Renting a flat or shared house?

rattters

My brother has moved into a self contained flat in a 3 bed house. The LL seems to have just added the extra kitchen and bathroom and put a yale lock on the door. There is no sound proofing between the tenants downstairs!
What are the legalities of this?
My brother has tried to get sky/phone/broadband but they wont do it because it isn't registered as flat a or b etc - the 3 flats all just have the same address - 258 Any Road.
Where does this leave him with paying council tax?
He has emailed and called the LL but no reply and he doesn't want to get into trouble.
Any ideas??

Kirsty

CIS

Where does this leave him with paying council tax?

Who else is resident in the property and what are the terms of the tenancy ?

Queries

I suggest you go to your local Citizens Advice Bureau. Please go very early on the days that it is open. (It is also worth looking a their website, to see if you can get advice online.) I have had a dodgy, private, landlord , myself. Good Luck!!

rattters

Thanks guys- there is a couple resident in one "flat" downstairs and 1 single tenant in the the other "flat" downstairs. All have a kitchen and bathroom. He has a 6 month assured shorthold tenancy I believe.
Will get him to go to CAB deffinatley.
It just seems a little strange to me- but then I rented years ago- I thought having a proper fire door- (with a 5 lever mortice lock) was supposed to be standard as a front door to a dwelling.

Cheers

Kirsty

dodger1

Tell him to phone the local council about the council tax.

split_second

sounds like somewhere i went to view a few years back, that one was an inclusive rent. i didnt go for it in the end because i couldnt get any services of my own (broadband etc, i worked for an isp at the time) and no way of sharing anyone elses

rattters

Cheers ! Yeah- Told him to contact the council, when he had his phone connected with SKY- it was the downstairs "flat" that was able to use it LOL.

Just doesn't seem right to me- but will do some more investigating

persa

I'm no expert, but it sounds like a bedsit/studio to me, rather than a self-contained flat? I.e. where the LL would be responsible for paying the bills and council tax, as the bits being rented weren't actually 100% separate from each other? You can have your own kitchen and bathroom etc, but still not have a self-contained property! It depends on how the conversion has been done.

If bills etc are inclusive though (which I would expect), surely this is set out in the contract?

He could discuss sharing wifi (and thus cost!) with the other tenants or perhaps look into getting a USB dongle for his computer.