Renting problem

Lizzye

Can anyone give me any advice?
We are in a very tricky situation ATM, our landlady of five years has decided to sell and also last month decided for the last two month we were here to put our rent up by £100 a month. Suffice to say I went to my local council to ask for some info and they said they could give us a deposit bond after we had given in all our details etc.

Anyway to cut a long story short, she's didn't issue us.a section 21 or section 13 for the rent increase and then also discovered she hadn't put our deposit in one of those deposit scheme things meaning she couldn't legally evict us with the section 21. The council phoned her to inform her of this and she went mental and told them she would get us out of her house 'outside of the law'. They called me back to warn me i think. I haven't heard from my landlady since, this was the beginning of the week (it's now sunday) and I have tried texting her to see if we can discuss it amicably.

The thing is we do want to move out, we weren't trying to be awkward it's just got very messy suddenly. The other problem we have is that finding somewhere else to live. My other half has bad credit on his report (defaults only for £15,000) which, ironically, expire in August this year.

We have never missed a payment in the whole five years we've been here and my other half is on good money but time is running out to find somewhere as we keep getting turned away. We also have two young children. I've looked for private landlords and they are like gold dust around here. I'm beginning to get very stressed

Can anyone suggest anything that might help us?

19lottie82

First off stop texting your LL. limit all correspondence to mail only.

Don't stress. Your landlady cannot evict you until she firstly protects your deposit THEN issues a section 21 and THEN applies for an eviction order thru the courts. If the section 21 is not 100% correct the judge will reject her case and she will have to start the whole process again.

If she tries to get you out "outside of the law", then this is an illegal eviction. The penalties are very harsh indeed and she would be very stupid to attempt it.

Again don't panic. You have done nothing wrong. Correspond only in writing and if she harasses you keep a diary and report her to the relevant authorities.
Just remember that until she follows the relevant procedures she can't do anything but stamp her feet. Use tho to your advantage and try to focus your energy on finding a new place to live.
Surely there must be a few suitable properties within a reasonable radius - where have you been looking?

19lottie82

Ps you may find if your oHs defaults are about to drop off and he doesn't have any CCJs you might pass credit checks for renting another property.

I wouldn't want to stay in a property owned by this woman if I were you. She sounds unhinged.

BitterAndTwisted

Time isn't running out if your deposit hasn't been registered, as any Section 21 Notice she chooses to issue will be invalid. I'm assuming that you're not on an Fixed-term Assured Shorthold Tenancy as you've made no mention of it. Therefore. if you're on a Statutory Periodic Tenancy shes will have to issue you with a Section 13 Notice in order to increase the rent giving you at least two clear rental-periods notice.

Until she issues a valid S21 and goes to court to gain possession you are legal tenants and have absolutely no obligation to leave unless it suits you.

Under the circumstances I think you should bust a gut to find alternative accommodation as soon as you possibly can and then use the deposit as the last month's rent, ensuring you give the required one rental-period notice IN WRITING. (Send two copies by First-Class post from two different Post Offices on the same day retaining proof-of-postage). Keep them very, very safe as you will probably need them later.

Keep in touch with your local authority should she attempt to step up the harassment or come good on her threats. Getting you out "outside the law" could see her acquiring a criminal conviction, so keep safe any evidence you may garner.

Werdnal

19lottie82 wrote: »

Don't stress. Your landlady cannot evict you until she firstly protects your deposit THEN issues a section 21 and THEN applies for an eviction order thru the courts. If the section 21 is not 100% correct the judge will reject her case and she will have to start the whole process again.

Wrong - Lottie I believe you have been corrected on this in previous replies you have made. It is very important when giving advice to people in this situation to get your facts 100% correct and this advice is wrong!

OP, The landlord cannot protect the deposit now, it is too late. To issue a valid Section 21, she must return the whole deposit to you, then she can issue a valid notice. However, this does not remove the right you have to claim 1-3x the deposit value as a penalty for not protecting it at all.

