problem with tenancy agreement...long

reallylost

Hi there
I will appologise now for the complicated and probably very confusing situation I am going to try to explain.
We started a tenancy with my husbands workmate.
The agreement is a Short Assured Tenancy under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988 and is for us to build an extension on his house instead of rent. The clause in the agreement says:

"You undertake that before the expiry of the fixed period of the lease, you will complete at your expense an extension to THE HOUSE in accordance with 2 Plans annexed and signed as relative hereto and to carry out all necessary works in order that a Certificate of Completion is granted by THE Council. The works will be commenced not later than 1st October 2009 and you will take all necessary steps to progress the work as expeditiously as possible. The work will be supervised by LL or such other person as he may authorise to act as his agent and you shall comply with all directions and instructions given by the said LL or his agent. In the event that satisfactory progress is not made with the said work, you shall be deemed to be in breach of the Condition of the let and our client LL shall be entitled to terminate this agreement and to serve you with Notice to Quit."

The fixed period of the lease is five years ending 31 March 2014.

The first problem is that we got ripped off by the original contractor and had to wait for surveys and reports and to officially end the contract with the said contractor.(I do have another thread on this over on the in my home forum wont go into it here as I dont have the energy yet.;)) This delayed getting anyone in to give us quotes on the work til July this year.
Since then I have been trying to get someone in to complete the job but a lot of builders won't get involved sorting someone elses mess and the people willing to help can't do anything this year as they are too busy with work already.
The only firm that is ready and willing to do the work has quoted us £2000 per week plus materials and VAT in advance and estimate 5 weeks to complete.
We do not have this sort of money DH only gets £1100 per month, so 2 grand a week is a bit undoable just now, but we could save up and have it sorted by the Autumn next year with a bit (a lot) of belt tightening.
The main problem is that our LL is now saying that he is not satisfied with our progress and that his solicitor/LA has advised him that if the work is not started within 6 weeks and finished by christmas he should give us notice to quit and will sue us for getting the work done himself.
He has been coming into the house everyday to tell us we are not trying hard enough.
We are honestly trying really hard to find someone but are having no luck. Its already September and the stuff to be done involves taking the roof off.
With 4 kids this is not really a good option even if we could get someone to do the bl00dy work.
Last night he came in and told us to sort this out in writing by friday as he had a meeting with the LA, so I said that I would type it up and take it in to the LAs office as he was working. He went mental and told me I was not allowed to contact the LA and I should give it to him to take with him. This has rung some alarm bells about the LA, our contract and the violent nature of our LL/friend.
Obviously he is worried that his house is not going to be finished but we are not doing any of this on purpose and would never leave the work unfinished by the end of the lease. We are the ones living in a building site with toddlers !!!!!! so its not exactly a picnic for us.
After all that ranting I suppose I better get to the actual questions now:o

As the agreement says that we have til the end of the lease to complete the work can he just give us notice?
Or as it says about "satisfactory progress" does this mean he can?
There are loads more questions running round in my head but I will stick with these and see if I get any reply before going into the more complicated issues. Oh yes sorry there are more complications:rotfl:

Hope someone can help and well done for anyone who managed to get this far
Thanks
S

clutton_2

""DH only gets £1100 per month""

how did you think you could finance a family and building an extension on this income ?

"" In the event that satisfactory progress is not made with the said work, you shall be deemed to be in breach of the Condition of the let and our client LL shall be entitled to terminate this agreement and to serve you with Notice to Quit."

this sounds as if he can give you notice to quit as you have not made "satisfactory progress"

however... read the agreement carefully and see if there is a clause allowing him to sue you for the building costs if you do not complete the extension


but... this is such an unusual scenario.. and as Scottish law is different to E&W law, i strongly advise you to take the agreement to a solicitor for advice.....

reallylost

Thanks for the reply.
As to affording it, we had sold our home and made enough money to get it to first fit, then were going to do the rest on a monthly basis. We stupidly paid our builder everything we had and have nothing left except what we have coming in monthly.
There is nothing in the agreement about him sueing us if its not completed just the notice to quit.
Will see if I can get into the CAB with it for some legal advise
thanks
S

RAS

You need some basic tenancy law advice as well - in E&W coming to the house every day could be haressment, with a potential fine for the LL attached.

sequence

Do you get a discount on the rent ?!

