Moving out - landlord problems

[smr]

Hi all,

Myself, my partner and her two kids want to leave our current privately rented house to move into another one.

We've been here since July 2007 and in that time the gas boiler has never been serviced and we haven't therefore ever received a gas safety certificate.

Some of you may remember a while ago I posted a thread about the landlord not putting double glazing into the property which is mainly the reason we want to leave.

The house is so damn cold in the winter, especially the garage-converted-study which I am sitting in right now, as there is no double glazing and no roof insulation or fixed heating (radiators etc.)...

As you can imagine this is terribly cold during the winter.

Anyway, we've been to see a new house which is very nice and we are very keen on moving in, however, the landlord for the new place has said that he could do us a deal if we moved in relatively quickly, ie. shortly after next Monday.

We are in an AST which has rolled on on a monthly basis and as such, and per the terms of our contract we must give the landlord one month's written notice.

We also asked our current landlord for a reference but they won't give us one because they don't want us to leave.

Is there any way we could leave the property early without giving the notice for four weeks and make it a week instead?

The landlord is breaking the law by not having the gas boiler safety checked in 2 and a half years, could we use that for us?

We've had Environmental Health around because the landlord didn't respond to our problems with the house and they came around in January and served him with a notice that the study needs fixed heating and to be able to maintain a room temperature of at least 21 degrees celcius when the outside temperature is 0 degrees celc.

It's now September and we've heard nothing and had nothing fixed.

Also the kitchen ceiling is half hanging down from where there was a leak under the bath and its ripping from one wall across to the middle of the kitchen, which is a safety hazard he has not even looked at himself...

this crack has been getting worse for months and months.

There's black mould on the bedroom ceiling which has nothing to do with how we humidify the room.

Loads of problems, bad landlord, can we get out early!??!

Thanks for any advice.

 

[smr]

He has £650 of our deposit which is protected in a scheme.... mind you, it took him ages of me asking where it is being protected... only in June did we get letters from the protection scheme where its being held to say that it's there. Meaning, he didn't protect it for ages.

 

[smr]

The reason he doesnt want you too move is because he knows how much effort he'll have to put in to get you to stay there!

Just serve your one month notice and get out of there. Tell the future landlord that your sorry that you cant get a referance from current landlord because he's a A-hole and will a character referance from an employer be ok?



And lose the deposit as well.

Problem there is that I'm self employed Unless a reference from an old employer would do?

 

[smr]

Thanks for your advice everyone.

Come to the conclusion more or less that we should play things by the book. I've left a voicemail for the new landlord to call me back and I'll explain that we have to give a month's notice. If someone else takes the property within that time then there's not a lot we can do about it I guess.

We could, if we wanted to secure the property, give the new landlord the deposit and first month's rent on Monday and move in on Monday, but I don't like the idea of having to pay for two houses at the same time for a month.

I'm still going to tell Environmental Health that the landlord didn't get the boiler serviced ONCE in the duration of our stay. It will be interesting to see what she makes of that, it's also important for any new tenants that move here, God bless their souls already.

 

[smr]

UPDATE*************

Hi guys,

Just an update on this thread and what's happened today.

The good news is myself, partner and two kids have found a nice new property which is in good condition and hopefully a nice new landlord, he seems like a nice guy anyway but then I have my reservations with all of them now!

Anyway, this morning the current landlord brought in a mold inspector to assess the mold in the master bedroom and write a report up for the landlord.

Well this went alright because when the guy came downstairs he said to me that there wasn't anything that we were doing wrong - the mold is there because of the lack of ventilation in the house upstairs. There is no extractor fan in the bathroom and he said that with people showering etc. it was inevitably going to get like that.

Next, the landlord says he's bringing a plumber around. However, unlike the mold inspector this guy was a young chap, with no uniform on and he arrived in an old banger of a car. Hmm, forgive me for being slightly dubious then. So I quickly exclaimed to my partner that he didn't have a van and also said to her "why isn't he wearing uniform?"

So this lad goes into the bathroom for about a minute, comes back down and then walks out of the property with the landlord into the landlord's house next door (yes, he lives next door )

So I said to Vicky that I wasn't having this and I went around and knocked on asking if the guy had any credentials... I did this by saying my uncle lived close by and was after a plumber so I'd like his business card to pass on.

When I asked for a business card he didn't have one. So I said "ok fair enough, which company is it"...

"oh I don't work for a company"

"so you're not a plumber?"

"I AM a plumber, blablala"

So then the landlord steps in and says "I don't know why you're interrogating him"

And I said "I'm not, I'm just asking who he works for so I can pass his details on..."

Then the landlord started getting irate and said "Ok well nevermind I am going to get these reports written and you'll be hearing from my solicitor"

So then I started getting angry and swore at him, which I shouldn't have done but when I'm wound up I get wound up.

Anyway, I had a cuppa tea and a cigarette and calmed down, then got confirmation of the new house and we've handed in our notice today to leave the property. Can't wait to get out of here!

I've just got off the phone to the DPS (deposit protection service) and told them we're leaving the property in 28 days time and we wanted to make them aware of it.

I also asked when the deposit was received by the landlord and he said it was March 2009.

We moved in in July 2007. By law the landlord must give each tenant details of where and how the deposit is being protected 14 calendar days after the tenant moves in to the property. I'm not going to do the maths here but as you can tell, it's not 14 days after. Another thing I noticed which is a bit strange is that on the DPS letter detailing the deposit details he has put down the start of the tenancy as being the 1st of June 2008.

Well we've decided that we're fed up of getting threats from HIM about contacting his solicitor so we're going to take him to the small claims court to get three times the amount of the deposit back + the deposit itself. If we win it will perhaps teach him for being such a ****.

I'll keep you informed as to how this progresses.