Not had gas safety certificate for 4 years!

Janet_J

Despite numerous reminders, my landlord has not had the gas appliances inspected or sent me any gas or 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 - for being in 'rent arrears'.
What do I do?

00ec25

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

Cash-Cow_3

Report them to HSE.

pawlala

HSE will charge your LL £124 per hour from 1st October for investigating your complaints assuming they're justified. If you really wanted to be cynical (or clinical) you could wait until then

Notmyrealname

Janet_J wrote: »

Despite numerous reminders, my landlord has not had the gas appliances inspected or sent me any gas or 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 - for being in 'rent arrears'.
What do I do?

Find somewhere else to live. You cannot withhold rent.

tbs624

As another poster has said, a s21 is in effect a "no fault" notice of the LLs intention to seek repossession of the property. If validly served then there is no defence but then why would you want to continue living in a property where the LL has such scant regard for your safety?

If you do have rent arrears (presumablty the withheld rent) sort them out now if you can so as to improve your chances of getting a new tenancy elsewhere.

Do report this LL to HSE* once you're out - not only should he have had annual safety checks done and passes the tenant copy of the cert to you, he should also have retained copies for a min of 2 years. The local Tenancy Relations Officer ( private sector rentals) at the Council would probably like to hear about the LL's shortcomings too

Edired to add: *Go onto the hse website and you can complete the form at https://extranet.hse.gov.uk/lfserver/external/lgsr1

lighting_up_the_chalice

With such a slap dash approach to their basic legal responsibilities and leaving themselves open to criminal proceedings, it would be a fair bet that the S21 hasn't been served correctly either. So......

Have the tenancy deposit regulations been satisfied (Deposit protected and YOU notified).?
Was the minimum notice given.?
Was the prescribed information contained withing the notice?
Was the correct expiry date given?

If not, then the notice issued may not be worth the paper it's written on.

First step is to get this checked out. AND PAY YOUR RENT!!!

Janet_J

Thank you for the advice and links.

Report the LL to the HSE. Who are the HSE? I'm guessing that they are just another regulatory body that do very little and my LL knows it.

My children and I do not want to live here any more, for obvious reasons. I have turned the gas off at the mains and use just electricity for everything. Which has cost me a small fortune over time.

But I thought the LL would do something about the situation if she's not getting the rent.

Live and learn!

tbs624

Janet_J wrote: »

Thank you for the advice and links.

Report the LL to the HSE. Who are the HSE? I'm guessing that they are just another regulatory body that do very little and my LL knows it.

If you check th elinks you'll see that its the Health and Safety Executive. As for not doing anything , have a look at this boards' Evict a Rogue LL thread and/or the HSE website news section for info on prosecutions of LLs who fail to meet thier legal obligations on gas safety.

Janet_J wrote: »

I do not want to live here any more, for obvious reasons. But I thought the LL would do something about the situation if she's not getting the rent.

Live and learn!

Unfortunately, even if you had not withheld rent monies but had instead just followed the best route for enforcement (ie via the HSE & the local Counci) there is nothing to stop a LL pursuing a retaliatory eviction either at the end of the Fixed Term or during a subsequent stat periodic agreement running on from month to month

tbs624

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

With such a slap dash approach to their basic legal responsibilities and leaving themselves open to criminal proceedings, it would be a fair bet that the S21 hasn't been served correctly either. So......

Have the tenancy deposit regulations been satisfied (Deposit protected and YOU notified).?
Was the minimum notice given.?
Was the prescribed information contained withing the notice?
Was the correct expiry date given?

My bolding . The scheme's prescribed information would need to have been given to the T *prior* to the service of the s21 and the LL would be able to prove that the T had received it

tbs624

00ec25 wrote: »

y
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

However, Ts should be aware that they leave themselves open to having to pay costs, if the LL applies and the court awards