My landlord changed my locks

Soldato
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For the last two years my wife, our child and I have been renting an appartment. We paid a four thousand pound deposit at the start of the period, and have been good renters I would think.

In December, our last month we have started to notice our landlord getting quite edgy with us, constantly asking us when we move out etc. And reminding us that we wont get our deposit back unless the appartment is returned in exactly the same condition as it was rented out to us. So we decided to withold our last months rent until we could resolve the issues he had.

I replied to this email saying, 'hi, I'm sorry but you are wrong on that, we are supposed to hand the apartment back in great condition, but allowing for reasonable wear and tear, and the contract mentions that.

Our landlord by the way is a coke head stock broker.

I didn't get a reply from him, but I did get a nasty surprise today when I went to clean the appartment and retrieve some things. He has changed the locks, and been into my appartment and removed all our stuff.

Probably about 3-4000 pounds worth. My neighbour was in and he told me that he saw them removing our stuff the other day and that they had said we were bad renters and hadn't paid our rent.

I have a contact until the end of december, and for my landlord to do that to me counts as breaking and entering if I am correct ,and possibly theft. I didnt have a hammer on me so I couldnt get break the lock, but I have messed it up.

I went down to the basement and by climbing onto the metal bars and peeking over I can see he has stored some of our stuff in the basement, but changed the lock. So I have taken the lock off the door, and will be returning in the morning for my stuff. I couldnt do it today because I had to pick family up from the airport and there was no room in the car.

I rang him, he rang back coked and drunk off his head shouting down the phone to me. What should I do? Call the police and report it? Or take my stuff and just leave it at that. I haven't received any of my 4000 deposit back, and from the jist of his coked up phone ramblings, I'm not likely do unless I go down the legal route.
 
You withheld paying money you owe to a coke head stock broker? Nice!

yes

Why did you think not paying the rent was a good idea? If anything it seems to have given the landlord the excuse he needed to take action.




It seems like we have some feeble minds on the thread so far, as legally he hasn't got a leg to stand on. You can't legally break into a tenants house with no notice, remove his property and change the locks over a late rent payment.


I witheld the last months rent (and only months), because his attitude in his emails conveyed that we wouldn't be getting out deposit back. Is that so hard to understand.

You would need to serve an eviction notice with 30 days to leave the property.

The rent was 1700 a month.
 
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You think you 'know your rights' then went for the cheap shot and withheld the last months rent from someone you are concerned about. it was always only going to end one way.

You didn't even give him a chance to not pay you. You should have at the most employed someone to provide an independent check out and survey and fought the deposit through legal action, now you are risking your belongings and stand even less chance of seeing the deposit again.

Rubbish.

Also you haven't considered the fact that after my with held rent he owes me about 2 grand. Also seeing that I have removed the lock off the basement and found most of my stuff there, that is not the issue.

Personally having the ball ache of all ballachaches to get 2 grand back isn't worth it, because he will claim till he is blue in the face all sort of reductions, and I can't be bothered with all that emotional expenditure for probably 1 grand. I don't have the time for it nowadays.

This thread wasn't started to get the money back, I have accepted that it is gone.
 
Where are you as we can't help without knowing that.

You're probably gonna get lots of advice about deposit schemes which won't apply in the crappier eastern European countries I'm guessing this is in.

Northern Europe! Around 3 months rent is standard practice here. Screwing renters out of their deposits is also, I'm afraid. I'm not trying to get the deposit back, just after all his phone ranting I want to know generally what procedure would be best to protect myself given european countries tend to follow similar legalities.
 
you rented a flat from a coke head??????

did you know he was one before you took it?

it is near christmas and he will surely want enough money for his christmas drug binges, with holding rent will make it worse.

yeh i think your in the right but if he really is a crack head you might find him and his mates high on drugs trying to kick your door in or something for his money that he will think he is entitled too if he runs out of drugs.......

also how the hell did a druggie manage to get a lock changed wtf lol

edit: sorry for been negative im drunk and screwed in the head lol

No we didn't know he was when we rented the place, he came across very professional...:)
 
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