Advice needed re subletting and laws!

primarklover

I'm in much need of some help. I welcome gratefully any assistance anyone can give. I shall try to cut the story as short as possible.

In November 07 my husband went to jail for beating me up. He was released in July 09 and tried to cause a lot of trouble for me. In September 09 he found out that I was pregnant by my new partner.
He came to my home one night whilst I was alone with my 7yo son.
He broke the glass on the front door and caused a huge scene outside saying he was gonna kill me before he allowed me to have a child with another man. The police came and arrested him for criminal damage. The next morning when he was released we call and text nonstop with threats. Being pregnant with a 7yo and knowing what he was like, I decided to move to a woman's refuge.
After a few days in the hostel I felt I was loosing my mind. my family suggested I go to stay with family in the Caribbean for a while.
I took their advice and went for 6 months.
This is were I need advice from......

My house was rented through a lettings agent, arranged, but not paid for by the council. I found some people that wanted to rent the house and charged them my exact rent in order to get them in quick so I could leave. I informed my landlord, whom was fine with it but I did not tell the letting agent or the council. I took a decent deposit as I was leaving my whole home and its contents. I also took references and contacted the guys boss. this all took less than a week and I booked a open ticket to leave the next day. We left with one suitcase each. The second month I received no rent, so I contacted the guys renting my place but go no response. My dad when round and later called me to say the house was empty. I called the landlord, it took him a week to return my calls but he said I needed to contact the letting agents. I called them and they told me I had breached my contract and they made the people that were in the house leave and took back the keys. I knew it was not ok to sublet and that my landlord was turning a blind eye because he knew my situation. When I asked where my belongings were, he informed me that they were all disposed of "as I had illegally subleased" . By then it was a few days till xmas and I didnt have enough money to fly back, it being peak season. In January my mum bought us tickets home.
Since I have been back I was staying in council b&b accommodation while I found a job and saved enough money for a flat. Which I did a few months ago. I moved outta London and found a new school for my son. I have been doing research and trying to sort my life out at the same time.

From what I can see, they should have got a court order before evicting me, they took the people out straight away.
They didnt even call me to come and collect my things. I had my phone with me all the time and they had that number. my dad could have arranged a storage unit to keep them safe.
We lost everything, clothes, furniture, toys, photos, computer, plasma, 6000 pound sofas that I had saved for when I finished uni. Just imagine leaving your house to go on holiday and coming home to find it all gone. Years and years of memories, gifts and things I worked hard to buy before I had even met my husband.

I'm in furnished accommodation now and dont think I can afford a solicitor as I already have to pay one for my divorce.
I was very wrong for subletting but I was desperate and whilst I deserved to loose the house, I dont think I deserved to loose everything in it. Its worth adding that on 7th Jan I lost my baby and spent 2 days in hospital. Stress??!!

Does anyone know if I can sue them to pay me back?
I have already reimbursed the people who rented their deposit


VERY LONG SORRY!!

poppysarah

You've probably not got a chance of getting anything back.

You didn't just leave your home - you went away for 6 months leaving other people in the property.

You should have persued the police to take action against your ex.
You should have put everything you wanted in storage.

Whilst I have sympathy for your situation I don't think you benefit from trying to recoup your losses. Move on.

Badger_Lady

Sorry, I'm still confused... how can the Lettings Agent evict you and the subtenants if the Landlord was happy with the situation? Surely the Landlord is the only one who can decide who lives in his house..?

primarklover

Hi,

My contract was with the agents and not the landlord. They say the landlord is their client and so am I. They ended their contract with me.

With all that my son and I have been through its way too hard to just move on. I built a life and now I'm starting from scratch.
There was no need for them to have disposed of my belonging, I would have moved then if they had just called, texted or emailed. I was still paying rent and in no arrears. Also I dont believe they just through away a 42inch plasma, mac computer, other tv's, dvds, American fridge freezer. How can anyone be so cold as to pick up family photos and throw them away without having even tried to contact me.
Its very unfair!

Also I d

princeofpounds

This is a very complicated story with a number of civil and criminal offences contained within it.

First, let's assume that you need no advice on the abusive partner.

Second, a clarification - you only had a contract with your landlord. The agents are merely his agents, and any actions they took were his responsibility as for legal purposes they are (much of the time) interpreted as being him. So it is likely that you only want to be chasing your landlord.

