Being taken to court for unpaid rent for 3 months we were not there. HELP!

MissMoneypenny

doodledoodle24 wrote: »

plus court fees of 219.50 plus interest.

Has it gone up?

Debt_Free_Chick

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Has it gone up?

Probably three summons, one for each defendant. As they are jointly and severally liable, each one will be issued with a summons for the total amount owed. They either agree how to split it or the Court does.

MissMoneypenny

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Although that still doesn't allow the tenant to withold the rent.

And, as it's a criminal offence, there is no remedy for the tenant. The LL gets prosecuted (perhaps) and fined - but the tenant just gets the safety certificate. It won't help DD24 to defend the Court summons for non-payment of rent.

I'm not a solicitor, so I don't know if the tenant has to stay there if there isn't a gas safety cert or the LL refuses to produce it. That is why I suggested contacting Shelter for advice and seeing if they have legal cover on their house contents policy for a free solicitor.

nobblyned

The only defence I can see is if you have something in writing from the Landlord (or their agent) requesting you to move out. In this case you could then claim that the contract was terminated by mutual agreement. Without this, as the other posters have suggested, you are liable for rent for the term of the contract.

coal9011

Oh! "doodledoodle24" ........................... your in a right mess!

I will have to read your posts again to try to get my head around your situation. In a LL tenant dispute the worst thing the tenant can do is withhold rent.

Is this the first time that you have rented? Is Adam's guarantor one of his parents? How old are you all?

At the moment I'm struggling to find any fault on the part of the landlord.

Guy_Montag

The only thing I can suggest is that you try to claim that you left the place not because of the lack of repairs, forget that, but because there was no gas safety cert. That's the only thing they are in the wrong about - for the rest, I'm afraid you're stuffed.

So make sure you know that they were required to have one - there was gas in the property wasn't there? Was it fires or was there a boiler too?

Then if they were you need to get legal advice about whether the tenancy was valid without one. It's the only leg you have to stand on.

Good luck

moneysavinmonkey

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

How about the LL committing a criminal offence for not providing a gas safety certificate.

"All landlords have to have a valid gas safety record for the gas equipment in the property they rent out. A copy of the record must be provided to the tenant."

"The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is responsible for enforcing gas safety. You should get in touch with the HSE if your landlord:

• has not provided you with a valid gas safety record, or
• refuses to let you see records of safety checks, or
• doesn't do any work required.

Failure to follow gas safety requirements is a criminal offence and the HSE can issue a formal caution and may prosecute your landlord. If convicted, the landlord may be fined or even given a prison sentence.

ok, my mistake - this is correct, although a previous posters pointed out that this is no grounds for withholding rent.

I have in the past reported a previous landlord to council for not providing us with a gas safety certificate (indeed not even checking the gas appliances). She was called in to meet with council H&S officier but claimed that we weren't allowing her access to the property to carry this out - (why she didn't have a certificate before she let it I don't know) In fact we were only trying to stop her entering the property constantly for no reason and without permission- we were unable to stop her from doing this so moved out in the end (apparently she was deterred enough not to enter the property to ever do the gas safety checks!) sorry mini rant there - point is do you think i could retrospectively report her to the HSE?

Debt_Free_Chick

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

I'm not a solicitor, so I don't know if the tenant has to stay there if there isn't a gas safety cert or the LL refuses to produce it. That is why I suggested contacting Shelter for advice and seeing if they have legal cover on their house contents policy for a free solicitor.

But this won't help them with the Court summons for unpaid rent.

The payment of rent is a private, civil matter governed by the terms of the tenancy agreement. The gas safety certificate is a public safety issue, governed by legislation - and enforced by the HSE, not the Civil/County Court.

Where a property is habitable, then the rent is due. Even when it's not habitable, rent is still due, but the LL would have to provide suitable alternative accommodation - only if they can't is there a case for not paying the rent.

Even a faulty appliance would not render the property uninhabitable - the appliance would simply be disconnected by the engineer. And the rent would still be due.

It's a common misunderstanding that any failure on the part of the LL to attend to any maintenance/safety issue is grounds for witholding the rent. Unfortunately (for those who misunderstand) it isn't - one still has to pay the rent and then pursue the maintenance/safety issues separately.

I'm not suggesting that DD24 ignores the gas safety certificate issue - just that she should not allow this to distract the tenants' attention from the most pressing issue, which is the Court Summons. If awarded, then all the tenants & the guarantor are facing a CCJ.

If the LL is guilty of a criminal offence by not having the gas safety certificate, the tenants get nothing out of it. Any fine paid by the LL goes to the HSE - not to the tenants. So they have nothing to gain - except the satisfaction of seeing the LL prosecuted (possibly).

BobProperty

Please correct me where I'm wrong but this is my chronology of the events and my devil's advocate case for the landlord:

03/03 tenancy commences at £700 pcm for x months (6 or 12 likely but irrelevant see later) All of you jointly and severally responsible for rent including guarantor (who'd want to be a guarantor?)
Apr rent paid
May rent paid
June rent withheld
mid June tenants complain about work needing doing in attempt to justify withholding rent.
July rent not paid
11th July keys handed back at agency.
Re-let September? (Guessing at that one)

So has issued court summonses for 3 tenants and one guarantor for June July August and part September rent plus additional advertising costs plus court costs.

I have to say to everyone - tell me where I'm wrong and why I don't have a case?

MissMoneypenny

moneysavinmonkey wrote: »

In fact we were only trying to stop her entering the property constantly for no reason and without permission- we were unable to stop her from doing this so moved out in the end

That would be classed as harassment now and the police deal with it. You have a right to quiet enjoyment when you rent a property.

moneysavinmonkey wrote: »

(apparently she was deterred enough not to enter the property to ever do the gas safety checks!) sorry mini rant there - point is do you think i could retrospectively report her to the HSE?

Nothing ventured, nothing gained:D