Renting Nightmare, advice needed!!

kelsey89_2

Hi all,

Apologies in advance for such a long post, I just want to make sure I get all the details in there and don't miss anything. Any advice on our position would be gratefully received.

We have been renting our flat since December 2011, this was done privatley with no written contract. The landlord is (was) a friend of my partners and we came to a mutual agreement that benefited all of us, yet now the landlord is having money issues the problems have started!

To start from the beginning - The flat we are renting needed a lot of work doing to it to make it suitable for the landlord to rent out, however he didn't have the spare cash to pay for these repairs but he wanted to move out and live with his fianc!e so it was agreed that we would pay for all the parts upfront and do all the labour ourselves (or pay tradesmen where needed) and in return we would have 1 years discounted rent £325, and then after the first year we would pay the rental value of the flat before the renovation - £450. The landlord also said he would give us the first month free as during this time we wouldn't be living in the flat but doing the work. We also gave an estimate of £2500 for the parts needed to do the work he agreed to. The work took much longer than expected and there were a lot of issues along the way that involved us paying out more than the original estimate, everytime we came across one of these problems we contacted the landlord to let him know (new boiler + new plumbing, old shower had leaked so floor and walls needed replacing etc) This pushed the final total up to £3700 and we didn't move in until April 2012.

When the rent was due to increase from £325 to £450 in December 2012 the landlord was having a few financial problems and hadn't been able to pay back any of the money spent on parts so we agreed to keep the rent at £325 and take the extra £125 that we should have paid in rent off his bill. In March 2013 he had a very informal chat with my partner saying he will need to put the rent up as his mortgage company were making him change from interest only to repayments (£200pm - £500+pm), to which my partner pointed out that he still owed us for parts and nothing else said on the matter.

Yesterday morning I recieved a text message from the landlord saying that he is having to use a managment company to collect the rent (we have never missed a payment and have been two days late late once when I changed bank accounts and the DD didn't move over) and that we would need to sign a rent increase, pay the managment company a deposit and pay them £180 for a finance check. When I queried why this was as the original agreement was to save both parties from paying fees he said it was a condition of his mortgage company and if he didn't do it the flat could be reposessed, not knowing enough about mortgages I can only assume from this that he missed payment on his interest only mortgage which caused them to put him on repayments which he can't afford and they have now agreed to take the mortgage money from the rent collected by the managment company.

When asked about how he is expecting to repay the outstanding balance of the parts he told me that he had been repaying the money since the reduced rent started and that he increased the rent to £500 in March 2013 so he has been paying off even more since then and actually he hardly owes us anything now. I explained out initial agreement to him and that he never mentioned an increase to £500 in March, even in the informal conversation with my partner and it certainely wasn't agreed upon! He then told me as of Monday - giving 4 days notice - that the managment agency would be in control and the rent increase will be effective as of when the next payment is due (28th) so 10 days notice. I pointed out that out of common courtesy we had agreed a months notice for both parties and his response was that he informed us of the rent increase in March.

I ended the conversation by saying we wouldn't agree to anything until after we had sought legal advice, to which he then told me we would have to move out until it was sorted. I replied to say that we wouldn't be moving out and would be in touch once I have spoken with my solicitor.

So after all this above my question is, where do we stand? I know that a verbal agreement is as good as a written one for renting, and that we should legally have a months notice of rent increase and two months written notice for ending tenancy. Where do we stand with the managment agency? We already gave the landlord a £300 deposit to secure the flat yet he is now asking us to cough up £500 deposit to the managment company plus the rent increase and £180 finance/background check.

Also to note that he has had the flat valued and the work we carried out has increased the rental value by £100pm and the value of the flat by £20k.

~Beanie~

kelsey89 wrote: »

Yesterday morning I recieved a text message from the landlord saying that he is having to use a managment company to collect the rent (we have never missed a payment and have been two days late late once when I changed bank accounts and the DD didn't move over) and that we would need to sign a rent increase, pay the managment company a deposit and pay them £180 for a finance check. When I queried why this was as the original agreement was to save both parties from paying fees he said it was a condition of his mortgage company and if he didn't do it the flat could be reposessed, not knowing enough about mortgages I can only assume from this that he missed payment on his interest only mortgage which caused them to put him on repayments which he can't afford and they have now agreed to take the mortgage money from the rent collected by the managment company.

Not necessarily, I would think that it is more likely that his lenders have discovered that he is letting the property and are making him do it properly i.e with a proper tenancy agreement etc as a condition of giving him permission to let.

embob74

Do you have anything of what you discussed/agreed in writing? Any proof of the monies you have spent on repairs?
If LL asks you to leave would you be able to recoup the money before you left?

kelsey89_2

Hey,

We don't have anything in writing, but I do have all the receipts for everything spent, along with bank statements and credit card statements.

tim123456789

kelsey89 wrote: »

Hey,

We don't have anything in writing, but I do have all the receipts for everything spent, along with bank statements and credit card statements.

sorry to be the bringer of bad news

but if the LL disputes the agreement this "proof" is worthless

kelsey89_2

Would it not be a case of our word against his? We're not trying to do him out of any money, just trying to get what is ours. Everything was fine until he was made redundant and now I feel like he is trying to get one over on us just because he is in the situation that he is in.

Can anyone advise on where we stand with the change to the managment company?

tim123456789

Well of course it's your word against his, but the base law here is that any improvements that a tenant does to a property are not refundable by the LL in absence of express agreement from the LL.

It would be very easy for someone to waffle their way through giving evidence so as to leave the judge ruling that whilst the T might have thought express agreement was it place, it wasn't actually given.

As to the MC, no the LL can't change management company and expect T to sign a new agreement, go through a credit check and pay a load of costs. The tenancy is in place and it remains in place. Any hoops that the new MC want jumping though are the LL's problem.

Okydoky25

Is your original deposit in a scheme?

How much do you believe is still owed to you?

stebiz

I'm not giving advice but merely telling you what I'd do. The guy hasn't got a tenancy agreement so it would be on an assured tenancy. He would need to take you to court to gain possession.

I would stop paying immediately and save the money up. The relationship (as soon as you mentioned legal advice) is beyond repair and I would use the few months it will take to go to court to find somewhere else.

kelsey89_2

Thanks for clarifying that tim123456789 I wasn't aware of the law surrounding improvements. And thanks for the advice on the MC, I didn't think that he would be able to do that, especially only giving us 4 days notice, but I haven't been able to find any information about it on the internet

Okydoky25I'm not sure about our deposit to be honest, I wouldn't have thought he placed it in a scheme but I have been reading that it's a legal requirement and found a link on gov.uk which says he should have put it in a TDP scheme and we could apply to a county court.

kelsey89_2

Hi Stebiz,

From what I've been reading the LL would have to provide us written notice of 2 months to vacate the property and only after that would he be able to go through the appropriate measures to get us evicted. I really don't want it getting that far and to be honest if he had phoned us up and said things were tough for him and we really need to sit down and have a chat about things then I wouldn't be fighting it as much as I am now, however a text message telling me what was happening and that I only had 4days until the changes were put in place and 10days for the rent increase has got my back up.

I'm also under the impression that if we stop paying the rent that this is a breach of the tenancy, and advice I have read says to pay the current amount until a figure has been agreed on.