update

hellzbellz84

well well well.....

this is an update on my tenants situation.

if you dont know, the tenants said that they has paid their solicitors my rent and that they will be in contact in due course.

they still havent paid the rent which was due 22nd may - so i went round there saturday to check the property out and just have a chat with them along with a member of the LA. prior to this, saturday morning i received a letter from the tenants solicitors which said nothing about the rent and said that the property had a lot of mould in it and that "mould casues skin rashes which may affect the well being of the 4 month infant". I asked the tenants what the letter was all about as the LA had not had not been notified of any issues that were brought up in this letter.

so where do i go from here? the tenants wouldnt say anything to me, they just said "speak to my lawyer, anything he says we do". i tried to ask them about the rent and if they had paid the solicitor the money and they wouldnt answer the question and would fain ignorance and all of a sudden their english wasnt very good....

shall i wait to see if last months rent turns up or just cut my losses and get them out?

any advice as always, greatly appreciated

thanks

BitterAndTwisted

They cannot withhold their rent due to repairing issues. It appears that they are either liars or being poorly advised. Has the issue of mould ever been raised by them before? In writing?

If they are not still in the fixed-term of their AST just issue them with a Section 21 Notice. If they are still in their fixed-term and you want to evict them for non-payment of the rent you will have to wait until the day after second month's rent is due to issue a Section 8.

Cissi

It sounds as if you've previously described your situation elsewhere - if so it would be better to post this update on that thread so we have access to all the information. It's impossible for anyone to advise you without knowing how far behind the tenants are with their rent and what sort of contract you have with them.

Edited as cross-posted with B&T - obviously not impossible as this was good advice, but it would still be helpful to have the full picture in one thread

hellzbellz84

thanks cissi -i shall do that!!!!

it says in their contract that attempts to recitfy mould should be made and that they should ventilate the issue. it is a 12 month contract with 6 month break clause. but they have missed the 2 months notice period.

xxx

BitterAndTwisted

I suspect what they are up to is that they intend to exercise the break-clause and not pay you the rent until the end of their tenancy. Meanwhile they MAY have lodged the rent with their legal-advisor.

Until you can get some sense out of them or their legal-advisor you cannot know what their intentions are.

Meanwhile I suspect you are free to exercise the break-clause yourself by issuing them with a Section 21 Notice. Then once there are two rental-payments due you can then issue a Section 8

Cissi

hellzbellz84 wrote: »

thanks cissi -i shall do that!!!!

it says in their contract that attempts to recitfy mould should be made and that they should ventilate the issue. it is a 12 month contract with 6 month break clause. but they have missed the 2 months notice period.

xxx

How far into the contract are they? At the end of the 12 months they don't need to give you any notice, but you have to give them 2 months. If it's still before the 6-month break then it sounds as if you've both missed the chance to end the contract early. If you want to get them out you'll either have to issue a S21 to expire at the end of the 12 months, or wait until the rent is 2 months overdue and issue a S8. Just in case they settle part of the debt before the court date it's probably best to issue a S21 as well. At least that way you'll definitely be able to begin proceedings at the end of the AST.

BitterAndTwisted

It's possible that the break-clause can be exercised by either party on or after the six-month point. Contracts are often worded badly, so I'd be reading up on that section of the contract very carefully right now before deciding on how to proceed.

Next, I would be contacting their solicitor to discover why you are being referred to them about your tenant's rent when there has been no mention of it in their correspondence.