Tenancy Agreement

mellie13

Hi All,

Just need some advise really.

We had a bad experience in our last flat with noisy neighbours, drugs and just a bad time.

We moved out in May to a new place and the landlady insited we went private with her and she will knock £100 off the rent, this was ideal for us and we were very happy.

But all has gone bad :-(

Firstly that flat was in a state and we had to do lots of cleaning.

Fire Alarm/Door bell broken
Toilet leaking sewage
Cold Tap broken

We have issues with a neighbour upstairs (owns) her and her boyfriend are up till 5am shouting and talking loudly, I have approached on her 3 occasions and have been polite. last night she shouted at me and was really nasty. I even wrote a letter to her 2 weeks ago outlining the issues.

Also the landlady has turned out to be crazy, she hasnt put our deposit in a scheme, when we asked her, she was like 'Oh youi dont trust me me, do you, you don't trust me, you met my mum and everything' we only asked her 1 question! Its on the contract that £800 deposit has been paid to landlord on 28/04/13 and this will be placed in a deposit protection scheme required by law ... etc.

She was like oh I read the contract we don't have to do anything with it.

Then we had issues with boiler, no heating/hot water this took 6 weeks to fix along with the loo/tap!

Basically we have had enough and would like to get out, would the landlady have breached the contract by not protecting deposit?

Also the contract hasn't been signed by a witness, just her and its very badly written, with things in pen written all over it.

Please advise?

Many thanks

Werdnal

Sadly, no, these things do not mean you can break the tenancy,

However, there is a suggested penalty for non-protection of deposit within 30 days of payment, which is 1-3x the deposit value, plus return of the original deposit.

I would write to the LL, keeping proof of postage, explaining that as she has breached the deposit protection requirements you are entitled to insitgate a court claim for 1-3x the deposit value, plus return of the deposit amount.

However, as you have experienced problems with noise, and her lack of prompt attention to repairs, you are asking to surrender your tenancy. If she will consider this, and accept 1 month's notice of your surrender, with full return of your deposit, you will waive your right to take her to court over the deposit non-protection.

Ask her to reply in writing within 7 working days.


Blackmail??? No, you are doing her a favour offering her a get-out clause or you will sue her ...

mellie13

I don't even have an address for her!

Werdnal

mellie13 wrote: »

I don't even have an address for her!

Then she is also breaking the law in not giving you an address in England/Wales for serving notices. How do you contact her if you need to report a problem? How do you pay rent?

She's obviously not go a clue about letting.

mellie13

She doesn't! We pay into her bank account, originally she wanted it cash in hand. But we refused. She has all her mail sent her, car insured here.

She doesn't have a job and we keep seeing debt letters for her (not that we open them) but can see on the outside, she has also gambled alot of money away.

Any problems we call/text her and she gets her partner (not listed on contract) to speak to us.

They lie all the time and we have heard terrible things from her other neighbours from when she lived there.

Smith_007

mellie13 wrote: »

She doesn't! We pay into her bank account, originally she wanted it cash in hand. But we refused.

Ten quid says she isn't paying tax on her rental income. Of course, you could 'just mention' to her that you might mention this to the tax man. The alternative being for her to WRITE to you saying you may surrender your tenancy, along with full return of you deposit. (Then drop her in anyway)

Tax evasion hotline info here
http://search2.hmrc.gov.uk/kb5/hmrc/contactus/view.page?record=tRNNy6edopA

mellie13 wrote: »

She has all her mail sent her

RED ALERT!
Including bank stuff? This is a big red flag that she dosn't have consent to let from her mortgage company. Google what this means to you. It is potentially serious.

mellie13 wrote: »

She doesn't have a job and we keep seeing debt letters for her (not that we open them) but can see on the outside, she has also gambled alot of money away.

Tax evasion aside, her lifestyle choice is no business of yours.
No more than your lifestyle is any business of hers.

EDIT: Does the place have a gas supply? Do you have a gas safety certificate? If the answers are yes and no, she is committing a criminal offense. You might want to 'just mention' this to her also..... as well as buying yourself a £10 carbon monoxide detector for your own safety.

mellie13

Thanks. Yes she asked to pick up her mail yesterday as her bank card had arrived.

The houses are leasehold flats if that helps.

We just really want to leave, but we have no address to write to her, she has no forwarding address details for myself and partner.

We're not to bothered about getting our deposit back as we were just going to take one months rent as we paid 1 month upfront anyway.

Surely she won't have a leg to stand on if we just go?

Werdnal

You can take the chance and go, she may or may not chase you and you would have a lot of evidence to prove she is letting against many rules and regs. As above, I suspect she does not have consent to let, nor declaring her rental income for tax. As its a leasehold flat she may not even be able to let it at all!

Alternatively, you can to her at your address and get her to collect the letter when she picks up her post!

Entirely your call whether you up and leave or not ...

Will you need a reference to rent elsewhere? Have you somewhere else to go?

Smith_007

mellie13 wrote: »

but we have no address to write to her

Without an address for the landlady, no rent is legally due. Use this to your advantage, but beware you might have an irate landlady (+husband) banging on your door if they don't get paid........

mellie13 wrote: »

Surely she won't have a leg to stand on if we just go?

You have signed a legally binding contract to stay and pay rent for X months. On the otherhand, if you are SURE she is on the fiddle, she has much more to loose than you if you report her, and will keep quiet if she has any sense (not guaranteed!).

Your call. :cool:

mellie13

Great thanks Guys, I think I know what we'll do now.

mellie13

Juts an update. We moved out and put all our stuff in storage. Landlady just left and abusive messages on my voice mail. Not heard from her in a week. Hopefully all blown over!