I hope it's a bigun! You're rent should be about £50 a month to put up with that nonsense

supa-girl

Do you actually want to stay there? Surely you could rent somewhere else for less than that and without this extra hassle? My advice would be to let him give you notice to quit and try suing you......if you have no money then he won't be getting it will he? He hasn't got his extension and you haven't got anywhere to live, as per the agreement, surely? At best, you could offer to pay rent for the time you have been there in installments, maybe?

I cannot imagine why you would enter into an agreement such as this, but that is by the by. It seems you are struggling for the money to complete this project so why not cut your losses?

Just my opinion and it may not be right for your circumstances, but as a mother of 5 I cannot imagine putting myself through all that stress and hassle with young kids around for a house that is not even going to be yours at the end of it all?

SG

reallylost

sequence wrote: »

Do you get a discount on the rent ?!

I hope it's a bigun! You're rent should be about £50 a month to put up with that nonsense

Thanks for the reply
We pay £100 per year the rest is paid for by building the extension.

reallylost

RAS wrote: »

You need some basic tenancy law advice as well - in E&W coming to the house every day could be haressment, with a potential fine for the LL attached.

Thanks for the reply
He has put a residential caravan inside the barn onsite and comes back everyday after work and stays there on the weekends.
He has never redirected his mail we have to keep it for him and he calls in everyday to see if there is any to pick up.
S

reallylost

supa-girl wrote: »

Do you actually want to stay there? Surely you could rent somewhere else for less than that and without this extra hassle? My advice would be to let him give you notice to quit and try suing you......if you have no money then he won't be getting it will he? He hasn't got his extension and you haven't got anywhere to live, as per the agreement, surely? At best, you could offer to pay rent for the time you have been there in installments, maybe?

I cannot imagine why you would enter into an agreement such as this, but that is by the by. It seems you are struggling for the money to complete this project so why not cut your losses?

Just my opinion and it may not be right for your circumstances, but as a mother of 5 I cannot imagine putting myself through all that stress and hassle with young kids around for a house that is not even going to be yours at the end of it all?

SG

Thanks for the reply
No I really dont want to stay here the way things are but I would love him to back off and understand the situation and that we will sort it within the terms agreed.
Also we have already paid out over £35,000 and that seems a lot for 18 months rent. so I would want to complete the job and the tenancy purely to get our moneys worth...its not like we will end up any better off at the end of the term whereas he gets a 4 bedroom house for no outlay and is planning on selling up once we leave. He currently has no bills except the buildings insurance.
sorry ranting again

S

tbs624

You should discuss this one with your local Council's private sector housing officer and/or a qualified LL and T law specialist

In Scotland a LL has to be registered - it's a criminal offence not to be. You can check this for yourself via the local Council

The fact that his post comes to the property suggests that his mortgagor does not know that he has Ts in place.

As a LL, he has no right to call at the property every day.

I suspect that the taxman would take a keen interest in his arrangements.

A tenancy where no rent is payable cannot be an SAT: this one is interesting as obviously the implication is that your work on the property in lieu of a rent payment. My knowledge of the relevant Scottish housing Law is limited but his arrangement with you sounds pretty irregular to me.

ArtfulLodger may be able to help more.

Pepzofio

No idea about scottish tenancy law, but I'm pretty sure he still has to serve correct notice and go to court (sherriff's court?) for a possession order before he could evict you. I'm not sure exactly what sort of notice he would be able to serve, as it does sound like a very irregular arrangement, but presumably he'd be relying on 'breach of tenancy' grounds and this is where I think he would come unstuck. Assuming you're quoting verbatim, IMHO 'satisfactory progress' is a highly subjective standard - given that the fixed term is five years, I find it hard to believe he could convince a judge that you had not made satisfactory progress unless there was literally not enough time left in the fixed term to complete the works needed. You've mentioned six weeks as the time required to complete the works - even allowing twice this long to allow for some delay this still gives you until early Jan 2014 before you'd need to pick up another brick/hammer/nail.