Landlord selling house and I'm 6 mths pregnant

EastMidsGal

N79 wrote: »

Don't cut them any slack. The agents are acting on behalf of the LL. If they don't have the guts to tell their client that they won't action an illegal instruction but instead try to bully you then, quite frankly, they are not worthy of any sympathy.



Ignore their timescale. It is not reasonable for you to respond within 24 hours.

Please do write to them as it really will show that you mean business, even if you can't get a solicitor to send the letter for you. It does not have to be "super official", just assert your rights. If you want to post the exact wording plus your tenancy dates then this is very easy to check.

Asserting your right to quite enjoyment is not and can not be seen as making yourself intentionally homeless. You are not breaching your tenancy agreement. If, for some crazy reason passing all understanding, the council try this tack then you will have a case against them (and will probably be able to find a solicitor willing to take them on as local authorities have large purses for paying costs when they lose).



As above, there is no basis for the council to make this conclusion.

Thank you so much for all that advice and help. My council are very good at trying to find a way out of their responsibilities. I am nervous because of their reputation and their past record with me personally that they will use anything they can to get out of housing me should I need them to.

The TRO I spoke to just now certainly didn't want to know. He also said by not allowing viewings I was breaching my contract and he wasn't going to phone the lettings agent to say I wasn't going to allow viewings as then he would be assisting me in breaching my contract.

I told him about the email I had sent before saying I just wasn't allowing viewings now but would if I started to feel well enough, but that this wasn't good enough for the lettings agent who then went on to try and bully me. This is when he said that if they changed the locks to phone him and he would put me in touch with a solicitor and hung up on me.

None of this is relevant to what you were saying above I know, I just had to get it out, because I am just sitting here with my head spinning.

N79

EastMidsGal wrote: »

In the absence of any help from the council I am going to write an email to the lettings agent today to hold them off from acting and then I will also put it into a letter and send it to them first class so they have a paper copy and an electronic copy

How does the following sound:

As my previous email stated I am not well enough to allow viewings to take place at this time. I told you that if things changed and I felt able to have viewings take place I would let you know. Your implied threat of gaining access without my express permission in writing constitutes harassment which is a criminal matter and I will not hesitate in phoning the police should you, the landlord or a locksmith either visit my home to change the locks or attempt entry and I do not appreciate you trying to intimidate me into submission in my present condition.

I have taken advice and what you are doing now constitutes harassment and what you are threatening to do is illegal. I will not hesitate in seeking further advice and taking necessary action if you do not leave me alone now to enjoy the quiet enjoyment of my home.

Yours sincerely

What do you guys think?

It sounds good. I must admit that I was working on a draft for you as well so here it is for your reference (I waffle far to much - yours is much more to the point!)

============================

Access to XXXXXX[address] for viewings

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your email of XXXXX[date] in which you, yet again, reiterate your request to be allowed to conduct viewings of XXXXX[address] on behalf of your client YYYY[your LL].

Unfortunately, as I have indicted to you on numerous previous occasions by email and telephone, I am currently unable to support your request for viewings. Therefore I must again inform you that I do not give permission for any access to the property by YYYY[your LL] or any agent of YYYY[your LL] neither for the purpose of conducting viewings of XXXX[address] or for you to change the locks on the property to allow yourselves future access without my permission. Should I be able to support viewings at a future date then I will contact you and inform you of my revised arrangements.

I trust that this final statement of my position that I intend to exercise my right of "quiet enjoyment" will end correspondance on this matter.

Please note that I will consider any further demands for viewings, especially demands which imply that you will access the property without my permission or any attempt to conduct viewings without my permission as interfering with my peace and comfort. As you are no doubt aware, this is a criminal offence under S3A of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 and I will not hesitate to report any criminal actions by yourself or YYYYY[your LL] to the appropriate authorities.

Further, I will also consider any attempt to access the property to change the locks to be an interference with my peace and comfort and to my quiet enjoyment of XXXX[address].

I look forward to receiving confirmation that you have noted my position.

Yours faithfully,

BitterAndTwisted

DO NOT BE BAMBOOZLED OR LED ASTRAY! And most certainly please do not upset yourself.

Unless it's an emergency as N79 has clarified (thanks N79) or they've obtained a court order to carry out inspections or effect repairs, and viewings absolutely are not, you have the right to control who and at what time anyone crosses your threshold. You have already been served notice so whatever you do now cannot be construed as you contributing to your impending homelessness, can it?

