need some advice in relation to an old landlord

leeds_damien

OK this is a long winded story but i will try to keep it brief.

I went into a house share 13ish years ago, all was well i was a young lad and got on with the landlord very well. over the years people came and went from the house but i remained a fixture. The landlord would would collect the rent chq every month and all was well. In the original contract it stated it was a 1 year contract and would role on to monthly there after but there would be a £75 signing fee ever year. I never paid the singing fee after the 1st year. all went well for about 5 years and then the land lord stopped collecting the rent. i would bump into him every 6 months or so (as he lived locally) and would ask when he was going to visit but he would never show on the planned times. (From what i know he owned 100s of properties and the money just seemed irrelevant to him) after about 2 years i got some bank details from him and transfered the owing cash as it was building up substantially, but it was me who did all the chasing and had to go to his house to get his bank details.

I lived there for another 3 years and the same situation was there that the landlord never collected any cash. It was then i met the other half and we decided to grow up and live together, i wrote to the landlord and arranged to go for a pint with him so we could settle up the owing cash. i gave him all my new address details so he could send me an invoice but i never received one.

That was 2ish years ago. since then i lost my job and ate into the cash i had saved for him. there is now none of it left.

Yesterday out of the blue he rang me and asked to meet to settle things up as the tax man is chasing him. he admitted he has been useless and should have contacted me a long long time ago. i have stalled him as i am working night for a fortnight but i want to know where i stand on legal grounds.

I have been told there was an implied contract but is that still valid if he is only ringing me 2 years later.

I am not proud of spending the cash but without it we would have lost our current property.

As a sub note the other people i lived with for the last few year where in the same position but i know they have never had any intention of paying him. i dont think he is chasing them as they have changed their phone and one person he had never even met, it was me who did all the advertising and got her in.

Any one with a legal knowledge on any of the above point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated

marliepanda

I think you should pay as you did indeed receive the 'service' you paid for, ie use of the house. However, If I were your LL I would not expect you to pay it in a lump sum. He has left it too long, things happen, etc.

Are you happy to pay him in installments?

Legally, I am not sure where you stand.

leeds_damien

I am happy to pay in installments but i have only just got back on my feet and cash is tight at the moment but i am happy to come to an arrangement i am just scared he is looking to take it all in one go. its worth adding as well for the last 3 years no repairs where ever done to the property, we had no central heating and there was a water feature in the kitchen (the shower would leak when someone was in it and water would come gushing down the wall. so things where def not all rosy at the end. i did report the issues but was just told he would get them sorted. so although i did receive goods (a roof over my head) the conditions where very shoddy.

nick_

in these situations i would always say face up to it - there is no point burying your head in the sand.

talk to him. if he's as nice as he sounds then he'll understand and you can come to some sort of arrangement with him.

ognum

I think you should pay BUT I think he needs to understand you need to pay in instalments that are convenient to you.

DVardysShadow

If the Landlord decides to take you to court,, anything over 6 years old can be defended as statute barred and the court will not rule on it.

I suggest that you get together your last 6 month's or year's rent and send that to him with a covering letter stating it is rent for <date> to <date>. Keep a copy of the letter. Don't admit to any rent debt in any letter to him for any period other than the rent debt which you pay with that letter.

As and when he pressures you for more, pay back some more in 3 months but no more than 3 months worth. Argue that you are not going to pay rent faster than you would have done while living there. Again send a letter stating that it is for rent from <date> to <date>, where this is the period just before the last installment you paid.

Just keep on doing this as he asks you for more money. At some point, you will have paid for rent up to 6 years prior to the current date, at which point it becomes unenforcable in court. When this happens, negotiate with him a full and final settlement for all other rent and an installment plan, safe in the knowledge that he cannot get a CCJ against you.

jjlandlord

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I suggest that you get together your last 6 month's or year's rent and send that to him with a covering letter stating it is rent for <date> to <date>. Keep a copy of the letter. Don't admit to any rent debt in any letter to him for any period other than the rent debt which you pay with that letter.

