Landlord trying it on again.

poppasmurf_bewdley

Some of you may remember that I started a new thread last month about my LL putting in the lease of my new home that I would be responsible for the heating system after three months tenancy. Everybody was adamant that he couldn't do that by law, as stipulated in the Landlord & Tenants Act.

Last night I was re-reading the Lease and came upon another little gem.

It states that should the Tenant die, the estate will be required to give two months notice to terminate the tenancy.

Now correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't any contract end the moment a person dies? Is he trying something else on?

BitterAndTwisted

This landlord has obviously downloaded that agreement from the net somewhere or thinks they are being clever. I wouldn't worry about that death clause either but I'd be having a very close inspection of the agreement in case they are trying to stipulate how often you are allowed to bathe and what colour underwear you should be wearing

poppasmurf_bewdley

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

This landlord has obviously downloaded that agreement from the net somewhere or thinks they are being clever. I wouldn't worry about that death clause either but I'd be having a very close inspection of the agreement in case they are trying to stipulate how often you are allowed to bathe and what colour underwear you should be wearing

The ironic thing is that I've been with this particular landlord for almost 10 years, at the previous property and now this one, and never had any problem with him or the property. My previous lease had none of this nonesense but it was handled thru a reputable Estate Agent. This lease is directly with him.

BitterAndTwisted

Well, if this idiot had any sense then they would have used to old agent's agreement as a template and just emended the salient details. Honestly, I'd bet you a fiver that they've downloaded this pile of guff from the internet somewhere. Jut because there are crazy and unenforceable clause and conditions just means that you risk having a bit of a fight on your hands when they try to enforce them.

If you wanted to be helpful and save yourself a whole world of grief later you could politely point out that there are nonsensical and unenforceable clause and then point your LL in the direction of a landlords association where they can acquire a sensible AST

B_Blank

Typical LL behaviour I am afraid. Disgusting.

Good luck OP

BitterAndTwisted

B Blank your opinion is absolutely fascinating but you are not adding to the sum total of advice to the OP one iota.

What would you suggest that the OP does about this situation?

B_Blank

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

B Blank your opinion is absolutely fascinating but you are not adding to the sum total of advice to the OP one iota.

What would you suggest that the OP does about this situation?

I would suggest OP not be surprised that a LL is trying to con her/him out of money, and that OP should make sure they do everything they can to document damage to the property and claim the deposit back.

In the meantime I would refuse all entry, change the locks to the property and basically ignore the LL. I would also tell everyone who shows an interest in the property that the LL is a con man and that they should avoid taking the property. You have a moral duty to protect other prospective tenants from such behaviour.

BitterAndTwisted

With that sort of combative attitude it wouldn't surprise me to find you posting on here about your own landlord trying to evict you ere long.

G_M

I really wouldn't worry about this. The fact that the contract has lots of rubbish clauses in it does not mean they can be enforced. I've seen contracts that state the deposit will be held by the landlord - that doesn't remove the LL's legal obligation to use an authorised deposit scheme.

Just ignore these clauses - there's no point in stirring up aggrevation by raising them with the LL.

Are there actually any terms that might be enforcible and which you have concerns about?

The main concern of course is that the LL clearly hasn't taken a very professional approach so may be missing other things:
* is there gas in the property and do you have a safety certificate?
* do you know where your deposit is held?
* did you sign an inventory which does not accurately describe the property?
* are repairs needed/being done?

Wee_Willy_Harris

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

...........It states that should the Tenant die, the estate will be required to give two months notice to terminate the tenancy..............
Now correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't any contract end the moment a person dies? Is he trying something else on?

To correct you, a tenancy DOES survive death. But it would only be 1 months notice if after the fixed term