bit of a rock and a hard place situation

Whippyice

Hey all, this place comes up time and time again when i've been looking for help with my current situation so i thought i would put myself out here and see if anyone has some good advice,

So my current situation is this,
I've been renting from the place i am in now (via jackson grundy) for the past 5 years nearly to the date, and everything has been totally fine until about a year ago, when we started to get bombarded with house visits every 2 to 3 months, started to raise an eyebrow then but admittedly the house was starting to look a bit tatty around the edges so we were given a few lists of things to comply with which we did and everything seemed to get squared away, come to 2 months ago and we get the tenancy renewal letter but it says the land lady does not want to renew the tenancy, im thinking ok well fine i can't argue with that, but the house is not messed up there's no scratches on the walls no holes, carpets could do with a good clean but nothing that can't be solved with a bit of elbow work,

so I've been trying to find a new house over the last 2 months, problem is i find out my partner has 2 ccj's against her name (i found out at the time an application we had made for a flat we liked got rejected because of it) so ok that's the next hurdle ok we will go private,

found a place that was fine would have worked out ok but then the chap who i was trying to rent from gets back to me and says the land lady has given a bad reference saying along the lines of we have not looked after the house and it has damage and so on,

the good news is I've just been promoted enough to be able to pass an affordability check on just my wages alone the bad news is that even being able to do that what if the land lady keeps on cutting her nose of to spite her face wanting us out but not giving the reference we will need to move into the next house/flat

i don't know exactly what anyone could say here to help but if there is anyone that knows what i should do i would love to hear from you,

we are not scrubs i work she works we have a little one together and i'm a neat freak as it is so it's blown my mind that the land lady would do something like this,

oh yeah also I've looked on the jackson grundy website and the place is back up for rent at £100 more than what we are currently paying,

anyway let me know your thoughts thanks

Pixie5740

If your landlady is going to be spiteful with references then it's going to take her longer to get you out the property meaning she won't be getting the extra £100 a month for longer.

The following advice applies if you're in England or Wales. You don't have to renew your tenancy every year. Once your fixed term tenancy ends you automatically start a periodic tenancy the very next day. That's either contractual law (if your tenancy agreement states what will happen at the end of the fixed term) or statutory law (your tenancy agreement is silent on the matter). You just keep paying your rent and going about your lives as you were before.

If your landlady wants you gone then there is process she must follow. The first step is issuing you with a Section 21 notice. Have you received this yet? Was it with the letter saying she didn't want to renew the tenancy? If you don't leave (which you absolutely don't have to) when the notice expires then your landlady can go to court for an eviction notice and provided she's got the paperwork correct she will get one. If you get to the stage where you can't secure another rental and are going to be evicted from this one contact the council who will have a duty to house you if you become unintentionally homeless but be warned it might not be somewhere nice and it probably won't be permanent.

Can you get references from previous landlords? Perhaps when trying to secure another property you could explain the situation with your current landlord but that you can supply other references. I'm not sure what you mean by going private as it sounds you are already in the private rental sector. If you mean going direct to a landlord rather than through a letting agency that doesn't mean the landlord won't reference you.

See Ending/Renewing an AST for further information.

Cakeguts

What do you mean by a big tatty round the edges? I am wondering if the landlady had a complain from a neighbour about the tatty round the edges.

Whippyice

Hey, thanks for the reply,
So Yes we have the section 21 notice which come through on the 14 of july

Yes sorry i did mean going directly to a landlord, im ok with being referenced it's just blown my mind that we are being denied one, im sure everyone says this but i've never once missed rent day and never been behind,

what's even stranger is that there was a crack on the bathroom mirror included on the original iteniary which over time has gotten larger and she expects us to pay for it, the decking outside has become faded and needs treating but at the same time we've been here five years and she has never sent anyone round to treat it, things like that is what she's complaining about and im in a position of are these not things that fall down to her not us, i mean if im wrong then that's ok im wrong i can accept that but i've never been told different,.

5 years of being here youd expect the house to start showing a bit of fair wear and tear wouldn't you ?

Whippyice

Cakeguts wrote: »

What do you mean by a big tatty round the edges? I am wondering if the landlady had a complain from a neighbour about the tatty round the edges.

Things like skirting boards need a wipe down , and a couple of dark spots near windows
which i am happy to agree with that needed cleaning but we did so and all clean there now, nothing that couldn't be fixed (and was fixed) with a day spent cleaning)

exterior of the house nothing wrong with at all, other than the decking needing treatment but that's not exactly down to us, and the grass needed cutting which i was just being lazy but no one else could see into our garden

I mean don't get me wrong im a neat freak but i do sometimes miss the bigger picture with things like that, i'm definitly not perfect but i dont damage where i live either i mean im a gamer i get home and i sort my kid out have dinner then sit in my chair no house party's and things like that,

Cakeguts

What does it say in your tenancy agreement about the maintenance of the garden? When did you last contact her about the decking in the garden needing to be treated? The landlady won't just send someone round to treat decking if she doesn't know whether it needs treating or not. You have to report to her what needs doing. I don't think a cracked mirror and decking that needs treating added up to all the tatty round the edges because you said that there were a few lists of things that you were given to comply with and that you complied with them.

Is it possible that a neighbour complained to the landlord about how the house looked?

Whippyice

Cakeguts wrote: »

What does it say in your tenancy agreement about the maintenance of the garden? When did you last contact her about the decking in the garden needing to be treated? The landlady won't just send someone round to treat decking if she doesn't know whether it needs treating or not. You have to report to her what needs doing. I don't think a cracked mirror and decking that needs treating added up to all the tatty round the edges because you said that there were a few lists of things that you were given to comply with and that you complied with them.

Is it possible that a neighbor complained to the landlord about how the house looked?

Well as for the neighbors saying anything very much doubtful i mean why would i report the decking needed doing if it (to me at least looked fine) and the house inspections that jackson grundy do wouldn't they say "hey you know the decking could do with a treatment"

rather than us saying can you come treat the decking

im not saying im right here if im wrong im wrong but you can see a post above the kind of thing im talking about generally neatening up of the place no damage other than the damage that was here already which is all accounted for on the paperwork we signed,