Tenant Advised not to pay rent!

moneysavinmonkey

because as soon as you get two months behind on the rent the landlord can legally serve you with a section 8 eviction notice... regardless of the reason you have withheld the rent.

If you stop paying your rent you are giving your landlord an easy route to evict you. You get much less notice (2 weeks only I think?) than if you were given a normally section 21 notice so it's all round bad news!

clutton_2

a court has no jurisdiction for non-payment of rent - it is a COMPULSORY eviction reason.

MissMoneypenny

You can take repairs out of the rent as long as you advise the LL of the repairs and give him a date to do these, then send estimates.

teeni

moneysavinmonkey wrote: »

because as soon as you get two months behind on the rent the landlord can legally serve you with a section 8 eviction notice... regardless of the reason you have withheld the rent.

true but if the reason you withheld the rent was disrepair issues, tenant can counter sue for disrepair if successful the amount owed which in many cases wipe out the rent arrears thus avoiding the eviction.

MissMoneypenny

Messed up the quotes. See below.

MissMoneypenny

teeni wrote: »

but if the reason you withheld the rent was disrepair issues, tenant can counter sue for disrepair if successful the amount owed which in many cases wipe out the rent arrears thus avoiding the eviction.

I suppose a successful counter sue amount for disrepair, would only have to just go below 8 weeks rent, for the eviction to be thrown out?

moneysavinmonkey

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

You can take repairs out of the rent as long as you advise the LL of the repairs and give him a date to do these, then send estimates.

I don't think this advice is correct. If your landlord owes your money for repairs you can not take this out of the money for the rent as it is treated separetely by the courts. The procedure as I understood it is: whatever you do keep paying your rent but by all means take your landlord to small claims court to claim back any money due to repairs that they won't agree to. I don't see any problem with this procedure.

On a practical level if you simply withheld rent you will get an eviction order as soon as nyou are two months behind... it is all very well then going to court to argue that the repairs cancel out the rent arrears but by the time you get a hearing date you will be living in a cardboard box on the street!

I think that is why it is always advised to keep paying your rent on time.. you gotta play the system right!

pocket8s

moneysavinmonkey wrote: »

I'm not quite sure what to make of your story. As your first post makes the problem sound quite serious but you later downplay the incident saying it was just a radiator in the tenants bedroom.

As others have advised the tenant legally should not withhold rent but then legally you should carry out repairs within a reasonable time. Sounds like the tenants had 2 weeks inadequate heating followed by 4 weeks without hot water. If this was me, I would have expected the landlord to rehouse me until the works were complete or at least pay some serious compensation.

Not sure what I would advise you to do, ideally you should offer the tenant some compensation and try your best to restore good relations - a card with an apology as a minimum! However, i wonder whether your tenant is fed up with you and is planning on doing a bunk.. not paying their rent for the last month or so may be their parting jesture - can't say I blame them - sorry!

I didnt explain the full story simply because i didnt want the orginal post to be a long winded story of what had happened day to day and what exact elements of the boiler were being looked at etc.

I have to point out in my plumbers defence, one of the main reasons it did take so long was that the tenant was insistant on being there when the workmen were - yes granted this is there right, however when the only time they were available is Friday/sat/sun it can delay things easily.

The boiler has had a gas safety cert done yearly.

ps. As for offering them alternative accomodation i had an empty house directly opposite to them to which i offered them keys so they could use the facilities in this house, to which they were refused .

Pockets

moneysavinmonkey

thanks for clarifying.. sounds like you did try your best - but that doesn't mean that the tenants aren't due some compensation.

Personally I think that that are planning on moving out after a couple of months of not paying rent... do let me know if my hunch is right!

Debt_Free_Chick

pocket8s wrote: »

I have to point out in my plumbers defence, one of the main reasons it did take so long was that the tenant was insistant on being there when the workmen were - yes granted this is there right, however when the only time they were available is Friday/sat/sun it can delay things easily.

The boiler has had a gas safety cert done yearly.

ps. As for offering them alternative accomodation i had an empty house directly opposite to them to which i offered them keys so they could use the facilities in this house, to which they were refused .

Oh for heaven's sake - you mean that the work was only x days, but had to be spread over 8 weeks at the tenant's insistence?

And they refused alternative accommodation?

If it were me, I'd offer them bu88er all.

I am now of the opinion that they are being completely unreasonable. They have exacerbated (I hestitate to go as far as "wholly created"!) the inconvenience for which they now wish to be compensated! :mad: