moving out..telling tenants the truth / deposit / moving dates? HELP?

natandchris10

Bit of background:

we moved into a property (private rental) which we thought was perfect, previous tennants told us all was great bla bla bla.. lived here for 2 months and the windows let air through them.. i sit watching TV at night and the breeze hits my face.. i lay in bed and the breeze hits my face.. my daughters room is 10 degrees within 30 minutes of the heating going off.

i put the heating on for 2 hours per day and it costs us over £30 a week in gas. we brought heaters which use loads of electric. boiler is 25 years old although deemed as safe by certificate it is crap and very unefficient (also told this b ythe plumber who did the gas safe test)

anyway we put all this to the landlord who said he wont do anything about it and if we wanted it to change we would have to pay for it, we wont pay money on a rented out atall as we may not live there forever.

its gone on and on and now the landlord told us it would be best if we found somewhere else to live and move out, we agreed and have found somewhere and given notice.

what i want to know is.. should we tell any potential tennants about the problems we have had with this house, and if we do can the landlord refuse to give us our deposit back??

dawyldthing

I think it may be a problem of how to tell them as it will depend upon how he advertises his lets. For example if you move out and he lets via gumtree then they will have had to sign a contract before moving in. But anyone house viewing in this weather will soon realise that the heatings not fit for someone to live in as soon as they move in hopefully

natandchris10

say he sends someone to have a look while we are still here, if they ask the question, do we tell them the truth?

can he with-hold our deposit if we did?

macman

No he can't, not legally anyway.

ali-t

natandchris10 wrote: »

say he sends someone to have a look while we are still here, if they ask the question, do we tell them the truth?

can he with-hold our deposit if we did?

I don't know about the deposit but you would have to be given notice by him regarding when viewers were coming round.

You could make sure the heating was off or was down low when they came round and they would feel the drafts themselves. This wouldn't endanger your deposit as you would be able to say you only have the heating on when you are in and since you are not long home it hasn't had time to heat up yet

princeofpounds

You are lucky if you have already secured onward housing, so a reference is not key. He cannot deduct money from your deposit for putting off new tenants. He could in theory sue you for slanderous comments if you said something untrue. So try to keep it a) subjective (I find it really, really cold and expensive to heat this is why we are moving) - should be easy to demonstrate in this weather anyway - and b) private (Between you and me...).

Would I say anything at all? Yes, if a prospective T asked a question I would answer truthfully. Why sucked a fellow tenant for the sake of a landlord who gave you rubbish service? It's not much different to complaining about a poor car - he is selling a product and you were a consumer.

Of course you don't have to let anyone view at all while you are still there.

ceridwen

Yes.

its only fair that they know.

I would just put it absolutely factually:
- This is how often we use the heating
- This is the temperature it gets to
- This is how much it costs us
- This is how we feel breezes across the face.

No "subjective" comments about "we feel too cold" - as different people require different temperatures anyway to feel comfortable. Just the facts and the mention of the breezes you can feel from the window.

That would be sufficient for me - as a prospective tenant - to think "Yes - that does sound a lot of money for heating and how come there are breezes INSIDE the house?"

I doubt the landlord will even find out you are telling it like it is. If he did - well as long as your deposit is being held by him within one of the rental protection schemes (as it should be) then he cant unjustly withhold it anyway.

Put it this way - if he tried to withhold it from you for having said a few words within the privacy of your own home - then he'll be trying to make excuses to withhold it anyway.

G_M

natandchris10 wrote: »

... the windows let air through them.. i sit watching TV at night and the breeze hits my face.. i lay in bed and the breeze hits my face.. my daughters room is 10 degrees within 30 minutes of the heating going off.
....
its gone on and on and now the landlord told us it would be best if we found somewhere else to live and move out, we agreed and have found somewhere and given notice.

I find closing the windows usually helps....... :rotfl:

Seriously though, it sounds like you are still in the fixed term of your contract and the LL has agreed to release you early? If this is so, have you got this agreement from him in WRITING?

If it's just his word against yours and he changes his mind (for example because all the prospective replacement tenants he sends round turn the place down because you tell them it's cold......) he could suddenly insist you pay rent up till the end of the fixed term.

layla1979

TELL THEM PLEASE.
I am in a horrid flat that looked perfect and am pretty much stuck here. My mum is gonna help me pay a deposit so I can move out if possible. Anyone who views this place and I see them I will warn. We have mould, damp, cowboy builders fix (well pretend to ) stuff

theartfullodger

natandchris...

a) Surely the right thing to do is always tell the truth, regardless of consequences.. There are standards guys!!!
b) No of course he can't withhold deposit...
c) What would you want if you were looking round a place - surely you'd want to deal with honest people and be warned of problems, if the landlord was not honest enough to explain things himself??

Hope it works out for you & any new tenants...

natandchris10

thank you for all your responses,

i will be telling tenants the truth, basically because i feel slightly cheated by the people before us.

I will keep to the facts.

the deposit isnt in any scheme which worries me.

I have an email from the landlord which says its best for us to find somewhere else. and he is away untill the 9th january (very bloody helpful if something else were to go wrong)