Witholding my rent AIBU

Seems like her taking away the communal room is a bit of a result for your money problems. I don't think it warrants withholding £1200

It’s vanishingly unlikely that a landlord who had never occupied the property as his home would move in with a house full of students.
Also most student tenancies are for the same fixed term so unless one left early there would be no room for the landlord. The lounge is normally shown as a shared area in student AST’s so he wouldn’t be able to use that.
I am a landlord in a university town and I have never heard of a landlord doing this so I really don’t think you have anything to worry about.

Oh wow is this thread still here I really thought I'd find a MN notice "We've deleted this bonkers shit"

And how its escalated!

What revelations will the next post bring? We've had DJs, drugs, diagnoses, lies and deception, a midlife crises, an education on rental law, a newfound friendship (and possible new LL?), and yet more potential drama incoming with soon-to-be ex LL who is now in the vicinity and looking to throw down.. suspenseful music plays

Staying tuned for the next episode. This thread is fucking gold

I suppose this thread will be on page 40, and the Op will still be living there looking for excuses and loopholes and not paying the rent.

How convenient 🙄

Not for properties that are rented in their entirety on a standard AST.

A room-only AST is a different type of tenancy, whereby a tenant rents a room/area within the property.

Without a LL living there too, it remains a room-only AST.

If the landlord moves into one of the rooms, the tenant becomes a lodger under licence.

Hang on, does that mean that landlords can circumvent the notice period by moving into a spare room in the house. Then the AST is null and void, they are now a lodger and they can be chucked out within days? And this is legal?
Wondering if I need to be prepared with more money in case my DS's student landlord tries this stunt.

Make life very awkward but not in an illegal way. Which will be exactly why she’s moved back in. Op doesn’t like it. Though titties is a shared house.

Landlady can now see you every single damn day and it’s not harassment or breaching quiet enjoyment because it’s a shared house. It’s brilliant.

Everytime op goes to make even a cup of tea the landlady could want a simple glass of water 🤣 washing machine always full just as op needed it. Shame.

If I was the landlady I'd be throwing more than my weight around. I'd get some local 'big boys' to come around on eviction day and wait outside OPs room, knocking periodically, and asking with a menacing smile if she needs any assistance with packing.

Landlady is ‘throwing her weight around’??!!

IT’S HER FUCKING HOUSE AND YOU OWE HER £2400!

I posted a more helpful post about a hundred pages back (pre the Coke reveal) but I’m out. You’re an absolute grifter.

Have you paid up yet OP? I really hope so, for your sake.

It's £1200 per month for a room, not the whole house. The whole house is potentially let for £3600 per month.

Given that "she only moved out about 6 months ago and she still has her stuff in cupboard under the stairs" I would imagine that:

1. She downloaded it when she was still physically living there
2. It is still her permanent address. She hadn't moved her stuff out, where she was living in the intervening months (boyfriend's, family, etc.) was temporary only.

So - if you don't want to be sofa-surfing or on the streets - what do you need to do? For starters, stop treating your landlady like she's the enemy, and instead think of her as your best hope. Right now she has every reason to evict you ASAP - what can YOU do, what reason can YOU give her to not do that. You need to PAY HER WHAT YOU OWE. And you need to persuade her that you will pay in full and on time from now on. If you can do that, you could then start looking for somewhere cheaper to rent. You would need a reference from your current landlady, and to pass credit checks - which you won't if you have a history of defaulting on your rent. So you NEED her.

You may have pissed her off too much, she may think the hassle of going through the eviction process will be worth it to be shot of you. But - and it is a really fucking big and tenuous but - she may consider you paying her what you owe and you moving out voluntarily when you find somewhere cheaper to be easier on herself. I doubt she want the drama of court proceedings if she can find another route. She has shown herself in your past dealings to be fair. Too damned fair! But YOU need to do the work to make her choosing that other route possible. YOU need to be upfront and honest and pay her what you owe. Do NOT try and 'get something on her' (which you've been scrabbling for since you started this thread) because that will just ensure she will set the eviction in motion and then you're stuffed. Because once you have been evicted - and she can evict you - you will have nowhere to go.

Am I pleased that there are better protections for renters than there were back when I was renting and got ripped off with deposits? Yes, absolutely.
Are renters like you taking the fucking piss? Yes, absolutely.
Pay the fucking landlord your fucking rent because you are, rightly, soon to be homeless.
Not often many of us would say it, but best of luck to the landlord here getting the money they are owed and your freeloading backside out of their property. Fuck me this is one of the most frustrating threads I've read here.

Yes, your landlord is probably a bit dodgy. That's because no non dodgy landlord would have accepted you as a tenant. Having actually found someone who was prepared to rent to you, you needed to pay regularly and on time, and not be an arsehole, in order to get a landlord reference that moving forward would have enabled you to rent from someone less dodgy. Instead you have done everything possible to get evicted. Which will make renting pretty much impossible. And the courts won't care that you've been ill.

@littledragon99 Have you got someone to give you a reference and/or be a guarantor for your next place? How will you pay your deposit for your next place?

You will definitely have to leave your current place at some point in the near future regardless of what the landlady has/hasn't done so you need to start planning urgently, ill or not.

@littledragon99

ill ? so you won't be getting paid this month then as you said it's commission only...

at least being at home all day gives you plenty of time to pack.

"To all those saying I'm going to live in a cardboard box, I've been ill since I finished my DJ set 1st weekend of August"

You're fucking delusional! Ill with what? Class-A comedown?

What about your "day job"? Actually we should just put giant quote marks around everything you write as you are so obviously full of shit.

Where was this "DJ set", pray tell? Your dealer's bathroom?!

This is what you need to focus on.

I think the removal of tax relief on rentals made a lot of landlords sell up. That and the increase in interest rates, forced some landlords into a loss making position. Now with the govts plans to massively increase tenants rights, it's becoming less and less desirable to be a LL. Then we have this situation, which is a great warning to anyone considering becoming a LL.

Still Shocked your not embarrassed by this whole thing at your age frankly.

You come across as proud frankly.

Is this still going on?
Just pay up or move out

Give it a rest op. You’re just dragging it out.

Your a terrible tenant abusing the kindness of a landlord that forgo a credit check due to a kind boss vouching for you then you’ve been a late or non payer every bloody month.

Do one nice thing for them and just leave on the end of your tenancy date and set up a payment plan.

stop being a leach.

None of her fuck ups really count, your withholding/failing to pay rent is the issue. You’re focusing on the wrong thing. There are things you could do to rectify the situation you’ve put yourself in, nothing will help when the court hears you haven’t paid rent and your drug taking will be obvious, believe me. How about you put your energy into sorting yourself out instead?