Stuck between a rock and a hard place!

Claire212

New to this forum , and been reading with interest, decided to post to see what everyone makes of my situation.

In July last year, I moved from a 2 bed to a 3 bed rented house with my partner and son, in preperation for an addition to our family in January of this year. All was well for the first few months and we lived in bliss until the winter set in and we turned on our heating. What happened in the next few months was nothing short of a nightmare.

I apologise in advance for the long post.

Whenever we turned on a radiator (they had all been turned off at the temperature control valves) it sprung a leak. The first to go was in my sons room. It was just a small leak and inconvenient but not too bad, we could catch it in a small container. The LL had her plumber come round and he replaced the radiator in a matter of days. Fantastic! After bad experiences all round with previous LL's this was a breath of fresh air.

We have district heating, which means a constant supply of hot water runs through the pipes in the house unless turned off by the main valve in the cupboard.

The next radiator to go was the lounge. This time the leak was pouring out, and filling up a container every hour. We tried in desperation to turn off the main valve but it was stuck fast. We called the LL but it was around 10 at night when it burst and she didn't answer the phone. We called the plumber direct (We had permission to do this) but he couldn't come until morning. So we did the decent thing and stayed up all night (I was heavily pregnant too!) and emptied the bucket every hour to limit the water damage. The Plumber turned up early the next day and disconnected the supply to the radiator, leaving us without a working radiator in the lounge. He fixed the main inlet valve too so that if the same thing happened again we could turn off the water. :j

Then the bay window in the living room leaked during a very wet weather spell. Again the LL arranged to have it fixed.

At the end of January I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. The night we came home from hospital it was minus 10 degrees outside, the bathroom floor was covered in water, another radiator had burst and water was everywhere! It was coming out the radiator with such force that it had made a hole in the plaster!! The plumber admitted he was drunk and couldn't come out, the only thing we could do was to turn off the water. Which meant no heating. So we turned off the water and packed everythig up and stayed at my Parents. The radiator was removed the next day, so no heat in the bathroom, but replaced within 3 days. Two more radiators have since developed faults. The TRV's have been painted shut and will not turn off.
The tank was the next to go. It burst and started to leak water at the end of Feb. We had to empty a 5 litre bucket full of water twice a day everyday for 2 months until the weather got warmer. (LL and plumber claimed this was because it had to be specially made). Meaning we had to make sure we were back home everyday to empty it. Eventually the tank and radiator in the lounge were replaced and we thought it was the end of a spell of bad luck.
The LL had got everything fixed, even if not in good time but we tried in everyway to help and be understanding.

So update to today (3 months later).

The shower has since broken, water is leaking into the downstairs cupboard and living room. The tank continues to leak and the pipework to the radiators leak constantly onto the floor, the TRV's remain closed shut so can not be turned on or off. The window in the living room still leaks in really wet weather. We have reported that the seal to the front window is also coming loose. The flooring in the bathroom and landing is water damaged and has raised up causing a trip hazard. In fact we live in fear that the kitchen ceiling will fall down. If we have the heating on we have to try and catch this water, so we turn it off. The heating is connected to the hot water. We turn it on to have baths and wash pots but the dream of constant hot water is gone.

And what you may ask is the LL doing about all this? NOTHING.

She has had enough apparently. Turns out that the previous Tenants trashed the house, she botched the repairs (painted it herself, hence all the TRV's painted shut) and let it out ASAP. The plumber seems to think they new about the dodgy heating pipework. Which was why it had been turned off and painted shut! So with no more money to repair it she has put the house on the market. Intending to sell to some other poor unsuspecting LL or FTB. The plumber refuses to do anymore work for her as she has failed to pay him.

She found a buyer last month and issued us with a 30 day notice to quit. Illegal we know. Council informed her of this and she promised another 2 month one. But we stupidly let someone in to do a survey and they pulled out (not surprised! :rotfl:). So she retracted it!!!! She obviously wants us to pay her mortgage till she gets rid.
However, we have just discovered that she has not protected our deposit. So until she returns it we can't be issued a notice to quit, but we can't afford to move without knowing it will be returned. We are refusing to let anyone in to view it now because our TA states we only have to in the last 2 months of tenancy and it's pointless anyway! Council are onto her about the repairs but she has since moved house and they can not contact her. There is not much else we can do! Unless someone else has any ideas?

princeofpounds

It would help if you could tell us what you actually want to achieve here. Do you want to move on, but simply require the deposit money to be able to do so? Or do you want to try to get the place fixed?

When did your tenancy start, and what was the term for?

And you are in England and Wales?

With no deposit protection you are in a strong, if inconvenient position. It should be possible to leverage that into getting what you want, but a little more explanation on the objectives will help develop a process.

Claire212

I would like to achieve any solution, because there seems to not be one, if the council eventually enforce the repairs, which may take time it still does not solve the problem of the unprotected deposit. The only option we seem to have is to sit tight and wait for the property to be repossessed, but it means we will never see our money again, in a nutshell, this TDP scheme is usless unless the LL actually puts the money in one. We are in England and are on a periodic tenancy now, originally a 6 month AST.

