Landlord not replying to my messages

Xiomn_2

I am on a rolling month to month tenancy.
I wish to serve my notice to leave in writing
The landlord himself is the one and only person I have ever dealt with.
I do not have a tenancy agreement in my possession.
I do not know his address by which to serve the notice.
I cannot send him a letter asking for an address to serve the notice to as I have no address info.
I have messaged him via Whatsapp asking him for an address by which I can serve said notice, on two occasions now.
He has seen both messages.
He is not replying.

What do i do?

D_M_E

Someone will be along to correct me, but as I understand it, if you do not have an address in the UK for your landlord then you do not have to pay rent, so I would suggest you stop paying the rent and instead put it in a savings account so that it is ready to hand over when such address is provided.

That should get the landlord's attention.

Xiomn_2

AFF8879 wrote: »

If you have no contract then I do not think he would have any leg to stand on if you could prove you had tried to contact him. Does he still hold your deposit, if there was one? I would probably be more worried about getting that back.

I signed into a 6 month contract with him over just over two years ago. Ever since those 6 months expired I have been since been renting this room therefore on a rolling monthly basis.
I paid a deposit when I first moved in over two years ago.

I'm more worried about him not replying because I wish to serve my notice but have nothing to send it to. The last thing I want is to be liable for more rent payments because i missed the 30 day notice deadline due to his not giving me an address in a timely manner.

Smodlet

Hello and welcome, OP and may I say how refreshing it is to find someone whose first post is so articulate and to the point?

You say you rent a room; does this mean you are in a House of Multiple Occupation (HMO)? I ask as I think the rules pertaining to such differ from those of more standard tenancies.

I would post G_M's brilliant guides but am unsure if HMOs are included so please provide a little more information and I am sure you will receive the assistance you need. I think the point about having no legal obligation to pay rent if you have no address to which to send notices is correct; it does not have to be the landlord's (LL's) address as far as I am aware. Is there a Lettings Agent (LA) involved? I think you said you have only dealt with the LL.

Good luck, anyway.

Xiomn_2

Smodlet wrote: »

Hello and welcome, OP and may I say how refreshing it is to find someone whose first point is so articulate and to the point?

You say you rent a room; does this mean you are in a House of Multiple Occupation (HMO)? I ask as I think the rules pertaining to such differ from those of more standard tenancies.

I would post G_M's brilliant guides but am unsure if HMOs are included so please provide a little more information and I am sure you will receive the assistance you need. I think the point about having no legal obligation to pay rent if you have no address to which to send notices is correct; it does not have to be the landlord's (LL's) address as far as I am aware. Is there a Lettings Agent (LA) involved? I think you said you have only dealt with the LL.

Good luck, anyway.

Hello.

I rent a ROOM, in a multiple occupant shared house, that is correct.
There is no one else involved, just the one individual landlord which I have only ever dealt with, that is correct.

Smodlet

OK, below is the link; it is quite a deal of reading but I hope you find something of help in there. You can also trawl this board. Someone on here will be able to help, I am fairly sure.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/67759912#Comment_67759912

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/licensing-of-houses-in-multiple-occupation-in-england-a-guide-for-landlords-and-managers

The second one seems to be the most pertinent.


HTH.

iammumtoone

xiomn wrote: »

Hello.

I rent a ROOM, in a multiple occupant shared house, that is correct.

Can you ask one of the other housemates if they still have their contract to check for an address, I am assuming you will all have the same landlord?

G_M

D_M_E wrote: »

Someone will be along to correct me, but as I understand it, if you do not have an address in the UK for your landlord then you do not have to pay rent, so I would suggest you stop paying the rent and instead put it in a savings account so that it is ready to hand over when such address is provided.

This is correct.
Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 section 1.

However

I signed into a 6 month contract with him over just over two years ago. Ever since those 6 months expired I have been since been renting this room therefore on a rolling monthly basis.
I paid a deposit when I first moved in over two years ago.

so almost certainly the OP was given an address in the original tenancy agreement but has lost it.


If you (now) have no contact details except whatsaap, then serve notice via whatsaap.
Then leave
Then request your deposit.
Then see what happens and report back here.


Have you checked the deposit is protected and is there a LL address associated with the protection?


edit - surely one of the other occupants still has a contract with the LL's address on it?

Pixie5740

D_M_E wrote: »

Someone will be along to correct me, but as I understand it, if you do not have an address in the UK for your landlord then you do not have to pay rent, so I would suggest you stop paying the rent and instead put it in a savings account so that it is ready to hand over when such address is provided.

That should get the landlord's attention.

For an AST the address supplied by the landlord must be in England or Wales so not just anywhere in the UK as an address in Scotland or Northern Ireland would not be sufficient.

The OP did have a written contract from when (s)he signed the original 6 month fixed term and I would be very surprised if that did not contain an address in England or Wales for the serving of notices. The terms of that contract would have carried over to the periodic tenancy. It's very dangerous advice to tell the OP to stop paying the rent when the reason the OP doesn't have the address is because the OP lost it not because the landlord never supplied those details in the first place.

Pixie5740

iammumtoone wrote: »

Can you ask one of the other housemates if they still have their contract to check for an address, I am assuming you will all have the same landlord?

Exactly. Surely that would be a far simpler solution than asking strangers on the internet.

csgohan4

Wouldn't the land registry have details of the home owner, who I assume is also the LL? you can get it for £3