Assured Short Hold Tenancy Breach & Avoiding CCJ

first_time_buyer_London

RAS wrote: »

No NO NO.

We need to know exactly what was on the contract you recently signed.

Start date of tenancy?
End date of tenancy

Are you in Scotland, England or Wales?

Contract dated 02.06.12

6 months from and including: 02/06/12
expires on the: 01/12/12
in advance by calender month: 2nd day of every month
first payment to be made on: 02/june 12
next £672 to be paid immediately prior to the date hereof to the landlord.

England.

RAS

Thank you.

You have a 6 month Fixed term Contract.

You cannot leave the property and avoid payment until 1 December. Even if you leave, you will have to pay the rent for the time you are not resident.

This is why signing the new contract was a mistake, You old contract (whether you signed it 5 years ago or last year), was legally valid and you would have been on a period contract. That would have allowed you to give one month's notice now and leave on 1 September.

Provided you leave the property by 11.59pm on December 1, you are not required to give any notice to end a fixed term contract regardless of what it says in the contract - that is what fised term means.

Regardless of what the contract says the LL has to give you two months' notice to end the contract and can take you to court to leave before the end of the fixed term on the grounds of non-payment of rent.

You have not explained what sort of flat this is. Is this a house in multiple Occupancy? There are two or three very common reasons why landlord's do not want their tenants to pay Council tax.

1. They are illegally sub-letting a Council house or flat. Sometime even a private let.
2. They have converted a larger property into smaller untis without either planning permission or buiding regulations.

Go onto the Council web-site and check out the Council tax banding for your flat/house. What is your address ? Does that tally with what is on the CT banding list?

Somerset

first_time_buyer_London wrote: »

He did me a new contract / tenancy agreement until the end of the year! which I stupidly signed in front of a witness stating I am to pay £672 straight away.

first_time_buyer_London wrote: »

It was very underhand how I was fitted up with this contract and I feel I was tricked into signing it but I needed to get an up to date tenancy agreement for POA. It was my own fault for not taking it away and reading it.

I don't get how the landlord was underhand or you were tricked !

-You were on a periodic.
- You asked for a new contract
- The standard is a six month

Apart from being stupid, as you were already in arrears, what else exactly do the landlord do wrong ?

first_time_buyer_London

first_time_buyer_London wrote: »

Contract dated 02.06.12

6 months from and including: 02/06/12
expires on the: 01/12/12
in advance by calender month: 2nd day of every month
first payment to be made on: 02/june 12
next £672 to be paid immediately prior to the date hereof to the landlord.

England.

The Citizens Advice said I am basically tied in for six months I think.

Technical Jargon in contract that I don't fully understand:

(9) Service of Notice

(d) If the tenant wants to determine at or any time after the end of the first six months ...........than the tenant shall serve no less than two months prior written notice.....

Same for the landlord

Im confused, I still don't understand how long I am tied in for? when I can hand in notice.. I am just presuming that if I stay and work thing out (pay etc) then I could leave next year when this contract has run out by giving one months notice... That is easier for me to grasp.

RAS

You need to remember that landlords and estate agents do not have any training in tenancy law. Most of the time they make it up as they go along and make a complete hash of it. You have a hash merchant.

You are tied in for 6 months.

If you want to leave on 1 December, you are not required to give any notice whatso ever, whatever the contract says.

If you want to leave after 1 December, you have to give one month's notice.

That is the law. Statute law trumps contract law. What they have written on the contract is garbage. No point in going back to them.

They will bleat when you give notice. They will find out they are wrong if they try to pursue you for unpaid rent. Their problem, not yours.

Is your deposit protected? Which scheme is it in?

first_time_buyer_London

RAS wrote: »

Thank you.

You have a 6 month Fixed term Contract.

You cannot leave the property and avoid payment until 1 December. Even if you leave, you will have to pay the rent for the time you are not resident.

This is why signing the new contract was a mistake, You old contract (whether you signed it 5 years ago or last year), was legally valid and you would have been on a period contract. That would have allowed you to give one month's notice now and leave on 1 September.

Provided you leave the property by 11.59pm on December 1, you are not required to give any notice to end a fixed term contract regardless of what it says in the contract - that is what fised term means.

Regardless of what the contract says the LL has to give you two months' notice to end the contract and can take you to court to leave before the end of the fixed term on the grounds of non-payment of rent.

You have not explained what sort of flat this is. Is this a house in multiple Occupancy? There are two or three very common reasons why landlord's do not want their tenants to pay Council tax.

