LandLord Sold Garden Which Was Under Tenancy

adrihd

Hi,

I hope someone can advise me what to do here. As of so far, the local COuncil aren't helpful, shelter told me to go to a lawyer (which I can't afford), CAB won't help me as Shelter already spoke to me and ofcourse my letting agent is backing the LL as she is paying them a monthly administration fee.

In quick and easy point form

1) Moved into the property 2010 with under an AST contract
2) AST clearly shows that the garden is part of 'my home'
3) AST also clearly shows under 'my responsibilities' how I should keep the garden clean, safe and maintained
4) The garden is a communal garden between 4 people
5) We all have exactly the same AST also making note of the garden
6) Just after I moved in LL allowed me to work on the garden (have this in writing)
7) From rubble, metal and garbage, a garden which was commented on by BOTH the letting agent and LL sprung out over a year.
8) After that year, LL paints a 'white line' across the garden, apparently denoting that they are selling the land
9) I disputed, but was told, I have no rights as it is not my garden (nor any of ours) as we only rent a 'studio flat' each.
10) Planning permission came, I objected (not sure about the others)
11) The WHOLE of year two we had 'unexpected vists' from the LL's son, real estate agents, and viewers of the garden (the one which I resurrected).
12) Under Offer sign goes up
13 I dispute, remove sign as I still haven't been officially told in writing
14) Receive a letter 12 hours before builders show up to install a fence (cutton off 90% of the garden about 30m of garden, leaving us with a mere 5ish m space)
15) Ask builder to leave as it's under my tenancy thats my land
16) Builder threatens me twice

---

First time I was taking photos of them building for evidence. he came at me and said 'OI take another and I'll av your eye'

---

Second time I went out there, asked him for his company name to I can log a complaint. Came at me again and shouted 'OI do you like hospital food'.

---

Nether time did I react. I avoided and went back into the property to call the police

---

Police show up and tell me it's a CIVIL matter and that I have no rights to argue as it's the LL's property

---

Police then look at AST and say 'yes I can see you have no rights, so stay in the house to avoid causing a disturbance'

---

POlice also said that the builder 'didnt threaten me', he was 'telling me that being near a building area could land me in hospital'. Police officer sided with the builders despite me pointing out that they weren't wearing safety boots nor helmets and were in similar attire to myself.
17) LL shows up, and starts to argue with me.
18) LL bolts off to my neighbour to ask 'whats wrong with me'
19) LL's SON starts telling me off and arguing with me (not the LL at all)
20) Fence built, my bin area removed and transformed into the new entrance to my property
21) A carpet taken out by the LL recently which was stored neatly in the bin area is dumped in front of my house
22) I was told to dispose of it myself
23) No comment to that and since then I've backed down until I have all the facts and firepower to come head on at this.

Phew....

Sorry about the point form, but I just wanted to keep it factual and keep all personal feeling (as much as possible). I'm at a loss as to what to do now.. The local COuncil don't have a Tenancy Relation Officer so they can't help me. The closes one (Ashford) is not in the borough so they can't help.

Shelter tell me it's a legal issue and that I need to get a lawyer and Legal Aid won't assist me in this matter (Despite being on a low income). CAB can't help as Shelter have already advised me.

I've been doing my own digging and came across an interesting article about AST's which pointed me to this on the legisltation.gov.uk website:

Housing Act 1988 c. 50 Part Ichapter I Meaning of assured tenancy etc.Section 2

2 Letting of a dwelling-house together with other land.

(1)If, under a tenancy, a dwelling-house is let together with other land, then, for the purposes of this Part of this Act,—
(a)if and so long as the main purpose of the letting is the provision of a home for the tenant or, where there are joint tenants, at least one of them, the other land shall be treated as part of the dwelling-house; and
(b)if and so long as the main purpose of the letting is not as mentioned in paragraph (a) above, the tenancy shall be treated as not being one under which a dwelling-house is let as a separate dwelling.
(2)Nothing in subsection (1) above affects any question whether a tenancy is precluded from being an assured tenancy by virtue of any provision of Schedule 1 to this Ac

If I read that correctly and it took me about 10 times to get the somewhat intricately weaved words of the law wrapped around my head, it clearly says that 'if a land comes with a tenancy, and the purpose of that tenancy is to five the tenant a home, that land is included in the tenancy'.

