Problems with private landlady

trrk

Thanks again for the advice. Looking at the notice I don't believe it is valid - it does not mention section 21 and only has my husbands first name (and doesn't have my name at all).

We have already provided copies of bank statements to prove we paid the rent and at least our current landlady has given us a positive review about this. Getting references from our previous house would be difficult as our previous landlord is hard to get hold of - even though we had no problems with him he seems to be a bit of a rogue landlord with a bad reputation online and no longer answers his phone. A guarantor won't be possible as neither of us has family in this country that we could ask. If paying 6 months rent was our only option we could do it but it would mean taking all my savings our of an ISA and losing all further tax-free savings from this money which we hope to use for a house deposit.

Regards the bathroom it has a small fan which we always use and a small window which we leave open after showering but we can't seem to avoid mould growing. The bathroom was a recent addition to the house a few years before we moved in (having previously only had an outside loo) and the last tenent (an elderly lady) barely used it if at all so the problems with theworkmanship in the bathroom didn't become apparent until we moved in.

ognum

trrk wrote: »

Thanks again for the advice. Looking at the notice I don't believe it is valid - it does not mention section 21 and only has my husbands first name (and doesn't have my name at all).

We have already provided copies of bank statements to prove we paid the rent and at least our current landlady has given us a positive review about this. Getting references from our previous house would be difficult as our previous landlord is hard to get hold of - even though we had no problems with him he seems to be a bit of a rogue landlord with a bad reputation online and no longer answers his phone. A guarantor won't be possible as neither of us has family in this country that we could ask. If paying 6 months rent was our only option we could do it but it would mean taking all my savings our of an ISA and losing all further tax-free savings from this money which we hope to use for a house deposit.

Regards the bathroom it has a small fan which we always use and a small window which we leave open after showering but we can't seem to avoid mould growing. The bathroom was a recent addition to the house a few years before we moved in (having previously only had an outside loo) and the last tenent (an elderly lady) barely used it if at all so the problems with theworkmanship in the bathroom didn't become apparent until we moved in.

OP I sympathise with your plight with your LL but I also think that as a tenant you should insist the LL comes and checks the property and that you take photographs to document issues, print them and send them with a letter so that issue are understood early on and as they develop.

I hope you manage to find new accommodation I am very familiar with your area and have rental properties their, they are always relet very quickly and rents can be high so I hope you find something quickly. It may be necessary to go down the 6 month up front route though I have never done this.

Good luck!

trrk

ognum wrote: »

OP I sympathise with your plight with your LL but I also think that as a tenant you should insist the LL comes and checks the property and that you take photographs to document issues, print them and send them with a letter so that issue are understood early on and as they develop.

I've certainly learnt this lesson now! Next time I will definately document issues better. I was naive in this respect. We do have the report from the contractors from 6 months ago when they did the gas safety inspection identifying these issue and the reports were also sent to her.
She has not inspected the property in 3 years as she lives in Kings Lynn, more than an hour away and I don't think she is able to drive anymore and is not particularly mobile.

ognum

trrk wrote: »

I've certainly learnt this lesson now! Next time I will definately document issues better. I was naive in this respect. We do have the report from the contractors from 6 months ago when they did the gas safety inspection identifying these issue and the reports were also sent to her.
She has not inspected the property in 3 years as she lives in Kings Lynn, more than an hour away and I don't think she is able to drive anymore and is not particularly mobile.

While I do understand the joy for tenants of not dealing with a letting agency management team at least if you rent through one you do have the fall back of inspections on a regular basis to complain about issues.

I know now is when both LL and tenants complain about rubbish letting agencies but there are some good ones, the ones I use are top rated on a review site (Allagents) from tenants and LLs and the site contains many many negative reviews of others.

Pixie5740

trrk wrote: »

Thanks again for the advice. Looking at the notice I don't believe it is valid - it does not mention section 21 and only has my husbands first name (and doesn't have my name at all).

Just keep living in the property then until you find somewhere else to live and then give your own notice. Once the notice on this invalid Section 21 passes your LL will have to wait weeks if not months for a court date to secure an eviction notice and if it turns out the Section 21 really is invalid it will get booted out of court (with no costs to you) without and eviction notice and she will have to start all over again. That should give you plenty of time to find somewhere new to live.

trrk wrote: »

If paying 6 months rent was our only option we could do it but it would mean taking all my savings our of an ISA and losing all further tax-free savings from this money which we hope to use for a house deposit.

Your cash ISA is probably paying peanuts in interest anyway so I wouldn't get too hung up about it if you do end up having to use it. Sure you'll pay 6 months rent in advance, then use the following 6 month to save up another 6 months rent and so on but eventually you would end up with 6 months worth of savings again. A small price to pay for getting away from your current LL.

trrk

Thanks again for the advice. The prospective landlord has now definitely turned us down due to the reference from our current landlady. Does anyone have any advice about how to deal with the referencing issue for the next place since almost all landlords seem to ask for referencing? I'm afraid if we are totally upfront about the eviction it will put landlords off straight away and they always have multiple tenants to chose from. We also don't want to pay £100 each time if they are just going to check the same info again.

Also are we entitled to see the reports from the NLA referencing service? So far they told us to contact the prospective landlord who ordered them and she told us to contact the NLA. I would like to check exactly what is on record from the current landlady and if the rest of the info is correct.

If we do go with a Letting Agent aren't they likely to be even more stringent about referencing? Most of the letting agents in Cambridge have poor reviews on Allagents and where there are good reviews they are mostly from the landlords with bad ones from tenents.

Newlyboughthouse

Sorry to go slightly off track, but why on earth are emails not valid? I know anyone could have sent it, but equally with a written letter, how can the sender prove they sent it and its contents? The recipient could hide it surely? Just curious.. (and may help the OP)

jjlandlord

Newlyboughthouse wrote: »

Sorry to go slightly off track, but why on earth are emails not valid?

Emails are valid, or rather may be valid but also have the potential to raise further issues.
A blanket "emails are not valid" is not correct.

ViolaLass

OP, have you pointed out to your LL that if she keeps giving you bad references, you won't be able to get another place and therefore will not leave hers? It might focus the mind.

trrk

ViolaLass wrote: »

OP, have you pointed out to your LL that if she keeps giving you bad references, you won't be able to get another place and therefore will not leave hers? It might focus the mind.

Yes, after we received the official rejection from the prospective landlord we sent the current landlady an email (to be followed up by post tomorrow) asking her to refrain from giving a bad reference. Don't know what the outcome of this will be yet. My husband thought it was too threatening to state directly that we would stay in the house until we found somewhere else but I think we managed to get the point across that it is in both our interests for us to find new accommodation.

One poster above stated that we still have to give 1 month notice when we do find somewhere to live? Is this really true even though she is evicting us? I would be very annoyed to have to pay extra rent when she has been the one delaying us finding a new place.