UK Landlord Forum / Life

12 months ago I rented my house out to a friend under an AST with a 6 month fixed term agreement. For the last 6 months we've been going off a periodic month to month type thing. This hasn't been of concern to us, we didn't want my mate to move out anyway.

Anywho, to cut a long story short, things have gone a bit sour based on what he views as right and wrong and what we think is right and wrong and in particular the rental charge. A brief account is we charged £400 a month for a 2 bed semi-detached bungalow in an area where a 2 bed flat can go for £705 on rightmove. Things are now getting quite bitty as I have told him I will be serving notice.

What he is currently claiming is that if I don't pay to have his fridge/freezer returned to him, he will withhold the rent. I know he can't withhold the rent and I am ready to take this to court, but before I do I want to check this fridge issue.

The reason I am in possession of it is because our home that he rented has an integrated fridge/freezer, rendering his useless. So he offered for us to take it to our new home 100 miles away. At this point there was no agreement or any talk whatsoever of who would be responsible for returning it upon ending of the tenancy. My personal view is that seeing as we have taken a massive loss in potential rental income, coupled with the fact its his fridge that it is his responsibility to arrange the collection of it.

The question I want to ask is will this affect anything in court if it got that far (as in eviction notices)? I would like to think if it reached a judge and a hearing he would be offended and tell the lad to get lost, vacate the premises and cough up the rent arrears but you never know so I thought I'd ask if anyone could point me into the right direction of information.

Many Thanks