Illegal eviction, no gas safety certificate, deposit not protected, no EPC and unfair rent contract

Col_67

So I am at the very early stages of taking action against my rogue landlord and thought I'd test the water with your opinions. 
I moved to a new city and into a newly refurbished, fully furnished property in 2015 under a "room share" agreement whilst I looked for a property of my own. There were two other tenants also living at the property at the time. I understood that it was the landlord's first property & first experience as a landlord, however, he is also an affluent business owner in his own right. When I moved in I paid my rent & deposit as per agreement and was provided with a contract which stated that it was neither an AST or AT .... what he thought it was I have no idea and I was a bit naive by not questioning this at the time. No inventory or check-in has ever been provided. A few months into renting I learned from the landlord that his property had been refused a HMO license by the council because his properrty did not meet the required standards with regard to fire extinguishers, emergency lighting etc. Basically, his house was a normal 3 bed semi-detached with furniture. As a result of this setback the two other tenants and myself were served with an eviction notice giving us time to remain until the end of the contract, however, I was offered the opportunity to rent the property in it's entirety under a AST agreement which I accepted and have been living here ever since (5 years now). My wife (newly married) moved in in 2016.
Now, I should mention that I am self-employed and work is steady but I have in the past paid my rent late on quite occasions, on average between 2-5 days late due to clients not paying when they should but I have always caught up with any and all overdue rent. In November 19 I paid two months rent in advance as a sign of goodwill and an effort to avoid any further issues. Currently I do not ow him any money. Usually when i was late paying the rent I received !!!!!! emails or SMS messages from the landlord followed by demands for "house inspection" which resulted in him sending "call to action" notes such as 1) hoover the carpets in the unused bedrooms, clean the windows inside & outside, pick the weeds, scrub the shower screen with a toothbrush to remove mold (yes he said that) and similar. I would then get 7 days notice for a re-inspection to ensure that I had done what he requested. Also, since I have been at the property the house has started to suffer from structural damage such as cracks appearing on every wall, every ceiling, around every door & window which is being caused by nearby trees growing under the property. It was me who alerted the landlord about this problem and I understand that he is suing the local council for the damage because they own the trees. However, he is also demanding that I make repairs (at my expense) to the cracked stone floor tiles in the bathroom even though the harline cracks were caused due to the movement in the house because of the same trees or he will take it from my deposit when I leave..  

Suddenly, out of the blue I received an email from the landlord on Christmas Eve (2019) informing me that he intended to sell the house and I should accept his email as him giving me 60 days notice to quit and on expiration "I will be moved out of the property on 29th February 2020". No Section 21 or Section 8 was given. Naturally, sfter making this my home for the last five years and having paid over £73.000 in rent I was shocked and hurt by the news of the eviction and the manner in which it was served not forgetting the timing (Christmas Eve!). I responded immediately to the landlord's email expressing my feelings regarding his actions and there was a some back & forth exchange which ended with him making an offer to allow me to stay until the end of March if I paid Jan, Feb & March rent in cash before January 10th. In short, I would gain an extra 30 days after the eviction notice expiration if I paid him £3675.00 upfront. Naturally, I did not accept his offer.
Since we accepted his eviction notice I have been repeatedly asking him to provide details regarding my deposit to which he has been avoiding answering until he finally had no choice but to give me some information as he wanted to gain access to the property so his estate agents could make "marketing photos." The information he provided was for MyDeposits covering periods Jan 17 - Dec 17 & Feb 17 - Jan 18 afterwhich he allowed the deposit scheme to lapse. There was also no information provided for my initial "room share" agreement from Jan 15 to Jan 17. In addition to this, I know that there is no up-to-date Gas Safety Certificate nor was one ever provided from the start of my tenancy. The same applies to the EPC.
After speaking to various legal experts it seems that I have grounds to take action against him which include the failure to protect my deposit. However, I would like to consider taking further action to include illegal eviction and harrasment. Can I ask knowledgeable readers for your opinions and advice? Q1: Could I consider making claims for multiple breaches regarding the unprotected deposit due to the change in contracts at the start and the commencement of subsiquent new "fixed term" contracts? Q2: What are the likely penalties re: the illegal conviction (if proven correct) Q3: Is my claim of harrassment on the grounds of the illegal eviction. veiled threat that "I will be moved out of the property on 29th February 2020", the threat to take my deposit if I don't repaid his bathroom and the demand for 3 months advance rent to be paid in cash a valid one?
    

     

tom9980

Are you still living in the property? if you are then you have not been evicted.

