Landlord insisting we owe £2k rent arrears....?

tubie22

hi all,

My partner and I have been renting out current property for 3 years now. We have always paid out rent, sometimes a little late I will admit, as there has been periods throughout the past 3 years when my partner lost his job and was on jsa and housing benefit, but we always let our landlord know what was going on and there was never an issue with anything.

Landlord came round last night claiming we owe her £2k in rent arrears and my jaw almost hit the floor. We are not the kind of people who miss rent payments and to our knowledge, hadn't missed any. I was in a bit of shock so didn't really ask or say much but upon thinking about it, if we did owe that amount of money, why would she let it escalate to that much in the first place as our rent is 500pcm.

She had a photocopy of the rent book, with dates and money received/money arrears etc. we checked through it and there is apparently a missed payment from last March, last July, dec 14 and January 15. My partner pays our rent and got up his online bank statements and we have evidence that all but the March one has actually been paid, so at most we owe 500, which we accept, as it was around this time that my partner was out of work so I suppose that could be the explanation, although we were still both shocked at the fact that we missed even 1 payment.

For the July payment, it is shown in my partners account as coming out but she hasn't written this date down in the rent book, as if she didn't get it, but we have proof it was sent (online bank transfer). With the dec and January 2015 payments, my partner had been out of work and we had told our landlord we would be paying a lump sum of 1000 (2 rent payments) when my partner received his first wage, which we did. This was to cover December and January, but she hasn't got this written down either.

Are we in the right to say we agree we owe last March rent of 500 but that's it, as we have the bank statements to say the other 3 "missed " payments have actually be paid?

We also have issues with the landlord letting herself into the property with no notice, not often but when she does call round she lets herself in. She did it last night and it seriously freaked me out as we have a 6 month old son and I was scared someone was breaking in.

Thanks

tea-bag

2 things

1, Tell her she can't just enter whenever she wants without notice if it continues you will take action eg. change locks
2, Take the £500 round to her with your evidence and get her to check her account. It cold be just a over site.

Does she have more than one property?

pmlindyloo

As regards the rent arrears you have evidence that you only owe one month's rent.

Write formally to your landlord enclosing copies of your proof that you have paid the alleged missing payments.

Then you will need to pay your arrears - in full or a repayment plan (if your landlady agrees)

As regards her visiting without advising you then you need to write and tell her that this is not acceptable (obviously word it so that it doesn't sound rude) and you need notice. Change the locks if you have to.

Unfortunately saying this is all well and good but what you don't want to happen is for your LL to issue with a notice to evict. Are you in a fixed term contract? Is your deposit protected?

Try to keep this all pleasant if at all possible. Your proof of payments through bank transfers should be sufficient evidence.

If you can pay back the arrears asap (even borrowing it from family and repaying them) that would be a very good idea and would hopefully keep your LL a happy bunny.

G_M

Did she leave you her photocopy? If yes, double check the dates she says were missed against your payment records. If not, write and ask for it.

Write anyway. A formal letter to the address provided "for the serving of notices" (I assume this is Eng/Wales?)

Dear Mrs Landlord,

Thank you for visiting yesterday and bringing your concerns to our attention. (otional: please could you forward a copy of our rent statement for our records and to allow us to investigate further).

We have looked into the alleged arrears and found the following:

* March 2014. It appears this payment was missed.
* July 014. This payment was made and shows on our bank statement
* Dec 2014. This payment was made and shows on our bank statement
* Jan 2015. This payment was made and shows on our bank statement

Accordingly, please find enclosed a cheque for £500 to clear the March 2014 rent arrears, with our apologies.

(or: Accordingly we are arranging an additional one-off transfer to your account of £500, reference xxxxxx. Please accept this with our apologies)

Perhaps you could re-check your bank credits, and if for any reason the other bank transfers did not reach your account please let us know and we will raise the matter with our bank.

Can I also take this opprtunity to ask that in future if you wish to visit, or make inspections/repairs etc, you could provide us with 24 hours advance notice, and agree a convenient time? Many thanks for your understanding, and cooperation in this.

Yours sincerely

Tubie22

DRP

How do you pay your rent?

Is you evidence from the bank statement a standing order to the landlady, or does the statement only prove that you have withdrawn cash to pay the rent?