Stuck in the middle of LL and estate, not sure where to go from here?

AdrianC

Well, hold on... You say "employment will end", but...

Tenancy:
You/Him -> Tenant farmer and/or son -> Estate

Employment:
Him - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > Estate

Right?

That aside, what sort of contract is he on? They can't just stop employing him, unless he's on a very, very insecure contract - self-employed contracting?

xylophone

The impact it will have is that, potentially, his employment may end. That's pretty catastrophic, considering our current financial problems, besides the fact my husband loves his job and is doing very well.

This is a six months contract? Your husband is a self employed contractor?

Is there any chance of regular employment on another estate which provides tied housing?

sacha28

AdrianC said:

Well, hold on... You say "employment will end", but...

Tenancy:
You/Him -> Tenant farmer and/or son -> Estate

Employment:
Him - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > Estate

Right?

That aside, what sort of contract is he on? They can't just stop employing him, unless he's on a very, very insecure contract - self-employed contracting?

Within 2 years there is very little employment rights, you can pretty much be sacked for anything and there is next to no come back.

The problems arise because the LL has been very clear that he will not be paying any money towards the house as it will shortly be back in their (the estate) possession and I don't see how they can force him. If I get EH involved then the estate *could* take exception to that and make my husband's employment difficult. 

sacha28

xylophone said:

The impact it will have is that, potentially, his employment may end. That's pretty catastrophic, considering our current financial problems, besides the fact my husband loves his job and is doing very well.

This is a six months contract? Your husband is a self employed contractor?

Is there any chance of regular employment on another estate which provides tied housing?

No, he was a contractor until he had the rug pulled from under him and went into FT, regular, employment with the estate 6 months ago. He had to seek regular employment because he had to fold his business.

xylophone

Do you feel desperate enough to write to the Duke of Cornwall?
He is known to take an interest in social issues......lack of affordable local housing....landlords permitting dwellings to deteriorate into rural slums reminiscent of the worst conditions of a previous century etc etc....

AdrianC

sacha28 said:

The problems arise because the LL has been very clear that he will not be paying any money towards the house as it will shortly be back in their (the estate) possession and I don't see how they can force him. If I get EH involved then the estate *could* take exception to that and make my husband's employment difficult. 

If the estate management are that bloody-minded, then I don't think I'd want to work for them anyway.

Remember, your landlord is the estate's customer. No more than that. If I were them, I'd be very unamused that my tenant was treating his sub-tenants so badly in my property.

Frankly, though, I'm a bit baffled as to why this has dragged on for six years, without you even buying so much as a couple of cheap fan heaters to help yourself out.

sacha28

AdrianC said:

sacha28 said:

The problems arise because the LL has been very clear that he will not be paying any money towards the house as it will shortly be back in their (the estate) possession and I don't see how they can force him. If I get EH involved then the estate *could* take exception to that and make my husband's employment difficult. 

If the estate management are that bloody-minded, then I don't think I'd want to work for them anyway.

Remember, your landlord is the estate's customer. No more than that. If I were them, I'd be very unamused that my tenant was treating his sub-tenants so badly in my property.

Frankly, though, I'm a bit baffled as to why this has dragged on for six years, without you even buying so much as a couple of cheap fan heaters to help yourself out.

You assume wrongly, we have bought an array of heaters... convection, oil filled and fan heaters. All of which provide immediate heat but are absolutely useless as soon as you switch it off. Plus, they are so expensive to run and would need to be running 24 hours a day. Just to reiterate, the house has no insulation whatsoever, we can have a fire burning from the moment we get up to the minute we go to bed but the house is absolutely freezing come morning.
This winter has been particularly unforgiving so all of the issues have been exacerbated

Cakeguts

I feel I must be missing something here but I can't understand why you haven't just moved? This can't be the only property to rent in the whole of Cornwall?

xylophone

I contacted the estate in December as the living conditions are becoming more and more depressing and I wanted advice on how to proceed with getting the house back into a decent condition. They were quite sympathetic but said that, ultimately, the onus is on the LL to get the house up to a liveable condition and pay for a heating system to be installed. Apparently my call coincides with a letter they have just sent out to all of their agriculture tenants reminding them of their obligation to ensure any property they sublet meets current and future tenancy legislation, including heating.

Come September, the estate takes back direct control and ownership of the property and becomes your Landlord.
You then write to the manager of the estate and remind him of the above.
If you are unwilling to take any action regarding EH at the moment, you just have to stick it out and hope that better weather won't be long in arriving?

sacha28

Cakeguts said:

I feel I must be missing something here but I can't understand why you haven't just moved? This can't be the only property to rent in the whole of Cornwall?

There are a couple of reasons but the main one, as pointed out in the OP, is that I have just filed for bankruptcy which makes just moving almost impossible (my husband will be filing for bankruptcy at the end of March, making it even more difficult). Private rentals are pretty much unheard of nowadays and we will never pass any credit checks. 
Another reason is available properties. We have been keeping an eye on rentals where we live (a village outside of Truro) and within a 10 mile radius for the past year but there is nothing about atm. Although we would like to remain within a 5 mile radius of the village, we know that this may not happen and we will have to compromise and accept that we will have to travel longer to get our son to school (he will not, under any circumstances, be moving schools no matter where we are living).

It's always easy being on the outside and asking "why don't you just move?" but I can pretty much guarantee that, should the shoe be on the other foot, it's actually not an easy thing to do for many different reasons.

I approached the estate in the hope they would be able to nudge things along, so we didn't have to move, but all I seem to have done is create the 2 of them butting heads and us in the middle 🤦