If OP was a tenant at the property, admitting the debt or not is pretty irelevant: Rent was due and not paid...

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Argue that you are not going to pay rent faster than you would have done while living there. Again send a letter stating that it is for rent from <date> to <date>, where this is the period just before the last installment you paid.

I don't follow the logic. Rent is overdue, and can be demanded immediately.
IMO, such tactic might work only if ex-landlord plays along.

Ex-landlord very poorly managed the tenancy, but OP apparently was quite happy to avoid paying the rent: (1) He could have sent cheques, (2) he could have paid it all when he met the landlord instead of asking for an 'invoice', etc.

N79

Tenancy existed and rent was not paid. Therefore the OP owes the outstanding rent.

If LL goes to court a court will award the full amount. If OP can not pay full amount in one go then the OP could, at this point, request the court to agree a payment plan based on the OPs current income and essential outgoings (paying this debt will be a higher priority than non essential spending).

If this happens, OP will get a CCJ and will also have to pay all the LL's court costs. Therefore the best approach is for the OP to negotiate a reasonable payment plan with the LL now, voluntarily.

DVardysShadow

jjlandlord wrote: »

If OP was a tenant at the property, admitting the debt or not is pretty irelevant: Rent was due and not paid...



I don't follow the logic. Rent is overdue, and can be demanded immediately.
IMO, such tactic might work only if ex-landlord plays along.

Ex-landlord very poorly managed the tenancy, but OP apparently was quite happy to avoid paying the rent: (1) He could have sent cheques, (2) he could have paid it all when he met the landlord instead of asking for an 'invoice', etc.

I am writing in the context of the debt being Statute Barred. If you are not thinking of some of this debt being Statute Barred or approaching being Statute Barred, then you won't follow the logic.

N79 wrote: »

Tenancy existed and rent was not paid. Therefore the OP owes the outstanding rent.

If LL goes to court a court will award the full amount. If OP can not pay full amount in one go then the OP could, at this point, request the court to agree a payment plan based on the OPs current income and essential outgoings (paying this debt will be a higher priority than non essential spending).

If this happens, OP will get a CCJ and will also have to pay all the LL's court costs. Therefore the best approach is for the OP to negotiate a reasonable payment plan with the LL now, voluntarily.

If LL goes to court and OP gives the statute barred defence, OP will only be ordered to pay any part of the rent relating to occupation as tenant up to 6 years old. It seems that we have rent uncollected for a period of at least 3 years and the most recent was 2 years ago. Some of this is becoming Statute barred - and given the state of affairs over the whole tenancy, I imagine that there is some statute barred debt there already.

If pressed to the point, the OP should of course negotiate an overall settlement. But otherwise OP would be well advised to avoid entering any kind of arrangement. I think it would be grossly disproportionate for the OP to be landed with a CCJ for any of this - which arises as much from the LL's negligence as from the OP's fceklessness - the LL suffers no penalty. Which is why I believe that OP should adopt a strategy of confirming nothing in writing and making as much of this go Statute Barred as possible - whereupon he can pay back on his own timescale, without the risk of a CCJ hanging over him

sandsni

leeds_damien wrote: »

after about 2 years i got some bank details from him and transfered the owing cash as it was building up substantially, but it was me who did all the chasing and had to go to his house to get his bank details.

I'm just wondering, once you got his bank details, why didn't you just pay the rent into that account every month instead of letting it build up for another 3 years?

N79

DVardysShadow wrote: »

If LL goes to court and OP gives the statute barred defence, OP will only be ordered to pay any part of the rent relating to occupation as tenant up to 6 years old. It seems that we have rent uncollected for a period of at least 3 years and the most recent was 2 years ago. Some of this is becoming Statute barred - and given the state of affairs over the whole tenancy, I imagine that there is some statute barred debt there already.

So there is still around a year for the LL to bring a cause of action. While the OP's timeline is a little vague, nothing has been posted which indicates the Limitation Act yet applies.

Your post seems to be to string the LL along for as long as possible in the hope that you can get much of the LL's valid claim time barred - which is a useful approach in my opinion.