The Letting Agent seems to thing that this isn't true as 'studio flats' don't come with gardens. Which I beg to differ, as I personally know a few people who live in one in London :-/

If anyone could give me some pointers or direction as to how I should approach this I'd be most grateful!.

Many thanks,

Ade

[Deleted User]

I sympathise with your disappointment over the loss of the garden, but would advise you to be less territorial about it. Its a very specialist area and unless you can afford to employ a specialist lawyer to deal with this.., I'm afraid you are unlikely to be able to do anything about the situation. And you could lose your tenancy.., assuming you are on a periodic tenancy after living there so long. Of course, you may be signing for a new fixed term each year.

Being given notice to leave may be no great loss after this situation, only you can assess that. But if it is something you wish to avoid, I'd be less combative with Landlords/Builders etc because as yet, it does not seem like you have much power to back your stance up.

Unfortunately, it seems to me that Landlords, however much they seem to be able to 'stretch' what one supposes are a tenants legal rights also have the final right to end a tenancy of someone who creates too much trouble once their fixed term is up. Unfortunately it happens with way too high a frequency.

MobileSaver

adrihd wrote: »

2) AST clearly shows that the garden is part of 'my home'

---

Police then look at AST and say 'yes I can see you have no rights,

These two statements contradict each other...

What exactly does your AST say regarding the garden?

grifferz

I'm not sure but I don't think it actually is a criminal matter that your landlord doesn't hold up his side of the contract to provide you with access to the garden. It may be different if it was the house itself, your home.

If I were you and I wanted to stay there without the garden then I would write to the landlord and suggest that the property's rental value is now lower since it no longer has access to the garden, try to agree a figure and then backdate it from when you lost access to the garden.

If I were you and I didn't want to stay without the garden then I'd start looking for a new home and also try to agree a rental figure and backdate. If you need letting out of a fixed term then you may be able to negotiate early surrender on the basis of breach of contract.

Small claims court if landlord refuses to agree a fair rental figure. Clearly you had access to the garden that was part of the rental and were making use of it, and you appear to have pretty strong evidence to support that. You'd have to make sure to come up with a fair rental figure for the local area for a studio flat with no garden access.

I don't see any credible scenario where you remain in the property and block this sale.

ValHaller

My take on it: You still have a tenancy over the garden and right of access to the land - even if it is sold off. Your tenancy remains valid - you have a new landlord for the sold off garden. This Landlord may not know he has a tenant.

Police are a waste of space for most of this sort of issue. What you should have done was written to the LL and told him there was a dispute which should be declared to purchasers.

But face it, he could have solved it by sending you a S21 notice.

moneyistooshorttomention

Basically, from what you say, he's taken you for a mug. You did the garden in all good faith "knowing" it was/is "yours". He then viewed the cleared/nicely-presented garden and thought "That looks good now. I should be able to do a bit of garden-grabbing now and sell it as already cleared for development and those plants in it make it look all the more presentable. I'll fetch a better price for it that way."

From what you've said, then that sounds like the likely scenario that has happened. I wonder how much more easily he sold that garden on or developed it himself because of your work. You've probably given him a noticeable bit of "added value" there with your free labour.

The only thing that is certain is that it will eat away at you not being able to use your "own" garden if you stay there AND he manages to keep right on charging you the same rent level as he did previously. You will be livid every time you decide to go and sit in your garden/work in your garden/etc and go to do so and cant because he's stolen it in effect.

I would have to move somewhere else in your position, because I wouldn't be able to stand the upset emotions every time I decided to use my garden and was unable to do so.

The only thing you can do is try and work out how much "added value" you have inadvertently handed him on a plate (and he is laughing all the way to the bank about having had the free labour) and see if there is anything you can to "set the scales straight" there and get the payment he owes you for that work.

Good luck with trying to get this sorted out...but I honestly think one of the first things you need to do is not be living somewhere that will make you feel (understandably) bitter/upset/angry every time you look at your garden.

adrihd

MobileSaver wrote: »

These two statements contradict each other...

