"You're Out On Your Ear - Legal Action Letter's In The Post"

Annisele

QuantumSuccess wrote: »

It doesn't make business sense - the property would sit empty and how many people in this economic climate are going to shell out £900 a month to live in a one-bed in a not so great area? I guess they just love bullying people.

Actually, for the letting agent (not the landlord!) it probably does make financial sense to hassle you.

If you leave, then the LL will probably ask the LA to find a new tenant - and then the LL will have to pay the LA a tenant finding fee. Chances are that tenant finding fee is significantly more than the monthly fee the LA is getting at the moment.

From the LA's perspective, high tenant turnover with lots of finder's fees and a few void periods is far superior to one tenant who sits there for years quietly paying their rent. The LL's perspective will be quite different.

I doubt it's that they love bullying people. I reckon a combination of ignorance about the law, and knowledge that high tenant turnover = £££.

chris_m

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Why? He's been treated appallingly, why pay an extra penny?

Especially as I bet the landlord wouldn't see any of it anyway.

QuantumSuccess

chris_m wrote: »

Especially as I bet the landlord wouldn't see any of it anyway.

so these so-called penalties don't even get sent to the landlords!!!:eek:

Also, each year when I renew the letting agent asks me for around £75 just for renewing. Normal?

G_M

When you receive the 'Legal Action letter', let us know what it says. Should be a laugh!

Pay the rent you owe, nothing more. If they took you to court for the 'penalty fee' they'd be laughed out of court.

£75 to renew a contract is not unusual, though unecessary - just another way to make profit - for the agent not the landlord who may well not even know. The alternative is to NOT sign a new agreement and automatically switch onto a 'periodic' tenacy. Perfectly legal. Very common. No renewal fee. However instead of the security of knowing you can stay there another 6 (or 12, whatever) months, you can be given 2 months notice at any time. If YOU decide to leave you just have to give one month (and a bit to align with your monthly rent period).

Let the LL know what's going on. He may be shocked enough to change agents. There again he may not care, but at least you've tried.

QuantumSuccess

G_M wrote: »

When you receive the 'Legal Action letter', let us know what it says. Should be a laugh!

Pay the rent you owe, nothing more. If they took you to court for the 'penalty fee' they'd be laughed out of court.

£75 to renew a contract is not unusual, though unecessary - just another way to make profit - for the agent not the landlord who may well not even know. The alternative is to NOT sign a new agreement and automatically switch onto a 'periodic' tenacy. Perfectly legal. Very common. No renewal fee. However instead of the security of knowing you can stay there another 6 (or 12, whatever) months, you can be given 2 months notice at any time. If YOU decide to leave you just have to give one month (and a bit to align with your monthly rent period).

Let the LL know what's going on. He may be shocked enough to change agents. There again he may not care, but at least you've tried.

Yes, I'm quite intrigued by this Legal Action Letter too. Let's see if it arrives in tomorrow's post:D

G_M

My guess it will be full of threats but no actual action. It will NOT contain any court documents/dates of court hearing or the like. It will be intended to frighten you into paying by threatening.... eviction, further penalty fees, adverse record on your credit file, whatever.

In other words, lots of hot air.
Just pay the rent you owe asap and ignore the threats.

Wee_Willy_Harris

Has your deposit (if paid) been protected?

bitsandpieces

QuantumSuccess wrote: »

Thank you for this. I am quite a nervous person so I've been anxious ever since the letting agent suggested he could take me to court for a "pattern of late paying" due to me being 3 days late once in 2009 and once in 2008.

If they want to waste money on court fees etc. they could take you to court and claim this is a 'pattern of late paying'. You can take people to court for all kinds of things. I'd be amazed if they won, though - I can't see how any reasonable person would view 1 late payment per year (of the type of length which is consistent with a bank mess up or similar) as a pattern of late payment which justifies eviction.

Pay the rent soon as you can, anyway - this is owed and no point annoying the landlord further. You probably won't be able to move if you have a fixed period remaining on your contract but, after that, it could be a good time to negotiate rent down (maybe suggest that if your landlord stops using the agency they can save on fees to cut costs ) or consider moving. Why pay over the odds to be treated badly?

thequant

quantum you have nothing to worry about, however this story does remind my of a former LL (council actually), who tried to use the same part of the housing act to evict me as you.

The actual clause in question, is not persistance late paying of rent, but "irregular" payment of rent.

what happened to me, was i had the council come round and threaten me with eviction because i was £10 in arrears, i told them fack off and slammed the door in their face.

next thing, is they were threatening me with all sorts, so to really p!ss them off despite the fact that no judge in the land would ever evict me for £10 worth of arrears was to go round to the council and pay a years worth of rent up in full.

next thing i was issued with court papers citing repossesion of the property under ground x under schedule x of the housing act.

when I looked up the specific clause, it was to do with "irregular" payments of rent, which when consulting some advice is meant to cover people who persistently pay late. I queried this with the council, who said my "overpaying my rent, constituted "irregular" payments", i laughed back down the phone at them. They were wrong on so many levels legally. Anyway they went the full hog with the action and then dropped it before the court case.

anyway apart from this amusing anecdote, the moral of the story is that if they do even go down this route dont get to worried, there is no judge that will evict you.they are using legal threats to gain leverage over you. However should they do this, i think you will be able to countersue for wasting your time, however someone more legally qualified would be better placed to comment on this.

oh just remembered, for them to even consider going down the regular late payment route, they need to have issued you "warnings" about this in the past.

dont give into this bullying, play them at their own game.These people are just little hitlers who get a buzz in thinking they have some power over you. once your sure of your ground legally, there is nothing more satisfying than putting these people in their place. They rely on people having no knowledge of the law and people taking what they print on a letter or say down the phone as being gospel.

once you empower yourself with not only knowledge of the law, but the correct interpretation of it, not only do you have a good nights sleep and dont unnecessarily pay any unfair charges, you can start levying these charges back at them.

<sebb>

Sounds like you've actually been given a fantastic opportunity to get out of your fixed term contract!

You're over paying in a flat that doesn't sound that nice, and the LA is obnoxious.

Pay the owed rent, but not the penalty. The LA says he will serve you notice to leave. Wait for it to arrive, then just leave as soon as the notice expires. Then after you have moved out, write to the LL, telling him that you are sorry he felt he had to evict you over something so small, and you would have loved to have stayed there for many years to come. I imagine that will get the LA in a spot of bother.

And £900 pm for a one bed? Must be in London surely? Then there are tons of other areas you can look and lots of flats available.