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

pmlindyloo

travelchick wrote: »

I do like this idea, my partner said the same thing tell them we will be suing for vandalism (your more eloquent about it :-)

Have you spoken to your tenant yet?

travelchick

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Have you spoken to your tenant yet?

No I want to get all the facts in place before I speak to her.

pmlindyloo

travelchick wrote: »

No I want to get all the facts in place before I speak to her.

I'm sorry but I don't follow your thinking.

First, by speaking to your tenant you can find out whether it is actually your property that has had repairs done. And also you can find out what the problem was and why the tenant didn't contact you.

Simple enough. No need to get into an argument about it.

BigAunty

So you don't need to go through the formal process of notifying her about a rent increase from £600 to £650, you can simply issue her with an S8 about the £7k rent arrears? You can issue an S21 (no fault notice) as a belt and braces approach.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/content/section-8-procedure
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/content/check-list-serving-valid-section-21-notice
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/pdf/servingS21.pdf

If you haven't got the appetite to do it yourself, then look at Landlord Action.

Does your tenant have a fixed term agreement or has it rolled into a periodic tenancy? Have you protected the deposit? Do you have a dual signed tenancy agreement.

And if she'd asked for central heating, would you have installed it?

booksurr

travelchick wrote: »

No I want to get all the facts in place before I speak to her.

the facts are:
- either the council has sent the letter to the wrong LL
- or your tenant has complained to the council, not told you and somehow the initial notice never reached you

whilst I appreciate you are clearly very upset at the moment and therefore likely to be confrontational to anyone you speak to, a simple phone call to your tenant will establish all the facts you need to know at this time. Come Monday you can then plan your approach in an informed manner rather than in a reactive manner

I_have_spoken

TBH, sounds like the tenant wants a council house but was told she and the 3 kids have no chance until evicted.

Now you are spitting tacks and plan to evict

Result!

teddysmum

You don't have to 'confront' your tenant. Just call saying you think there has been a mix up, as the council say they have installed central heating, which surely can't be correct and ask that they confirm this.

BigAunty

I_have_spoken wrote: »

TBH, sounds like the tenant wants a council house but was told she and the 3 kids have no chance until evicted.

Now you are spitting tacks and plan to evict

Result!

The Localism Act that was implemented a year or two ago means that in England, a local council no longer has the statutory duty of awarding social housing to the homeless in priority need (such as having dependents).

They can discharge their legal responsibilities towards priority homeless by offering settled accommodation and while this does include a social housing tenancy, the council can also offer a 1 year private tenancy.

Being served notice by a landlord now in England doesn't automatically catapult some groups into social housing in the way it did.

That said, the tenant presumably has grounds to say that the landlord left them in such unsafe housing, the council compelled the landlord to do it but the landlord never did so the council had to pick up the mess.

If the OP is going to evict on the issue of substantial rent arrears, then the council may deem her tenant to have made themselves intentionally homeless.

moneyistooshorttomention

travelchick wrote: »

This I understand however they contacted my mortgage company 3 weeks ago claiming they didnt have an address for me so where did they send the notice to?
I haven't moved the address on file was always the same.

Surely to gain access to the property they have to prove they have tried to contact me?

I would have thought so.

Get written proof they contacted your mortgage company 3 weeks ago, as that is good evidence that they clearly didn't make any serious attempt to contact you.

regprentice

Incidentally - the local authority do not need to settle for the same minimum standard of heating that you do as a private landlord. They have to comply with the 'Decent homes standard' and will likely see full central heating with a combi boiler as a minimum. If the council do the work this is the minimum they will provide.

Council were perfectly entitled to install in the absence of a negligent landlord. The real question here is why did they find you so difficult to contact? This is where you will establish what action you can succesfully take in respect of the 6k bill.

I wouldnt be quite as cocky as most of the other comments. 5 years of allowing an underpayment of £200 a month? Youre not getting that £7k back. I Hope you havent given her any texts/emails/letters referring to the '£200 off for poor heating' assertion made previously.

I'm sorry but you have been a soft touch. Your tenant has had you by the balls for years.