*Updated*Council billed me £6500 for work I didnt ask for? Rental house

travelchick

Paul_the_Painter wrote: »

Hi travelchick.

You are making a number of bad/incorrect assumptions about the tenancy, and the ability of agents to help you.
Generally they are useless in this short of situation, forget getting an agent involved.
You keep talking about 6 months notice, I think you are confusing a 6 month Assured Short-hold Tenancy (which you tenant probably has) with the notice period in that tenancy. Chances are that your tenant is now in the statutory periodic part of the tenancy, this means that the notice period is 2 months, not 6.
Of course the tenant can fight the eviction proceedings and so 6 months may be a realistic estimate of the time to get your property back.
My advice.
1. Go and see a property lawyer
2. Issue an annual rent statement to your tenant showing every payment received and every rent amount due, and the total amount outstanding.
3. Go and see a property lawyer
4. Issue a section 8 and a section 21 notice of intention to seek repossession
5. The property lawyer you have seen above will help with these
6. Re-let property through an agent on a fully managed basis at the current market rent, you'll end up about £100/month better off.
7. DO NOT GET THE TENANT TO SIGN A NEW RENTAL AGREEMENT. If you do, you will not be able to evict for a minimum of 6 months, and agents being agents they will possibly sign then up for a year.
8. Really - go and see a property lawyer - I mean it

Thank you Paul, you made some really great points and I value your comments :-)
I have written to the council to appeal this now and I am just waiting on all the paperwork back from the council as im going to first-Tier tribunal.
Then I will be getting a solicitor involved so that I am fully covered!!!

travelchick

****UPDATE****
I have received some of the council paperwork it turns out that some of the repairs they have done on the house are where the tenant has broken things and not told me about them? 2 windows smashed lots of broken cupboards in the kitchen ( which was new and under garentee)
The heating one is weird as the documents state that there was not heating in every room However there was and I have the receipts to prove it. ( So wondering if tenant broke some or removed some?)

So basically I now know why the tenant didnt contact me about these repairs because she broke the stuff and must have thought all her christmas's came at once when the council where to stupid to contact me!
So I will base this as part of my argument against them, The tenant has told them she hasnt been able to contact me however I have texts from her spanning 1 month before the council claim they started their investigation to 3 weeks after including some replacement items she needed for the house which where all sign for by her as received!

Its going to be a long battle I recon however Im armed with lots of proof and Im getting a solicitor to deal with it, even though its going on the CC ( ouch)
I am so grateful to all of you people who have given me so much advice I was in a real state of panic when I got the letters however you guys gave me the omph to fight this I really cant thank you enough.
Ill keep you up to date :-)
xx

Argghhh

i would fight it and serve her notice at the same time

anselld

Why have you taken no action against the tenant then?
You are just asking for more trouble if they (ie the T) are that dishonest. They have played you and the Council big time.

travelchick

anselld wrote: »

Why have you taken no action against the tenant then?
You are just asking for more trouble if they (ie the T) are that dishonest. They have played you and the Council big time.

Im going to put it all in the hands of a solicitor to make sure I am not breaking any laws, The one thing that this has taught me is I dont know enough so I want to make sure that I do this correctly and have no ramifications from it

Somerset

travelchick wrote: »

I am on the land registry at this address? so why did they only write to the one address thats not on the file??.

So can I get this right, there were three 'owner' addresses for the property listed at the Land Reg - your's, your ex's and the actual property address .... and the Council served all notice's to the property address ?? Surely they haven't followed their own procedure's ?


I'd be well !!!!ed off. Your tenant broke, destroyed and removed fixtures, reported the resultant squalor to EH citing your absenteeism/refusal to repair. Scammed the Council into repairing while deliberately keeping you and them in the dark and you pick up the bill. Wow.

caeler

I am totally shocked at how this could have happened to you. You have been treated shockingly and I agree with many others EVICT EVICT EVICT. You cannot trust this tenant after this. I appreciate you wanting to sort one problem at a time - probably sensible in the circumstances although I'm not sure I could tolerate this tenant in my home. Good luck and I hope the council try to understand your valid concerns and issues. Perhaps a timeline of events detailed historic contact with your tenant will help the council understand that you are not an absent LL.

lozzy81

Two broken windows... damage to the kitchen?? and a new central heating system without your knowledge in your own home?? God... EVICT RIGHT AWAY! next time it might be something more substantial that is damaged... and why is the council fixing up this stuff??? private rented accommodation? very very odd of them, good luck with the case and keep us all posted on the progress

moneyistooshorttomention

Mygawd...that tenants feet wouldn't touch the ground they would be flying outa that house as fast as if they had done that to me.

Good luck in getting shot of that little troublemaker as fast as...

Crikey..first they scam you for not paying their rent in full and now this....:mad:

Pixie5740

It might take months to evict this tenant so I'd get the ball rolling on that now. If she doesn't want to go willingly you'll need a court order.