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Landlord has installed CCTV INSIDE our house and will not return my deposit
Comments
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This sounds horrible, and very pleased you are moving out!
Fwiw, Spareroom claim to be quite hot on monitoring adverts - it might be worth contacting them with your experience as I doubt its the kind of thing they promote. There is an option to "report this advert" on their website. I'd definitely do this if you think its likely he'll recruit a new lodger.
Good luck!0 -
OP - please make sure you do everything "right" yourself so he can't put any counterclaims on you - are you paying your rent up until when you leave or at least giving some paid notice (even though you won't be there for this period)? I am no expert, but I'd imagine a small claims court would look better on your claim if the landlord was not able to claim the money is rightly his due to you not giving any notice for him to find anyone to move in before moving out. That's if you aren't just happy to cut your losses.
Definitely report him to council, HMRC, etc.
It's funny that he has made a big show of advertising it as a 1.2 million pound house. It's not really exceptional at all for a large shared house in London. The last house share I lived in in London was probably worth 750,000 with four of us paying £445 per month.
What are the other tenants doing? I find it hard to believe that anyone paying 950 to rent a room in a house would put up with CCTV in the communal areas.0 -
Hi shammyjack / WelshNic: haha, had never heard of Rupert Rigsby but the Wikipedia description seemed pretty spot on!!
Hi gnimia: good call on the adverts as I know these are going up as I told him I'm moving out last night & he said he'll start advertising the room then. I'm sure he'll try the same trick again and advertise it wrongly so I'll report this when I see it!
Hi Tearose: I have paid my rent in advance to the end of this month however have no intention to pay him two months notice given that I feel he has made the living conditions too poor to live in with the introduction of an obtrusive CCTV surveillance system. He will no doubt keep my deposit which I already feel he shouldn't have claim to.
One other tenant will be leaving at the end of the month (this is the one who didn't sign the contract and paid less deposit). He hasn't yet told the landlord. The one who has been there 5 years also wants to leave ASAP but will wait till the end of his tenancy as he doesn't want to lose his deposit. Another tenant is a doctor and only stays at the house approx 1 day per week so I don't think he's too fussed & not sure what the others will do.0 -
Just tell him you will pay the next day or the next. You are ready to move out anyway!0
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I've just spotted this on the advert.
In the first paragraph it states the rent is £990 PCM
"
Area:BowPostcode:E3
Available:Now
Min term:12 monthsMax term:36 months
double room:£990pcm (en suite)
but further down it states
rent is on weekly basis. £990 paid every 4 weeks in advance.Never tell .0 -
Hi Olive Oyl - I'm guessing this is on a new advert put up today or yesterday? Do you have a link?0
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I didn't mean that you should pay the two months - but just some form of paid notice. Sorry I missed you'd paid up until to the end of the month - so you can say you are giving him X days notice in your letter and that you think that reasonable, given that the conditions under which you took the property (i.e no CCTV!) have changed and you feel it's untenable to carry on living under those circumstances.
Sorry this has happened. I've heard lots of bad house sharing stories and reasons for people wanting to move out quickly but never one quite like this!0 -
Hi Olive,
No my advert said £950 per month (NOT every four weeks) - could you let me know where I can find this advert? It would be interesting to see what he is now advertising.
What do you all think of the letter I am going to give to him tonight? Would you change anything?
Dear Marten,
I am writing to let you know that I will be moving out of your property on 20th July 2011, and expect to receive my full deposit back within 14 days of this date.
I am moving out because firstly the rent was advertised as £950 pcm, yet I was forced to sign a contract under economic duress (with the threat of instantly having to move out) making this rent every 4 weeks, and secondly, I am not happy with all the CCTV in the communal areas, which were installed without informing your lodgers and against our wishes.
Our contract was void from day one as you have failed to provide a cleaner as advertised for the duration of my residency.
You have repeatedly proven yourself to be dishonest having on numerous occasions told me that other lodgers have had conversations with you that simply had never materialised – including but not limited to you telling me that you’d discussed the addition of an internal CCTV monitoring system under the premise of ‘security’. Given that we have full outside CCTV coverage, an electronic gate system and an alarm, the instillation of this system is intrusive and a breach of privacy.
Additionally, you told me that all lodgers had signed into a contractual agreement (which has transpired to be untrue) and that my deposit (£1,200) was the same as all other lodgers (again, untrue).
You have refused to discuss my concerns and following a series of unsolicited, aggressive and derogatory text messages received by you on the 17th July 2011 you have left me with no choice but to leave with immediate effect.
The rent for my room is paid in advance to the end of this month and hence I am giving you ten days notice which in the opinion of myself and the professionals advising me legally is reasonable given the conditions under which I took the property (£950 per calendar month, cleaner included, no internal CCTV)
I have been advised by Shelter and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau that I have a strong case against you on the grounds of misleading advertising (I still have the original adverts), Data Protection, Privacy, Harassment, Economic Duress etc.
[FONT="]Should I fail to receive payment of my deposit within 14 days I shall start proceedings with a small claims court.
Kind Regards,[/FONT]0 -
there's always something odd about someone advertising on a website for students and saying that they want a professional to move in.....:happyhear0
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