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Our Landlord is also the father of our housemate, we had a problem with the housemate and the landlord obviously took the side of his daughter we have been forced to find an alternative place to live but in the mean time the daughter is still causing deliberate issues if we say anything we get accused of bullying if we contact the landlord we get a torrent of abuse told its not a landlord issue and that we are picking on his daughter and told we can leave earlier if we want he has been completely impartial, and threatens house inspections every time we say something we are feeling extremely vilified and has caused a decline in my partners health from all the stress, this even continued while i was in ill in hospital emails going back and fourth between landlord and my partner accusing her of all manor of things. situation is getting out of hand really hoping someone can help us Thanks
Optional Information: Province/Country relating to question : United Kingdom Already Tried: local council private tenancy advisor
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Hi we both have separate standard tenancy agreement in place which covers all the usual things of living in a shared house. we also rent separate rooms within the house so are effectively separate tenants the issue we highlighted was that the other tenant/landlords daughter allowed a guests into the property (boyfriend) who then used our property and damaged an item was also extremely disrespectful to both myself and my partner. we spoke to the daughter who said it was our problem and we "HAD to be nice to him" (we where never anything less than civil given the circumstances) this then escalated to the daughter making up rule about what we could or could not do within the house contrary to the tenancy agreement like not allowed to put saucepans in the dishwasher or that the tumble drying had to be unplugged when not in use even if switched off at the wall, it then turned into personal attacks on my partner about her weight or spending habits. we took all this too the landlord who then started making claims about our misuse of the property that we had been bullying his daughter and intimidating her and even that we had in one email been "living harmoniously" on one day he left a message on my voicemail unprovoked saying if i didn't call him immediately he would pay me a visit. all parties got together for a meeting on the 14th of feb to iron out the problems for the next month or so while we lived out our notice. the conditions where we all stuck to a rotor of cleaning which the daughter hadn't been doing my partner asked her if she would be doing the cleaning to which she refused to do any cleaning as "no one else had" (all sounds very petty i know) now once again we have been accused of bullying and intimidation etc etc and emails telling us "we can leave early if we want to" and that he will inspect the property on the 7th of march which he has threatened in the past as a way of visiting the property and confronting/intimidating (i know he is allowed to visit the property when he likes) i wish there was enough time to give you every email text etc but just hoping for some advice on what we can do to minimize the hassle before we move out and ensure that he does not attempt to withhold our deposits unfairly, there are a number of other problems specific to the landlord such as visiting the daughter for covert inspections and throwing out food belonging to us during these visits as it was past its sell by date Hope you can help we've payed for the unlimited questions thing if you need any more information
thank you. What would be your ideal outcome in the circumstances?
we would like some legal clarification of where we stand, and if possible any option to ensure that damage deposits are not withheld unlawfully my partner has lived in the property since july 08 and i since july 09 and until recently we have had no problems is there any claim we can make against the landlord in terms of breaches to the tenancy agreement (or in law) quiet enjoyment of property etc i want to be able to say 'back off' basically so we can live in peace until we move out and that it is ensured that his daughter also doesn't try to make our lives as difficult as possible as she is currently doing as i said my partners mental health has been greatly effected by all this and i want to ensure that it doesn't get any worse before we move out. we are moving out but this is obviously not good enough or quick enough for them and they want to just keep putting the boot in.
No problem. Two final questions please:
I have a full series of emails between me/my partner and landlord detailing all complaints have tried to keep it all on paper as much as possible as to keep a paper trail fixed tenancy has expired and we are on rolling month to month also have a recording of the voice mail
thank you. As you have both signed separate tenancy agreements you have far more rights and you would do if you have both signed the same one.The landlord is liable to you vicariously for the other tenants behaviour as he has failed to provide you with peaceful quiet enjoyment of the property as is his common law duty And he is therefore in breach of contract. The other tenant is also liable to you under the tort of nuisance. You could decide to pursue either for compensation. As to the amount of compensation to you, it is difficult to say without knowing the extent of the issues you've experienced that they sound relatively extensive. the compensation you could potentially attempt to claim may be in order 25% or maybe more for the pro rata period in which you have experienced issues.As the landlord's entry into the property, ordinarily this may be a criminal offence have a he will likely argue that he was invited all of these to given permission to enter via his daughter and I therefore would not pursue this avenue is it is likely to be a nonstarter.The other issue which you need to be aware of is that as your tenancy has become a statutory periodic tenancy, namely a month-to-month tenancy, the landlord can serve you with two months notice to quit the property providing such notice expires the day before rent is payable under the agreement and providing to clear months notice is given. It is not have to give a reason doing this and therefore if it is your desire to stay at the property, you need to weigh this in the balance.
Experience: LL.B (Hons), Prof Dip Law & Practice. 9 years experience in private practice in England
as spurious claims of bullying have been made against us could it not be claimed that we had been a nuance to the other tenant ? (although as the other tenant doesn't pay rent they haven't lost out financially to make a claim) the landlord will also claim that we have breached the tenancy agreement by making his daughters life difficult? could he then use this to void parts of the agreement that are not covered in law? an issue i have been reminded of is that the tenancy agreement lists the garage as "private space" but all tenants have a key and store stuff there, the landlord tried to claim we had breached the tenancy agreement by doing so? sorry to be such a pain the landlord doesn't read anything properly and will come back with all manor of arguments given his track record
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we have given notice and are leaving on the 24th of march but in the mean time they wont leave us alone which is the major issue we just want to be left to leave in peace, and avoid further decline in my partners mental heath (severe depression as a result)
Thank you you've been a great help
pleasure.