Bats in the belfry, windows are jammed - London flat renting, deposits & landlords

I keep a bit of lino on the floor under the bike storage bit, helps for if its been raining but tbh most of the marks on the floor are either from wine, tea or footprints.

Only real bike related wear and tear is on the hallway wall from tyre scuffs, but that generally wipes off or is easily touched in when vacating.

Smells like shite to me.

Top tip - tyre marks should come off nicely with a clean putty rubber (easily available in any art shop).

Sounds like shite to me too. Maybe the agent was 'held up' getting to yet another red traffic light in their silly little liveried car, while on the phone/playing Pokemon, on their way to meeting you?

I've been renting in London for over a decade and have never heard of that rule or seen any mention of keeping bikes in any tenancy agreement I've ever seen.

We were told the same - no bikes on the premises when I rented. I smiled and said I didn't have one. I had three.

/appropriatememeface

I've played this game before, and in my experience it's total bollocks unless it's in the contract or you've been told in writing/email prior to signing the contract.

I had a bike in the living room at a flat inspection and since it wasn't in the contract I refused to remove it.

Anyway I came here to say my landlord charged me for a guarantor check (since I have been abroad for 4 years), with an additional fee, but I have found out that it never took place. I've asked them for a refund and they've asked me to give the guarantor's details again, so they can carry out the operation. My reply is that since I've already signed the contract (which makes no mention of a prerequisite guarantor) I don't have to comply and that they should give me a refund. This is going to be entertaining...

It is in the contract.

Let us know how you get on with the guarantor check! I once was about to move in somewhere, van loaded to be told the references hadn't come back yet so we couldn't move in, and this was our fault because we only gave them the details 2 weeks ago. It took us about 20 minutes to make the necessary calls to sort them out ourselves, of course we didn't get the fee back.

I received an email on Friday afternoon saying 'we can confirm you were never charged for this'. I've emailed back their receipt. What extraordinary bullshit are they going to come up with next, that such a charge doesn't exist, that they're not actually a lettings agency at all?

Have you heard of open rent? https://www.openrent.co.uk

Minimal fees for tenants and landlords so pretty cool

Update on flea infestation/cunt landlord issue is that after him threatening to sue for defamation, passing it off to a lawyer and then offering a grand for us to fuck off he's now settled for the full amount on the provisio we don't take it forward with the authorities.

Not entirely happy about that but also don't have the patience to spend stressing over it for however many months it will take the council and ombudsman to make some kind of decision, and we're now no longer in the property so can't facilitate inspections etc.

As it stands I know he's already got one open complaint about him so hopefully he'll get fucked anyway.

Anyway, a meagre amount of success following months of inconvenience and discomfort. Fuck this country and the parasites who live off the sweat of others.

That's good news.

Take the money and grass him up anyway.

If it's part of the settlement agreement can't he then sue me?

Interesting question. Gagging orders don't apply for whistleblowers in an employment scenario but not sure how that carries over to other areas.

Interesting indeed.

It doesn't sound right that informing the authorities of illegal activity can be contracted against.

That was my first thought but then, settling something privately implies that you won't pursue the same grievances through alternative means I suppose. Either way, his lawyer has made it an explicit condition which would in itself be illegal if it limited our rights, although a lot of ombudsmen refuse to look at cases that are being heard in court so perhaps not... I guess when it comes down to it I just want a fast resolution and to move on from what's been a really shit 5 months of home life thanks to that dickhead...

can't he then sue me

Maybe. But you would have the money, and he would have to come after you for it. And you could countersue for the money that he owes you, as you would still have a claim.

I'm a big enough bastard that I'd go for it just to see what happens but my lovely gf's nerves are slightly more delicate and it would stress her out too much so I doubt I'd get the go ahead.

Oh no I got a flat in fucking Shoreditch

And I work in soho.

I'm a wanker :(

Oh and I'm keeping bikes in it regardless. Agency sneakily said I'd almost certainly get away with it.

What's the deal with eviction?

I've had massive problems with my landlord over the last couple of years mainly because I insist on being there when any repairs are done and he always wants to just access when I'm not there. On multiple occasions they haven't shown up or contacted me to let me know.

The latest is today, yesterday I received an email from him saying that there was a leak going into downstairs flat (he owns the whole building) and told me maintenance would come between 8 and 9. I stayed until 10am constantly rang the office but no one answered so I went to work. I sent an email as follows

Hi, For the 4th time I have been given a time for maintenance to visit the property for which they have failed to arrive. I tried to call the office multiple times but no one answered. I had to leave for work at 10am as I could not get a response from yourselves. Have maintenance accessed my flat today since I've been at work?
Regards

This is the standard response, it either this or a last minute family emergency which meant they missed the appointment.

