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

IoanaP

First of all, thank you for all your replies. Maybe something good can come out of this - fingers crossed.

I will chose to ignore the mean remarks some people make, probably because they haven't experienced (recently) what moving in London means.

I am not trying to be vindictive, just to recover my loses. I have thrown away all my perishable food, I am currently living with most of my things packed in different area of the house and I'm being an inconvenient therefor to the people living here. I have to spend more money on travel while still looking for places and if I cannot find somewhere to move in 3 weeks, I will have to move somewhere temporarily - higher cost + moving services which I'll have to pay again when moving to a long term flat.

I have been looking for a place for the past week (I'm not wasting all my time researching how to sue and make money of someone else's back) and will continue to do so. But because of my requirements (walking distance to work - which means Central London) it hasn't been easy to find something. Literally all I do is wake up at 6am, look for flats, go to work (all this has affected me at work as I am so stressed and cannot focus on work, especially with agents calling me non stop through out the day), after work I either book a viewing if something arises or go home to look for another place I go to bed. I don't even have time to cook and have 1 meal/day just not to spend too much money buying food.

martindow

ViolaLass wrote: »

The deposit isn't income so why would receiving it affect benefits?

I assume that she realised that a deposit being registered would give a paper trail showing that she would be receiving rental income. She apparently wants to hide this income as part of fraudulently keeping some benefit or other.


If I were the OP I would feel hard done by being messed around like this so the LL can get benefits she is not entitled to. If I was sure that she has (other) tenants I would have no hesitation in letting someone know


https://www.gov.uk/report-benefit-fraud

societys_child

. . . I am so stressed and cannot focus on work

So stop adding to the stress by contemplating taking action, based on something you've 'read on google'.

IoanaP

G_M wrote: »

Assuming you have a valid contract, you can sue for your consequential losses.

eg if you were genuinely unable to find somewhere else between 28th Feb and 1st march, and were homeless and had to book into a hotel, you could claim for the hotel. And meals out as unable to cook.

You would have to minimise your costs eg avoid the Sheraton! And genuinely seek another.... whatever this was (tenancy? Licence?)
If you incur duplicate costs finding somewhere else (eg vettig/admin fees if already charged by her) you could claim those

Hi,

She wasn't living in the house, she was looking to rent both places and I have saved the ads she posted online as proof. What I signed was a Lodger agreement (because she wanted to pretend to live in the house), but because I read a couple of info online, I asked her to make an annex to the agreement giving me a few of the rights a tenant would have: that she wouldn't enter my room without permission, that she will not move me from a room to another, and that "the validity of the agreement is for 6 months from the start date (which is specified on the agreement at 2nd March) and carries on a monthly basis until notice is given by either parties" (the agreement states that the notice period is 2 month). I don't know how to post pictures here, it would be a lot easier.

She asked if I mind if she registered the contract in September - I didn't even know she had to, that's what she asked.

The other person moving in was supposed to be the other tenant/lodger - I do not know what arrangement they had and I felt like it was in my interest to meet the person with whom I was going to share a flat beforehand. Also I genuinely wanted to help her as she has 3 yo girl and wasn't available to show the property at any given time.

PS: I cannot extend my stay as the contract expires at the beginning of April, it's a renatal house share and all current tenants are moving away.

NinaSwiss

IoanaP wrote: »

First of all, thank you for all your replies. Maybe something good can come out of this - fingers crossed.

I will chose to ignore the mean remarks some people make, probably because they haven't experienced (recently) what moving in London means.

I am not trying to be vindictive, just to recover my loses. I have thrown away all my perishable food, I am currently living with most of my things packed in different area of the house and I'm being an inconvenient therefor to the people living here. I have to spend more money on travel while still looking for places and if I cannot find somewhere to move in 3 weeks, I will have to move somewhere temporarily - higher cost + moving services which I'll have to pay again when moving to a long term flat.

I have been looking for a place for the past week (I'm not wasting all my time researching how to sue and make money of someone else's back) and will continue to do so. But because of my requirements (walking distance to work - which means Central London) it hasn't been easy to find something. Literally all I do is wake up at 6am, look for flats, go to work (all this has affected me at work as I am so stressed and cannot focus on work, especially with agents calling me non stop through out the day), after work I either book a viewing if something arises or go home to look for another place I go to bed. I don't even have time to cook and have 1 meal/day just not to spend too much money buying food.

You might very well incur even more cost in pursuit of a dead end.
Learn and move on - There are so many places available for rent in London - I would know as I have moved/lived in over 10 places in about 10 years. You can always get a short term place till a perfect place comes along... after all i presume you were looking to move either because landlord already asked you to leave or it was less than ideal.

Not sure how you lost food since you haven't moved from current rental. Either way its unlikely you can claim for it in court.

zagubov

IoanaP wrote: »

F
I am not trying to be vindictive, just to recover my loses. I have thrown away all my perishable food, I am currently living with most of my things packed in different area of the house and I'm being an inconvenient therefor to the people living here. I have to spend more money on travel while still looking for places and if I cannot find somewhere to move in 3 weeks, I will have to move somewhere temporarily - higher cost + moving services which I'll have to pay again when moving to a long term flat.

I have been looking for a place for the past week (I'm not wasting all my time researching how to sue and make money of someone else's back) and will continue to do so. But because of my requirements (walking distance to work - which means Central London) it hasn't been easy to find something. Literally all I do is wake up at 6am, look for flats, go to work (all this has affected me at work as I am so stressed and cannot focus on work, especially with agents calling me non stop through out the day), after work I either book a viewing if something arises or go home to look for another place I go to bed. I don't even have time to cook and have 1 meal/day just not to spend too much money buying food.

You've got all this on your plate and you want to add a legal action on top?
No, no, a thousand times no.

Marvel1

If you dropped out t there would be no doubt she would say you owe rent for the 6 month term (unless she got someone in but doesn't have too). Anyone disagree?

Yes sue her for your losses.

If committing benefit fraud, report her, let them investigate.

NinaSwiss

Sounds like your existing tenancy was ending anyway.... not because you found place but because your joint tenancy is not being renewed.

IoanaP

martindow wrote: »

I assume that she realised that a deposit being registered would give a paper trail showing that she would be receiving rental income. She apparently wants to hide this income as part of fraudulently keeping some benefit or other.


If I were the OP I would feel hard done by being messed around like this so the LL can get benefits she is not entitled to. If I was sure that she has (other) tenants I would have no hesitation in letting someone know

She told me she's been doing this for many years (renting the place) and for the last couple of months she had the flat on Air bnb. I am sure that if she had income directly into her account this was going to raise some red flags so I assume the money are going into someone else's account - which made me think that even if I report her, there might not be any proof.

IoanaP

NinaSwiss wrote: »

You might very well incur even more cost in pursuit of a dead end.
Learn and move on - There are so many places available for rent in London - I would know as I have moved/lived in over 10 places in about 10 years. You can always get a short term place till a perfect place comes along... after all i presume you were looking to move either because landlord already asked you to leave or it was less than ideal.

Not sure how you lost food since you haven't moved from current rental. Either way its unlikely you can claim for it in court.

As explained, it wasn't easy to find a place because of the requirements I have (basically a decent space for decent money, in a small house/flat share in Central London is almost impossible to find). And for me it doesn't come easy to pack all my things to move every 3 months (because someone decided not to honour their contract).

Because I work during the day, I started packing Wednesday in the afternoon because I had a moving service booked for Saturday morning which left me only with a few evenings to pack everything. So I packed all the stuff in the kitchen and had to clean all the cupboards/fridge.