Tenants Should Know Their Rights

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Although the UK housing market may be on its knees, the rental market is still solid and holding its own. Owning a house is the best way to feel secure within your living environment, but renting a house is very convenient and alleviates the stress and financial costs that come with replacing or maintaining a property. Tenants should know their rights at all times in order to protect themselves against unscrupulous landlords and the laws. You would be surprised how many times tenants sign on the dotted line without even a glimmer of understanding of terms and conditions.

Short Hold Tenants

There are a wide-variety of different tenancies for sub-letters, agricultural workers, students in halls and many other variations with contrasting rights, responsibilities, terms and conditions. It is imperative to understand which one covers you. Be careful if you have a short hold tenancy (which is the most common), because you can be easily evicted and it is very difficult for you to protect your rights. The assured short hold tenancy scheme was installed by Margaret Thatcher, who made it possible for landlords to gain more power over their tenants, creating the buy-to-let market we have experienced over the past fifteen years. Remember, a landlord cannot evict you if you have a fixed-term contract and a stated period of rental, unless he convinces the authorities that you have broken the terms of the contract. Breaking the terms can involve repeatedly playing loud music in the early hours of the morning, trashing the contents of the house/apartment or basically annoying your neighbours.

Landlord Responsibilities

Just because the landlord owns the property does not give him the right to interfere with your privacy or business. You should be given notice regarding when the landlord is likely to visit you, and they are not allowed to turn off the gas, electricity and water. The landlord may also not allow other tenants to bully you, threaten to kick you out or tell you which friends can or cannot visit you. If the landlord breaks the above conditions, you should be within your rights to withhold paying the rent until the problems are resolved. Your landlord is responsible for upholding the safety and keeping the property fit for you live in. Although it is your responsibility to keep the property in good condition, your landlord will have to ensure the gas boiler is safe and working properly, the electrics are safe, the furniture is fireproof and the exterior of the property is maintained.

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  • What are my tenants rights? What to expect?

    We have moved into uncleaned house. The agents promised to clean it before we move in though. We got the inventory list two weeks later only. The paper was not up to date. It looked as it was made for the previous tenants as some inventories did not exist anymore. We have made more than 600 photos to show in which state the house is. The agents described many inventories as in excellent conditions which in fact were just in good or even poor condition. The washing machine was smelly and mouldy (still a bit), the oven is dirty and still not cleaned by the agents, the boiler has a hole from erosion (the landlord accused us of damaging it). He also told us there ws no troubles before we moved in. We told him he should have looked after his house then he would not have problems with the appliances. Also, he says the agents are his friends but blames them for not doing their job. We do not know what to do. May be we should look for a new place. We like the house but the landlord is rude and the agents are not willing to do their job. What if the landlord will take our deposit when we move out? They the landlord and the agents behave strange. I wonder what are our rights as the tenants in this case. Many thanks!
    Have forgotten to add I am the UK but thank you for the answers from the US anyway!
    Firstly you need to go right through the property using the inventory, and make all the damage, damp, marks on the inventory correcting what is not right. Don't forget to check the windows open correctly and the doors shut in each room.
    In the kitchen make sure all the appliances work, and note the condition. Also do the front and rear gardens. When you have done this ASAP, copy the inventory and take one to the agent. Make sure you both sign and date each page. Make notes on your copy regarding when the inventory was given to you. Also on the agents copy, make that as the inventory was 2 weeks late being given to you, it has be checked and corrected and you require this inventory be taken as the state of the property when you moved in.
    You say the boiler has a hole in it, do you have a current Gas Safety Certificate? This is a legal requirement and must be done every 12 months.
    Have the agents given you the details of where your deposit is being held, it should be in a Tenants Deposit Scheme. Check this out on the web.
    Good luck, let us know how things go,

  • I've mice in my flat, what can I do?

    Don't answer to use a mouse trap or poison, it's not the purpose (I dit it, of course).

    First of all, my flat is tidy and clean... It's good to precise!

    I keep having mice, surely the flat is not tight and there is a coffee in the same building so everyday there are a lot of bins in the bin area, that's why I think the buildink is infested and invaded by mice.

    So it's kind useless to keep killing them without do anything else and it's begining to be disgusting! Understandable.

    I just arrived in the UK so I don't know tenants rights. I rent my flat to a landlord through a property agency.

    - Is that the tenants or landlords duty to take care of the sanity of their building?
    - Is there a building owners syndicate in the UK (an association with all landlorsd of my building)?
    - Can I make check the flat to the concil (or anithing else) to demonstrate it's unhealthy?
    - What are my legal possibilities and rights and what should I do to make the problem solved?

