Landlord problem

Please bear with me on this as theres quite a bit to explain, ok so we have been living in this house now for 7 years as tenants. We have never given the landlord any issues or not paid him the rent, there has been the odd time it has been late (when i have changed jobs) but i have always let the landlord know this. Now recently i went from a job that pays monthly to a job that pays weekly, so i messaged the landlord and asked it would be ok to start paying the rent on the 14th of the month rather then the 1st as i receive my military pension then and that pretty much covers the rent, as opposed to giving the months rent out of a weeks salary which would cause problems financially. He replied saying that it would be ok as long as we pay the difference (ie from the 1st to the 14th and carry on as usual from the 14th with the monthly rent). So i paid in £700 and then arranged for the rent to go out monthly on the 14th. Anyway 2 weeks later the landlord rings me and says that the rent has not been recieved, i say it should be as i have set it up.....long story short he messages me back saying he gave me the wrong details, the correct ones were sent and it was re sent. A few more weeks later he rings again saying that some money wasnt received, anyway after messages back and forth with my wife ( she dealt with this as i was at work) my wife says "i can send you the screen shot to show it was sent" he replied with "im not bothered what the screen shot says im bothered about what is in my account". Anyway he logs in whilst on the phone to my wife and sees that the money was in fact received. But whilst this was going on we find that Octobers payment was short and neither we or he was aware of this until then. He messages my wife with a picture of a scrappy piece of paper with the amount owed although the working out was wrong as were the amounts leading u to what was owed. Anyway he sends a message saying £595 owed (we pay £520) please can you take care of this. So i say ok but that is a lot of money to drop in one go so is it ok to pay and extra £100 per week until it is paid, he says that will take too long so no, can it all be paid back at once. Now i need to mention that 2 years ago we asked if he could take a look at the kitchen drawer as it was just basically nailed shut with long nails and the drawer had come off leaving nails exposed, he ignores this and eventually just sends a message saying he will have a look sometime and look at a permanent solution. This has never happened and the draws are left with nails exposed and we have a three year old boy that tries to put his hand in there, also the other cupboard has nails through so you can not put your hands in to put anything in there, i have messaged him saying please can this be done as it is dangerous but still nothing. We also paid £800 bond and we have never been given a bond bank reference, i have checked the three companies that should have this information and none of them have a bond in ours or the landlords name. It is the house that Jack built but that is another story, my wife had an operation the other week and she was at her parents as she needed someone with her to recover whilst i was at work. There was a hand written letter sent from the landlord to my wife and it was a letter of repossession of the property, we just do not know why he is being like this when we have never caused him any problems and we have repairs that should have been repaired ages ago......but we darent say anything as he could just serve notice and the children are happy here in their schools, apart from that the letter states that he can do this if the rent is 2 months or more in arrears.......and it hasn't and has never been. I have never trusted him which is why i always messaged him so that i had proof, please can anyone assist in this as it is causing untold stress. Please if i have been unclear in anything ask away and i will try to make send (sorry just stressed0.

Thank you

Hi anonymousHud,welcome,

I have had no experience of this ,so these are just my thoughts .No doubt others will be able to point you in the right direction.

My understanding is the landlord must get a court order for possession .I would make sure you get all of your evidence
together. A possession order must come from the court ,not a hand written note.

From what i have seen, courts do not automaticly grant these orders (unlike mortgage possession orders) ,In any event
given your history at this address ,at worst case you should be given ample time to relocate .That is assuming he manages to even get an order.

sorry i cant be more help.

Hi, specifics will depend on which country you're in. You don't say but references to £ suggest one of the four bits of the UK. When you say "bond" I assume you mean deposit, a sum of money you've given the landlord that you expect to get back at the end of the tenancy. In England you can make a claim against the landlord if your deposit isn't protected, and can get up to three times the amount as compensation. Dave's correct regarding possession as well, he can ask you to leave but can't force you without a court order, and he'll have to have all his paperwork correct to do that. What grounds for possession has he given? Assuming England or Wales, have a look on Shelter http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/downloads_and_tools/tenancy_checker to see legally what type of tenant you are, and take it from there.

Hi guys and thank you greatly for your responses, i know that peoples time is precious these days and i thank you for taking the time to respond. Ok so the possession letter i think was just downloaded and simply added the amount and his name (no forwarding address given) and the sections he is claiming are 8 and 10. Now this in itself makes no sense as section 8 and 10 state that if the tennant pays weekly and is 8 or more weeks behind with rent monies....or if you pay monthly and you are 2 months or more behind with rental monies. Well we are neither so it proves he has not even read the document before posting it. Apart from that he would not pay for legal advice as he is that tight....we know from the repairs that have never been completed. I have contacted the three deposit schemes and they have no record of our bond being held. I will have a look at the links you have shared.

Hi all, just a few updates, ok so the landlord must have realised that he he can not follow his original path in his first letter. So he then sent a letter through the post to my wife (not me the tenant) stating that he was not renewing the tenancy and has given us until the week before Christmas to vacate the property, this message was sent again to my wife as he said he had tried to contact me but could not (there has been no call or message to my mobile). So i messaged him saying so i asked him for a a forwarding address so that we could respond, he said that it was on the corner of the letter (it wasn't). Again i let him know this and asked for the details of where our bond is held and how it is protected, this was sent on the 2nd Nov, he never responded (but had read the message as it shows), so i asked again on the 6th Nov, again he read this and still no response, so i asked again on the 8th and he read this on the 9th.....no response. Today we receive a recorded letter through the post stating that he wants to come to the house on the 24th Nov at 19:30 hours (when our three year old goes to bed) to conduct an end of tenancy inspection and discuss any further queries we may have. Now are we obliged to do this or can we tell him a time that is convenient for us (the date is fine just the time), and by letting him in do we agree that we will be leaving on the date he says? as far as i am aware he can not ask us to leave as he has not followed the rules regarding bond protection. Please if anyone can offer any advice please as we do not want to be on D day and struggling to get advice.

