Landlord attempting to force us to pay utilities for months before we moved in

vuvuzela

marksoton wrote: »

You agreed to rent a house from 1st July that you couldn't live in till September?!

Extremely common in the student lettings market. Househunting for the forthcoming academic year starts in February where I am. Students get a guarantee that they have somewhere to live in come September, and landlord gets more money and the chance to do repairs. Obviously the benefits are weighted far heavier in favour of the landlord...
Doesn't make it fair or right, but as a resident in a student area I see it happening very regularly.

Guest101

vuvuzela wrote: »

Extremely common in the student lettings market. Househunting for the forthcoming academic year starts in February where I am. Students get a guarantee that they have somewhere to live in come September, and landlord gets more money and the chance to do repairs. Obviously the benefits are weighted far heavier in favour of the landlord...
Doesn't make it fair or right, but as a resident in a student area I see it happening very regularly.

I think Mark was talking about legality rather than fairness or morality

Miss_Samantha

If you are prevented from using the property, i.e. you do not have exclusive possession then there is no tenancy.

I have a feeling that most of these student lets arrangements are badly drafted and likely liable to collapse in court.

Here, from what OP wrote, I would say that he isn't liable for anything unless the agreement makes very specific provisions.

vuvuzela

Guest101 wrote: »

I think Mark was talking about legality rather than fairness or morality

Fair do. Hopefully someone will challenge one of these sorts of contracts in court then.

Etheon6000

Okay, so the landlord has said that we were not allowed to move in until September 1st, but are expected to pay utilities standing charges from July 1st, as that is when the tenancy starts. When I queried this, they essentially called my bluff, saying they were well within their rights.

Does anyone have a name or link to a specific law/rule i can hit them with that proves this is wrong?

Thanks so much for all the replies this far

Guest101

How about to send them a link to this thread?


Alternatively you threaten court action, as if the tenancy started in July and you were prevented from moving in, the LL has breached the contract.

Pixie5740

As has already been explained your tenancy starts when you move in. You might have had a contract which started 1st July but you did not have a tenancy until 1st September.

He's not calling your bluff as much as trying to dazzle you with BS.

Try this link on for size:

http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2011/07/05/the-basic-rules-of-tenancies-before-the-codes/?doing_wp_cron=1473957230.3611669540405273437500

I think (and I could be wrong) that if he wanted the tenancy to start before you could take occupation it should have been executed as a deed.

Annabee

Just to say that paying rent over the summer is very common in university areas. It happened to my daughter and her friends - they had to pay half rent for July and August, but couldn't move in until September 1st. It seems unfair, but if all the local letting agents are doing it the students just have to go along with it.

Just pure greed on the landlords' and agents' behalf - are they not making enough profit by packing in as many rooms as possible and charging the maximum per room? They would get far less if they rented the whole house out to a local family. So the whole thing is a detriment to the area really.

However in my daughter's experience there was never any mention of paying for utilities during July and August - I think your landlord is a bit of a crook, OP. I would fight this.

FBaby

Guest101 wrote: »

There is ofcourse courts to settle this kind of matter

Indeed, but extremely frustrating to have to go down that route.

Miss_Samantha

Annabee wrote: »

Just to say that paying rent over the summer is very common in university areas. It happened to my daughter and her friends - they had to pay half rent for July and August, but couldn't move in until September 1st.

Yes, but as said it isn't really 'rent' for these months in the sense that there is no tenancy in July and August if you are preventing from accessing the property.
I think many landlords/agents are missing this point: Either there is a tenancy and the tenant can access the property, or there is no tenancy.