Loft conversion (Merged)

MaryNB

lycane said:

MaryNB said:

It is illegal this is right. If they find out we will have a perfect case for compensation. We might be exempt from paying council tax soon though

You need to find out if you owe any council tax to date then. If you report him and it's deemed to be a separate property on the eyes of the council they could come after you for the council tax owed. It could be a lot of money depending on how long you've lived there. The councils are pretty ruthless when it comes to unpaid tax. Regardless of the illegal conversion issues, you should have known you were liable from the start if you understood you were renting a separate flat. Any issue between you and the landlord with regards to the tax won't be their problem. Going after him for monies owed will be a separate issue.

we have just reported him. Now the question is. In case of potential  payment required, is it better to stay in the flat to deal with it or move and deal while living somewhere else.  I guess it will be easier for us to get money back from the landlord while staying here (at least one of us)  by for example not paying the rent.

Do not withhold rent. You can be evicted for non payment. He could take unpaid rent out of your deposit and sue you for unpaid rent above the deposit amount. 

If you're referring to the scenario where the council review what is owed and charge you the full rate for your flat well you can't claim that back from the landlord because only you are liable for it. You can't say "well the landlord told me I didn't have to pay",  because the law says you are liable as the tenant. 

You should move on. This property is causing you stress. Why on earth would you choose to stay?!

lycane

MaryNB said:

You need to find out if you owe any council tax to date then. If you report him and it's deemed to be a separate property on the eyes of the council they could come after you for the council tax owed. It could be a lot of money depending on how long you've lived there. The councils are pretty ruthless when it comes to unpaid tax. Regardless of the illegal conversion issues, you should have known you were liable from the start if you understood you were renting a separate flat. Any issue between you and the landlord with regards to the tax won't be their problem. Going after him for monies owed will be a separate issue.

we have just reported him. Now the question is. In case of potential  payment required, is it better to stay in the flat to deal with it or move and deal while living somewhere else.  I guess it will be easier for us to get money back from the landlord while staying here (at least one of us)  by for example not paying the rent.

Do not withhold rent. You can be evicted for non payment. 

If you're referring to the scenario where the council review what is owed and charge you the full rate for your flat well you can't claim that back from the landlord because only you are liable for it. You can't say "well the landlord told me I didn't have to pay",  because the law says you are liable as the tenant. 

You should move on. This property is causing you stress. Why on earth would you choose to stay?!

Well as you already know there is no EPC so he cant evict us. We will have more stress if we are left with the payment, we have money for paying but these are our savings for something else we worked on hard. As I wrote before we were completely unaware thinking it is either exempt for some reason or because of anything else not familiar with council tax issues at all. How could we register if there is no number for it? Even if I called council about parking permit I explained twice that there are couple of flats not one property. Was left with no reaction!

Also OFT has closed https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-of-fair-trading
Is it only Citizens Advice to complain yet now?

MaryNB

That's for a no fault eviction (S21 process). If you have 2 months of rent arrears it's the S8 notice which has far fewer requirements. 

If you're not willing to leave then I don't know what else to say. If I was in your position and the living conditions were that bad I would have long gone. I don't know what payment you're holding out for. Getting compensation for stress or health related issues is going to be very difficult. It will be a long drawn out process. If you really want to make your life better hand give your notice to leave and move. 

Good luck. I'm out. 

lycane

MaryNB said:

That's for a no fault eviction (S21 process). If you have 2 months of rent arrears it's the S8 notice which has far fewer requirements. 

If you're not willing to leave then I don't know what else to say. If I was in your position and the living conditions were that bad I would have long gone. I don't know what payment you're holding out for. Getting compensation for stress or health related issues is going to be very difficult. It will be a long drawn out process. If you really want to make your life better hand give your notice to leave and move. 

Good luck. I'm out. 

thanks for explaining, it is not a good idea then. I was talking about the situation we need to pay past council tax once we complained. If we could we could have gone long time ago too. It was not possible during COVID, still have limited options but there ARE some.Thanks

babyblade41

Life is too short to gamble on a very long shot , this LL, if he is as bad as you claim him to be then his property will become untenable 

You can move and many did ,even during covid, you are insisting through these boards you are entitled to a lot of compensation but you could be opening a can of worms which could find you owing rather a lot in unpaid council tax . 

Compensation for stress  is too hard to quantify and the judge presiding could take the view that you had the choice to stay or go and you choose to stay 

Give notice and leave , withholding rent will get you a S8 pretty swiftly then your choices could be very limited

There really is no more to be said, I think you have exhausted everyones thoughts on your dilemma and no one can give you anymore advice 

I think @MaryNB has stayed in this thread stoically but there is only so much one can say