Landlords

vickyjulie1983

Hi,

I was just wondering if someone could please help...

Our tenancy ends on the 11th May 2008, our landlord (who lives in the West Indies!!) called the other night (for the first time since November and we cannot contact him!!) and we explained that we had found somewhere else to live, he then told us we had to serve him with 1 months notice. We are weekly paying tenants so I thought it was just 2 weeks notice we had to give? Also, it says in our tenance agreement,

"At the expiration or sooner determination of the tenancy to deliver up the Property to the landlord in such order condition and state as shall be consistent with due performance of the obligations of the Tenant herein contained"

We've never spoken about staying on here longer let alone signed anything saying we will (we hate it here!!!!) In fact when we last spoke in November we told him we were looking for somewhere else to stay.

We've had some serious problems with him getting repairs done (which still remain after a year!!) so much so that we had to get the Citizens Advice Bureau involved.

Any help anyone could give would be greatly appreciated!!

Victoria

tbs624

You mention that your LL is living abroad. Does your tenancy agreement contain a UK address for Services of Notices on the LL (required by S48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987)?

How do you pay your rent - straight into the LLs bank account or to someone else who acts on his behalf?

As you pay your rent weekly, you should have a Rent Book - do you?

Did your tenancy begin on or after April 6th 2007, and if so, has the LL registered your deposit and given you the necessary information about it, as he is legally required to ?

terryw

tbs624 wrote: »

You mention that your LL is living abroad. Does your tenancy agreement contain a UK address for Services of Notices on the LL (required by S48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987)?

How do you pay your rent - straight into the LLs bank account or to someone else who acts on his behalf?

Did your tenancy begin on or after April 6th 2007, and if so, has the LL registered your deposit and given you the necessary information about it, as he is legally required to ?

Good post. And also if you are leaving on the day that the shorthold ends then technically no notice is required. If you go beyond this date, then the tenancy is a statutory one and you must give one month notice then.

terryw

vickyjulie1983

tbs624 wrote: »

You mention that your LL is living abroad. Does your tenancy agreement contain a UK address for Services of Notices on the LL (required by S48 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987)?

How do you pay your rent - straight into the LLs bank account or to someone else who acts on his behalf?

As you pay your rent weekly, you should have a Rent Book - do you?

Did your tenancy begin on or after April 6th 2007, and if so, has the LL registered your deposit and given you the necessary information about it, as he is legally required to ?

No, there is no address printed on the actual tenancy agreement but we did manage to get an address off him for where his partner stays as thats where the housing benefit gets paid to and the council required it before they would pay it to him.

The rent gets paid by the council directly into the landlord's bank account.

We do have a rent book but it hasn't been signed since 4 weeks after we moved in as he moved abroad.

Our tenancy started on 11th May 2007, and no the landlord hasn't provided us with any information about the deposit!!

vickyjulie1983

terryw wrote: »

Good post. And also if you are leaving on the day that the shorthold ends then technically no notice is required. If you go beyond this date, then the tenancy is a statutory one and you must give one month notice then.

terryw

That's what I thought, but what about our deposit? We paid £360 and we really can't afford to leave without it!! We had to borrow money to move into this new house we're renting!

real1314

Put notice in writing to say that you will not be staying beyond the fixed term - notice periods only kick in after the fixed term ends.
Also put in the letter that you expect your deposit to be returned within 14 days, perhaps include an aside to ask where it has been lodged to comply with the tenancy deposit laws introduced in April 07. Send it to the uk address, keep a copy and perhaps send a copy to the HB people too.

When you leave, make sure everywhere is spic and span, take photos which inlcude that day's daily newspaper to establish that they were taken on the day of leaving - include close ups of skirting boards, oven, bathroom etc to show that they are not coated in dust /dirt. no need to print them until they are needed though.

tbs624

Get an appointment asap with the Private Tenancies Officer at your local Council's Housing dept - they are there to help with all manner of problems between Tenants and their LLs. If this LL is getting paid via Housing Benefit, the Council should know if he's failing to comply with the law on Rent Books and Tenancy Deposits, and it's better to have the process of deposit recovery underway now.