Housing Help :(

[Dosey]

Sorry for the rant, I just really need to get this off my chest.

We are private tenants and have lived in this house for nearly 4 years. We have just been served 2 months notice from the Landlord completely out of the blue. When we asked why, we were told the Landlord is concerned about the house deteriorating due to us having dogs. I will mention here that we have permission to have the dogs and have inspections every 3 months which have always been 'in order' (we have kept copies of all the reports luckily).

The Landlord then said he would rescind the notice if we paid an extra £850 to be added to our deposit. We agreed to do this as we really don't want to move (especially with me being due tomorrow). The Landlord then said he wanted to wait to speak to another property manager before making a final decision (the manager in question has been on Paternity Leave until today).

So, we have been kept waiting since 15th March to find out whether we are still being kicked out or not.

This is where I am looking for some advice - is he allowed to do this? We still don't know if he is going to rescind the notice or not. Therefore, we have applied for another house just in case and our current Letting Agent has given us a bad reference so we have automatically failed the check. The Letting Agent did not have to give a reason for giving us a bad reference (they just answered 'No' when asked if they believe we are good tenants) and we believe they have no grounds in which to say this. We feel completely trapped and are very scared we will be homeless

Does anyone know where we stand on this? I will be contacting the CAB tomorrow but just wondering if anyone on here has any experience at all.

Thank you so much.

 

[Bethi22]

I can't really comment on much because I'm in the US and I'm sure it's much different than UK housing laws. But as a landlord, you don't know what I would give to have tenants for 4+ years. Obviously, the longer you live there the more wear and tear there will be but it's all worth it if you have great tenants who pay on time every month. We just had our tenants of 2 years move out of our house and it cost us about one months worth of their rent plus their deposit (2 months worth total) to fix up the house for new tenants and luckily we only went a month with the house vacant.... but I can't imagine a landlord wanting to get rid of good tenants! I'm curious how it works in the UK so I'll be paying attention to this thread. Good luck to you and I hope you can stay!

 

[nabo86]

this seems a bit rubbish..!

If you always pay up on time and get good reports on inspection I see no reason why he wants you out!

Also I would be writing to the letting agency to find out why they said no and if they can't give a good reason you should be getting someone involved cos thats just not on!

I'm sorry you're having such a stressful time especially now in your pregnancy! i'm actually feeling quite angry on your behalf!

 

[nabo86]

i also don't agree with you having to pay the extra £850 - i would definitely ask the CAB about that because I'm guessing you have a contract and can't understand how he can suddenly ask for more money as a deposit after 4 years!

 

[girlinyork]

You might be better off contacting Shelter over the CAB x

 

[Mummy_to_be87]

This might not be much of a help but my landlord has just sent me 28 days notice to move out, I am going to get it sorted out tomorrow so I can understand how stressful it is to think about having no home in pregnancy