Landlord living in a partition in the house??

Mirceadece

Hello everyone,

Thank you in anticipation for the time to read/respond to this odd query.
Me and 3 of my friends have been living in a small house off a central mews in London, currently 9-10 months into our one-year fixed-term tenancy. Since the coronavirus situation, two of the four tenants have been forced to leave the property and their rooms are currently empty. On top of this, the salaries of those living in the house have been reduced by 20%, making our financial situation very delicate as more than 60% of our income is going into the rent. You can see where this is going, we are trying to leave the property earlier than we initially anticipated.

To make this delicate situation, even more ridiculous - the landlord is currently living off a partition of the house, about 4-5 months a year. This type of partition is part of the same house (she has an entrance from the main street and one door into the living room which is locked) and has exactly the same address. Also, she has not paid any utility bills or council tax for the months that she has been living here. This was not specified in the contract - could this represent a solid ground in order to vacate the property?
One other issue that we've been having is pest infestation and unfortunately upon bringing this up, the landlord mentioned that it is a recurring problem with the house and she recommended that we place more traps (despite already catching 5 mice so far, with photographic evidence). She refused to contact pest control because she mentioned it is expensive. I know for a fact that this is illegal and living with mice in the house is a health hazard.

To sum the situation up, the letting agency recommended that we get a reduction of rent which she again -refused. We are trying to vacate the property at the beginning of August and I was wondering whether there are any legal rights that could protect us, or whether there is any legal action that we could undertake. Our break clause could only be used in September and she refused to let go of the property amicably.

Regards,
Mircea

macman

Are there shared cooking and bathroom areas, or is her accommodation entirely separate? 
Separate or joint tenancy agreements?
It's nor clear if this an HMO or not, or whether the LL lives in the 'same' accommodation (in which latter case you are lodgers, not tenants, and your tenancy agreement would be void)?
Given that you only have 8 weeks left to run on your tenancy anyway, is it worth it?
No, pest problems have no bearing on your tenancy: If she won't act act, your remedy is to contact EH at your LA.
Is your deposit protected, do you have a valid GSC? All these can be used a leverage if the tenancy is not regularised.

Mirceadece

Hi Macman, thank you for the questions. I realize that I haven't fully explained the situation.

We've come to the letting agency together and signed a joint tenancy agreement. Her cooking and bathroom areas are entirely separated from the house, in a 3x2m partition that only she can access. Her gas/electricity and council tax are linked to our house and she hasn't contributed. This was not specified in the contract.
Our deposit is protected. It's also worth leaving the property asap as we can't afford living here after the salary reductions and 2 rooms are currently unoccupied.
Many thanks.

gemstar28

I would leave - I doubt she will have the energy or desire to take you through court system for 2 months rent. You might lose your deposit so would need to weigh up which is worth more. 

tom9980

Talk to your local housing department this does not sound legal at all and is likely rogue behaviour, in London they are increasingly using rent repayment orders against such landlords.

NinjaTune

You'll need to give a months notice and, potentially pay to exit your tenancy agreement early.  I don't think you're going to save much by trying to end the contract when it only has 2 months left to run.

Sound like a really weird situation though 

Mirceadece

I would be happy to simply leave the property without paying the unoccupied months, however, there are guarantors attached to the contract. We raised this up with the managing letting agency and they said that the LL will chase us through the court system.
We are planning to go speak to them again this Friday and carefully explain the situation, but I'm sure they will take the LL's side no matter what.

princeofpounds

Of course they will. They work for the landlord. There is little point going to speak to them unprepared, and certainly not on some kind of begging mission.

The time to complain about the landlord living in a partition in the property was long ago. You would have had a very valid complaint* - your contract presumably says that you are renting the whole address - but it does not get you out of your obligations in the short term. Just because she is breaching contract does not mean that you get to breach.

You basically have two options here. One is to leave in a few weeks' time as planned. There will be little hassle, apart perhaps from a dispute over the deposit (has it been protected in a scheme?).

The other option is to find out all the ways the landlord could potentially get in trouble. These potentially include:

- Not paying council tax on a separate dwelling she has carved out in the property.
- Possibly not ensuring a gas safety certificate
- Possibly not protecting the deposit correctly
- Possibly not conforming to landlord licensing and HMO rules (depends on the local authority and your exact set-up)
- Possibly not informing her mortgage lender that she is letting the property
- Possible committing criminal abstraction (theft) of electricity for her separate dwelling. 
- Possibly not meeting building regulations with her partition
- Possibly not declaring the income to HMRC
I'm sure the list goes on - make sure you take lots of evidence as you leave.

You can then confront her or her agent with all of these things, and say that you will report all of these problems to the appropriate parties if she does not agree to early surrender of the tenancy and the full return of any deposit  in writing. It might work. It probably would work if you had months to go before you leave, but if it's a matter of weeks she may well just bury her head in the sand. You could try non-payment and see if she really does try to chase you for it. 

If you had 6 months left to run, I'd suggest the confrontation route. Given that you are nearer 6 weeks left, I'm personally not sure the reward is worth the hassle and I'd rather just use the leverage to get the deposit repaid.

* Personally I would have broken into the annexe and changed the locks on the property during a period when she was not in occupation. When she demands to be let in, you simply show her the tenancy agreement that applies to the whole property. Now that would have been fun.

diggingdude

As there is a door into the sitting room it doesn't sound like a separate property as she could unlock it today and walk in.  In addition with no separate utilities it is not a separate property.  I would be speaking to the local council regardless as she will screw over someone else, but maybe have a quick chat, see where the ground likes and then either move with agreement or report and pay rent till you have to leave.

[Deleted User]

I'd buy more traps.  I had to get some from Amazon when i rented a property.  This did eliminate the mouse problem in my case but you also need to find out how they are getting into the property and block that off.  I found ours had nested under the fridge when I moved it.  But lived in the walls as well (used flurescent powder so could monitor their movements).  Never did find out where they were coming in though but managed to kill them all anyway.  If you buy non killing traps, they have to be released more than 2 miles away as can return.  It is a horrible process, particularly if the traps don't actually kill them but has to be done due to the health risks of having mice around.

But I also agree., 6 weeks is not so long.  Could take you that long to find and move into another place. If you have managed for 9 months, I'm sure you can live through another 6 weeks.  Not unsympathetic but one has to be realistic as well.