Landlord Scum!

jaype

Sorry for the offensive title of this but I need to vent my frustrations - was due to move into a rented place in 10 days with 2 under 4s and husband, notice on present home given, new tenants found for it, referencing fee paid, references taken, rent agreed and so forth. Anyway, letting agent rang up today and said the house was being taken off the market for no apprarent reason - he was livid. Well, what with being homeless in 10 days coming up I went out to view some other (awful) homes. Passing the intended house I noticed people moving in, so I stopped to find out what was what. Apparently the landlord had agreed to let to them 3 weeks ago with another agent but had been stringing us along as insurance!!!! Our agent had even rung him on Friday to say our references were okay and he didn't let on. Now we are homeless, though a friend has offered a 1 bed flat thankfully (to cram family of 4 in, very grateful, but...). I am absolutely devastated:mad: :mad: If they had wanted more money or for us to move in sooner we would have given it to them or negotiated. We had even booked the removals. I am just so disappointed that the world could produce people who would quite happily let a family make themselved homeless so they could be sure to line ther own pockets. They knew we had small children as their son in-law was the tenant when we looked round with kids in tow. Don't suppose anyone can restore my failth in humanity?

Doozergirl

I'm so sorry I can't imagine how you feel. It's trouble enough being made to feel like you're the bottom of the barrel when LLs won't even let you view because you have children. :wall: Some of us do have pride you know!

I let a house to a family with 4 children and a dog and the house was complete with cream carpet and magnolia walls. I swear after the year they were there, you'd never have known they were there (except one dirty shower, lol! )

I can't restore your faith in humanity, sorry!

Nenen

Can't say anything other than I'm so sorry to hear about this happening to you . I just hope that 'what goes around come around'... to your rotten LL that never was. I also hope that a much nicer property is just waiting for you really soon. Is there any possibility that your current LL can reinstate your tenancy for a while or has s/he got tenents ready to move in?

ivavoucher

Hi

I am sorry you have had this terrible experience.
It totally disgusts me.

I would certainly make it my business to let his new tenants know exactly what type of landlord they have landed themselves with and I would also contact the other agent and inform them of their client’s immoral practices.

I do not know if there is, but there should be some law covering the verbal agreement which would allow you to claim against this moron.

csarina

How I sympathise with you, we are also in the process of moving from a rented house into sheltered hosuing..........our landlord has made life very difficult for us ever since we moved in, refusing to do jobs that needed doing etc and he is my Step son............I will never be more glad to move in my life than to get out of what was supposed to be my OH's home 'as long as he needed it'

lynzpower

Have you had your credit reference and admins costs etc returned by the letting agent?

Id speak to shelter or similar to find out if you can get these back? Id preseume you can as you have paid these costs die to a contractual bind with the LA which they have not provided the service.
Looks like a small claims court issue to me

Uncle_Fester_2

Did you sign a tenancy agreement (AST) & pay a deposit?

if so, then you have a case against this landlord, which you should win for compensatory damages.

If not, then you may have a case against the letting agent, as he failed to arrange the AST and you gave notice to your present landlord.

Post on http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/ you will get alot of help

silvercar

I would let your current landlord know that you can't actually move out on the agreed date and will be staying another month. Although he has found new tenants they won't actually have signed to AST (or shouldn't have!) until you vacate the property. If he wished to force you out he would have to go to court and the court would probably grant another month for you to find yourselves a home. The prospective tenants will have to wait a month.
Not nice I know, but you have to look after your own family.

jaype

Well, thankfully we have managed to negotiate another 3 weeks with our current landlord... And as I now have to go and register with the other agent I will make sure I tell them the whole sorry story. Unfortunatley we hadn't got to the stage where we had signed a contract, but our lettings agent is going out of his way to find us somewhere else asap - it is a family run business and they are actually quite decent (as far as EAs go!). Have let them hold onto the £100 deposit for a bit as they have a monopoly on housing in the local area so should be able to find us something - otherwise they will lose out on the cost of doing our references and so forth. I bet there is no law against this, but I hopee there is a special corner of hell reserved for people like that. Making a family homeless for the sake of about £500 really is something else. I hate amateur 'my one property is my pension' types - they are always really slow to do repairs (or the ones I have rented from are), plus they really resent having to pay out a penny. Leave it to the professionals, please!

silvercar

I hate amateur 'my one property is my pension' types - they are always really slow to do repairs (or the ones I have rented from are), plus they really resent having to pay out a penny. Leave it to the professionals, please!

Please don't judge us all the same, my tenant says I'm the best landlord she's had!

JCR

I had sympathy with you until you loaded everyone into the same bracket with I hate amateur 'my one property is my pension' types. As silvercar says we are not all the same. There are bad landlords and there are bad tenants, it's just unfortunate if you happen to encounter either. We have had tenants who have behaved less than brilliantly.

Still I hope it works out for you.