Letting Agent has vanished, LL now aggressively seeking rent already paid!!

dangermummy

Hi,

Not 100% sure of my rights/obligations here, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

The LA which my LL used to manage the property on an AST which had fallen into periodic tenancy vanished without trace at the end of February. At the start of March, I recieved a telephone call from the LL informing me that no further payments were to be made to the LA, and that she had not received the rent payment for February. The LL confirmed that she had spoken to the LA before they 'vanished' and that they infoermed her they had recieved the rent, and would pay into heer account. According to the LL this did not happen and she was unable to contact them again.

The LL insisted upon a new AST being signed - I did not see the purpose of this, and was loath to do so as my LL has a r3eputation for being 'difficult', but LL stated she would serve notice if I did not sign, and as I did not have a security deposit or moving costs for a new property, I felt I had no choice but to sign.

As soon as the new AST was signed, my LL became the LL from hell. She began making demands for receipts for rental payments going back to December 2010, insisted upon late fee charges being paid for December, January and February payments (the rent since August 2009 has been paid either on time or up to 14 days late on occasion, without any notice of any issues regarding this), threatening court action for rent arrears if receipts were not produced etc. Whilst I understood her frustration with the LA, and would have been happy to work with her to get any paperwork that would help her in her claim against the LA, I was shocked and immediately defensive to this seemingly unfair and overly aggressive stance.

In subsequent correspondence, the LL has stated that the LA are in administration and made continuous reference to this matter also being a 'criminal matter'. Upon searching rigorously, I managed to locate the majority of my receipts bar one for the amount of £160.00 (I have a dreadful feeling it was located in one of my books which I have since sold in a car boot sale...). LL has stated that according to the Official Receivers there is no record of £160.00 being paid, which I know to be untrue. Several letters later and she is now instructing me that if the £160.00 'arrears' and the 'outstanding late fees' are not paid within 7 days, she will make a claim at County Court. She has also issued a letter titled 'notice of legal proceedings' in which she states that her solicitor is 'looking into a claim for misrepresentation'. A couple of internet searching hours later, and I have my response to that particular letter.

I asked the LL to provide details of the Official Receivers several times, as i suspected that the LA were not in adminstration, but had just vanished, and she was attempting to recover whatever losses she had by making demands for payments I could not provide receipts for. Luckily I found the majority, but this last £160.00 is proving difficult! She has made continuous references to the 'Official Receivers' and the contact she has had with them, but upon pushing her for the fourth time for the name of such, her response was as follows: 'In response to your queries regarding the Official Receivers for (LA) I have asked permission to pass their details onto you. As you are not a creditor they have specifically asked me not to do so at this time'. This actually made me laugh, as such information is a matter of public record, and this proved to me that she has not in fact had any contact with a receiver of any kind.

I have paid for reports on companies house today, and they confirm that the LA is in liquidation, not administration. The reports were also only filed on 14.04.11, with the 'wind down' meeting having taken place on 31.03.11. As such, the claims my LL has made about speaking to Official Receivers before the company was even in liquidation are clearly lies. I obviously also now have the liquidators details :-)

What I would like help with is where I stand on the matter of the missing receipt for £160.00? Does my LL have the right to so aggressively chase for this, even though I have already paid it? Also, does she have the right to begin back-dating late fees when there was no issue raised in the past regarding late payments?

Any help is greatly appreciated, I have had to become a rental expert in the last few months, what with the numerous claims about legal and criminal proceedings, as well as several repair issues (a leaking roof is 'non-urgent' according to the LL and the black mould spreading under my bedroom windows, up the wall, and around the back of the wardrobe is 'not harmful and should be cleaned off the wall with a mild detergent'; this advice comes without any testing of the mould, and without her even seeing it!). I have managed to find my own answers on most of the curveballs my LL has thrown at me, but I'm a little stuck on this one!

Many thanks in anticipation

Morglin

This type of 'landlord from hell' gives them all a bad name.:mad:

Try SHELTER who are excellent with advice for tenants:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/renting_and_leasehold/rights_and_responsibilities

or these guys:

http://www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk/gateway/housing.jsp

Neither charge for advice, and they are probably the best ones to tell you how to proceed with this landlady.

Lin

birkee

The LL appointed the Letting Agent not you. That's his problem.
Have you got evidence of payment?

BornAtTheRightTime

The fact that you have receipts for all other payments stands you in good stead. If you can show the debit of £160 on a bank statement this will prove beyond any reasonable doubt that you paid the LA the appropriate amount at the right time.

The LL might benefit from a reminder of what the penalties for tenant harrassment can be. I suggest a polite letter to her (and I mean letter, not email, text or phonecall) including a copy of the bank statement, referring to the evidence you have for all other payments and stating that you consider this suitable evidence that you have met all your rent payments and you now consider the matter closed - and that any further contact from her on this issue may fall foul of tenancy harrassment legislation.

princeofpounds

Don't worry so much, on this issue at least. If you paid rent to the landlord's appointed agent you paid it to the landlord. If the agent steals the money that is her problem.

