How to han overkeys if landloard not accepting.

TJaya

I have been in  uk for 7 months  and came for a postgraduate training from another country .Now I am staying in a flat with my family under 12 months fixed term agreement.However ,my flat is having moulds and poor ventilation which I informed to the land loard and letting agents 2 months and has not been fixed.
My daughter is having bronchial asthma which has been worsening due to moulds .
We have a letter from a GP.
Now I am planning to move to a safe place considering my daughter's health.
Landloard and letting agent refuse to break the tenancy agreement and want to continue up to 12 months and inform us to leave if we want but refuse to accept the keys until  the end of tenancy agreement even after i agree to pay the rental until they find a replacement tenant once these  problems are fixed.

How do i hand over the keys?some how we want to go before the winter...

HampshireH

You will remain liable for the rent and bills.

Your best going to Environmental Health if it's a proper issue and not just condensation due to poor ventilation / overcrowding

What are the actual repairs needed? Do you know what the cause is?

housebuyer143

You say your family are in a flat. How big is the flat and how many people live in there? 

If it's overcrowded you will get build up of mould. We had a bad problem with it when we went from 2 to 3 people in our house and needed to use a dehumidifier in the winter months. Worked a treat.

deannagone

I am afraid Landlords as well as the general public will have a tendancy to blame 'lifestyle' for damp rather then problems with a property.  I'm afraid I am of obviously non speaking group that say a property to house human beings, should actually be able to house human beings without damp/mould appearing because human beings are living in it.

I had a similar problem with a maisonette.  Council knew all the buildings in the block had damp/mould problems because they put expensive but useless fan things in the downstairs hallway that brought sufficient cold air into the lower hallway to make a frigge unnecessary.., but absolutely useless in getting cold air upstairs (three story maisonette.  Thank god to be honest, the place was cold enough as it was.  I noticed the back exterior walls (which never received sun) were much colder than the rest of the walls.  This was where the mould was.  Was told it was lifestyle even though it was still me, still had the same condenser heat pump tumble drier (which was supposed to be the cause apparently, not the cold thin exterior walls with no insulation) and the same number of people living this lifestyle that had never caused mould in 20 years in different buildings.  I put insulating wallpaper on the exterior walls.  Rooms and walls instantly warmer (rooms were too cold to sleep in in winter) and damp mould disappeared.

I'm not saying you should do the same (need to figure out the cause of the damp so an effective solution can be found.  But I am illustrating that 'lifestyle' can be incorrectly be used as a reason for damp.  Sometimes there are lifestyle reasons, but not even half as much as the reason is given as a cause for damp/mould so the real problem does not have to be dealt with.  It can be caused by blocked gutters, walls that are absorbing rain for some reason, defective windows.., all sorts of reasons besides lifestyle.

If you think it is due to a problem with the building, take photos, call in environmental health.  If they do decide the damp/mould is due to problems with the building, they can either order the LL to remedy them, or might declare the place as unfit for habitation.  They will only do this if its really bad though. so I'm afraid its not a magical 'get out of jail (or tenancy) free' card. 

I hope that you are able to find a solution. 

steampowered

Have a read of https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/damp_and_mould_in_rented_homes.

The best thing  to do might be to escalate the damp issue - start threatening legal proceedings and get environmental health involved. 

The landlord might then be willing to agree to let you leave before your tenancy fixed term has ended to avoid the headache of dealing with it. Or even fix the damp.

lisyloo

You cannot walk away (financially) just because of a unsettled dispute.
you need to pursue your dispute through the proper channels I.e. environmental health.

[Deleted User]

You need to come to an agreement to settle the remaining rent for the fixed term and then hand back the keys.

We could go into details about why mould is forming 5 months into tenancy in the summer but you clearly want to leave and so I imagine that the above proposal will be most suitable for all concerned.

theartfullodger

When you leave , let landlord know anyway, (calm and polite) and either put keys back inside letterbox at flat or at landlord's home, ideally with a witness & photos.

Good luck 

london21

How many bedrooms is the flat?
How many people live there?
does the bathroom/kitchen have extractor fan or do you open window for ventilation?
some damp problems can be caused by lifestyle.

The landlord/agent should have a look at the problems mentioned and find a possible solution.

You cannot just hand over the key whilst still within the agreement, you are liable for the rent.

Just leaving the flat without reaching an agreement could affect your credit score and ability to find another property.

TJaya said:

I have been in  uk for 7 months  and came for a postgraduate training from another country .Now I am staying in a flat with my family under 12 months fixed term agreement.However ,my flat is having moulds and poor ventilation which I informed to the land loard and letting agents 2 months and has not been fixed.
My daughter is having bronchial asthma which has been worsening due to moulds .
We have a letter from a GP.
Now I am planning to move to a safe place considering my daughter's health.
Landloard and letting agent refuse to break the tenancy agreement and want to continue up to 12 months and inform us to leave if we want but refuse to accept the keys until  the end of tenancy agreement even after i agree to pay the rental until they find a replacement tenant once these  problems are fixed.

How do i hand over the keys?some how we want to go before the winter...

Brie

if there is difficulty returning the keys and you resort to simply dropping them through a letter box or on a rental agent's desk I would suggest that you also ensure you have a video of the flat showing the state it is in when you leave.  without this you may be told you are responsible for all sorts of damage that is done in the remaining months even though you are not there.  an unscrupulous person may hand over the keys to their second cousin's best friend and tell them to party on which could leave you with a large bill for damages.  

silvercar

Handing the keys back and giving A note saying you are surrendering the tenancy means the landlord can still expect the rent until the end of the tenancy, but the landlord has a duty to mitigate their losses, so they would have a duty to re-let the property when they can. This may leave you liable for any time when it isn’t rented and the advertising or estate agent fees, but it does mean that the landlord can’t sit back and wait the tenancy out.