His notice to evict is invalid for various reasons so you do not have to move until he provides EPC, gas safety cert and returns your deposit in full.

theartfullodger

'phone the experts, Shelter, 0808 800 4444:

Open weekdays 8am-8pm. See

https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help/helpline

- expect delays from this overworked charity

Col_67

Yes, we're still in the property but will leave on March 3rd ...not Feb 29th as he instructed. The allegation of illegal eviction will become valid on the assumption that he did not serve a valid Section 21 before we left. He will be here in the morning to do his inspection and for the estate agents to make their marketing photo so we feel forced to leave.  

tom9980

Col_67 said:

Yes, we're still in the property but will leave on March 3rd ...not Feb 29th as he instructed. The allegation of illegal eviction will become valid on the assumption that he did not serve a valid Section 21 before we left. He will be here in the morning to do his inspection and for the estate agents to make their marketing photo so we feel forced to leave.  

You have rights and its up to you to enforce them, he has not illegally evicted you, you are still resident and cannot be forced to leave without a court order, you seem to be willing to leave on the 3rd of March and if you do so you will not have been illegally evicted.

Smodlet

Only a court order can force you to leave; a landlord cannot.  With all the issues you list, there is no way he could issue a valid S21.  S8 requires grounds; see the stickies at the top of this board by the Grand_Master, who has probably helped more people on here than most, even including artful, who is both brilliant and a LL... I think he's from an alternative universe, meself.

Sorry, OP, back on topic:  Your LL is full of it, as you probably know.  He is responsible for structural damage unless caused by you so, unless you are a dryad on week ends, you cannot be held responsible for tree damage.  As for scrubbing whatever with a toothbrush, I think he's been watching too many army films; he can swivel until check out day unless you have allowed the place to deteriorate to the point of it being a health hazard, which I doubt is the case.  Artful et al, please correct me if I am wrong.

Good luck to you, OP and please keep this thread updated as it could help others in your situation.

Col_67

Smodlet. Many thanks for your response. The house is in excellent condition minus some mild "wear & tear" issues. i forgot to mention that the bath panel has some water damage which he is also holding me responsible for, however, his plumber did not secure the bath panel back following a repair to a leaking pipe under the bath and also the double shower screen allows water to run down the rubber divider and onto the bath panel, I tried to negate this by bending the shower screen slightly in the other way but there is still some damage. The toilet roll holder is like an L shape and held on to a plasterboard wall by just one screw so now after 5yrs of pulling on the toilet roll it's a bit loose and sagging, there is also evidence of limescale around the showerhead and he has threatened to charge me for having it replaced. That's about it for all the damage he can find and of course I will refute any claim of responsibility for this.   

Col_67

I also forgot to mention that in addition to the gas certificate not being provided I did have a visit from EON in 2018 when they fitted two smart energy meters (I asked the LL for approval). However, after they fitted the meters they then condemned the boiler and stuck warning stickers all over it because there was no fire stop fitted at the ceiling point. It remains like this today. The landlord was told about it by myself & EON also wrote to him but nothing was ever done to fix it. I know I shouldn't have but I switched the boiler back on myself in the end because we needed hot water and heating. I didn't make an issue with the landlord at the time because I always new he was twitchy and I didn't want to make myself & my wife homeless.   

tom9980

Dear Landlord,

Having taken legal advice I am now aware now that your eviction notice is invalid. Your failure to protect my deposit allows me to sue you for its return and for a further 3x the amount as compensation (if the deposit was £500 then you can sue for £2000). You have also managed to break the law and failed to issue important documentation including gas safety certificates, EPC and How to rent documentation, these are serious breeches of the law and could see you receive large fines.

However I am willing to negotiate with you I require payment of no less than £5000 (could be anything but i suggest the deposit + 3x compo and a months rent at least) for me to leave on March the 3rd 2020 or I will vigorously defend your intention to evict me and my family from your property and ensure you are prosecuted by the council for the breeches I have mentioned. This will cost you far in excess of the £5000 in fines and legal fees that I require to leave quickly and peacefully.

Obviously this will surprise and anger you but i urge you to remain calm, seek legal advice and you will see I am being very reasonable in the circumstances.

Yours 
Tenant

Col_67

Tom9980: Thank you for the template and it reads well. Question, would the landord have committed multiple breaches of the tenanacy deposit due to the initial contract being different (room share) and the subsiquent ones being 12month, fixed term contracts? My deposit is £1837 (six weeks)

tom9980

Col_67 said:

Tom9980: Thank you for the template and it reads well. Question, would the landord have committed multiple breaches of the tenanacy deposit due to the initial contract being different (room share) and the subsiquent ones being 12month, fixed term contracts? My deposit is £1837 (six weeks)

I think it is possible each new agreement signed means another breech, but honestly better off seeing if you can get him to agree to paying you off for less legal hassle. Looks like 1837 x 4 = 7348 + months rent is £8674 I would certainly ask for £5k minimum. Your worst case scenario is deposit + 1x compo so £3674 and you can stay as long as you like until he legally evicts with court action, remember his notice is invalid. Basically you want him to get legal advice so they advise him to settle with you or face larger fines so it needs to be a figure he will likely pay you.

Make sure you do all of this in writing.