Landlady changed her mind about renting after signing the contract - Can I sue her?

IoanaP

Nobbie1967 wrote: »

OP,

I've changed my mind and think you probably should pursue this, but for now just concentrate on getting somewhere else to live and keep records of any extra expenses.

Once your situation is resolved, total up your losses and contact the Landlady asking for her to pay these to settle the matter. Let her know that if she doesn't settle, you will take her to court and contact HMRC/DSS with your suspicions about tax/benefit fraud. Whether she settles or not, report her anyway.

That's exactly what I am doing. Just thought to ask for advices re my situation to better prepare for what's going to happen next. I have only been in the UK for 2 years, London 1 year.. I learn as I go..

Can I ask you what made you change your mind?

saajan_12

IoanaP wrote: »

So I agreed to meet, we signed one of those with start date of 2nd March and an anexe (handwritten by her) to the agreement that basically gave me full tenant rights and mentioned the period of the agreement being valid for 6 months and roll on a monthly basis (as the agreement didn’t have one).

..

This was happening on the 20th February. On the 1st March we agreed to meet again so she can give me the keys and I would pay the rent and set.up a monthly standing order so I can move in the next day.

On the 27th Feb .. The next day at 10am .. At 2pm that same day she called me to say that she changed her mind and she doesn’t want to rent the place anymore.

So you signed an agreement on 20th Feb, and the LL broke the agreement on 28th Feb, 8 days later. You are entitled to recover YOUR LOSSES AS A RESULT OF THE LANDLORD'S ACTIONS. Now what are those?

IoanaP wrote: »

The contract ends at the beginning of April, I gave 2 months notice in January because I wanted to have enough time to find something and the only reason I can stay another month is because the contract ends in April.

You had already served notice and so had to leave in March anyway - you didn't do this on the basis of the agreement with the new LL. So if the LL hadn't agreed to let to you on 20th February, you would have continued looking between 20th - 28th Feb and have to leave at the same time. The LL's actions cost you 8 days of looking. Since it turns out you can stay until April (whether that's by luck is irrelevant, you can stay) ie an extra month, you have plenty more than 8 days.

A month is plenty of time to find a reasonable place for £1150 for half a 2 bed. If you mean a whole 2 bed for that, then that's probably unreasonable for central Lon, and you should have known its 'too good to be true'.

IoanaP wrote: »

Hey,

This is what I found on Google:

The landlord’s liability to you
If the landlord can’t honour his side of the bargain then you are entitled to sue him for

• Any extra costs incurred by you for accommodation and- is the rent more than £1150 where you are currently? Then sue for the difference for the first month. You should be able to easily find an alternative within 1 month under that price, with zero additional costs.
• General damages for stress and inconvenience - what stress? If you're getting overly sensitive that's not the LL's problem, but you didn't actually have to move twice, have a month to search, so shouldn't be stressful.

So that means that if you are able to find somewhere else to live but it is £200 pm more expensive than the property you had signed for – the landlord is liable to pay that £200 per month to you (for the fixed term) as it is a loss you have suffered as a result of his breach of contract. yes, but £1150 is plenty for something reasonable. If your standards are more fussy, then that's not on the LL.

The landlord will also be liable for the additional (reasonable) cost of any hotel accommodation if it takes you a while to find accommodation. Plus the cost of storage of your possessions in the meantime.- Less what you'd pay anyway for rent. You don't need a hotel / storage because you can stay where you are for a whole month. The hotel accommodation isn't open ended, but for a limited reasonable period to find somewhere. You ahve a month, ie more than reasonable.

I already gave notice to the people I'm sharing a house with, I am only staying here for a month because of their good will. But in 3 weeks I will have to move out and I doubt I will find a good place so quickly. - good will or not, you ARE able to stay there. In 3 weeks you SHOULD find a place, if you don't then that's not on the LL

Honeylife

IoanaP wrote: »

I have only been in the UK for 2 years, London 1 year.. I learn as I go..

Answers a lot of my "why on earth is she bothering with this query about suing?" :rotfl:
OP we are not a suing culture in the UK. Be prepared to be fleeced by a Solicitor telling you that you have a case. Be prepared for a Judge to throw it out.

If you really want to learn Move On.

lisyloo

IoanaP wrote: »

That's exactly what I am doing. Just thought to ask for advices re my situation to better prepare for what's going to happen next. I have only been in the UK for 2 years, London 1 year.. I learn as I go..

Can I ask you what made you change your mind?

There is loads of property available in London.
I do have experience of looking and our experience was that we found somewhere in 2 days BUT we were totally realistic about what we could afford AND we moved straight away (there wer people viewing right after us).

If you can’t find places then are you being realistic? I didn’t like our flat first of all and turned my nose up at it but once I got my head round the fact that it was market value for our budget then I accepted the choices on offer - take it, go somewhere horrible or put more money in. It didn’t take me long.

What are the obstacles you are coming up with?
There must be hundreds of places available in central London.

I have to say I totally understand someone wanting to know where they stand legally.
You do not have to use an expensive solicitor for small claims in this country although it does require effort/research if you do it yourself.

I would keep records and then look at losses and the viability of a claim afterwards but in principle I think the answer is yes you are entitled to them.
Whether it’s worth it is a different matter.
Winning a case does not guarantee someone will pay and to extract the money from someone e.g. sending balliffs, costs money.
You have to weigh up whether it’s worth the costs and efforts and can only do that once you know how much the losses are.

GDB2222

Honeylife wrote: »

Answers a lot of my "why on earth is she bothering with this query about suing?" :rotfl:
OP we are not a suing culture in the UK. Be prepared to be fleeced by a Solicitor telling you that you have a case. Be prepared for a Judge to throw it out.

If you really want to learn Move On.

Can you explain why what appears to be a reasonable case is going to be thrown out? Of course there are risks to litigation, but you ought to give some explanation, please.

If you'd said that it's probably not worth bothering, because the damages may be limited, I reckon that a lot of people would agree with that. In practice, the OP can only assess that once she has actually moved.

lisyloo

I find it easy to emphathise with someone that wants to know their position in principle.
I too would follow this up through free and easy channels whilst getting on with looking.
It’s just reassuring to know where you stand.

In practice small amounts are not worth claiming due to
1) effort
2) inconvenience e.g. time off work if going to court
3) costs
4) more hassle and costs if person refuses to pay or makes it difficult

saajan_12

GDB2222 wrote: »

Can you explain why what appears to be a reasonable case is going to be thrown out? Of course there are risks to litigation, but you ought to give some explanation, please.

Yes, reasonable case in terms of LL being in the wrong, and liable for OP's costs.

No reasonable case in terms of what those costs actually are.
-> OP can stay where they are for 3 weeks which is plenty of time to find another place.
-> Current rental is same as what they were happy paying before they met the new LL, so hard to argue a rent difference during those 3 weeks.
-> No additional move costs

So OP has a reasonable case to sue the LL for £0.

GDB2222

Depends whether the OP can find somewhere else comparable in quality at the same rent. If she can, she has no loss.

Honeylife

IoanaP wrote: »

How am I not looking forward? I never stopped looking for places!

3 booked in on a Sunday! Get your skates on girl. If you really are on the ball you could have at the very least 8 viewings on a Sunday! At times I have seen 15 viewers on a Saturday or Sunday, most of those tell me that they have booked up to 10 views a day on the weekend, view all over London! Its a highly competitive market and you have to go view, not just wait for pretty pictures and return calls from Agents (whilst you're calculating how much you can sue the last prospective LL for!) :cool: