing in wiritng that a further has been agreed to. Therefore, give corrct notice and move.

Next time, check the state of the property before hand, the condition of the boiler and the status of the Gas Saftey Certificate.

Good Luck

silvercar

When you looked at the property, did you ask to see the energy performance certificate?

There is no offence in having inefficient but safe boilers.

Fire_Fox

Have you been given an address in this country at which to serve notices on the landlord? How are you lodging these complaints, verbally or in writing? Have you been submitting regular meter readings to your energy supplier? Are you confident the calculation is based on the correct unit (cubic feet or metres)? A gas bill of £135 year round is £1600 a year, not really that far off the £160 a month you are being billed; heating will be off all summer. Are you still with the incumbent supplier and on the standard (expensive) tariff or have you switched? The letting agency is not there to provide the tenant with a good service, the landlord pays their fees not you.