1. They are illegally sub-letting a Council house or flat. Sometime even a private let.
2. They have converted a larger property into smaller untis without either planning permission or buiding regulations.

Go onto the Council web-site and check out the Council tax banding for your flat/house. What is your address ? Does that tally with what is on the CT banding list?

Thank you. I think I need to pay up and stay until after December 1st.

Its a house converted into studio units.

Just checked it out on voa dot gov dot uk

The address is shown in the table as: the street number and not any flat numbers. e.g 50a, 50b, 50c like some of the others.

Its band E, IMPROVEMENT INDICATOR BLANK Local Authority Ref:


Local authority reference number:......
Improvement indicator : Blank
With effect from:BLANK
Mixed use property: NO
Court CODE: BLANK

What does this mean please? Is he not paying council tax for the individual units / doing something wrong?

More importantly, could I claim 6 years worth of CTB?

RAS

based on several other thread here, you landlord has converted the property without planning permission or building regulations.

Does your contract state that he will pay CT?

This is important as what has happened is that when Council's find out they start to bill the tenants for the unpaid CT (CT for 6 studios at A band will be a lot more than 1 house at C or D band so their are arrears).

After the initial upset, the Councils have accepted that the LL has already collected and left the tenants alone.

Where is list flat numbers, what is the banding and what is the current CT for that band? What band is your house in? How much is the CT for that.

first_time_buyer_London

I have received a letter today explaining that my Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) has been awarded.

This is the reason I signed the new contract because my thought process at the time was that I could not get my housing ben- with out an up to date tenancy agreement so they sent me away to get one. I thought I might as well be honest and let my LL put down everything I owe and then take it round to them for them to back date it. Thats why I signed the new contract, there was a method in my madness!

I have been awarded: £2085.71 (I don't know how they have come to this figure)

"From 16/05/2012 to 01/12/12 : £73.00 per week in addition to my current HB" @ £71.35 per week. (they claim I owe them £, don't ask)

The total HB I will receive is:

£71.35 X 4 = £285.40
£73.00 X 4 = £292.00 (Extra PM)
Total = £577.40

As you can see there is still a short fall from the £672 rent due.

(They probably expect you to take it out of you JSA, I'm not been un great full as I appreciate the help.)

This is what I think my solution is: (which people may not agree with)

Go and see the new agent, introduce myself explain that I have lived there a long time (the longest) & I have been a good tenant and paid over £40.000 over the duration of my stay etc etc

Be honest with him, show him all the paper work, Existing contract (?) HB letters and explain that I am here to (try) and re negotiate the rent!

Tell him I can pay him everything they pay me! And show him the letter and my calculations and say I can pay £577.40

Ask him to draw up a new tenancy back dated replacing the old one for this amount.

It makes sense for him to go for it then at least he will be getting something!

Ill say I can give you that (or I could go to £600 at a push) or NOTHING!

Thoughts please

p.s I am not a person who sits around on benefits as I have worked all my life its just a have been a victim of circumstance and fell on hard times due to loosing job and I have paid enough tax / ni over the years and that is what it is there for)

theartfullodger

first_time_buyer_London wrote: »

.... ..
I have been awarded: £2085.71 (I don't know how they have come to this figure)

"From 16/05/2012 to 01/12/12 : £73.00 per week in addition to my current HB" @ £71.35 per week. (they claim I owe them £, don't ask)

The total HB I will receive is:

£71.35 X 4 = £285.40
£73.00 X 4 = £292.00 (Extra PM)
Total = £577.40

As you can see there is still a short fall from the £672 rent due.

....

Presumably (??) the £672 figure is PER MONTH. The HB figures you have quoted are for 4 weeks... £577.40/28 days..

That means per month equivalent (£577.40dividedby 28 multipled by 365 divided by 12...) = £627:23/month. Not quite so bad... (Can someone else check my sums please??)

first_time_buyer_London

theartfullodger wrote: »

Presumably (??) the £672 figure is PER MONTH. The HB figures you have quoted are for 4 weeks... £577.40/28 days..

That means per month equivalent (£577.40dividedby 28 multipled by 365 divided by 12...) = £627:23/month. Not quite so bad... (Can someone else check my sums please??)

Do not over complicate it please. As far As I know it is not calculated per rata/ year etc

In simple terms I get £142.70 every 2 weeks at the moment,

Letter says an extra £73.00 per week, £292 per month extra. = £577.40

If I get more than is all well and good and yes the rent is £672 per month.

I think I need to re negotiate with new agent ? get the rent dropped?