Urgent Landlord Help...Please Help!!

KittyKate

(Might be in the wrong subforum, if so, sorry, but I thought this the best place for the advice I need). Also, sorry if this is long but it is interesting reading!

Basically my partner and I are living in the same house we rented as students. It's a two bedroomed terrace (not back to back) in a really bad area of Bradford. We've since graduated and both have good jobs, and are in the process of looking for a luxury flat to buy in Leeds (but these things take time unfortunately, especially as my bloke works 9-6 every day!)

But in the meantime, we're having huuuge problems with the landlord on our current hole and we really need MSA forum poster's advice.

When we originally moved in last June, we signed a 12 month contract. We paid a £200 (between us) bond and moved in.

The landlady is Asian (as most are in Bradford) and speaks little English. She usually sends round her husband or brother to get the fortnightly rent (£140 a fortnight between us, and believe me, that might sound cheap, but read on..)

The first rent and bond we paid was in cheque. We felt happy about this as Bradford landlords are notoriously dodgy. Sadly, after we were moved in it's been cash all the way. We do sign a rent book, but the landlord keeps it, not us. So it's pretty useless for covering us legally.

The tenancy agreement is a total joke - and to be honest at the time we just glanced through it (a scrappy few bits of paper obviously run up by an illiterate on a PC). We signed it with our out of term (parents) adresses as alternative contact.

When we moved in, the washing machine didn't work (leaked and didn't rinse clothes properly). 18 months later YES 18 months the landlord sent his DAD to repair it (and it still doesn't work, it rinses, but it spews out water from the drawer...we've been using the laundrette 2 miles away at £2 a wash+dry for well over a year).

The landlord said he wanted to fit central heating (it only had storage heaters when we moved in.) During early Sept last year he turned the water off in the bathroom FOR A WEEK (we were bathing in a plastic packing crate filled with kitchen water boiled in the kettle) and we had to pee at University. Nightmare. Plus random people were walking all over the house sitting on the bed when I was in it, asleep, at 8am, to bleed the radiators.

Anyway the fitters left and suprise suprise, the boiler didn't work (no heating) and the taps in the kitchen dripped. So to get a bath/shower you had to turn on the water, bathe, then go turn the water off. This has been so for nearly a year also. Anyway, after telling the landlord last September, he got it fixed a few days ago (well, it now makes a screaming noise when you run the hot tap...but it doesn't drip...)

When the repairman (or rather, landlords dad), left, I went down to lock the door and found a note from the landlady we rarely see. It said that whilst we were living in the house repairs were up to us, we should find people in the Yellow Pages and pay for it ourselves. It states that the tap being mended and the washer being mended cost £40 and that would be added to the rent.

I've never seen a tenancy agreement like this before - and anyway - after reading through our tenenacy agreement it says the landlord will pay the water rates and council tax, which she hasn't, and which come to over £1000. Since the contract isn't worth the paper it's written on (according to a friend of mine who is training to be a lawyer) and is out of date anyway, surely neither party has a leg to stand on?

The house is disgusting. The shower is made of wood - yes, normal, untreated wood, from the repaired kitchen ceiling. The plaster is falling off the walls. The heating doesn't work. The gas fire looks very unsafe. The boiler has no corgi certificate. The house is not registered as a rentable house with the council. We are battling a mouse infestation from the filthy rancid Halal meat shop ten doors up. The landlord has given us a phone number which when we call, a man answers saying he doesn't know who we are and he doesn't rent houses. If we question the landlord on anything he suddenly starts babbling an Asian language. He refuses to speak to me (as I am female) and looks and speaks only to my partner.

We can't move till we find another place which might take 2 months minimum.

Help.

meanmachine_2

I'd just do a moonlight flit.

Your landlord has done nothing to earn anything but this type of bail out.

KittyKate

I can't afford to for about a month, and can't find anywhere for at least 2. Plus he has my parent's adress and that of my partner's parents too.

He will then get to keep our £200 bond (which to be fair we weren't expecting to see again because he is a bloody liar), and as his family live facing us, a flit isn't really possible.

We're stuck here for the forseeable future. It's Hell.

Pal

I suggest that you call your local council environmental health officers and ask them to come a take a look. They can insist that a rented house is brought up to a reasonable standard.

