Badly treated by landlord.

Vestry · Joined: 21 May 2008 Posts: 3

We are currently renting a 4 bed property, the master bedroom is in a loft conversion. We discovered over the winter that there is no insulation and have had to sleep on the floor downstairs since January because of this (all other rooms are single and we have 3 kids). The landlord was unwilling to rectify this and has since admitted to not having any planning/building/fire regulations. Can he get away with this, and are we entitled to any compensation for the items we have lost due to damp/mold etc.? He neglected to get the gas checked for almost 2 years but eventually gave in and it was serviced in March. He has threatened to withold our deposit and won't give us a reference for our next house. We have always paid our rent in full and on time. We have had to cancel our holiday amongst other things as we have lost out financially, he is currently on an overseas holiday with his family. We are due to move out at the beginning of June, once our notice is up.
From what I can gather landlords can do whatever they like and tenants either have to put up with it or move out! Fed up of being treated like this Crying or Very sad

Thanks for any advice.

Bluey · Community Moderator Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 4751

Contact Shelter for advice - they give free expert advise to tenants.

They may advise you to contact your local council environmental health or private tenancy relations officer to get a health and safety inspection of the property, for example. There's are health and safety requirements that the landlord is obliged to comply with.

If your AST was issued after 06 April 2007, your landlord was obliged by law to protect your deposit in a Tenancy deposit scheme. What's the date of your AST?

Should your landlord unfairly withold your deposit after you move out and negotiations do not resolve this, you can take him to court under the Small Claims process. Have a look at the Shelter site for info on how to deal with non-return of deposit and the court process, plus the HM Court moneyclaim online site (for England/Wales) where you can submit an online claim.

As tenants, you are probably as equally, if not more, protected than the landlord compared to how they are treated when they have unreliable tenants. It's a question of knowledge of your rights.

Good luck. Come back to the forum and let us know how you get on.

Vestry · Joined: 21 May 2008 Posts: 3

Hi,
thanks for your reply.

I have contacted Shelter, they don't deal with my area apparently. They gave me a list of contacts, all except one didn't return my call, I had an appointment yesterday with that one and he just wasn't interested, basically told me that it was unlucky and I may not want to bother with the hassle of the small claims court! He thought it might be spiteful to report him to the coucil!

I have started asking questions with the council but have yet to disclose the address as I'd rather wait and see what happens with the deposit. I'm sure if I tell I will be up for a bigger fight to get that back.

Our tenancy began on the 5th April!

I am desperately trying to find out my rights, I phoned and emailed various people but they just don't seem to want to know. I find it hard to believe that he has blatantly broken the law and we just have to put up with it. Tbh, I'm tired of it all, I haven't slept properly since it all started in January and I can't take much more stress. We will find out this morning if we have lost our new house because of this man, if that happens we're going to have to stay in his house, I can't cope with that thought.

Thanks.

Bluey · Community Moderator Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 4751

Citizens Advice Bureau?

Also, try posting your problem on the following landlord site as it has members who are expert in housing law.

www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums

Well, if he's not going to give you a good reference, then I suppose you are left with no choice but to stay in his property and let him know that as he's thwarted your moving out, you've no choice but to remain in situ...

Given that he has to take you to court to evict you (which can be quite an expensive and protracted process), you'll have to improve the quality of the property in the meantime by reporting him to the local environmental health so they can undertake a Health and Safety inspection whose findings will be flagged up to the judge, plus evidence that despite paying your rent on time, he's provided a spiteful reference (be sure to note down the reasons given by the next person should your next property fall through)...

Mould and damp can be considered potentially serious to health.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/pdf/Mould.pdf

Here's what the local council assess when they inspect under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/decenthomes/housingstandards/housinghealth/

http://www.landlordinfo.co.uk/hhsrshazards.php

Tenants are usually responsible for insuring their own possessions.

Be sure to keep good records of your contact with the landlord, try to put requests for repairs, etc, in writing and keep a copy - the Shelter website provides good info on this.

Penant The Tenant · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 51

seems to be always about the "C" word these days

Vestry · Joined: 21 May 2008 Posts: 3

Thanks Bluey, very helpful. Thankfully after an incredibly stressful day, the new landlord is happy to accept us as tenants, he's taking our word over our current landlord and so we shall be moving next week Very Happy

We're going to wait and see what happens about our deposit and then report him to the council. I would hate him to treat another family like he's treated us. We've been really good tenants and have put up with far more then we should have, at least we can now move out and get on with our lives.

Thanks again for your advice.

Penant the tenant, sorry I don't understand your comment?