Can my LL make me homeless for being pregnant?

mazy_m

Hi there,

Me and my OH want to have a baby but before we go ahead and start trying ; ) ; ) we want to find out realistically what to expect.

I know the LL decided to rent out to us over a womanwho was pregnant as he was concerned she'd be running up huge bills etc also as it would disturb the LL who lived in the rooms above. IWe rent out the downstairs of a house that's been converted into a small studio.

Can the LL legally evict us from the property if I were to become pregnant? i'd happily still live here although it is small but i'm not concerned about space.

What would happen if he did evict us due to this or if you were a landlord would that make you evict tenants that lived below you who have always paid on time or early and have never caused a problem?

Thanks in advance?

Maz

dancingfairy

It dependson what sort of tenancy agreement you've got. He/she would have to wait until the tenancy agreement expired and make sure they had served the correct paperwork on you. It's normally called a 'no-fault' notice - ie they can ask for the property back for any reason as long as they go about it in the right way.
If you are in a tenancy agreement they would have to go to court and try and get you out on some some spurious charges - ie anti -social behaviour etc so they would need to have some sort of evidence etc for this to succeed I would assume.
Most landlords would not evict someone just for gettting pregnant if they have been good tenants but then some landlords are just strange.
df

theartfullodger

Landlord can evict you for no reason at all. Thatcher brought that great idea in...

pmlindyloo

Need a few more details.

Have you got a tenancy agreement? When did it start? Is your studio self contained? Do you share any common parts with your LL?
Are you in England/Wales/Scotland?

Sorry for the questions!

We need to know what security you have regarding your accommodation.

It is not a case of the LL trying to evict you because you get pregnant. In certain cases LLs can evict without giving any reason!

Turnbull2000

Assuming on you're on a standard AST, then yes he can. Though he doesn't have to state such a reason. Did the original contract state "no children"?

mazy_m

Hey all thanks so much for your replies and no problems with the questions I should have included more!!

The tenancy agreement we don't actually have a copy of I know this is bad... my mum told me not to sign it until the boiler and checks had been shown to be complete etc...this was in 2009...since then we've never signed another one so I know effectively he could just kick us out if he wanted... I thought that the fact I paid the rent through my bank etc formed some sort of contract etc so I always felt secure with this.

The only common parts we share are the hallway and garden forgot to say his friend is also renting out one of the rooms above at the moment well has been for nearly a year as his wife kicked him out and took everything!! We get on well with him also...it's just the fact that a baby would be loud there's no getting away from that and it's effectively a house so the baby woud be heard.

I think I could alleviate his concerns about running up the bills as he knows right now that I never leave lights etc on and hardly use the heater (no central heating) as I hate to waste energy.

I think the original agreement if I remember rightly was one of these ones you get from a pack so was pretty standard I don't recall a clause about children etc ( they weren't on my mind then!! lol)

The studio is self contained own kitchen ( well tiny kitchen area) own shower room, own entrance which is lockable. We are in England.

I think that's all the questions answered.

My LL is lovely and I think he realises what good tennants we are we even look after his daughters cat while she's a uni as she still lives around the property so he trusts us. I just worry that when the time came to have a baby he wouldn't be happy if we disturbed the peace. I actually love living here it took me a while to get over the smallness and the now shower small kitchen tiny living room thing as i've always been lucky enough to live in decent sized houses but now i 'm used to it it's proabably easier and when you learn to work with it it's great plus the garden is fantastic as we're the last house in a cul de sac with. I'd be happy staying here til we buy a place but realistically that's not gonna be for at least 5/6 possibly more years with the price of houses around here (London) but I do want to start a family sooner than that. I do feel I should wait because of the financial issues but on the other hand I don't want to wait as i'm getting older! lol

Thanks again so much for all your help!

Maz

RAS

Is the central heating shared with the landlord? Do you have separate Council TAx aND WATER RATE BILLS?

mazy_m

Hi RAS all the bills apart from out Virgin package are paid by the LL we just pay a set amount including bills each month hope this helps

Maz

thegirlintheattic

It sounds like you will be on a periodic tenancy so the LL can give you two months notice for no reason.

So it's up to your LL if he evicts you for having a baby. IMO it doesn't sound like the best kind of property for a baby not least as I would assume sound travelling would be a big problem.

mazy_m

Thanks well 2 months isn't too bad to sort something out if needbe....I know it wouldn't be ideal but anything else would be too expensive literally a month after we moved in studios on the second floor without a garden in this area shot up to £750 not including bills so anything better than what we have will be too expensive when saving for a house.

G_M

This looks like one of those borderline cases....

Shared front door.... shared hallway....(shered garden.... no seperate council tax.... utilities all on a common system and paid by LL....

Lodger? Occupier with basic protection? NO security and can be evicted at will, any time, any reason.

(Shelter - tenancy checker)