That said, do you really want loads more workmen going through the place while you live there?

Get a real solicitor to look at your rental agreement and tell you if it means anything. Shouldn't cost more than £100.

Any reason why the state of the flat is suddenly a problem, given that you have lived there for a while now? If you are looking for another place anyway, does two months make a lot of difference? Could you move to live with parents, friends or a cheap hotel for a couple of months?

If it was me, I would find somewhere else to live and walk out, preferably having not paid all the rent. You can always claim that you paid cash and that he is lying about receiving it, given the rent book issue!

The lesson for the future is not to rent anywhere without a proper legal agreement in place.

albreda

From what you've written it doesn't sound like you'll see that £200 again anyway - could you not sneak a few possesions out whilst you are looking elsewhere, perhaps leav them at your parents and then do as meanmachine suggests? Or even move in with them outright whilst you look? Would they come looking for you at your parents?

Pal

KittyKate wrote:

I can't afford to for about a month, and can't find anywhere for at least 2. Plus he has my parent's adress and that of my partner's parents too.

He will then get to keep our £200 bond (which to be fair we weren't expecting to see again because he is a bloody liar), and as his family live facing us, a flit isn't really possible.

We're stuck here for the forseeable future. It's Hell.

Having your parents address is irrelevent. What is he going to do with it?

Also, having his family live opposite the current flat doesn't mean anything either. What are they going to do?

Phone environmental health.

albreda

Pal wrote:

Having your parents address is irrelevent. What is he going to do with it?

I agree - I had a similar (though not nearly as bad as yours) experience in Birmingham and so left without paying. They wrote to my mother but she replied that she had no idea where I was living now.

I don't know if they would take it anyfurther given what you have said, they might not have much legal standing.

KittyKate

Pal wrote:

Having your parents address is irrelevent. What is he going to do with it?

Also, having his family live opposite the current flat doesn't mean anything either. What are they going to do?

Phone environmental health.

I know it's easy to say 'what is he going to do' with my parent's adress but this is Bradford. The same landlord (we've unfortunately recently discovered) went to a friend of a friend's parents when he did a moonlight flit and demanded the remainder of the year's rent from them. My dad lives alone and I do not want to put his wellbeing at risk. Sadly the landlord is rather racist and we have been made to live in the most intolerable positions and called disgusting things by his family and the neighbours simply for being white and living in the area. It is a very real risk and worry. His family, if they saw us moving out, are very, very likely to get violent and I cannot risk my partner or myself being hurt.

We cannot call environmental health as the house is unlivable. We would be told to leave asap and would be homeless. My father lives in a 1bed bungalow and we cannot fit in there. My partner's parents live 100s of miles away and to move with them means we'd both lose our jobs.

I really do appreciate everyone's comments but maybe I should have made the danger of my situation more apparent. I can't risk getting the police involved - I can't tell you what happens to 'grasses' in this area.

albreda

Thats terrible. Maybe the best thing is to pay up and get out as soon as you can. It's not the cheapest option, but it doesn't sound like you have much choice without some kind of confrontation. Certainly some legal advice would be a good idea beofore you hand anymore money over though.

mr218

KittyKate wrote:

e very, very likely to get violent and I cannot risk my partner or myself being hurt.

I really do appreciate everyone's comments but maybe I should have made the danger of my situation more apparent. I can't risk getting the police involved - I can't tell you what happens to 'grasses' in this area.

In your case, i think you shoudl not worry about the 200 pounds. consider it a small sum for your happiness. just get out of there as soon as possible and put this mess behind you.

in the long term, these people will mean nothing to you and you will just be glad you left.

if they dont give your deposit back, tell them that you will call environmental health and the police. do this when you are just leaving so that there is no danger of them retaliating. if that does not work, forget it. in your position, i wouldjust want to get away asap.

KittyKate

I agree we need to get away, my most major problem being we have no heating, clean clothes, clean towels etc...the freezer doesn't work and we're living of tins of microwaved crap.

And on Sunday the landlord is coming for the rent and £40 for repairs.

And we still have to pay for the heating being fixed, but if we did have the money to call someone out, they'd see the bare wires hanging over the sink and call corgi/transo, and bam, we'd be homeless!

I think we'll stick with the laundrette, but it's a long walk with a bag of clothes!!