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BPO/KPO

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Rental Cars America

I have been living in a flat for 5 months now. We chose the property to rent because of its central location and its secure underground garage. The flat was advertised as having a space, we have a specific space in the carpark (with our flat number on it) and were given a keyfob.

However in the short time we've been here the car-lift has broken at least 7 times sometimes for several days which means our car is literally impounded.

Luckily I can walk to work but my partner has to drive and on these occassions has had to get taxis into work.
On another occassion we had an important family function so we hired a car, we agreed the initial cost with our landlord before we hired it.

Now the car lift has broken again and there is no guarantee it will be fixed by Christmas when I will be (hopefully) visiting family.

The lease says says we have "the right of access on foot and with vehicles at all times for all reasonable purposes connected with the use and enjoyment of the Unit" but our landlord refuses to refund the money for the taxis and has only part-paid the car hire and says they will not refund any money if we book another hire car.

This is incredibly frustrating as my car is perfectly usable and i really begrudge spending money on a hire car (which is cheaper than the train on xmas eve). Is it my responsiblity to cover these expenses or my landlords? Do i have the right to withold rent in the amount of the car and taxis?

Thanks

As always best to check with someone qualified to give advice, but I think the Landlord needs to give you two months notice as you will roll into a periodic tenancy from the first.   It may be worth calling CAB on this to double check.

Good luck, let us know what happens.

I don't for one minute believe that it is being sold, however, there isn't a great deal that we can do about that. What I was interested in was Appendix C in the article that I've linked at the end of this post, which states that if the property is to be vacated due to sale, we need to be given at least 2 months' notice.

Since the inital fixed term contract was for six months (1st April - 30th Sept), to be changed to a contractual periodic tenancy after that, can anyone offer any advice as to what the legal notice requirements are since we have not received anything in writing yet?

Thanks

Article here:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/.....redtenants

Last year we rented in house in London from agency . We signed agreement for 12 months.  2 months before end of contract  landlord offered to sign new contract with him directly. He said that he trusted us and etc.  so we signed new contract with him.(he kept deposit) We asked if we could pay rent into his bank account or by cheque (just to be save) but he said that this first months he will collect cash and after we could pay to his bank account. Our new contract just started few days ago,we paid cash for our rent to landlord  and he signed on a paper saying that he received 1200 pounds. next day we received visit from local authority. Lady said that we shouldn't live here because our "landlord" was not allowed to rent house to any one.

We contacted landlord, he apologies and said that he bought house from council and in his contract there was a clause that said that he not allowed to rent it for 3 years after buying. (He bought only 2 months before we moved in last year). He said that lady don't have a right to harass us like this and that he will sort it out this, that he will take  all documents and get solicitor  (he send me sms). He asked me not to speak with a lady if she comes again. But I need it to find out what is really going on so I rang to a lady and ask her what is going on.

She said that this men had no right to let us house us this house belongs to authority and his parents just renting from them. she said that our "landlord" promised her that we move out end of this months. But he didn't say eneything to us about it!

COULD PLEASE SOMEBODY GIVE US ADVISE WHAT TO DO OR FROM WHERE TO GET ADVISE. We don't have money to pay another deposit and rent in advance. 

When we rented from agency we thought  that agency checking landlords.

My Mums heart is broken as she spend a lot of time and money on garden as she planted various vegetables (tomato,cucumbers, spring onions, radishes, salads, strawberries and ect.)

What action can we take? 

What should we do?

Thank you

 I've tried Gumtree and you just get scammers, you very rarely get privately advertised properties with three bedrooms usually just studio's. the homeless advisor at my local council has said to me that I'm not trying hard enough to find a property, that i'm been too choosy or just not looking. I know there are families out there who disrespect rented accomodation but should we all be tarred with the same brush

    I'm in similar position, rented from a very reputable LA last june moved in june 30th 2008 with some hic-cups, My LL lives abroad and the LA only have a PO box, mobile phone number (which he never answers) email for him, anyway within two days of living in property over six debt collectors came to my door, peered through the windows looking for my LL and his wife, then within three weeks a letter to the occupier arrived saying the house was going to court because of rent arrears, I wasn't allowed to have telephone connected because the address had a debt, had to send my tenancy agreement to them as proof of who I was i.e not the LL. Since then there has been two more court orders for reposession, the LL is in so much debt he can't pay for repairs on the property and my LA had to pay for a new boiler as I was left without hot water and heating for nearly three months!!!! LL refused to buy a new one and I had to get Environmental health involved. This has been so stressful, my LA don't want to speak to me about it and now they have handed in their notice for the management side as they say there is nothing they can do for me if LL won't pay for repairs and I have to deal with the LL myself, asked them to move me to another property LA said I would be in breach of contract but if I wrote to them saying I wanted out of the tenancy they would let me out of the contract but wouldn't rehouse me unless I pay all their fees again.

They to refuse to acknowledge that they did anything wrong taking on this LL even though he was obviously in arears with his mortgage when they took his house on to rent. I was credit checked had to give references from a previous job, my new cleaning job,show current bank statements, a reference from previous LL and my guarenteurs employers were contacted and credit checks done on them, yet the LL wasn't even asked to provide a statement from his Mortgage lender to say he was allowed to rent his property, I find this shocking and something should be done about it. If a prospective LL is current with his mortgage then why should the LA struggle to find properties, they should NOT be taking on any LL who are not paying mortgage or had a court judgement against them regarding mortgage arears in that twelve month period.

