Unlawful behaviour by landlady?

propertyrental

You were not evicted, you chose, voluntarily, to leave and end the tenancy. 

Carabelle78 said:

So, I was recently renting a house. I was there two years. I looked after the place, and reported when I saw things wrong.
Irrelevant. That's a standard obligation for all tenants.
 Sometimes the landlady would, sometimes she wouldn’t.
No idea what you mean. would or wouldn't what?
Soon into the tenancy my wife died from cancer, leaving me alone with our 4 year old and two dogs. Admittedly, this led to some difficulties financially (not to mention the rest), which meant on probably a dozen occasions the rent was late.
You have my sympathies, but rent arrears are rent arrears, whatever the reason. Ad if they recur a LL is going to review their position....
 But it was always paid. I felt like something changed when my wife died, like my landlady didn’t want me there. I’d report things and she’d make out I’d neglected something.
That may be a misapprehension if you were feeling vulnerable..?
 For the entire two years duration of my tenancy the boiler was never serviced.
Servicing is optional. Not all LLs service every year. A Gas Safety Inspection however is not optional. Was that done? If not, what did you do? Contact her to request an inspection? Report it to HSE?
But as the tenancy has now ended, it's water under the bridge.
 She blamed covid,  but she never sorted even after everything went back to normal. I know I should’ve pushed this, Yes. Too late now.
but I’ve obviously had my hands full, and I also felt bad because I’d often pay the rent late. 
The rent arrears and the lack of gas inspection are two separate unrelated issues....

In October last year, out of the blue she sent me an email saying she wanted the house back for personal reasons, and gave me till the end of jan to be out. I asked if it was anything I’d done or not done, and she never replied.
She was under no obligation to give a reason. Indeed, her personal reasons are just that - personal.
However, an email is just a polite advance warning, it has no legal force.
Despite all the obstacles, I obliged and moved heaven and earth to be out before Christmas.
Entirely your choice. I trust you served proper notice before leaving...?
When she came to check out (and there was nonsense with that) she was very nice (to my face) and said she was selling because she couldn’t afford the mortgage anymore. Today I’ve seen she’s reletting it at the same rent, so ostensibly she’s just personally wanted me out.
As I said, her reasons are her own.
 I feel extremely upset and angry about this. I know it’s all water under the bridge now but I’m just curious if what she’s done is illegal. 
The only illegal act seems to be the failure to carry out an annual gas safety inspection, though it's unclear if even that is the case since you mention 'service' not inspection, and these are 2 different things.

theoretica

It seems quite probable that you are right and paying rent late was something she felt she could not tolerate.  If my job paid me randomly late I would not be happy!  But I think you are somewhat unusual as a person that you would have accepted such a reason and moved out.  I would expect many tenants to argue, promise to do better... and she may have been trying to avoid that.

deannagone

Or she may have had enough of the erratic rent payments (whatever the reason, its more stress for her, she's not renting the place out for the fun of it, she probably needs the money).  She will understand that things have been tough for you, not wanting to make you feel worse than she has to so said she needed to end the tenancy for a reason that didn't blame you.  Even if it wasn't the truth. You could view it as her trying to not make the situation worse than she had to.

diystarter7

Hi
I think you guys should note the OP has accepted it and just posted out of frustration like almost anyone would
Thanks

ThisIsWeird

Hi Carabelle.

Have you found somewhere else that's suitable? Best wishes to you and your wee one at what must be an awful time.

Your LL does seem to be somewhat devoid of natural compassion, and also seemingly lax in their LL duties (no, Covid is no longer an excuse for a lack of GSCert), but as you left voluntarily (whether they fibbed about the reason or not - we don't know, and never will), then it's really a fair accompli. 

It they did fib about the reason, then the most likely true cause would have been the uncertainty over payments, a situation they may have feared could become worse. They can't really be blamed for that, but everything else leaves a bit of a bad taste. 

Move on from this. And very best wishes to you both.

macman

The only illegality is the lack of a GSC. You can report that now to HSE if you wish to, as it will otherwise endanger the current tenants, if still not issued.