I moved to a houseshare almost a month ago, landlord said hed sort the doorlocks, remove his property from the house, and all the rest, sign the contract later.
The boiler packed up so we had no hot water/heating for a day or so
He keeps saying he will come and fix something but doesnt show up
There’s no smoke alarms , etc,
The council are coming to inspect the place this week.
It looks like the landlord is trying to rent the house out on the sly, and the council will nail him

I’m a bit worried that he’ll go mad, try to kick us out, or harass us and change the locks or mess with our property

Any advice about continuing to pay rent, signing contracts or finding out whats happened to our deposits?
Also will we have a minimum 2 months notice if we are asked to move out, and what is likely to happen to us, if the council decide that the house is not fit for occupation, due to electrical or plumbing regulations etc?

Destroy him, completely.

Also… you’re worried about your legal obligations re: 2 months notice, when your landlord is illegally sub-leasing a sub-standard hovel only fit for the untermensch?

Grow a pair Caroline.

guitarhero
my main concern is finding a new place, not so easy in my position

the house here is clean and comfy, just the electrics are ancient

It’s more likely the council will insist he upgrades and fixes, or they take him to court and faces fines.

Even the most dodgy of landlords will see that fixing is cheaper than fines and more.

Regards landlord messing with stuff or locking you out then that becomes a police issue as it’s criminal damage / theft / etc and locks likely to get a very fast response from council.

As others have said, you the tenant are in the stronger position here. Be clear about wanting to stay (and pay rent) but that it has to be right and fixed.

I would also start making moves to find another place. Landlord is well dodgy, you owe nothing.

contact Citizens advice, they will deal with this all the time and help I’m sure. I strongly suspect they will advice you continue to pay the rent owed.

Pay rent, look for better.

I’m a landlord and don’t understand why some are scum.

I’ve had some **** awful tenants but most treat me how I treat them – better than I do the house I live in.

So nobody has signed a contract?

Professional/corporate landlording experience (well really I am an accountant at a building firm, but I have inherited the job of buying, selling and managing 30 odd residential tenancies which I have been doing for 10 years):
1) You have a deemed contract-its a 6 month AST
2) Council will hopefully support you in whatever. Advice to stay and force fix is most sensible. If he won’t fix in reasonable time, then, with advice, you can get it fixed and deduct from rent (again-with advice)
3) He can’t chuck you out if council decide its a valid claim for disrepair – he loss his rights to do that.
4) Boiler broke down and was fixed a day or so later? Sounds good to me. Learn some perspective. He might be slack but this isn’t Van Hoogstaraaten, I think you are over reacting.
5) Under one condition you can change the locks yourself, and withhold keys from landlord “If the tenant feels harassed by the landlord. For example, if the landlord frequently turns up to the property unannounced and without any real reason.”
However this would need some serious documentary/legal back up, and change them back at the end.

Do you want to stay there?

If so then as above – your local council will be interested in a building run well below standards. I guess its and HMO so will need to meet HMO regs which as it sounds its nowhere near

I would give the landlord a date by which stuff needs to be sorted or it will be reported to the council

Has he put your deposit in a deposit scheme – if not he is liable to a fine of 3 times the deposit IIRC. good leverage

However for me a crap landlord will allways be a crap landlord and I would be looking to get out unless you really like the house / your housemates. No need for you to give notice as he is in breach of contract by the lace being unfit and he cannot use your deposit to penalise you

As 5plus says, grow a pair.
A couple of days without hot water is reasonable, just try getting a heating techie at short notice and you’ll find out.
Keep paying the rent, or you will be in breach of your impending contract.
You could download a specimen contract from the internet and have it readt to be signed when you next meet. Smoke alarms: Buy a couple, ask for reimbursement from the LL. It’ll be easier than finding somewhere new to live. And remind him that your deposits need to go into the DPS. Ask him if he can forward the email they will send him when the deposits are accepted.

The solution to HMO problems is to pick the housemates you like and get a house together for half the price. Think we knocked 30% off the rent, moved to a nicer area and got a double garage when we moved out!

IME HMO landlords are the ones most likely to be doucheflutes, because it attracts the type of person who want’s to squeeze the most money out of the tenants whilst also be able to micromanage how they live. Mine took £5 from the deposit for cleaning a cupboard out as apparently there was a clove of garlic at the back which he told everyone was part of a larger campaign of low level malevolence by me against him!

As I said, if the LL has not provided you with a contract, then you have, legally a deemed contract. It look like this. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/model-agreement-for-a-shorthold-assured-tenancy Insert dates and rent. end of story. Anything else is unenforceable.

HMO landlords are the ones most likely to be doucheflutes

Not if they have been issued with a HMO license from Crawley BC, we are held to account rather well I think.

Not if they have been issued with a HMO license from Crawley BC, we are held to account rather well I think.

The Japanese sewerage system allegedly has a higher concentration of gold than any open cast mine due to the waste from electronics manufacturing. It’s still also full of poo.

The point is – if the LL has a HMO license then the property has to have good electrics, good condition etc. LL may still be a ****, but the house will meet a minimum standard of safety and quality.

grow a pair.

There’s so much bollocks being spouted on this thread.

OP. Just suck it up . There is **** all that the authorities will actually do to assist you. Many of the laws are just theoretical laws. The landlord can break them with impunity.

The voice of bitter bitter experience.

The rental market in the UK is utterly utterly abhorrent.

There is actually stuff the councils can do – especially if it is an HMO.

TJ is correct. Plus the rest of us professional LL’s can’t stand **** landlords and encourage everyone to sort them out.