Other advice above is good. Communicate to the LL only in writing from now on. You need a clear papertrail and evidence of what is going on and texting/phoning is your word against hers. You are in the right here, don't bow to bully tactics as LL seems totally clueless. Keep up communication with the council, don't let LL in if she turns up - you have a right to refuse her access as the property is your home.

tim123456789

19lottie82 wrote: »

First off stop texting your LL. limit all correspondence to mail only.

Don't stress. Your landlady cannot evict you until she firstly protects your deposit THEN issues a section 21 and THEN applies for an eviction order thru the courts.

Actually she can't evict until she returns the deposit

Late protection is no longer possible

BitterAndTwisted

I suspect the OP's landlady is going to change her tune once she acquaints herself with the facts.

Lizzy: please keep us informed of developments, so we can give you more pointers if required. Also, visit the Shelter website for more information about your situation. If your OH earns a good wage and you have proof that you've been paying your rent in full and on time via your bank statements, even without a reference from your current landlady, you should be able to secure your onward move. The most important thing to do right now is not to panic. You will not be out on the street for months yet.

Lizzye

She reissued the section 21 to us correctly, that's how I then found out about the deposit, through the council asking if it had been put in the scheme and obviously me being oblivious. Thus why they phoned her. She made a mistake by saying she would get us out 'outside the law' as I'm pretty sure council record their phone calls. She also told them we had destroyed her house, which I can assure you we haven't. I have taken photos of every room and sent these to the council as back up, just in case anything were to happen... Her husband is a violent man, tbh I'm mostly worried about him. I know if he comes anywhere near us I should phone the police etc but obviously I don't want to put my kids through that. We've lived in this house trouble free for five years, now I'm worried she won't even give us a good reference when we do leave.

If she can't actually evict us, what can she do? I mean, this is after all her house. She must have rights of her own?

The council said they told her because she hadn't secured our deposit we could claim it back threefold? That also sounds extreme and probably what made her go mad. I only texted her the once too, out of panic really. Just saying that we need to speak about the situation amicably. After all we will need to next week when the rents due. The entire time we've been here she's come round to collect in person, in cash every month.

I'm stressed and getting a little annoyed too now with her, but I don't know what step to take next. I'd really rather not stay here longer than we have to. :-/

Lizzye

Also in ref to finding another property. There are plenty about but they go same day I'm told. As soon as I've said about my oh's credit score they lose interest, as we don't have six months up front rent or a guarantor. Moving house is going to be a nightmare. What are people supposed to do if their credit is bad? Agencies won't take us on, regardless of it expiring in August. I can't help but dread us actually ending up homeless.

I don't want to be out in council and I think as my oh is on a fair amount wage wise (£40k) they wouldn't anyway.

mildredalien

I just wanted to point out that your partners bad credit probably won't affect you being able to get a further tenancy. Any credit checks for tenancies usually only look for CCJs and bankruptcy - both myself and my partner have had bad credit in the past (defaults) and neither of us have had any issues with renting from a letting agent.

Your landlady hasn't done what she is legally bound to do, which is to protect your deposit in a valid scheme. The ability to claim 1-3x the deposit is there in order to act as a deterrent or punishment for landlords who break the law - and to prevent them from trying to hold back parts of the deposit for damage etc. when they have no right to do so. I don't suppose there's anything wrong with telling her that although you could legally pursue her for 3 x the deposit, you just want your deposit back and to move out of the house as soon as you can find somewhere to go (or at the end of your tenancy/notice period).

mildredalien

Lizzye wrote: »

Also in ref to finding another property. There are plenty about but they go same day I'm told. As soon as I've said about my oh's credit score they lose interest, as we don't have six months up front rent or a guarantor. Moving house is going to be a nightmare. What are people supposed to do if their credit is bad? Agencies won't take us on, regardless of it expiring in August. I can't help but dread us actually ending up homeless.

I don't want to be out in council and I think as my oh is on a fair amount wage wise (£40k) they wouldn't anyway.

Don't go into a letting agency saying you have bad credit! Wait for the credit check (if they do one) and then you can deal with it if there's a problem.