Joke is I have now recieved a letter from LA asking if I want to renew my tenancy for £85 and if not they will re-let the property to someone else, so they really don't care less that the LL is a liabillity

Redowen said:

Indeed Bebe - in fact Section 21 has been raised as possibly being in contravention of the European Convention of Human Rights 1998, in which section 8 states that it is illegal to 'cause undue disturbance to family life'. There is a clear argument to be made that no household can, in law, be reasonably guaranteed to find suitable alternative accomodation in two months.  I will go away and get the caselaw, but this is one of the current legal challenges to section 21. Lets promote it.

The article 8 argument over s.21 has been raised before, for both private and public landlords. E.g Donoghue v Polar HA [2001]

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases.....1/595.html

Although some things have changed since then, any attempt to have s.21 declared incompatible under the HRA has a massive uphill battle - it has to go to the House of Lords, at least.

NL

NL

Ray said:

The clauses you suggest would have certainly made my claim more clear cut, although a solicitor friend believes that being in a position to offer the property for let would be an 'implied term' of the contract. I spoke to someone at Shelter who believed that my LL is in breach of 'quiet enjoyment' clause particularly as she was in 3 months mortgage arrears at commencement of tenancy so this is the route I'm going down. I reckon it won't be a straightforward claim though and will depend on the Judge in small claims court. If it's decided that the house was there for me to peacefully occupy then I can forget it. I just can't see how anyone can reasonably expect someone to live in quiet enjoyment if they're under a constant threat of repo, particularly when they're totally innocent and have no control.

I feel as if I've googled every law known to man and even researched the criminal element of obtaining money by deception but all avenues seem to come to a dead end. Have turned into a complete geek. I'm just hoping that the judge will accept that the Agent has a Duty of Care to me as their customer as well as to the LL as their client. Unfortunately I think better people than me will have tried and failed so although determined I'm not optimistic.

By the way, a useful tip if you're in same boat and are prepared to fork out 40 quid. (Some people can qualify for court fee exemption) As neither Agent nor LL were keeping me up to date regarding repo proceedings I applied to the court to be made “a party to the action”,  as I am the tenant of the property. It was put before a judge and granted. This entitles me to all papers which have been served on LL and notification if it should be brought back to court. You get a truer picture of what's happened and the LL or Agent can't give you any fairy stories. It also allows you to attend the hearing and put your story before the judge who may then delay repo till end of tenancy. This is only likely if Lender consented to Tenancy. I left it a bit late and wished I'd done it the day I got notification of hearing.

Good luck with the duty of care, but, to be honest, I don't think it is going to work (and would certainly be appealed if you won on it).

Of course, if the property is repossessed, then the landlord can't claim that you owe for the remainder of the term, as they are unable to provide their end of the contract, which is where quiet enjoyment usually comes in.

Not sure about how you describe being a party. The judge can't delay the possession till the end of the tenancy in the way you describe. But, if the lender knew about the tenancy and it existed when the mortgage was agreed, then the mortgage company effectively becomes your landlord for the remainder of the term if the court says so. Brief overview at:

http://www.compactlaw.co.uk/fr.....vhf14.html

This also covers the quiet enjoyment point. But as you have given up the tenancy, you may have a problem with that as quiet enjoyment here applies to the unexpired period of the tenancy after the possession.

Still, given that you had someone from the lender turning up on the doorstep due to your landlord's actions and failure to tell the lender about the tenancy, you may have a shot at breach of quiet enjoyment, maybe.

A long shot would be if it wasn't a buy to let mortgage, or without lender's consent to let. Does the tenancy agreement contain a clause to the effect that the LL must have consents to the let from all relevant parties? (Some do). This would arguably include the lender, so technically your LL would be in breach of contract from the start. Frankly, it is not an argument that I'm at all confident would be successful at court (is it a repudiatory breach so you can walk waway from the contract? probably not). But it is a negotiating position. Otherwise, I'm afraid your LL's breach of their agreement with their lender is a separate matter to the tenancy agreement.

Oh and very very good luck for actually retrieving any money - but if your LL owns another property, there's always a charging order and the Land Regisry records don't cost much to get. (I act against private landlords from time to time. I like charging orders, particularly for our costs ).

Of course, none of this counts as legal advice and shouldn't be relied on, etc. I haven't seen enough papers and details of your specific case to give advice and there is no retainer. So don't sue me - I haven't any money and insurance doesn't cover this.

Nearly Legal

http://nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/

Hello all.

I'd be really interested in some kind of system of referencing for landlords.  Much in the same way that a tennant has to provide a reference when "applying" to rent from a landlord.  A system by which previous tennants could report on good and bad landlords/agencies/experiences would be ideal.  Does anyone have any idea of the legality of this sort of thing?

Great site by the way.  Been needed for a really long time.

Ray said:Did you see the comment from the Residential Landlords Association along the lines of 'Landlords wouldn't default on their mortgages if tenants didn't default on their rent'!! So he was hardly sympathetic to tenant victims of repo.  

  = = =But if a landlord has remortgaged himself up to the hilt with one or more  properties and his personal circumstances change/negative equity looms/unemployment beckons  - - - far more likely causes of repo than a tenant defaulting

This was for a 20 minute dash around an unfurnished property - nice work if you can get it.

Given that the landlord  also pays the equivalent amount for the end of tenancy inventory - Total of  £170 for something that  neither tenant nor landlord can rely on.

my advice is make sure you take photos when you move in - - - .

PS still waiting for a reply to the correction document I sent.