Landlord nightmare

jodenice

We are in the process of buying our first home. We first put an offer in at the end of September but the seller has been faffing about and we're only just getting our local searches done now!

One of the problems has been when to put our notice in and our landlord. We have to give two months.

We are with an agency and the guy who looks after our account is called Jeremy. We often get emails from Jeremy, telling us that the 'landlord is very short of money and you will have to buy your own gardening equipment to cut the lawn' or along those lines. We email Jeremy often, with pleas of 'please can you help with the damp' - there is water running down the walls.... Or None of the windows will open since they have been painted shut. This is a fire hazard' .... OR .. your workmen were working on the roof til 11pm last night and let themselves into my flat without my permission'. That kind of thing.
There is a tenant in the flat downstairs , also called jeremy. Can you guess where this is going? Yes. We recently found out that Jeremy, the man at the agency who looks after our flat, is also the LANDLORD!!

He's been referring to himself in the 3rd person for about 3 years! and watched as the whole house starts to slowly crumble. Walls and window panes rot, clothes get infected with mould, floors are wet, we have no water at all for about an hour a night when he turns his taps on!

And then he writes to say how little money he has. I'm thinking I have no chance of getting my deposit!

The last straw this morning. He wrote to say that 'the dog poo in his garden wasn't the right size for his dog, therefore I must have been letting my dogs loose on his lawn, and - get this - he has put the poo in my garden! As if I'd let my dogs go on somebody elses garden.

I gave my notice in this morning.

Jo

abaxas

Just dont pay the last month's rent! (or 6 weeks if the bond is that length)

That should solve all issues.

jaype

Agree with abaxas- whatever you do, don't pay him the last month's rent. My landlord was a similar skinflint (tried to sell us the flat for 129k for quick sale and to avoid estate agency fees but we pulled out after the survey confirmed our worst fears about wet rot... then he sold it to HIS OWN DAUGHTER for 140k!!! Ripped her off good and proper.). I am still chasing him for deposit 2 1/2 years on and am about to have an online trace done on him as he has vanished.

maninthestreet

"....the dog poo in his garden wasn't the right size for his dog, therefore I must have been letting my dogs loose on his lawn, and - get this - he has put the poo in my garden!"

Tell him if he does the same again, you will report it to the police as an offence under 1997 Protection From Harassment Act, and he is likely to be arrested.

jodenice

I'd be a bit worried about not paying him the rent. he lives beneath us and I know on one or more occasions he has been in the flat without me being there. (I have no proof of this, apart from the time I found a workman in my kitchen, but at that time the landlord says the workmen said I had given him permission and left the window wide open. Handily invalidating my house insurance and inviting all burgulars in obviously). My boyfriend has a fab collection of limited edition DVDS and films and computer stuff and I just couldn't run the risk of him coming in and chucking all our stuff out. Or worse, taking stuff to make up for the rent.

As then i'd have to maim him. You'd never believe it but I hate confrontation!

jodenice

I also think it may be a conflict of interest that the agency I've gone with (to protect my interests) has an agency member allocated to my flat who actually owns the properties!

sciencegeek

Does downstairs jeremy actually know that you know he is estate agent/landlord jeremy?

if not, when you bump into him in the hall/porch one day you could ask if he has the same annoying, useless, pain-in-the bum agent that you have and mention that you have taken legal advice and are in the process of starting legal action against your landlord regarding the conditions and fire hazards you described.

That should put the wind up him!

jodenice

Ah that would be so great but unfortunately I clicked a little while ago when some of his mail got delivered to us (in fact all his mail and bank statements still come to us, I guess they think he still lives here) but also some came for downstairs to us by mistake and slowly, oh so slowly, the penny dropped. 8i asked him, he went bright red, i said 'so you've been calling yourself 'the landlord' to all my emails all this time and he mumbled something and scuttled indoors.

If I'd come along five minutes earlier I'd probably have caught him shotputting poo into the garden....

silvercar

you don't want to live there anymore and are moving out. when does your contract end? If you are on a periodic tenancy (ie the original agreement is finished and you are just rolling on month by month) you only need to give one month's notice (even if it says 2 in your contract as this has been judged an unfair term). The notice needs to end at the end of a rent cycle, if you pay rent to the 18th of each month, then you give notice to end on the 18th.

If you are still in the contract term you cannot easily give notice to leave earlier. you could try and complain with the things you have mentioned but that could get messy unless Jeremy agrees.

Tassotti

maninthestreet wrote:

"....the dog poo in his garden wasn't the right size for his dog, therefore I must have been letting my dogs loose on his lawn, and - get this - he has put the poo in my garden!"


:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Sorry couldn't stop laughing at this..What an idiot.

Gives us good LLs a bad name

Dead_Eye_Jones

geesh im so glad im out of the renting game! I would have move out a long time before you did!

Not paying up may or may not be a bad move, do you need a reference from him for example, do you need to use the same agency, are you sure it wont be recorded against you somewhere (eg credit rating)? Getting your deposit back isnt all that hard, but can take time so if you need it for another place perhaps withholding rent might be a good move.

Remember, to withold a deposit it is the landlord responsability to PROVE that you have caused damage. He must provide you with invoices for the work carried out. When he tries to claim for repainting or new carpet ask for an outline of the work done, copies of the invovices etc, and his basis for holding you responsible. He cant claim for wear and tear, so if youve scuffed the paint a few times as youve passed through the front door he cant repaint the house at your expense, however if you decided to throw darts into the wall then thats a different matter, he might have a case for replastering and repainting depending on the damage! You can recover any unfair costs easily through the small claims court - remember he has to prove that you caused any damage. Pretty much impossible to be honest even if you did do it, courts will normally find in your favour in any doubt.

I found LLs did everything to take a slice of that deposit and always was able to get it back, they know the law too so will normally cough up once you follow through on the advice handed out by the CAB. Its normally best to follow the appropriate legal route, it might not always work in the way it should but at least you will have done the 'right' thing and it wont come back to haunt you.