SMF - Just Installed!

Wrong Contract_need help

Started by Elly Jeon, July 17, 2022, 09:35:27 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Elly Jeon

It's been almost a year since I came to England. I'm a tenant. I have lived since September 1st, 2021, and it will be a year soon.
I recently got to know this blog and your posts were very helpful. Thank you.

I'm talking to the landlord about extending the contract. The landlord asked me to raise the rent.
By the way, I found out that my house rental contract was not justified through the information here.
I gave three times the monthly rent as a deposit, and he didn't give me the DPS information. I don't know if it's being protected.

jpkeates

Most of that isn't legal, so I suspect that your landlord is happily ignoring the law and not much you ask for will be addressed (and if you ask for it to be made legal, the chances are you'll be told to move out).
You might be able to get help from the local authority or the Citizens Advice Bureau might be able to assist, or point you to an organisation who specialises in these cases.

A tenancy deposit can't be more than 5 weeks rent.
The £2500 cleaning fee is actually an additional deposit, which also needs to be protected (and the deposit plus that fee are both subject to the 5 week limit).
The Early Termination fee is a prohibited fee (it has to be limited to the landlord's actual costs).

Elly Jeon

Thank you for your advice.
When I signed last year, I asked for a 22-month residence contract, but the landlord usually signed a one-year contract, so he said if there was no problem, I would like to renew the contract a year later. The landlord also said in an email that he wanted us to live long.I have to stay in this house until June next year.

Currently, he has sent me a message to raise the monthly rent and extend the contract.
But if I tell him that I want a legal contract, can he tell us that he won't make an additional contract? Our current one-year contract is due on August 31. If he asks me to move out, it will be hard for me to find a house to move in.
Would it be better if my choice was to extend the contract as it is now and to report the illegal to the local authorities? Actually, I thought it would be better to give him a chance to make it right.

Hippogriff

Quote from: Elly Jeon on July 18, 2022, 10:41:26 AMActually, I thought it would be better to give him a chance to make it right.

Be careful.

It sounds (from what you say) like your Landlord is what we call "dodgy". Giving him a chance to make it right may not result in the outcome you want... it might easily result in something else that we call "illegal eviction". Yes, this is even worse behaviour than what you have experienced so far... but I fear when you have a Landlord who (at least) appears to be OK with breaking numerous laws, guidelines and bans - he could respond in an unpredictable way.

You need to decide whether you can suffer with the way things currently are for just less than a year. The next time you rent somewhere you won't make the same mistakes. If you decide to take this further, I think no-one could blame you, but you need to be prepared for consequences - a Landlord can act fast and unilaterally in taking action that doesn't work out well for you - but the support you might expect you can be sure of getting from, say, the Council or the Police... is unlikely to be as instant and sure-footed and you taking morally correct action by "rocking the boat" could result in you falling out of it [the boat].

Unless your living conditions are horrendous anyway, and you have nothing to lose... I would contemplate your next move.