If it does come to court or a deposit arbitrator then the liability for the 'missing' rent will be decided on the balance of probabilities. You do not have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that you paid, this is not a criminal case, a million miles from it. So any piece of evidence that you paid (bank transfer records, cheque stubs etc) is useful, even if not direct evidence of receipt. How did you pay?

Your tenancy is not under threat of termination except through the normal section 21 route at the end of the fixed term, as the landlord cannot issue a section 8 notice unless rent is 2 months rental period overdue. So the landlord could either, if they wished to pursue it, only go to small claims court or try to reclaim it through the deposit arbitration process at the end of the tenancy.

You would then go and state your case with your evidence, there would be a decision. If the landlord wins then you will be liable for the money (and a small amount of court costs if in court, but almost certainly not the landlord's legal costs as those are not claimable in small claims). It will be taken out of your deposit or, if you pay right away, will not result in a CCJ so nothing particularly bad should happen to you besides losing the money.

And I suspect that you would have a pretty good chance of winning even if your physical evidence is weak as judges (and to an extent arbitrators) are human beings and they can often tell when someone has been full of untrustworthy and bullying bluster.

You have two potential strategies open to you:

1) See you in court. Write a letter saying that you paid all the rent to the appointed agent as requested and that you are not interested in any further communication with the landlord on this matter. Any money that was lost between her and her appointed agent is no concern or liability of yours. If she wishes to pursue the matter further through official channels that is up to her. She is probably bluffing but even if not you can just go and defend yourself.

2) Keep talking, but state that all further communication must be in writing (if you haven't already). It might throw up more evidence of her unreasonable conduct or things that could help your case. Plus if she has appointed a lawyer she will have to pay them for each letter.

As for the late fees, they are unlikely to be lawful contract terms - only proportionate fees can even be considered and it is doubtful that a court would enforce them. You should refuse to pay them as it would be an implicit admission that the rent was missing.

Finally, make sure you cover your back on the repairs issues. Report EVERYTHING in writing. Clean up the mould. Take photos. Identify sources of damp and take photos. Ventilate. It doesn't need testing, it just needs cleaning and any sources of damp removed. Hopefully there is a physical cause rather than just condensation as you can be charged for that damage at the end of the tenancy.

Oh, and also make sure you 'throw the book' at the landlord - assume your deposit is protected in a scheme and you have checked? Assume you have a valid gas safety certificate?

Jenniefour

This is a horrific story - your right to quiet enjoyment has been well and truly thrown out of the window, and I think the behaviour of your LL is bordering on harassment. It seems that since the agents have gone into liquidation, taking some of her money in the process, she is now unable to separate in her mind the offending party - the agents - from the party who is also a victim of their behaviour re the rent - you. A difficult situation because you're a tenant but had you thought of getting a solicitor to write a letter on your behalf - both to the people dealing with the liquidation and the LL. Sometimes a strongly worded solicitors letter works wonders. And a good solicitor would know how to word it in such a way as to leave no doubt whatsoever of your position vis a vis the rent that the agents have not passed on to the LLL.

And, do you really want to stay given the present circumstances? Is your deposit in a properly protected scheme?

dangermummy

Thank you so much for your replies!

Luckily, she has no security deposit for the tenancy; I was with the same LA in a previous property, and one month they used the deposit to pay the rent when my partner had to go for an emergency heart bypass, and funds were low. My current LL bought the peoperty we were residing in at the time, and we agreed to rent her house (the property we are in now). As the LA understood our siutation, they signed themselves a security for the deposit. As such, I won't need to fight her for the same, which is a huge relief for me, and I'm sure a sore point for my LL. Even when she insited on the new tenancy agreement being signed, the security deposit ws 'Nil', which shows how desperate she was for us to sign a new contract.

I am also ensuring that EVERYTHING is in writing. She has openly lied in correspondence, but this can be presented as evidence - a phone call is basically hearsay, and In cannot trust this woman!!

I have been tempted to offer a payment plan for the 'outstanding' £160.00 as a gesture of goodwill, and in turn make myself a creditor for the same with the LA, but the LL attitude and aggressiveness have really pushed me into a defensive position, and I am loath to offer any assistance to such a bully.

She is a typical 'superior' landlord; she revels in the fact that she has ultimate control of where you live and is keen to point this out wherever she can. A recent forum stated that 'some landlords act as though their property is a stately home, and they are charging you an entrance fee rather than rent'. this sums up my LL perfectly!

Unfortunately, the tenancy does not end until 19 September (she has already served a Section 21 well in advance), and so I cannot move until then. I'll be happy to be rid of her! The only possible issue is Landlord references; I can't see her providing one and she has already suggested in correspondence that my lack of co-operation could affect LL references. But I'll keep up the fight; I've never let a bully win yet, and don't intend to start now, exhausting though it is!! :-)

IronWolf

Just keep up the fight, dont get worn down and offer her the £160.

I'd keep all her correspondence as evidence of harassment, if she doesn't leave it I'd threaten to take her to court over it.