Our apologies for this.
We were advised by the maintenance person on short notice that he had to attend a dental appointment and could not come in.
We can re-arrange for him to come tomorrow. Please advise what time suits you so that you can allow access.
Apologies again for the inconvenience.

i replied

Why couldn't somebody call me to let me know?
I don't need them to come at all its supposed to be for a leak into the neighbours? If they come it will have to be at 8am or in the evening after work.

their response

Further to your email, we advised you as soon as we knew ourselves.
We are increasingly frustrated by your inflexibility in respect of repairs, which causes huge problems frequently.
It must be noted and emphasised that whilst we respect your requests to be present with maintenance items, your inflexible parameters on the timescale are unacceptable.
Please note that from now on, as we have emphasised previously before it will have to be an AM or PM appointment to allow for discrepancies, delays and all sorts of other reasons that most of our tenants are happy to accept, apart from the fact that they are happy to allow us access via keys.
We cannot understand how you expect to exclusively request the time slots that you refer to tomorrow, which are unreasonable.
Furthermore when it comes to emergency works we reserve the right to access the property with very little notice. There is a leak from your property into the downstairs flat and this may take both time and resources, and if you wish to be present you will need to allow the time scale that allows our maintenance persons to carry out the works.
For tomorrow we can only come between 8am-12pm to allow for traffic conditions and the time for parts and all materials that we may require depending on what maintenance require to carry out the repairs.
Please ensure that you are present as the leak can potentially cause problems to the downstairs flat.

This real pissed me off so me reply was a bit annoyed.

You are increasingly frustrated by my lack of flexibility? I didn't request for you to come between 8am and 9am this morning, you told me that you would be coming at this time. You also failed to contact me to tell me maintenance would not be coming.
The reason why I ask for times is so someone can be present when people enter the house, this is my legal right to have 'exclusive possession' and 'quiet enjoyment' of the property. This protects the tenant, would you like strangers in your house without anyone present, who could damage or steal something without your knowledge?
The only time you can enter the property without my permission is because of an emergency, which I obviously wouldn't have a problem with. My question is, that if the leak into the downstairs flat is an emergency why hasn't someone already been round to fix it?
Every time you have missed an appointment you have never contacted me to let me know, is that because of my inflexibility? I work 10 minutes from home, if someone calls me when they are 15 minutes away I can be there to let them in.

and their last response was

the reason we have not fixed it is because you are difficult in respect of access.
This is an emergency and we will come tomorrow via keys.
Finally, you are completely misplaced in terms of your obligations in respect of your contract.
We further inform that we will not be accepting the unreasonable statements and difficulties in respect of your tenancy and it may be best forward to expire your tenancy by mutual consent. Two months’ notice is reasonable.
We further advise you that we very rarely get the difficulties that we have been getting and putting up with, with your extreme and flexile requirements and unfortunately we are unable to put up with this a anymore.
Please advise that a two month notice period is adequate as clearly this has been compelled onto us and we simply cannot and will not put up with the unreasonable difficulties.

Surely this is bullshit and I can't be evicted for this?

Sorry for the length of post, any help is really appreciated.

Edit, I've just spoken to the downstairs neighbour who showed me photos, and told them it wasn't an emergency, it's just a little intermittant dribbling down the wall.

A landlord can evict you without giving any reason at all in England.

^ This happened repeatedly to friends of mine who couldn't take the stress of being in the right but having horrible property owners. They ended up moving.

Personally I would change the locks so they can't just waltz in outside of agreed times.

Yes, but I've got a 12 month fixed term so it doesn't come in to force until the end of the fixed period?

Your landlord sounds like an incredible, incredible cunt.

Reading their emails makes me feel a seething rage - I can't imagine what you are feeling.

OK - what does it say in your contract about notice?

Here's some things you should read. And this.

Off the record, you have a reasonably strong position and can make your landlords life quite difficult should they decide to press the nuclear button.

Also, change the locks to spite them.

Fuck it @So_Gewürzt_it_hurtz I'll give you the answer:

In some circumstances, your landlord can take back their property without giving any reason.

To do this, all of the following must apply:

they’ve protected your deposit in a deposit protection scheme
they’ve given you at least 2 months’ written notice that they want the property back (‘notice to quit’) and the date you must leave
the date you must leave is at least 6 months after your original tenancy began (the one you had on first moving in)
you have a periodic tenancy – or you have a fixed-term tenancy and your landlord isn’t asking you to leave before the end of the fixed term
you haven’t made a complaint to the council about the living conditions in the property that resulted in the council serving a notice to the landlord (for tenancies starting after 30 September 2015)

Yeah, the anger is high. The Mrs has opened a bottle of wine and cooking steak to make us feel better :)

We just re-signed on the 30th of April and it's 12 months fixed term so I don't think they have a leg to stand on but tenant's rights are so terrible in England you just feel helpless.