Third, the easier issue is with the goods you lost. Your landlord had a responsibility for those good under tort law. Although the goods were not abandoned, the following link describes roughly what should have happened to those. You can probably quite easily sue for damages if you can prove what you lost. When I say quite easily, I means relatively speaking, it will require work and court appearances.
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/uncollected_goods.htm

There may also be an argument that because you did not abandon the goods, these were actions of theft rather than a civil matter. I think here you get into proper ask-lawyer and report-to-police territory.

Finally, the tenancy issues. Here it gets a bit complex, because not only did you have rights as a tenant, but you had responsibilities as a sub-landlord. Someone was illegally evicted, which is a serious criminal offence, but I'm afraid I'm not sure if it was you or your subtenants, or both, and whether the top LL or you bear responsibility.

I suspect, luckily for you, that only the top LL bears responsibility as his agents performed the eviction and ended your tenancy (which legally speaking ends your tenant's tenancy too, as it is a higher 'mesne' tenancy). So you probably bear no criminal responsibility but you might still have a civil responsibility for breaking the contract with your tenants. Thankfully they seem to have disappeared. Again, I think you need to talk to a lawyer.

Subletting is not 'illegal' but breach of contract. It isn't against any laws, only an agreement between you and your LL. They should have gone to court and sought a court order which would end your mesne tenancy, end your tenant's tenancy automatically, and evicted all occupants.

Given that illegal eviction certainly took place and is a criminal act, and that theft may also have taken place (though I suspect this is a civil issue) then you might qualify for legal aid. I really really urge you to get legal advice on this if you intend to pursue it.

Planner

As far as I can see, simple case of illegal eviction. No tenancy can be ended without the tenants agreement without a court order.

If you didnt agree to end the tenancy agreement and there is no court order, then you have been illegally evicted.

You need to contact your local authority private tenancy rental officer and explain the situation.

You also need to raise a claim for your destroyed belongings.

princeofpounds

My contract was with the agents and not the landlord. They say the landlord is their client and so am I. They ended their contract with me.

Wrong. No matter what it says on the front of the contract, you had a tenancy with the LL, legally agents just sign on their behalf. The LL might be surprised to find out that the agents have committed a criminal offence on his behalf.

primarklover

That was just the advice I needed thank you both. I will contact a lawyer now as I am pretty sure they went dont the wrong route.
But Im still a little confused. I had told the landlord before I left and he had no problem with it. Though he did say that he couldnt be apart of it as it was against his contract with the agents and theirs with the council. I hadn't told the agents that the landlord knew as I didnt want him to get in trouble. I thought it was them, i know it was them that disposed of my stuff.

princeofpounds

But Im still a little confused. I had told the landlord before I left and he had no problem with it.

Well it looks like that the landlord isn't in control of this situation and the agents for some reason have taken matters into their own hands. It's hard to tell you exactly why they did this without reference to the landlord but then tenancy law doesn't seem to be their strong point.

tbs624

poppysarah wrote: »

You've probably not got a chance of getting anything back.

You didn't just leave your home - you went away for 6 months leaving other people in the property.

.. with apparent agreement from the LL

poppysarah wrote: »

You should have persued the police to take action against your ex.
You should have put everything you wanted in storage.

Hindsight and the ability to view things clearly whilst being threatened by a violent ex-partner are marvellous things. Most women in the OP's situation aren't thinking straight, and it does sound as though the LL's own actions muddy the waters.

OP - you don't say for how long you continued to pay your rent to the LL/LA and the length of your tenancy agreement? Did you have the LL's apparent consent to your sub-let in writing? Did you tell the LL it was temporary, or did you tell him you were surrendering your tenancy and had found someone else to take over from you?

As you say, a LL should obtain a court order for repossession of the property but much depends on the full truth about your own actions. The LL ( or others acting on his behalf) cannot , however, simply dispose of your goods, and not have to account for his actions.

See here for guidance on abandonment of a property/tenancy from a LLs persepctive and see this news report about a LL who won an appeal after having been taken to court for clearing her rental property of her Ts possessions , following the imprisonment of the T ( obviously a different scenario to your own but points raised are of relevance)

You can get a fixed fee appointment with a solicitor to go through the outline of your case and advise you whether this is worth pursuing:ask for someone who has LL &T expertise. Look here for help in your area http://www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk/


(Edit- OP I can see that you have commented on your own rent payments - number of posts not there when I started my own reply)

Colincbayley

Just to be clear.

Was your tenancy agreement with the landlord, the agent or the council?

Some landlords 'lease' their property direct to an agent/council on a 3-5 year term. The agent/council would then become your landlord.

I am not clear from your posts if this might be the case.