It’s not all bad news:
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/unlicensed-hmo-owner-ordered-repay-3489144

thanks for all your replies
It is a HMO on account of it being advertised as such, the tenants not knowing each other,the landlord not living here, etc, but it is not registered as an HMO (yet)
I’ll be out of here asap, have y own place, but it will take me some time

If as 5plus8 says it is deeed as a 6month contract, then I need to wait 6months before I can leave, and still need to give a months notice?

You can give notice before the end of month 5, to quit at the end of month 6.
However if the council show up and put a repair order on it, you might be able to leave earlier. Seek legal advice.

but it is not registered as an HMO (yet)

It is not an HMO then.

And the landlord will be facing a fine for that. No escape.

We had a dodgy tenant who I evicted for non payment of rent after 6 months. He called the council and gave them a story that I had three families in a 3 bed flat and the place was a state. I had a phone call from a livid housing officer the next morning who demanded an on site meet, and went round the flat that day to investigate. We met the next day and I showed her round the flat – she quickly realised that it was a hoax, but I was left with letters and warnings that not registering as HMO (with all the attendant extra requirements) would land me with mucho fine. This was Scotland, England may be different.

as 5plus8 says – if its not up to hmo standards especially with regard to fire alarms then surely the landlord is in breach of contract by not providing a safe place to live.

Also he cannot take unpaid rent out of your deposit. Has he put your deposit in a deposit scheme? If not he gets an automatic fine of 3 times the deposit IIRC.

so yes – do take real advice but I would just give him notice that you want to leave and leave daring him to touch your deposit and I would be grassing him up to the council as much as possible. shyster landlords get on my wick!

Also he cannot take unpaid rent out of your deposit. Has he put your deposit in a deposit scheme? If not he gets an automatic fine of 3 times the deposit IIRC.

This.

What deposit scheme are you in?

I checked with my other half who works in this sort of field

If no papers have been signed you do not have a short assured tenancy. You will probably have some for of protected tenancy

To get an assured short tenancy there are a series of legal steps to go thru and if the landlord has not done this then you are relying on old rights.

But please get proper advice

tjagain – I dunno about scotland, but in England if you are not given a tenancy agreement it does not take away your rights.
Those rights are automatically deemed to be equivalent to a 6 month assured shorthold tenancy. These afford certain protections to the tenant, such as the right to 6 months, the right to be given notice etc.
Otherwise the LL could decide to not give you a contract and then just decide to sling you out whenever you want, change the rent weekly etc etc. This would be a fabulous wheeze for landlords.
The good thing is that these rights favour the tenant, without a tenancy agreement there are no terms for the deposit, so he cannot make any deductions etc, not for anything. He also cannot use the section 21 accelerated possession procedure, so it would take home months to throw you out, like 6-12 months..
You still have to behave in a tenant like manner, pay the rent, not sublet, treat the place properly, give proper notice etc.
But you cannot lose your rights by not signing something. Its all in the housing act 88 and the updates including the homes act 2017.
So do me a favour tjagain, if you don’t know something, why don’t you just not comment? It is rather frustrating trying to help someone and having to clean up your shit along the way.

eg this below is going in the right direction but importantly incorrect>

Also he cannot take unpaid rent out of your deposit. Has he put your deposit in a deposit scheme? If not he gets an automatic fine of 3 times the deposit IIRC.

To clarify – If the LL does not protect the deposit in a registered scheme (if there is one), or not meet certain other obligations, within a certain time period since receiving the deposit (28 days) then the tenant can apply to the courts for the return of the deposit and up to three times the deposit, the amount of which is decided at the courts discretion – this is paid to the tenant. So importantly it is not automatic and not a fine(it is compensation to the tenant) and not 3 times the deposit.
However if this is the case, I strongly recommend you do take him to court because up to three times the deposit is a rather nice windfall.

Point missed 5plus8 I think you missed the words “protected tenancy”

My other half works in this field. Thats what she told me. You cannot have an AST unless the paperwork is done. You will have a protected tenancy which gives you greater rights than you get under AST. as you say with things like the accelerated evictions cannot happen

Now maybe she is wrong but I doubt it as that is her professional world

YOu are right in that in the absence of paperwork a tenancy is assumed but she say it would revert to an earlier type of tenancy that actually gives you more protection

You cannot have an AST unless certain conditions are met. these are quite onerous.

This is just last wordism, you have just summarised my correction of you back to me. Laughable.

No 5plus8 – you misunderstood my post you were complaining about and I have said the same thing as I did in that last post

Lets be clear

1: if the paperwork for an AST is not done correctly the AST is not valid
2{ this means you revert to a protected tenancy which gives you GREATER rights

If no papers have been signed you do not have a short assured tenancy. You will probably have some for of protected tenancy

You said in the absence of paperwork you get an AST – this is incorrect according to my missus. Yes you still are assumed to have a tenancy but it cannot be an AST unless the correct paperwork and procedure is done. The tenant without paperwork has greater rights

Please 0- actually read the posts

I sent yo a PM on another topic – did you pick it up?

I am a landlord and do everything properly.

If you have not signed anything or paid in advance, just move, nothing happens over Christmas so move before.

Not all landlords are bad, some tenants are bad, some are good.

Good luck but just move, life’s too short.

Have you two ladies checked your handbags in at the cloakroom?

if I have no AST then what different rights do I have?
I will move asap when I find the right place, but the notice aspect is crucial

get up to date advice but by what my missus says you have a protected tenancy -0 this is the sort of thing that gives you increased protection against eviction compared to an AST as 5plus8 said

You will only have to give a months notice as well. NO need to wait until the six month contract is up

Also as the landlord is in breach of conditions and has not provided a safe home ( no fire alarms) you could just walk

But please – go get proper advice