Witheld Rent

RAS

magice wrote: »

I just read in one of the documents that he had been issued a license but failed to meet the terms of it.

That means it was an HMO.

Please get proper advice as really people on a forum are not able to see the documents and cannot give you sufficient advice.

tbs624

magice wrote: »

Even though he breached the contract etc, and essentially performed a criminal offence by renting out an uninhabitable property?

The timeline of all of this does still not seem clear to me - you talk about some repairs being done, you paying the rent whilst the property was "uninhabitable", but not paying rent afterwards, and AFAIUI the Council did not prosecute him until you lot had already moved out, having had your last few months FOC?

They wanted to prove that we had paid rent while the premesis was uninhabitable, which we did. It was after learning this that we held the rent back.

and

After we moved out, the council got in touch and carried out investigations, as we had involved them over the electricity scenario. They found that the propert was unsafe and proper repairs hadn't been carried out. They subsequently sued the landlord for £17,000 and as far as i know, took his landlord rights away from him.

Your ex-LL sounds appalling (and I have no time for LLs who fail to behave as they ought to) but if the property was as bad as you say, and was indeed "uninhabitable", why on earth did you stay there for a further 5 months, even if you were getting a "freebie" at the time?

As already explained to you, rent payment and repairs/maintenance are separate issues.

• T is obliged to pay rent and if he doesn't may be sued by the LL for recovery.
• LL is obliged to meet his legal repairing obligation/other legal obligations and if doesn't then T may sue him for disrepair etc.

Your situation was compounded by the lack of address to comply with S48 of the LL&TA87, but that does not allow you to just not pay the rent full stop.

If you are outwith the prescribed time period for making use of the tenancy deposit scheme then your only option is to seek recovery of your deposit via the small claims court.

Your LL may be seeking to recover the rent shortfall from your tenancy deposits ( plus any further amount owing) but he too would have to do so via the courts.

Presumably your deposits were a month's/six weeks rent equivalent?
If the LL /his lawyer pursues you for payment you and the other Ts may want to challenge him to the bitter end or you may want to consider agreeing to him having the tenancy deposits in full and final settlement of any "unpaid rent" or attempted dilapidations claim. This would still leave you effectively "quids in" , having gone 5 months without paying rent.

As I said previously, seek advice on how best to respond to any potential action by the LL from Shelter and/or Community Legal Advice. You should be able to get a low cost initial interview with a lawyer who has specific LL& T experience.

magice

We had only realised how bad the house was once the council had come round to check and do tests. For the final few months after the agency disassociated themselves from the contract, we were trying our best to get the attention of the landlord, and had the intention to pay, but couldn't get through to him. The council getting involved was quite a lengthly process, and their taking of court was not for us, they just used our testimonials as evidence against him.

The repairs were carried out by the landlord's contractors while we lived there. These were sent out while the agency were still involved. We sought the advice of the council on what to do, as we couldn't get a hold of the landlord later on, and they looked into the problems and tested the standard and safety of the house.

We aren't unreasonable people so stayed and tried to resolve the issue. The place had dodgy electricals and was in a bit of a mess, but obviously wasn't totally inhabitable. But as the situation worsened during the latter part of the tenancy, we started to hold the rent back as nothing was being done and we felt that we were paying for something that we weren't receiving. Which we evidently were.

magice

Thanks for everyone's help so far BTW