What exactly does your AST say regarding the garden?

That was a reflection of the police officer backing the landlady, not a reply to me telling him that I have rights.

@grifferz: THis was discussed and will not happen. Rent goes up as usual by 10% again in Nov.

Furthermore, It's not as easy as finding a new home. As I'm on a low income, the COuncil initially helped me with a Rent and Desposit Bond (which is literally the same as first months rent and despot, but in the form of a bond, not a cash value; When I leave the bond falls away and nothing is owed to anybody)

@ValHaller: THey're building a 3 story 3 x flats there, so the rent thing will be complicated as hell. Furthermore, I am looking for elsewhere, but inital deposits etc.. are a pain due to the reason I mentioned to the comments in @grifferz

@moneyistooshorttomention: What was noticeable, that despite the LL telling me I can move all of my plants into pots even after the wall/fence is complete, was that my ENTIRE garden was ransacked of flowers and anything which was decent and of value :-/ As always, nobody knows anything about it. Luckily I have thousants of photos leading up to the day before this all happened. But there's no hard evidence as to where it all went...

I didn't think of the added value... I've got a meeting with a friend this coming weekend who happens to own properties all over the UK, so he'd probably know better than me. So far he agrees that the land is officially mine and that she should have:

1) Given me an 'eviction notice' for that piece of land i.e. the 2 months notice
2) If I refuse, theONLY next step she can take is 'Get an Order of Posession' i.e. just like a normal eviction for a tenant which fails to remove themselves from a property.

@all: I guess the reason why she ignored the law here was because her 'Planning Permission' was due to run out in September. If they don't start building the property by then, then they lose the planning permission totally and have to restart the entire procedure.

@all again: How come planning permission allowed the permission through anyway knowing that there are 4 tenants here with valid contracts which cover that land. I know that I objected and sent a copy of my AsT to them as proof...

franklee

adrihd wrote: »

How come planning permission allowed the permission through anyway knowing that there are 4 tenants here with valid contracts which cover that land. I know that I objected and sent a copy of my AsT to them as proof...

Planning permission has nothing to do with land ownership. I could put in a planning application for a neighbour's land that I don't even own and this could be granted. I could not build on that land though without buying it or getting the neighbour's permission.

In your case if the AST clearly includes the garden then the garden is yours for the duration of the tenancy. I do not know what the penalty for illegally evicting you from the garden is. Plus there's the damage to your flowers etc.

Can you get an interview with a solicitor that would give you the first half hour free, see if they can suggest if it's worth perusing? Do you have any legal cover that you may have added when you took out say contents insurance?

You could email Tessa's landlord law blog on the off chance you get lucky as she selects the occasional query to blog about and yours is novel.

Bear in mind that if you pursue this you will likely be served notice, to leave. That may well be on the cards anyway after what happened.

silvercar

2) AST clearly shows that the garden is part of 'my home'
3) AST also clearly shows under 'my responsibilities' how I should keep the garden clean, safe and maintained
4) The garden is a communal garden between 4 people
5) We all have exactly the same AST also making note of the garden
6) Just after I moved in LL allowed me to work on the garden (have this in writing)

I don't know how this works. It is a communal garden but part of your home? All 4 of you have a share of it, what do the other 3 think?

Does the fact it is communal mean that the landlord can allow others to use it?

silvercar

ValHaller wrote: »

My take on it: You still have a tenancy over the garden and right of access to the land - even if it is sold off. Your tenancy remains valid - you have a new landlord for the sold off garden. This Landlord may not know he has a tenant.

SO ask the current landlord how much of the original rent should you be paying to him and how much to the landlord of the garden?

Naf

I think you need to be making plans to find new accommodation. I fear that the only outcomes which are reasonable to you, are likely to end in this type of LL serving notice. So even if you get compensated for your time, flowers and loss of the garden, you will still be in a difficult situation. Unfortunately this probably isn't going to be fair on you whichever way it turns out.
If it was me, I'd be kicking up such a stink itemising the loss of flowers, hours of my own time spent and portion of my property that I was unable to use for purposes of a new rent figure, backdated. After having 14 days to respond, I'd escalate it immediately to small claims court.