If you want to satisfy yourself or quote the legislation in your letter to the landlord and the agent you might find the following useful. I think it is correct:

Your rights are contained within the Housing Act 1988 mainly (Housing Act 1988
Part 1, Chapter IV, Section 29 “Offences of Harassment”) Sub-Section 3a:

(3A) “Subject to subsection (3B) below, (which refers to the landlord withdrawing services from the tenant, but that does not concern us here) the landlord of a residential occupier or an agent of the landlord shall be guilty of an offence if—

(a) he does acts likely to interfere with the peace or comfort of the residential occupier or members of his household”

If it does nothing else it will give them plenty of fascinating reading and might distract them from the dangerous course of action they are considering at the moment. As has been stated before, harassment is a very serious criminal offence which could attract a custodial sentence.

If you feel that you need any help composing any letters I daresay I or other posters on this forum would be only too happy to do it for you.

Love and kisses,

B&T

Edit: Cross-posted with the ever helpful and articulate N79. Good work, I like it.

GDB2222

EastMidsGal wrote: »

Thanks I have now sent emails off to all three of my local councillors through that website, hopefully one of them will get back to me soon. I am waiting for the TRO to phone me back after he has finished his lunch. Though when the switchboard operator told me his name I realised I have spoken to him before and he gave me completely the opposite information to what Shelter gave me. He was on the side of the Lettings Agent saying I have to co-operate with them and I have to allow viewings. He is also in charge of deciding whether or not I have made myself intentionally homeless. So now I am scared in case I don't do as he advised me to do before, which is to allow viewings, he will find me intentionally homeless and the council then won't help me come April

I'm concerned about the TRO's logic here. Although you have been allowing viewings up to now, the landlord has already served a notice to leave (S21 notice). How then can your being too ill to allow viewings (and do stress to him it's due to illness/fatigue brought on by the pregnancy) be a cause of your being homeless?


Can you get medical advice about all this? GPs tend to be remarkably helpful with little notes you can show people. "It would be better if this lady rests as much as possible during her final trimester, and the strain of allowing viewings of her home might be injurious to her health or that of the baby." He can polish that off in less time than it would take him to say no, and who knows it might be true.

N79

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

DO NOT BE BAMBOOZLED OR LED ASTRAY! And most certainly please do not upset yourself.

Unless it's an emergency as N79 has clarified (thanks N79) or they've obtained a court order to carry out inspections or effect repairs, and viewings absolutely are not, you have the right to control who and at what time anyone crosses your threshold.

Sorry, I was being a pedant. An "absolute right" is a specific legal term with a specific meaning. So technically, quiet enjoyment is not an "absolute right".

GDB2222

EastMidsGal wrote: »

The TRO I spoke to just now certainly didn't want to know. He also said by not allowing viewings I was breaching my contract and he wasn't going to phone the lettings agent to say I wasn't going to allow viewings as then he would be assisting me in breaching my contract.

I told him about the email I had sent before saying I just wasn't allowing viewings now but would if I started to feel well enough, but that this wasn't good enough for the lettings agent who then went on to try and bully me. This is when he said that if they changed the locks to phone him and he would put me in touch with a solicitor and hung up on me.

You are doing very well as far as I can see. If your lease requires you to allow viewings, the TRO is quite right that you would be in breach of the lease if you put a blanket ban on viewings. That could conceivably be construed as making yourself intentionally homeless, although the fact you have already been served with the S21 notice mitigates that.

At the same time, the TRO is telling you that he regards it as reasonable for you to refuse viewings on a temporary basis, as it affects your health at the moment.

I suggest emailing the TRO with a summary of what he said.

Do try to get a note from your doctor.

I wouldn't try to stop them changing the locks in the long run, as the TRO might not like that. Frankly, it's a red herring. They need to give you notice of any viewings, and I'm sure you'd want to be present anyway. Unfortunately, you are too ill to allow that just at the moment....

By the way, these days there's no need to send a letter as well as an email.

BitterAndTwisted

N79 wrote: »

Sorry, I was being a pedant. An "absolute right" is a specific legal term with a specific meaning. So technically, quiet enjoyment is not an "absolute right".

Yes, I understand it much better now, so thank you for that. Of course I didn't make allowances for pedants who do understand specific legal terms and did not expect the OP to misled in any way by my use of the word "absolute", except to reinforce her rights unequivocally. Perhaps I should have used the word "complete" or some other word I can't quite call to mind right now.

In any case I do hope that EastMidsGal is reassured and clear about what she can now do or not do.

