Frustrating landlord

MrChips

Hello all,

I am posting this on behalf of my girlfriend who is getting increasingly frustrated with her landlord.

When she moved in, she was told by him that her rent would be £140 per week INCLUSIVE OF ALL BILLS. The property is a 5 bedroom house in West London which she shares with 4 other tenants. The other tenants were all told the same.

At first this included a cleaner (quite necessary with so many tenants!) but she stopped coming and then the landlord told them they would need to pay for a new one themselves. Irritating but not the end of the world.

He makes frequent visits to the property (sometimes daily) while they are all at work. One (former) tenant even noticed that he had been through some of the things in her room and kicked up a big fuss. He refused to renew her tenancy after the initial 12 months were over!

He insists on carrying out all repairs himself, but takes ages to do it. There has been water slowly dripping through the kitchen ceiling for many months and he hasn't done anything about it.

The final straw was when one of the tenants moved out a couple of weeks ago and warned the remaining tenants of some big deductions to her £650 deposit. One was for council tax. None of the tenants have ever seen any documentation pertaining to this - either indicating how much it is, or whether it is paid and who by! They can only assume the landlord pays it but have seen no receipts or invoices. They are all fuming that he has gone back on his "inclusive of all bills" sales patter. I know that council tax is normally payable by the tenants in addition to the rent, but it is normally a separate arrangement between the council and the tenant. I have never seen it done this way before. What if one of the tenants is a student - how would they arrange a reduction? What guarantee do the tenants have that the landlord has paid it on their behalf? They don't even know whose name is on the bill.

The other deduction was for "cleaning". I saw the room and it was left in a reasonable state. But he has charged her £100 for coming round himself and running some sort of cleaner over the carpet and cleaning the curtains. Is this reasonable?

All the remaining tenants are worried they will get the same treatment when they move out, no matter what state they leave their room in.

Any advice, either on the council tax issue, or the cleaning issue?

As a final point, I recall reading some sort of special legislation the landlord needs to comply with regarding houses with 5 or more residents. Any chance of someone who knows far more about it posting a link that I use to swot up on it?

Many thanks in advance,

Mr Chips

p.s. I have been inspired to write this by EagerLearner's amazing thread I hope this turns out to be a far simpler problem!

lynzpower

When she moved in, she was told by him that her rent would be £140 per week INCLUSIVE OF ALL BILLS. The property is a 5 bedroom house in West London which she shares with 4 other tenants. The other tenants were all told the same.

Was this written in the contracts they signed?

He makes frequent visits to the property (sometimes daily) while they are all at work. One (former) tenant even noticed that he had been through some of the things in her room and kicked up a big fuss. He refused to renew her tenancy after the initial 12 months were over!

Unlawful and trespass. Inform the police. by law LL needs 24 agreed notice, ie a tenant has to agree he can let himself in. If they dont, its not legal as far as I understand it. letting himself in and going through peoples stuff, Id view as harrassment and advise the police accordingly.

The final straw was when one of the tenants moved out a couple of weeks ago and warned the remaining tenants of some big deductions to her £650 deposit. One was for council tax. None of the tenants have ever seen any documentation pertaining to this - either indicating how much it is, or whether it is paid and who by! They can only assume the landlord pays it but have seen no receipts or invoices. They are all fuming that he has gone back on his "inclusive of all bills" sales patter. I know that council tax is normally payable by the tenants in addition to the rent, but it is normally a separate arrangement between the council and the tenant. I have never seen it done this way before. What if one of the tenants is a student - how would they arrange a reduction? What guarantee do the tenants have that the landlord has paid it on their behalf? They don't even know whose name is on the bill.

Again, does the written tenancy agreement state that the property is inclusive of all bills? Some tenancies are, landlords adjust the rent to cover the bills and thus theres no issues of outstanding bills, it can make things simpler from an admin point of view.

If one of the tenants is a full time student as far as I understand it the property will be charged at the same rate minus 25%, this would be the responsibility of the person whos name is on the bill. If he hasnt informed the borough then thats his luck out - as I remmber you have to present some sort of proof of fulkl time studentship, to the council- I only have a sketchy memory of this, was some years since I was at uni!

lynzpower

Ps love your sig Mr Chips big fan meself

Clive67

This sort of thing happens all the time with dodgy landlords. As a tennant you are entitled to 'quiet enjoyment' of the property you rent.

The landlord MUST make an appointment to come round and has no right to just enter the property when you are out (or when you are there)

The best people to contact for free advice and they will send letters on your behalf etc are Shelter. They give exellent free advice to tenants, they are not just about homelessness.

The main contact number for them is: (its free) 0808 800 4444

or get advice from their web site:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/home/index.cfm

Hope this helps.

Gorgeous_George

Just google "hmo council tax". Loads of links.

Also, Landlordzone is a great forum.



GG

MrChips

Update!

I decided to phone Hounslow council to check about the Council Tax. Surprise surprise, it has never been paid! It is the landlord's name on the bill, and apparently bailiffs have been contacted to visit the property. The lady I spoke to said that should they call, we should ask them to visit the landlord rather than the tenants.

Not really sure what to do now!

silvercar

Give the council your landlord's address, it should be on the tenancy agreement.

Bargain_Rzl

lynzpower wrote:

If one of the tenants is a full time student as far as I understand it the property will be charged at the same rate minus 25%, this would be the responsibility of the person whos name is on the bill.

Not true about the 25% reduction. Council tax is calculated on the number of occupants in the property that ARE liable for payment of council tax, not those that AREN'T.

If nobody in the house is liable (e.g. a house where all the occupants are full-time students) then no council tax is payable.

If only one person in the house is liable (e.g. somebody living alone, or a house where one occupant is working full-time and all the others are students) the council tax is payable at 75% of the normal value.

If two or more people in the house are liable, council tax is payable at 100% regardless of the exemption status of any further occupants.

sooz

how many floors does the house have? if it's 3 - even including a habitable loft or basement, it would be a licensable HMO in Hounslow. Even if it has less floors, it may be in an additional licensing area. Call the Private Housing Services team at Hounslow council and ask to speak to the HMO dept.

As far as I understand, the landlord has to pay the council tax in an HMO - though it would depend on the contract whether you have to reimburse him or not.

If they are each renting individual rooms, rather than the entire house together, i think he'd be entitled to come into the communal areas without notice, though again not into their rooms - see previous posts on "quiet enjoyment"

look here for more info on HMOs http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1151996

MrChips

Thanks sooz - some useful info. I'll look into it.

As far as I know (other than the claims made by the girl who he told to leave) he doesn't make a habit of going into bedrooms - or at least we have no reason to think so, other than to put in new furniture, curtains etc. As far as we know he sticks to communal areas.