    Thanks!
    Ask the Land lord to take care of it, write alerter to the Coffee informing your problem and he must know how to tackle it.
    write to the municipality if no actions taken by the Landlord or Coffee, at last sue them.

    Before all this for your safety and comfort do call a pest control fro immediate solution and pass on the bill to the Landlord.

  • My rights as a tenant?

    A couple of us are having problems with a landlord in a previous shared house. (It gets a little complicated) before i moved in a part of the kitchen ceiling collapsed, due to leaky pipes in the shower. However when i moved in i was assured it would be fixed as in the contracts it states the landlord is responsible for structure damage etc. 3months past and the situation worsened and we haven't even seen the landlord or heard of a fix date. British gas came round and cleared a blockage..we never found out what was the blockage it just said blockage. Ever since the landlord jumped on the band wagon and said it was our fault and was in the process of changing letting shops..the new letting shop he moved too started giving new tenants keys to our rooms when no one had moved out which was frustrating and i assume illegal. Also a new plumbing service arrived which we found out is closely related to this new letting shop. They have put blatant lies in their reports saying it was hair that caused the ceiling to collapse but they have no proof and british gas had removed a blockage before this new plumbing service got a sniff in. They also said they caught a tenant letting the shower overflow which is also a lie because no one was in the shower when they turned up. So it all seems suspicious. So everyone moved out and 2 months later the landlord has come up with a bill for various things like he wants money from everyone for cleaning the rooms (my room was spotless i do not know what he is spending the money on) and of course the ceiling and shower....i feel that this is outrageous none of us should have to pay, he is trying to bleed us dry. its ahrd to find legal advice so i ask you out there, do you think we are obligated to pay him? he never fixed the ceiling (oh there was mouse problems too which he never did anything about) In my view he never held up his end of the bargin so why should we?
    Your thoughts?
    Thankyou, the only problem in my area is CA has 3 month waiting list to go see them for advice :(
    My advice would be to go to the Citizens Advice Bureau. They have lots of access to various different professional people whom I am sure will help you find out what you need. They often have restricted hours so give them a call first. You will find them in the phone book, or use your computer to locate the nearest office. Good luck

  • Can I ask my neighbour to stop slamming their doors?

    I live in a flat and about two weeks ago a couple of women moved into the flat below. Practically all the time I'm at home, they're always slamming their doors. They will slam a few times, which really knarks me off, and then it'll stop for a short while... just long enough for me to start getting settled, either at my PC or watching TV... then *SLAM*! Every time they do it, it shakes my flat regardless of which room I'm in. I really want to go down there and ask them to stop, but although it angers me, I'm not sure that I have any right to. Let me explain:

    My tenancy agreement (which will be the same as what they have) says that no excessive noise should be made after 11pm and before 7:30am. I don't hear any slams between these times.

    All the doors in the block of flats are hard fire doors that have a small chain at the hinge that makes the doors close automatically, so slamming could be expected. I think it's for safety reasons or something.

    The only thing that I have in the tenancy agreement that might work for me is this line:
    "The Tenant cannot: engage or threaten to engage in conduct that is capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to a person living in the locality of the Property or engaged in lawful activity in the Property or in the locality of the Property (this includes loud music or other noise which can be heard outside the Property between 11pm and 7.30am or which will cause annoyance or annoy anyone at any other time)"

    It is worth noting that I have lived here long enough to know the two previous tenants of the flat below me, and neither of them have ever slammed their doors, but if the current tenants were to argue against the door slamming, could this clause in the tenancy agreement be enough to make them stop?

    Thanks.
    If I were you, I wouldn't say anything to the tenants, it just may cause a problem. But what I would do, is write a letter to the landlord and request that he/she notify the tenants that slamming the doors are a bother to others, and that they should be careful.