That draft letter of yours was fab, by the way.

BitterAndTwisted

GDB2222 wrote: »

If your lease requires you to allow viewings, the TRO is quite right that you would be in breach of the lease if you put a blanket ban on viewings.

I completely and utterly disagree with you about this. No contract or rental agreement can override the law! No matter how much one party would like it to. Who has more welly in this country: HM's government or a landlord/letting-agency?


By the way, these days there's no need to send a letter as well as an email.

I also completely disagree with that as well. In a court of law, it is very difficult (impossible I'd say) to prove incontrovertibly that a message has been successfully received by email. All important communications should be sent by Royal Mail. In this particular circumstance I would reiterate the advice given to send two copies from two different post offices retaining proof of posting. A judge might accept that the Royal Mail could lose one copy of a letter quite easily but the chances of them losing both on the same day are so slim as to be practically non-existent.

EastMidsGal

Thanks N79 your draft letter was brilliant. I have taken lines from it that said things that were lacking from mine and made a mixture of the two

As my previous email stated I am not well enough to allow viewings to take place at this time. I told you that if things changed and I felt able to have viewings take place I would let you know. I know in the tenancy contract it states I have to allow a reasonable amount of viewings, I am aware of that, but I also have a right to the quiet enjoyment of my home and at this time it is not reasonable for me to allow viewings, however should I start to feel well enough to allow viewings I will let you know. Therefore I must again inform you that I do not give my permission for any access to the property by the landlord or any agent acting on his behalf for the purpose of conducting viewings or for changing the locks on the property to allow yourselves access in the future without my permission. Should I be able to support viewings at a future date then I will contact you and inform you of my revised arrangements.

Your implied threat of gaining access without my express permission in writing constitutes harassment which is a criminal matter and I will not hesitate in phoning the police should you, the landlord or a locksmith either visit my home to change the locks or attempt entry without my written permission and I do not appreciate you trying to intimidate me into submission in my present condition. If you think I am in breach of my contract by not allowing viewings at this present time then I would suggest you advise the landlord to take me to court for the breach and have a judge decide on what it reasonable access for viewings.

I will not hesitate in seeking further advice and taking necessary action if you do not leave me alone now to enjoy the quiet enjoyment of my home. As I said before I will let you know if it becomes possible to allow viewings because I appreciate the landlord needs to sell the house, so as soon as I feel able to, which I absolutely don't at the moment, I will inform you and you can arrange viewings.

I trust that this final statement of my position that I intend to exercise my right of "quiet enjoyment" will end correspondance on this matter.

Please note that I will consider any further demands for viewings, especially demands which imply that you will access the property without my permission or any attempt to conduct viewings without my permission as interfering with my peace and comfort. As you are no doubt aware, this is a criminal offence under S3A of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 and I will not hesitate to report any criminal actions by yourself or the landlord to the appropriate authorities.

Further, I will also consider any attempt to access the property to change the locks to be an interference with my peace and comfort and to my quiet enjoyment of my home.

I look forward to receiving confirmation that you have noted my position.

Yours faithfully,

Right now I am just worn out, I'm going to have a cup of tea, let my daughter in from school, run a bubble bath and then come back later and re-read my draft and any new messages on here and then make any changes

I still feel really upset and nasty from how the guy at the council spoke to me but I think he was annoyed because I wasn't very clear to begin with. I told him I wasn't allowing viewings, which he said I couldn't do, and then I read him the email I sent the LA stating that I just wasn't allowing viewings right now but would when and if I started to feel better and up to having them.

Also when I spoke to him a fortnight ago it was because I thought I was going to be served notice but hadn't been served it yet. When I came off the phone to him I saw an email from the LAs with a scanned S21 so I had been served notice while I was on the phone to him.

I spoke to our family worker that we have at the council who is supporting my daughter get over the DV we fled from and she phoned him for advice and said we had been served notice as she had told me to keep her up to date with everything.

So today he thought I was lying to him the last time because he said he remembered speaking to me and I had specifically said notice hadn't been served, but then five minutes later he received a call from our family worker saying we had been given notice. I explained the notice had come through while we had been on the phone but he thought I was lying, so at that point he just didn't want to be helpful at all and was very blunt and then just hung up.

So because of the irony that the notice came through as I was on the phone to him about what I would do if notice was served, and the irony that because of the timing of it, he now thinks I am some hysterical liar and doesn't want to help me

BitterAndTwisted

Have you been served with the hard-copy of the Section 21 Notice yet?