what are my rights

theartfullodger

As you mention section 21 I assume you are in England or Wales: if not please let us know.

To serve a s21 notice a landlord needs no reason or any rent arrears at all.

However if deposit should have been protected but isn't s21 will be invalid.

With section 8 a landlord may use eviction process if only 1p of rent is overdue only1 day. However formamandatory eviction 2 months rent need owing.

When did you first move in? When Fid the last fixed term end? What does tenancy agreement say about how rent is payable (weekly, monthly, every 4 weeks etc) please?

ihatemyhouse

moved in at end of jan 13, end jan 14 was for 12 months

am in England, I am not bothered if he wants to evict me, I am not paying him a penny more rent

rent is monthly

ihatemyhouse

I have never missed a rent payment, this will be the first one, and am only doing that due to the problems and his unwilling ness to come out to retify the problem

[Deleted User]

You are legally required to pay rent, no matter what, unless you are in one of a small number of situations. Here is what Shelter has to say on withholding rent for repairs, have you followed the procedure?

If you have not followed this procedure and choose to withhold rent then you will be held liable. If your landlord hasn't protected the deposit then you can pursue him through the courts, but do not under any circumstance take this as carte blanche to do whatever you want with rental payments. You will regret it, because eviction is not the worst case scenario, he can legally recover the rent from you and if you still refuse then a county court judgement will trash your credit record.

Pay your rent.

sandsni

If you want the LL to take you seriously, at least proof read the letter and correct all your spelling and grammar mistakes. Otherwise it looks like you don't know what you're talking about.

It's none of your business why previous tenants left. This is absolutely irrelevant to you getting the repairs done.

Also, it's idiotic to recommend replastering and reskimming until the source of the damp is found and rectified. The same problems will keep recurring until the root cause is dealt with and the walls are given time to dry out (which could be months). So I'm not sure how you and your builder neighbour thought that would be a good idea.

SantaKlaus

pay your rent, always, but kick him in the nuts next time you see him. lol

ihatemyhouse

I am not paying my rent to this slum lord, there is no guarantee I will get my bond back, he cant give me a ccj I don't care, I don't have any thing on finance and have no intentions of ever buying a house, so I don't really care,

sick of paying £200 a week rent for a damp moldy house that when it rains water is running down the walls, he has no intentions of fixing the work, only wants the money, I put pics in a other thread of the state of the house

if he wants to be funny about, I will remove everything I have paid for in the house, which might only be small parts like connector on the gas, (turn over part) which I paid for to get gas working,

had enough of the LL and his excuses

sandsni

I take it you only started this thread to try and get someone to agree with you. You apparently have no intention of actually accepting any of the very sensible advice given thus far.

You may not have any intention of buying a house now, but things in life have a habit of changing before you know it. And, in the meantime, CCJs and evidence of non-payment of rent (regardless of how much you protest it was the LL's fault and not yours) will put any decent LL off ever letting a house to you, and you will end up in a vicious cycle of slum LLs because they are the only ones who will let to you.

Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. Play the long game and do things the right way.

BitterAndTwisted

The landlord can and possibly would take you to court if you stop paying your rent. It only has to be two month's rent due, not two months in arrears for a Section 8 to be issued.

Still, if it gets to court you will still have the option of paying up once the landlord gets a judgement against you before you get a CCJ. Having a CCJ does not only affect your ability to get a mortgage in future but would also have an effect on your ability to rent another property when the time comes.

You might be fed up of the landlord and his excuses but have you put any of your observations to him in writing yet? That is the first step you should be taking rather than withholding rent without warning.

[Deleted User]

ihatemyhouse wrote: »

I am not paying my rent to this slum lord, there is no guarantee I will get my bond back

You are legally owed that deposit, you have the legal right to sue him for it and up to 3x more than the deposit value.

ihatemyhouse wrote: »

sick of paying £200 a week rent for a damp moldy house that when it rains water is running down the walls, he has no intentions of fixing the work, only wants the money, I put pics in a other thread of the state of the house

had enough of the LL and his excuses

So follow the legal guidelines and then withhold rent when you're legally permitted to (my link to the shelter website above has the procedure for you to follow).

If you choose not to pay rent you are making a huge mistake, because although this situation is tricky you can come out of this ahead.

1. Pay your rent
2. Follow the legal procedure for forcing repairs
3. IF repairs are not done and you've followed the procedure, withhold rent
4. Move out at the end of your tenancy term
5. Sue for the deposit and be awarded up to 3x the value on top

If you don't do it properly then you're just: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_off_the_nose_to_spite_the_face