  • UK Tenancy , Repairs my rights as a tennant?

    my landlord wants to do some repairs on my shower cause its leaking to their other flat below , the problem is the repairs will last for 3/4 days
    leaving us without any shower facilities ,meanwhile they are asking us to take shower downstairs which is a building site at the moment.
    my view on this is i am a tenant i pay for my rent and they knew about this problem for ages and only want to fix it out cause the tenants downstairs left. and they want fo re-let it asap , we dont have to go downstairs to take shower and if they need to repair it they should pay us an hotel for the duration of the repairs. please let me know what are options do i have.
    thank you
    its only 3 days just be glad you don't live in the flat down stairs with the leek

  • can a full-time student claim LHA?

    hi all
    i've reads so many things about the LHA scheme, now i'm confused as i don't know which is true ot not.
    i know that LHA applies to private tenants who pay rent for their accommodation, right? does that mean anybody renting from a private landlord without distinction of their immigration status in the UK?
    1- a friend of mine who is an "overseas full-time student" in the UK recently got married and is keen to rent a property (1 bedroom flat in one the london boroughs where the scheme was introduced into) from a private landlord/agency. Will he be eligible for LHA.
    2- How should it work out how much council tax reduction he could get? is council tax reduction/exemption part of the Housing Benefits scheme.

    please help me to help him...accurate details only please.

    Thank you all
    I don't know about the LHA scheme but I know about counil tax because I'm a full time student who rents a shared house.

    For me, council tax is free because all four of the tenants in this house are full time students.

    For him, council tax would just be reduced because he is a full time student but his wife is not and if she will be living with him, she will be eligible too. He would just get a 25% reduction, or something along those lines.

  • Previous address on this Voter Electoral Registration Form?

    i've been sent something called an Electoral Registration Form, as a result of the fact that the landlord who owns (and also lives in) the house where i stay did not, from what i understand, declare myself or the other couple in the building as his tenants. Subsequently i have received a council tax payment book from which i am going to need to pay the tax each month from. This is fine, as i feel at least i know the council are aware of tenants in the building (as i had thought they were when i signed the lease originally), and this makes me a legit tenant (again as i thought i was had the landlord declared us all as tenants).

    However, this electoral registration form creates a problem. One of the fields on this reads: 'Supply your previous address'. I cannot do this, as i slept rough for quite some time while trying to find a decent place to rent.

    This means that i do not have an address of my own *immediately* prior to this one. I *do* have old addresses where i stayed in years gone by, but even the last address where i paid rent was one where i simply stepped in and took over some student from India's lease agreement, not changing any details on the lease / bills at all during my stay there for six months. the other tenants left once they finished their work and offered to end the lease early, which the landlord agreed to do and promptly found new tenants, meaning i had to move out in the space of one week. The subsequent period of ten months or so have seen me staying wherever i can while trying to find a decent apartment or house share.

    So, my concern is, what exact information should i put for a previous address on this voter electoral registration form? I have no immediate previous address, having stayed wherever i could wherever possible. I don't think i should put 'no fixed address' as the council apparently want to cancel previous voter registration at the address you supply them with, and so this would, i have to guess, raise all sorts of questions with them. Do i need to supply a friend's address as a previous address? Or am i supposed to just include one of my own older addresses where i was listed on the council tax form? I don't believe that i have ever even signed on to this electoral registration form, so i can't think that any council would need to remove me from their electoral database. however i don't want to get either my friends who put me up while i was battling to find a place or myself into trouble with the council starting a witch hunt trying to pinpoint each and every single one of my previous addresses.

    A wife of one of my friends has said she spoke to someone who mentioned to her that it really was not that important what was supplied as a previous address, but i find this very hard to believe. Even representatives within the council gave me separate answers. One said that if you were of no fixed address immediately prior to this, just put that. another said write nothing. a third said that including no...
    All this is for, is for credit reference agencies to check you out when you apply for credit. The Council are not interested where you have previously lived. Put down any address you like. Makes no difference legally at all.
    UK

  • I have paid the deposit and the rent in advance but not being able to sign the tenancy agreement nor move into?

    I have paid the deposit and the rent in advance but not being able to sign the tenancy agreement nor move into the property. The old tenants or people living in the house have some problems with the accommodation they are moving to. They said that they can't move out. Their tenancy agreement is expired and they did not want renew it but they are still there even when they know that the property is already rented. The State agents are avoiding me and they don't return my calls.

    It has been two weeks since I should have moved to the new property. My actual land lord wants me to go because he has new tenants moving into the flat within 4 days. I don't want to be evicted. I have a lot of stuff and I don't know what to go down that road to end in the street anyway.

    Do I have any rights?
    You do have rights. Your new landlord needs to enforce the agreement and compell the old tenants to leave. If they're having a problem with their new accomodations, they need to make alternate arrangements. If your landlord refuses to do this, you have standing to go to a reasonably priced hotel and then sue your new landlord for expenses incurred.

    Make sure everything you do has a paper trail so that all requests are via text, e-mail or letter for proof later in court.