Wrong contract given makes it void?

techcastoni

N79 wrote: »

There is no where near enough detail to answer your question.

What exactly is the property let to you on the agreement. How does this relate to the totality of the address at which you reside?

Who exactly is your LL and who exactly lives at the address and what access / restrictions on access do you and the other inhabitants have?

When did the agreement start and what is the term? How often do you pay rent?

I don't think I understand your first question but I'll try and answer. The agreement was for an assured shorthold tenancy which is incorrect as he's not entitled to do that as I am classed as an excluded occupier. The property is a house with multiple bedrooms and and two shared bathrooms and a kitchen. The contract does not state any restrictions to access any part of the household.

My landlord has told me that he is a tenant and rents out the whole house from the mortgage holder. The landlords family lives at the address along with me and two other tenants. The only verbal restriction they have placed is to not use the upstairs bathroom.

The agreement started a couple of weeks ago and lasts for 11 months and I pay monthly at a weekly rate.

GDB2222

Wasn't there also some misunderstanding about the council tax?

Anyway, if you want out of the agreement but the landlord does not want you to go, the solution is to make him want you to go, but in a perfectly legal manner.

I suggest that you get into the habit of boiling fish - haddock is pretty smelly.

Stop washing, and leave your smelly socks around.

Start taking a great deal of interest in his child, and let it be known that you are only a hairs-breadth from being on the sex offenders register.

There must be hundreds of ways of being thoroughly obnoxious, so he'll want you out ASAP and count himself lucky when you go.

Kynthia

Unless you have been granted 'exclusive possession' of your room you are an 'excluded occupier' and therefore your landlord has not sublet.

00ec25

Kynthia wrote: »

Unless you have been granted 'exclusive possession' of your room you are an 'excluded occupier' and therefore your landlord has not sublet.

agreed, but in his other thread he refers to being charged for keys for "his room".

techcastoni wrote: »

I made the mistake of moving in and signing a fixed-term contract for a room in the landlords house

His family living their

Paying for my own keys for entrance to the property and my room (this wasn't mentioned until after I'd signed the contract)

Normally a "lodger" with a lock on their bedroom means their status as a lodger is not so clear cut as they could be held to have exclusive use of their bedroom since they can lock it

It is possible to create an AST for a single room in a shared house if exclusive access is given to just the bedroom - all other facilties then are shared common parts. On the surface that might look like a lodger because the LL is resident but legally it could be an AST

so back to square one - is he a lodger or a tenant????

00ec25

techcastoni wrote: »

I don't think I understand your first question but I'll try and answer. The agreement was for an assured shorthold tenancy which is incorrect as he's not entitled to do that as I am classed as an excluded occupier. The property is a house with multiple bedrooms and and two shared bathrooms and a kitchen. The contract does not state any restrictions to access any part of the household.

what N79 is trying to clear up is exactly how your contract describes "your room" and the basis of your occupation of the property

if it refers directly to you being given a room with use of shared facilties, it is NOT automatic that you are an excluded occupier (lodger), it could be possible that you actually do have a valid AST for the exclusive use of a room, it depends on exactly what it says

Note as you have the ability to lock that room it is possible you do have exclusive use of the room and so are not an excluded occupier - did you mention this level of detail when you asked Shelter for advice?? If you did not they may not have advised you correctly given the full facts of the case

Kynthia

I guess the question is does it make a difference to the OP whether they are a tenant or lodger? I know it does for the landlord and property owner should they wish to evict the OP, but in this case it is the OP who wishes to leave but has signed a fixed term.