Unlawful tenancy termination ? - landlord not fulfilling his obligation

Dusan_2

Hi there,

I wonder if there is anybody who knows the housing law well here? (It would save me some £££ to seek a legal advice)

I served a notice to my landlord regarding the disrepairs to a property after 8 months asking him to install an electric shower (as it was listed in my tenancy agreement that it will be installed around April2006) and also fixing the toilet and the entry door.
I had to send my landlord a notice, because he stopped communicating with me, although he knew that I suffered a loss of £174 due to a faulty immersion heater. That loss could have been avoided if the shower had been installed in April as was agreed.

After installing a shower in December, my landlord served me a 2 months notice to leave, despite not fixing the toilet or the doors.
I think this is considered as harassment not to fulfill his obligations and sending me a notice to leave.

I have been in contact with a local Hosing Aid - and I had been told that the notice from landlord is lawful and I would not likely to succeed in court, but I could seek a legal advice for compensation for a loss and also I could be asking the local authority to check disrepairs.

Do you know any law that if a landlord serving a termination notice, before he carries out repairs, is considered as unlawful ?

A representative from the Housing Aid mentioned that's a myth ? Is it ?

Thank you,

tomstickland

You can obtain free legal advice on the phone from lease-advice.org

Dusan_2

tomstickland wrote:

You can obtain free legal advice on the phone from lease-advice.org

Thanks tomstickland,

I'll try give them a ring. I'm also going to see our local CAB to see what they say.

olly300

Shelter can also give you advice - http://england.shelter.org.uk/home/index.cfm

By the way the landlord is in his/her rights to ask you to leave if you are on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy because the entire point of these tenancies was to make it easier to remove tenants from properties.

Also if you have problems like a broken toilet your landlord can get away with the legal argument in court that s/he had to remove you from the property to carry out the repairs as the property was not fit for human habitation.

The landlord can actually get prosecuted and fined/imprisoned by the local envirnomental health department if they let out a property which is not fit for human habitation. Wandsworth Council in London did this late last year against both a landlord and a letting agent who let out two flats twice which were condemed as being unfit for human habitation.

Dusan_2

olly300 wrote:

Shelter can also give you advice - http://england.shelter.org.uk/home/index.cfm

By the way the landlord is in his/her rights to ask you to leave if you are on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy because the entire point of these tenancies was to make it easier to remove tenants from properties.

Also if you have problems like a broken toilet your landlord can get away with the legal argument in court that s/he had to remove you from the property to carry out the repairs as the property was not fit for human habitation.

The landlord can actually get prosecuted and fined/imprisoned by the local envirnomental health department if they let out a property which is not fit for human habitation. Wandsworth Council in London did this late last year against both a landlord and a letting agent who let out two flats twice which were condemed as being unfit for human habitation.

Thanks olly300,

I have found some information on that website that didn't make me happy

http://england.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-4077.cfm
Think carefully before you decide what to do. If there's not much time left on your agreement, your landlord might decide to give you notice rather than do the work.

Well.....I'll see if I can get at least something from the small claim court...

specs_3

How did you lose £174 because of him not fitting a shower?

Dusan_2

When we moved in to a property in February06 we switched on all the switches on the fuse box (as they all been off). That switched the immersion heater on too, which we didn't know that was ON and running (we had no instructions from our landlord...), although we were suspicious that our boiler uses a lot of electric. In September a plumber came to install a shower and noticed that the switch on the immersion heater could not be switched off - unless we put a sealing tape on it or switch it off from a fuse box. We have received our 2nd electric bill in October (first in April) and we realised that each day we overpaid around £1/day. Since October we have received another 3 electric statements from were I calculated our average usage. The loss for a period with a faulty immersion heater was £174.

I have sent all calculations to my landlord to see the difference, but he was willing to pay only £100. I didn't accept that and was asking for a full amount.

Do you think I could get a full amount from the small claim court ?

thanks

specs_3

I think that the landlord would not be found liable for this as he had switched it off, and you switched it on again which caused your high energy bill.
I would accept the £100

I am only speaking as a layman though, hopefully the C.A.B and/or Shelter will agree with you.

barnaby-bear

Dusan wrote:

When we moved in to a property in February06 we switched on all the switches on the fuse box (as they all been off). That switched the immersion heater on too, which we didn't know that was ON and running (we had no instructions from our landlord...), although we were suspicious that our boiler uses a lot of electric. In September a plumber came to install a shower and noticed that the switch on the immersion heater could not be switched off - unless we put a sealing tape on it or switch it off from a fuse box. We have received our 2nd electric bill in October (first in April) and we realised that each day we overpaid around £1/day. Since October we have received another 3 electric statements from were I calculated our average usage. The loss for a period with a faulty immersion heater was £174.

I have sent all calculations to my landlord to see the difference, but he was willing to pay only £100. I didn't accept that and was asking for a full amount.

Do you think I could get a full amount from the small claim court ?

thanks

I doubt it - think 100 a good offer, it's a bit like saying I turned the switch for the loft light on and because I didn't realise what it was for. IT's pretty obvious if an immersion's on and besides it was switched off at fuse box, you turned it on.

The joy of the AST, LL has legally given you notice because he can, he doesn't have to give a reason. Pestering LLs can be a dangerous game.

Dusan_2

barnaby-bear wrote:

I doubt it - think 100 a good offer, it's a bit like saying I turned the switch for the loft light on and because I didn't realise what it was for. IT's pretty obvious if an immersion's on and besides it was switched off at fuse box, you turned it on.

All had to switch all the switches ON - as they all been switched off and didn't realized that one of them was used for immersion heater that was faulty. If it wasn't faulty - switching it On at fuse box wouldn't matter.


Thanks for your opinion. It's always good to get a different view from someone who is not involved in that situation.