A Tenant's guide to renting

JoeA81

nykmedia, you are right - as far as I know, this guide has predominently been put together from my and other peoples experience as tenants and landlords in England.

I will add a note to the beginning of the guide to mention this.

Im afraid I know nothing about the different rules when renting in Scotland, sorry!

Premier_2

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

...The landlords address should be different to the house they are renting out. If it is the same address, don't rent that house.
http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/www/wps/portal/FindAProperty

Also, do other renters a favour and write to the mortgage lender and inform them too. Enclosing any evidence you have, such as the advertisement for the rental.

There are many, many landlords who are registered at the address of the property itself as far as land registry is concerned. Most of these landlords are acting completely legally and probably have a different mailing address registered with their mortgage lender.

If you want to know the address mailing address of your landlord, they legally have to provide you this for the services of notices (including notices in proceedings) under the terms of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1987 s. 48. A LL cannot lawfully demand rent before such notice is given.

Premier_2

Just read the entire thread.

With regards to the suggestion of landlords issuing a s.21 without actually meaning the tenant to leave (just so they can theoretically evict a tenant without notice) I would strongly suggest any tenant that does receive such a notice either
a) requests for it to be formally withdrawn
or
b) looks for another property to rent, and once secured, ups and leaves the rogue landlords property without notice once the s.21 date is reached (no notice required by tenant as acting in accordance with s.21 notice already issued by LL) Tenant would only be liable for rent up to the date of leaving.

blossomcat

hi all
Whats a sticky ??? and where are they ????please.
Is there anyway i can get repairs done by the letting agents im fed up with asking , have been asking for three weeks now , does any one know please?? can i refuse to pay my rent till the repairs are done ?

MissMoneypenny

blossomcat wrote: »

hi all
Whats a sticky ??? and where are they ????please.
Is there anyway i can get repairs done by the letting agents im fed up with asking , have been asking for three weeks now , does any one know please?? can i refuse to pay my rent till the repairs are done ?

You are on a sticky now. A sticky will stay on the opening page at the top of each board.

For your repairs, contact your local council's "private lettings". They can help you with your landlord.

You could also start your own thread, as you may get more responses to your post. I'm not sure how many people who post here, read a sticky.

balsh

i recently moved out a flat and upon leaving the agency verbally agreed to deduct all final bills from the deposit and take care of them. They would then send out the deposit split 4 ways (as there was 4 tennants). They did split the deposit and send out cheques but i found out 2 months later they hadnt paid one of the bills although they had deducted the amount from the deposit. the reason i found this out is because Virgin media (whom the money was owed) tried to take the money from my account resulting in 2 bank charges for me(totalling £50) and Virgin had also added a £20 charge to the final bill and forwarded the debt to a collection agency.

I called my old agency asking why it hadnt been paid and they claimed they were waiting on a final bill as they didnt know the mount to pay. clearly a lie as i told them and they deducted it from the final deposit. I have asked them to refund the charges and pay the bill as they have clearly forgotten to pay the bill in the first place. They are refusing to admit fault and are only offering to send me the original monies owed to Virgin so i can now pay it. This would leave me £70 out of pocket.

does anyone know if i can get this money back from the agency. As i said it was a verbal agreement for them to take care of the bills but i do have the invoice for deposit stating they had taken £108.00 to pay the final Virgin bill.

cheers

BulletCraig

How are the utility bills dealt with for new tenants? Ie, do we just phone up the energy suppliers and say "this is the meter reading now, start charging us"? How do they know we're telling the truth? Who do they charge for the time the property was empty?

paintpot

to deal with the utility query, it really does depend on what the arrangement is which is usually:

1) The bills are included in the rent or a proportion are paid by the landlord

2) The tenant is responsible for the bills so the tenant pays.

Bulletcraig, if you are a new tenant and you are responsible, then if the property was empty for any period of time before you moved in, ie was untenanted then the LL should have the utilities in their name, otherwise if yo ar emoving in straight after a another tenant then the bills will be in their name. You simply give them your opening reading, which your LL should provide and you verify, and do the same at the end of the tenancy when you move out, you give the closing reading and pay for your own usage. Some tenants think that as it is rented they can just disappear without paying the utilities at the end (not saying you will) but if the contract is in your name the debt with folow you, not the address. The LL will pay for any usage whilst the property was unoccupied or the previous tenants will get a bill based on their final reading. HTH

Premier_2

BulletCraig wrote: »

...How do they know we're telling the truth? ..

Because it'll be the same as, or very close to, the final reading supplied by the previous tenant (or landlord in case of a void period). Any huge discrepancy and they'll probably send someone round to read it.

MargUna

All good to know, thanks