If I was in your your situation I would get in touch with someone like citizen advice before it's to late. We can all speculate what to do but that won't be helping you, the last thing you need is for bailiffs to come and force you on the street with no where to go. Citizen advice should be able to put you in contact with someone who knows how to handle this situation.

Jinxer wrote:If I was in your your situation I would get in touch with someone like citizen advice before it's to late. We can all speculate what to do but that won't be helping you, the last thing you need is for bailiffs to come and force you on the street with no where to go. Citizen advice should be able to put you in contact with someone who knows how to handle this situation.

Good advice Jinxer, alterative to CAB may be Shelter who I think have duty Solicitors who may be able to help with legal advice.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting

I agree with jinxer & tiggy,

However please stop messaging the landlord ,its very important that you converse by recorded mail now that things have reached this level.I would also keep pressing the bond issue.

Sorry, i messaged rather than ring so that there was a trail of what was said, he didn't provide an address for me to respond as i said, that's why ive had to resort to messages. Not ideal i know but at least i had some proof.

Ok ,in that case message him again ,and inform him that from now on you will only converse via Royal Mail and no further correspondence will be entered into unless he provides you with an address for service of your mail & also that all future correspondence must carry his name and signature or those of whoever takes liability for the contents of such correspondence.

About the "bond".
Have you got a tenancy deposit certificate from the landlord. This must be renewed every year. If the landlord did not put the deposit in a tenancy deposit scheme then the penalty he must pay you 3 times the deposit, each year he did not put it in the scheme.

No we never received a tennancy deposit certificate, i have checked the three schemes and are details are not registered. We also have only had three gas checks in the 6 years we have been here and no electrical checks. He also used two people to do one of the only gas checks he conducted that had "just been to court and received a suspended sentence" in the words of the landlord, i have three young children, surely these people must be CRB checked before being allowed to enter peoples homes for this type of thing?

anonymousHudd wrote:, surely these people must be CRB checked before being allowed to enter peoples homes for this type of thing?

No they don't, they just need to be certified electrician or in gas. Don't get distracted by irrelevancies, you need to urgently speak to either the CAB or Shelter about your rights / options and whether you can continue to live in the property now you've been given notice.

I have spoken to Shelter and they agreed that we qualify for legal aid, so i spoke to a specialist who i have to say was lovely and extremely helpful. He (the landlord) has essentially attempted to serve a section 21 but completely incorrectly and unprofessionally. The fact that the bond was never secured means that he can do.....well nothing, i have sent him an LBA regarding the bond and he has 14 days to respond. The fear has been lost and this will be fought and fought correctly, he must learn that he simply can not treat people like this.

Hi,

All feedback on what you do ,will be of great assistance to others in the future ,I wish you well.

anonymousHudd wrote:I have spoken to Shelter and they agreed that we qualify for legal aid, so i spoke to a specialist who i have to say was lovely and extremely helpful. He (the landlord) has essentially attempted to serve a section 21 but completely incorrectly and unprofessionally. The fact that the bond was never secured means that he can do.....well nothing, i have sent him an LBA regarding the bond and he has 14 days to respond. The fear has been lost and this will be fought and fought correctly, he must learn that he simply can not treat people like this.

Well done, glad they were able to help and I hope you get it sorted !!

Sounds like you are lining up a few issues.
-deposit cert
-Gas/elec certs
-crb checks

I would ensure not a scattergun approach and focus on the desired outcome:
1) Money (see if he didnt protect the deposit) and any damages to your peaceful enjoyment.
2) A place to live - clearly if a landlord wants a tenant out, he can always get it, even with the excuse he wants to develop the property.

Quick one, describing my problems with an objectionable landlord that owned a place I was in.

We had not paid a deposit, and this is important to some.

We entered the normal contract for a high street lettings firm, but we did not need a deposit. We agreed to do the place up where necessery and if needed, and because we had sold a home that we had had for more than a decade it was agreed that we were able to not trash it! Lol. We would never, and our kids did respect the dwelling as they are good sorts.

Any way...

We were paying £1.250 a month. We always paid on time.
After a few months before the end of the first year, he came to view the place.
He did not like the way we kept or up-kept the place. His prerogative.
He came back a month later tò inform of a rent increase of an extra £300 a month?

We would never agree. We thought £50 extra a month would suffice. Nope. His prerogative.

He just wanted us out, and by raising so high he knew we would get us to go. Nope. Our prerogative!

We said we needed more time to find a place.
He said he would have to instigate an ejection process.
Legally we knew it might be months before we needed to go.
We didnt have to worry about losing a deposite.
So we sat and waited.

He did it all by the book.

The fee we had to pay was around £140 for the court application (his against us), but this was peanuts by comparison to the extra £900 or £1.200 we avoided paying in the meantime over the next three or four months.

Because we were liable to pay his fee of £140 we had no qualms about NOT leaving directly and on the dot, but in the end we found a place and left one day before ejection proceedings would have gone ahead. We owed no money because a new contract was not drawn up, and we continued to pay our rent until departure. So there were no other legal worries.



We left on good terms. I expressed my feelings. He was happy we were out.


The system, in this instance gave us a few months breathing time.