Witholding my rent AIBU

Like I said, you're just not taking any advice on board. This thread seems pretty pointless if you are just not listening to any of the advice you've been given. In fact you are just ignoring the people who keep asking if you have heeded the advice yet and rattling on about cleaners and cupboards instead. It's a wonder how some people navigate adulthood in the real world.

You will be evicted if you don't pay your rent.

' It feels like the landlady moved out very recently since cupboards & shelves are still full of her sh**. '

sigh, what cupboards and shelves.
you are not being nosy / snooping are you

sigh oh another issue ' She also pays for a cleaner weekly who doesn’t give us notice she just lets herself in ' You didn't realise the rent which you don't pay on time and apparently never have includes cleaning ? bargain !

of course the cleaner has a key, you don't think the landlady expects professionals to be home during the day to let a cleaner in ?!!!
I guess the landlady thinks her tenants/lodgers are at work through the day.

Also OP, is your employer your guarantor? If so, that's why the LL has been in touch with them. LL wants her rent. If you don't pay it, the responsibility falls with the guarantor?

TPS rules are compensation of between 1x and 3x the deposit & a deposit cannot be more than 5 weeks rent (AST)
So the maximum a LL would have to pay back would be approx 4 months rent (England) but might be just 5 weeks and even that depends on the deposit paid.

Eviction orders can take a long time but at the end of the day, you'll be evicted and will need to find somewhere else only now you have added stress and strain to your life, have a court order against your name and no private LL will touch you.

I think you re being v optimistic if you think you'll get a years rent back.

@littledragon99 Why don't you make an appointment with either CAB or Shelter, to get some proper advice on your situation? No one on MN, knows your income or outgoings ( except your rent, which you are not paying).

There are many organisations which can assist with debt ( Stepchange?) and they will be able to advise on how to proceed, so that things don't spiral further. CAB are excellent, please do call or drop into your nearer centre ASAP. It might be that they can help you consolidate all your CC debts into one, so that you are only paying one affordable debt each month.

Communication with your LL and with those whom you owe money, is key. Keep talking to them, don't withdraw contact, it won't end well.

Rent is obviously your biggest expense. You say you don't want to move , but £1200 for a room in a shared house, does seem a lot. Have a look on Spare room for cheaper accommodation? Or look at cheaper areas?

Are you entitled to any benefits; universal credit for example? Would using a food bank help, whilst you are struggling? Again CAB can assist with all of that.

Be proactive OP, take back control. Tell your LL what's going on and then get down to CAB pronto.

Whether she's got a licence or does air bnb or anything else doesnt change your financial situation
If you want to live there then you pay the rent
If you can't pay the rent then you move
No amount of advice regarding what she has and hasn't done about deposits and licences is going to increase the amount of money you have

She can kick you out for not paying rent. Whether she moves back in or not is completely irrelevant. Same applies to the deposit scheme. And the AirBnB let.

Not sure why you're just ignoring what everyone is saying. Weird.

Find somewhere else to live that you can afford.

You're working awfully hard to try to discredit your landlady. Maybe focus on paying your rent.

This thread is actually crazy.

Furthermore your posts are full of inaccuracies - you moved in during March but signed the contract in May.
so I rather suspect the deposit was protected on time.

You said the landlady didn't live there - she lives miles away, but then you say she only moved out 6 months ago.

Pay the rent, find somewhere you can afford to live and move out.
and next time always always pay the rent make it the first thing you pay when you get paid, if you run out of money for ' life ' then you will have to use food banks until you can manage your money better.

You've really not taken any of the advice on board have you?

OP, be honest. If the living room wasn’t being let out on Airbnb would you be still be paying? Can you afford it?

' I think she’s got around this by mixing up Airbnb + ast’s - is that even legal? '

stop worrying about other issues

you are not paying your rent, it appears you never have paid properly on time - is this legal ! sort out your issues instead of wondering if what the owner of the property does

'Was it legal for her to contact my boss with out telling me first and asking him to pay her directly ?'

maybe she was actually trying to help - in light of your health issues she thought it would be easier to get paid directly from your source ?

do you realise that for some debts that the creditor can get payment directly from one's employer - i believe Council Tax is one, it's called an attachment of earnings

' Massively undermining my professional relationships ' and you are being massively unprofessional regarding your rent and forgetting to pay it.

But you are expected to pay your rent.

She can kick you out anyway, because you are not paying your rent.

If you want stability you need to move out, find a place you can afford, and pay your rent on time.

OP, if you've gathered all the information, have you had a webchat with Shelter?

My understanding is if you are consistently late paying then you don't have to be 2 months in arrears for a section 8?

' & still freaked out she might move back in when one of the airbnbs move out '

so she did live there before ?

so you are becoming concerned that if she lives there you may actually be a lodger and not a tenant ?

what you need to be concentrating on is ...paying the rent !

@Unmumsymofo

im a property owner before you come at me. I don’t have skin in the game. But I don’t come from a property owning family, and I remember the hussle 15years ago of renting. It looks bleak still…

The hustle of renting?! WTF?! There is no hustle. You choose a property you want to live in and you agree to pay rent each month to the person who owns the property. You sound as entitled and bitter as the OP.

We had a second property we ended up selling. It would have been a far better financial decision to rent it out as it would have been our pension in years to come but the prospect of renting it out and ending up with tenants like this was just soul destroying.

Depending on area this might be ok,
Some regions only need it for certain areas or more than 5 people I believe.

Op you need a plan!! What's best case scenario for you!

If you want to move and she wants you out maybe cut a deal?

You can find out all you want but you're still out on your ear in a few weeks if you don't pay rent then no one else will touch you