G_M

Assuming you are in Eng/Wales:
1) with your deposit unprotected no 'notice to quit' is valid whether 1 month, 2 months 3 months whatever!
2) if you want your deposit registered in a scheme, WRITE to the LL reminding her of the Housing Act 2004
3) however by saying nothing about the deposit, you could wait till the LL goes to court to evict you and only then would she find out her Notice (S21) is invalid. She would then have to start again (another 2 months....)
4) if the LL refuses to do repairs, follow the Shelter procedure to pay to get them done yourself and deduct from the rent. But you MUST follow the process!
5) or contact Environmental Health or the Private Tenancy Officer at the local council.

, in a nutshell, this TDP scheme is usless unless the LL actually puts the money in one.

rubbish:

1) as said, the LL cannot evict you if the deposit is not protected. This can be great advantage to tenants, and a great incentive to LLs to protect!
2) you can enforce protection through the courts AND claim up to 3 times the deposit as a penalty

princeofpounds

I would like to achieve any solution

It would be helpful, again, if you can try to elaborate on what a solution looks like for you. There are numerous things you can try to do; depart with no financial losses, fix the property up and try to live there as long as possible, try to make as much pain for the landlord as you can. These are all things you might want to do but they are mutually exclusive at some points and so just a little direction would be useful.

The only option we seem to have is to sit tight and wait for the property to be repossessed,

Not so.

we will never see our money again, in a nutshell, this TDP scheme is usless unless the LL actually puts the money in one.

Again, not so.

princeofpounds

OK, having said that now some specifics.

- If you are worried about losing the deposit, don't be. Under almost any circumstances you will have more than a month's notice of when your tenancy will be over. If you choose to leave yourselves you will only have to a give a month's rental period notice. If the worst comes to the worst you can always just live in the property rent-free for a month.

- In the meantime, as G_M has said, you can choose to either ignore all eviction requests (as S21 is not valid with a deposit unprotected) or you can try to pursue deposit protection by making the landlord aware of the situation and threatening them with court and a penalty (which you can enforce by placing a charge on the house, meaning she wouldn't be able to sell without paying you).

- You can enforce repairs yourself through the process outlined in Lee Parker vs Izzet 1971 (which is the basis of the Shelter link G_M showed you). But as you can only deduct from future rent you need to be sure you are going to hang around long enough to recoup the cost, so a couple of month's rent is the maximum budget at any point.

Finally, with these various threats:

- eviction-proof, preventing sale
- possible deposit non-protection penalties
- ceasing rent payment under the Lee-Parker procedure

I am surprised that you can't just cut a deal with your landlord to get your deposit back early and vacate.

Kynthia

I'm sorry if I've missed it but is there a reason you haven't given your notice and found somewhere else?

If you want repairs enforced the keep writing to the LL (keeping copies) and environmental health. Is it that you want to be evicted by the LL so that you can get housing assistance from the council? The LL would need to protect your deposit and issue you with a section 21, but it doesn't appear they are going to do this. Are you wanting to leave but afraid your LL will keep your desposit unfairly? Then without the deposit being protected you can take the LL to small claims court and would have a good chance of winning when they've broken the law by not protecting it.

Yorkie1

Claire212 wrote: »

Council are onto her about the repairs but she has since moved house and they can not contact her. There is not much else we can do! Unless someone else has any ideas?

OP, do you know where she has moved to?

If not, are you still in contact with her in any way?

G_M

Yorkie1 wrote: »

OP, do you know where she has moved to?

If not, are you still in contact with her in any way?

Either way, use the Shelter process (above) and use the official address "for the serving of notices" which is usually on the tenancy agreement.

Claire212

All excellent points.

Our LL is aware she has not protected our deposit. She has stated we will not get it back. She used it to pay off her mortgage arrears. We are in the house to pay her mortgage basically, until she can sell it.

We could of course up and leave, if we could afford it, we have had problems this year that have left us dipping into our savings. We have nothing left to pay for the numerous letting agents checks that do not even guarantee you the house and don't have to give you a reason for not letting it to you either. £300 down the drain.
If we could find another 3 bed house where the rent had not been increased would also be good. We have looked at 2 bed houses, but it means overcrowding. It is not advisable, for personal reasons for us to share a bedroom with a toddler in the future.
We do not want a council house, but assistance by the council to find another LL would be helpful. Unfortunately we don't qualify for this assistance either, you have to be in immediate housing need. Because we can not be evicted unless our deposit is returned this seems unlikely soon.

You say that we are in a strong position because she has not protected our deposit. This has been our downfall. The council can help with the repairs but not the deposit. We can't afford to take her to court. Even though we would win the chances of getting the money are slim to non. (Solicitors words not ours).

She may get the house repossessed, if this is the case wouldn't my charge take a back seat to any first charge on the house (ie mortgage).

If it were as simple as just moving we would have been gone by now.

Claire212

We do not know where she is living. We could only contact her by phone. Now she will not answer. The council are just sending things to the address on the TA.