Can tenant sue Landlord for not providing Gas safe cert?

arlee

Thanks above.

The exact wording is as below

9.2 Rent Review and Early Termination
9.2.1 Rent review xxxxxx
9.2.2The Tenancy may be terminated by either party by serving written notice upon the other. Such notice shall be given by the Tenant two months prior to the intended termination, and two months in the case of the Landlord giving such notice.

teeni

arlee wrote: »

Thanks for your advice.

Its the first time I rented my house which I used to live in myself, the gas hob was newly installed and boiler was serviced and all radiators were checked through by a gas safe engineer just before (18 months ago) I let my house to the current tenant, but I didn't know about GSC until recently (i know this is not an execuse but its true), since I realised this I immediately arranged and tried to get this done, but tenant is strongly refusing to give access.

I have already given 3 notices to tenant for GCS so far, every time tenant replied a long letter full of CAPITAL /bold words and lots of ??? &!!! instead of giving a straight answer to my notice.

Out of blue, my tenant-the husband emailed me that (quoting his own word) - " I would like to inform you that me myself I already personally provided that inspection'. To my understanding his words mean that he did an inspection himself rather than had the inspection done by someone who in this case supposed to be a qualified gas safe engineer. Then I replied him back saying by law this must be done by a GS engineer and offered him another appointment with one week notice.

Tenant (the wife) replied me the next day in an email literally shouting and screaming at me, she took half a page just to show off her and her husband's qualifications and how high profiled they are in their professions, she actually was offended by me thinking that her husband did some low class job(i.e. checking gas appliances himself) which her husband is too posh to do it in a million years and she thinks the action I am taking to make things right is kind of lowness and cheap strategy which offend their mind and cleverness (her own words). At the end of her email she said she doesn't want any communication with me in any forms (post mail, email, text or phone call) and if I ever contact her she will take me to court for harassments.

Personally I don't mind what she says but obviously her emails (3 long ones full of aggressive remarks) came to me as threatening, abusing and bullying, before I take further action I would like to have some advice to the followings:

1. Can tenant get the GSC done without informing or getting permission from the landlord?
The HSE or private housing officer will usually contact you to be there when they inspect. The public housing officer does not have to though and they will contact hse even if tenant has not gone to them directly

2. Is there anything else I need to do in order to get the court order for gaining access?


3. Can tenants restrict me from contacting them at all (all my communication with tenants are written letter with recorded postage)?
Send letters by recorded delivery and by normal post if the tenant decides not to sign for recorded delivery they have not receive the letter. OR arrange for letters to be hand delivered to the property without knocking or contacting the tenant in any way You are entitled to contact the tenant by letter providing the contents are regarding the property and there is not one every day. It is better to keep things formal and in writing as the contents of a telephone call are open to mis interpretation by either party.
4. In what circustances can the tenants sue their landlord of harassment?
Constant telephone calls, attending the house without prior agreement , any action intended to evict them with out following the correct procedure.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading and giving advices.

You really need to join a landlords site or get professional legal advice, to avoid unnessecary delays or getting things wrong.

Yorkie1

That's not a particularly standard clause; it doesn't give a date before which / after which the break clause can't be activated. It also doesn't stipulate that the notice must end at the end of a rental period.

If that is the entire content of the clause, and there's nothing anywhere else in the tenancy about this, then it would seem that you can give written notice as you suggest. Bear in mind that if you wrote the letter on say 7 Feb and posted it through the post, it would take time for it to be deemed to be served, and if the date of 'service' is less than 2 months before the 'expiry' date of the notice then you will be stuffed.

Given the unusual nature of the tenancy clause, and the difficulties your Ts are creating, I strongly recommend that you join a national LL's association for formal advice and assistance in ensuring you get your notices drafted correctly.

I can't remember from the rest of the thread - was there a deposit? If so, has it been protected and the T given the prescribed information?

teeni

arlee wrote: »

My AST with tenants will have run for 6 months by 06/02/2012 (next Monday), does it mean I can serve them a 2 months notice on 06/02/2012 to terminate the tenancy?

Can anyone give me some advice on my other questions above (on thread 26)as well?

Many thanks

You need to confirm the details of the break clause, often they allow the agreement to be terminated by either party on the 6 month date only. IF that is the case you are to late to issue 2 months notice now as the 6 months end on monday.
cant be accurate until you put the details up

Yorkie1

teeni wrote: »

You need to confirm the details of the break clause, often they allow the agreement to be terminated by either party on the 6 month date only. IF that is the case you are to late to issue 2 months notice now as the 6 months end on monday.
cant be accurate until you put the details up

OP has now done that - see post #32.

The clause is not particularly helpful on the point you raise, though ...

arlee

Yorkie1 wrote: »

That's not a particularly standard clause; it doesn't give a date before which / after which the break clause can't be activated. It also doesn't stipulate that the notice must end at the end of a rental period.

If that is the entire content of the clause, and there's nothing anywhere else in the tenancy about this, then it would seem that you can give written notice as you suggest. Bear in mind that if you wrote the letter on say 7 Feb and posted it through the post, it would take time for it to be deemed to be served, and if the date of 'service' is less than 2 months before the 'expiry' date of the notice then you will be stuffed.

That is the entire content of the clause, if this clause is valid, I will give written notice by hand and will bring along an independent witness

Given the unusual nature of the tenancy clause, and the difficulties your Ts are creating, I strongly recommend that you join a national LL's association for formal advice and assistance in ensuring you get your notices drafted correctly.

I am going to seek solicitor's professional advice on Monday, will look through LL's association as well, many thanks!

I can't remember from the rest of the thread - was there a deposit? If so, has it been protected and the T given the prescribed information?

Yes, deposit is protected and prescribed information has been forwarded to T

Janet_J

Despite numerous reminders, my landlord has not had the gas appliances inspected or sent me any gas safety certificates - for 4 years. Fed up, I stopped paying the rent until she does. Instead, the landlord served me with a S21 and county court possession order claim - for being in rent arrears.
What do I do?

00ec25

Janet_J wrote: »

Despite numerous reminders, my landlord has not had the gas appliances inspected or sent me any gas safety certificates - for 4 years. Fed up, I stopped paying the rent until she does. Instead, the landlord served me with a S21 and county court possession order claim - for being in rent arrears.
What do I do?

you are too late to do anything

you had no right to withhold rent over absence of a GSC, absence of a GSC does not invalidate a S21.

If the S21 has been served correctly, then you are already on the slope to being thrown out, a S21 is a no fault notice, ie no reason has to be provided by the LL and you cannot defend against it provided it is valid (ie correctly dated, your deposit is in a scheme and you received the proscribed info within the relevant deadline)

of course you do not have to physically move out just becuase he has sent you a S21. You can stay there until the LL actually gets the court order for the evicition and (if you go the ultimate step in resistance) the balififfs turn up to enforce it

with you threatening the LL and the LL retaliating with a S21 , it sounds like the best thing you can do is move on as any relationship is clearly broken

if you want to get a final retaliation in as you move out then read the HSE page on what you should have done and how to report the LL to the HSE - they are the people who wil take action, not you

http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/faqtenant.htm

tbs624

Janet_J wrote: »

Despite numerous reminders, my landlord has not had the gas appliances inspected or sent me any gas safety certificates - for 4 years. Fed up, I stopped paying the rent until she does. Instead, the landlord served me with a S21 and county court possession order claim - for being in rent arrears.
What do I do?

Hi Janet - welcome as a newbie. It's good that you now seem to have your own thread about this - it makes forum life easier for alll if you don't "hijack" someone else's with your query.:)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4070759