UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello,

My situation is quite long winded, so please bear with me.

In March 2018 I moved into a houseshare found on spare room.com. We verbally agreed to a 3 month contract with rolling 1 month thereafter. The landlord sent me a blank contract as an example prior to moving in and said we would sign an official one. Upon moving in I was provided keys by his business partner, who promptly left. No contract was provided.

The contract sent as an example was a "lodgers agreement" stating the landlords address as being the same as the rented property. However, the landlord does not have a room here and has never stayed, though there is a spare room which is clearly not lived in.

I knew my stay here would be brief so I just decided to stay for a few months to suit my needs and move on. The landlord has only been to the property once and makes contact with us entirely via WhatsApp.

At the end of July, I provided 30 days notice via WhatsApp, as well as leaving a signed letter at the property with his mail. He responded to the WhatsApp notice with a thumbs up and offered no challenge or question. He has not yet collected his post. 10 days after providing this notice he has accused me of underpaying my rent as notice hasn't been provided.

My predicament here is that the only contract terms we have to work with state notice should be in writing and the contract states his address as this one, however he doesn't collect his post here often.

He is now threatening action for underpayment.

I will also add, that I paid a deposit which has not been placed into a protection scheme. My suspicion is that he is claiming we are lodgers and therefore don't require deposit protection, whereas my knowledge would suggest that we entered into a verbal AST when rent was paid and keys handed over, as he does not live at the property, so would require deposit protection.

My main query is regarding my notice, as he is trying to lengthen my notice by not enabling me to provide it as required. Where do I stand?

Thanks in advance. Happy to answer further queries if required.

You've served one month's notice in writing at the landlord's address - that is to say the address he gave you, so you've complied with the agreement and he has no case in law against you. If he wants to argue that it's not his address, then he'll just be digging himself an AST-shaped hole.