I am renting and need some advice

[futuremum]

Hello!!

I have been renting this property for nearly 10 months now. I have signed a contract for 6 six months, contract which expired the 25th of June. Since that date, i did not hear from the agency so thought it was cool.
I have a very fussy landlord, who refused to have the 3rd bedroom done as a nursery for the baby. Basically, his house needs modernising big time but he is not ready to do anything about it. For example: there are loads of trees in front of the windows downstairs, which means we never have any light during the day, so we spend all our time upstairs otherwise we get depressed after 5 minutes being downstairs. The wallpapers are from the 60s-70s and the curtains are dark velvet colours which makes the place even darker. He forbade us to take his furniture to the garage to put our own and we respected that. The shower unit did not work for months, could not get any warm water and the shower unit dates from the 70s, there is only one tap to turn and if you want more hot water you need to decrease the flow of the water, which made having a shower not very practical. Those are just a few examples of the state of the house, which is not bad but need modernising and brightening up!!
We agreed not to change anything, to leave the horrible 70s yellow paper with embroided flowers on the wall for the nursery and those horrible pink curtains( knowing am having a boy lol). The landlord keeps turning up without warning us because the neighbour is his mate(shall i precise the neighbour tells him evrything that we do...), i mentionned it to the agency but nothing has happened. The agency came 5 times since we moved in to inspect the house....

Anyway, we received another contract from the agency to be signed starting from the 25th of September for another 6 months(it should have had started from the 25th of July) and i do not want to sign it. i do not want to be tied up another 6 months in this place. Can I stay without signing the contract and once i have found somewhere else i would just give one month notice or do i have to sign the contract?
The landlord knows am looking for buying a house.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for any advice.
Nathalie

 

[littlebump]

I think that by not issuing you with a contract in July when it was due, your landlord has inadvertently given you rights he wasn't aware of. Also, I thought landlords had to give you an option to take monthly contracts after an initial 6 month period.

Unfortunately I am no expert, but recommend you speak to the citizen's advice bureau who seem to be particularly knowledgeable on the area of tenants' rights. Ask specifically about monthly contracts, which is what my sister has always done - it means you don't have to pay the agent another admin fee and you have greater flexibility.

Best of luck

LBxx

 

[Zor-El]

we rent our house your landlord cant come round anytime he likes he has to give you atleast 24 hours notice you could contact ur local council who will check ur property out if u think its over priced and i dont know about ur council but ours take into account the mordern fixtures as part of it plus ur landlord should have the up keep of plants and trees unless it says otherwise in ur contract wether its out of date doesnt matter as its not ur up to u to keep them to dates its his and im sure that ur rights are always give one month notice so u can claim ur deposit bk hope ive helped hun i really would check with ur council though

 

[melanieyeah]

look in your local paper too hun, there are always bargain properties in there, just make sure you pay for what you get, but I wouldnt sign it. go to teh c.a.b they will help you, and good luck!
My ex landlord let me decorate the house as what i wanted so long as it was neutral by when i left, so your looking for that flexibility in your new landlord.

 

[Amanda]

Hi Futuremum, I am in a similar situation to you, unfortunately not pg yet, but renting a house from people that live in the 70's! I was told by the letting agent when he showed me round that I could decorate, as long as it was neutral. Then when I removed their breakfast bar from the kitchen, so I could fit my table and chairs in, they went nuts! All that was involved was removing 6 screws from the wall, the holes are still there, the bar, chairs and fixtures are all in the shed, and will take 5 mins to put back. When I told the letting agent this, he said that I was not allowed to remove any fixtures without prior permission, same as decorating! Turns out that I'm not allowed to decorate at all. My poor 12 year old daughter is living in a bedroom with 1980 red, grey and black stripe wallpaper! And the small room (which hopefully will be a nursery of srts in a few months) is lovely yellowing chipboard!

Anyway, the point of my rant is that I signed the inital tenancy agreement in May 2004 for 6 months. I then signed for another 6 months in November 2004. So it was up for renewal again this May. They came to inspect after giving me notice, and were happy, so said they wanted to give me 12 months this time. Well, when reading the contract, I noticed it had changed. In this one, it said that I could leave by giving them 1 months notice in writing, anytime during this 12 month period. When I queried whether this worked both ways, I was told that it did, but this was the law. If you have been given an extension on a 6 month contract, you now only had to give one months written notice to vacate. Well, I'm pretty crap with paperwork, and we're now almost in October, and the contract (signed) is still in my laptop back that I bring to work everyday ready for me to post!!! As they haven't chased it, if we do decide to leave, they haven't got a leg to stand on as there is no contract between us. So it's staying in my bag!

Definitely speak to the CAB on this one, I'm sure you will have rights.

 

[Lgibson2370]

I work for a property management company. I rent houses to other people. Of course i work in the us so it might be different. We have to give atleast 24 hours notice before we enter anyones house unless it is an emergency situation. also if we do not send out a renewal form then we are agreeing to let them go month to month. If a renewal form is sent out it should be dated back to the original date that the other contract ended. if you need more advice please email me [email protected]
hope that helps.