Witholding my rent AIBU

So this has been going on for quite a long time then? Even though you stated you were able to get on with things at work? When did your mum pass away?

Why would you decide to move to London into an expensive rented room when you had such significant financial and mental health issues? Have you got friends and family nearby that encouraged you to relocate?

There isn't any loss of room.
There is no mention of the living room on the AST.
She's paying for a bedroom and use of kitchen and bathroom
None of that has changed
Given the number of posts indicating her lack of finances it's clear that she cannot actually afford to live there.
She needs to move out

Not too ill to post here looking for loopholes.

You'll be evicted soon, that's priority, no?

You don't have proof that LL doesn't live there at all. Two rooms are AST, yours is 6 months. The other may have a similar ending date. Another room is Air BnB, your LL hasn't officially moved out at all if her stuff is also still in the house. She could have been moving in to help a relative for a few months or trialling living with a new partner for all you know.

You are taking OPs word that she paid on the dates she said, how did she pay? Are these manual bank transfers? That she can't manage to set up or cash withdrawls, if she paid cash she will need a receipt to prove she paid when she said she did and the deposit was protected late.

Your advice might be perfectly sound but you might not be getting sound information.

This. The LL can get her “let room” back, fairly easily. The OP needs to either sort out the arrears.rent or move.

@littledragon99 have you started looking for a more affordable room to rent?

On a quick look, there are plenty of rooms available for £700ish per month in West London. This might be more affordable for you?

To be honest I hope she does evict you. If your refual to address questions here is anything like the way you treat her, and we know it is as you said you're not talking, she deserves to get you out of her hair, in a legal manner. She'll be on it already. And the council won't help you.

You need to get your shit together. Fast.

Yes. And the fact that all her stuff is still there is evidence that she hasn't moved out. She's just not been staying there recently.

The landlord doesn't need to comply with the tenancy deposit legislation in order to issue a s8 order on the grounds of rent arrears.
If you pay monthly, she can issue a s8 order the day after the second month's rent becomes overdue.
If the landlord evicts you, she can make a claim against you for court costs and the bailiff costs, and you are also likely to get a county court judgement against you. It will be extremely difficult for you to rent anywhere else with a CCJ against your name or indeed even to take out a phone contract and such like. This is the road to living on the streets homelessness.
You had a contract with her-she rents you a ROOM in the house, and in return you pay rent to her. Moreover, she took a chance on you that a most other landlords wouldn't do by not taking up proper references.
You've broken that contract, and don't want to pay any rent in future. That's really despicable behaviour and ADHD is no excuse whatsoever.
If I were your landlord I'd either take advice about moving back in and adjusting your status to that of a lodger, and give you 24 hours to move out before changing the locks, and then I'd be making a claim to Money claim online. She owes you no loyalty, or consideration, nothing. Alternatively, if as a Iandlord I preferred not to move back into the property, I'd be using the services of an eviction specialist, who will without doubt evict you.
Why are you making this so difficult for yourself? You don't go shopping in Tesco and expect not to pay for your shopping- why would you rent a room and expect not to pay for it?
Renters like you make it so much more difficult for other renters. But I guess you don't care about that.
I expect the landlord is already considering her options, and will be preparing to evict you asap.

Incorrect.

In a property owned by LL whereby rooms are rented, the LL is permitted to move in themselves, in addition to renting other rooms to anyone of their choosing.

Once a LL is in residence, the tenants become lodgers under licence.

A room-only AST is different to a standard AST, rights between tenants and lodgers differ significantly.

She should get right on that ASAP.

This one is gonna bleed her dry.

As it's not the entire property, it's a room-only AST and different legislation applies to a standard AST.

The LL can legally move in and evict OP extremely easily.

It's not.

As OP is renting a room the LL can move into the property herself, OP becomes a lodger under licence not a tenant and the legislation changes completely.

Even if the OP does pay her debt and rent in full every month the landlord will not want to keep her on as she is a very unreliable tenant. Even if she does get 3 x the deposit back as compensation, most of that will be eaten up by rent arrears and legal fees. And she'll still be evicted with not enough money for a deposit for a new place.

She needs to stop playing stupid power games with the landlord, and get her head out of the sand and start looking for somewhere else to live now.

In deed. The advice Is all good and well for a genuine victim of. A shit landlord. But ops not.

she is a not paying, late when she does pay freeloader terrible tenant who makes genuine good tenants suffer due to bad experiences with people like her.

You've given the OP a lot of information on how to avoid being evicted for as long as possible, but how do you suggest she finds somewhere else to rent after she is evicted? Which she will be, however long she manages to drag the process out for. She will have history of late payment and withholding rent, and I can't imagine her employer will be willing to give her a reference again either.

People seriously need to stop giving the op all that things about the landlord as if she has ammo.

regardless the op will eventually be evicted. Even if the landlord have to give other full deposit plus some. The overall outcome is eviction. Unless op pays all her debt and then pays on time in full every month.

The legislation says different but im sure you’ve taken this to court and had you opinion validated? No section 21 can be valid without return of the entire deposit, if it wasnt protected or, as in this case, it was protected late. It also wont ve valid if the prescribed information wasnt served and that cant happen once the deposit is paid out from the tds and returned in full to the tenant. It has to be returned in full before a section 21 can be valid because she protected it late. Thats what the leguslation says. She will also be automatically liable for a minimum of £2,400 plus the deposit in full by way of compensation and up to £7,200 for late protection of deposit and not providing the prescribed information. That’s not made up, it is the legislation. Even a judge can’t say no all they can do is award the minimum of £2400 or anything inbetween up to the maximum of £7200. It still won’t make a section 21 valid until the deposit is returned in full and the prescribed information is issued. Show me I’m wrong. I can quote the necessary legislation if needed or just post a link to the court case I won?

Even if you get out of paying your rent and hang on till the bailiffs get there, you will still end up with no where to live and the local authority will have no obligation to house you. The only way to sort this is to pay your rent, even if you end up finding somewhere else to live , because otherwise no one else will rent to you either.

If you’re sure this is the total you owe then no it would seem until you owe £2400 she can’t serve a section 8 and even then as long as you get it back under £2400 by the court date, it will fail. I notice you said also about your concern of her moving back in and therefore becoming a resident landlord? You have an ast. I will check the legislation to make sure I’m correct in what I’m saying but from memory your LL would need to evict you first before she can legally move back in as she can’t change your tenancy type and moving in would change you to a lodger with almost no rights. She also can’t ever change the locks on you. Only a high court bailiff under high court order can do this! Moving back in would be seen as intimidation and I’m pretty sure that whole scenario is illegal, I don’t just mean against the legislation, I mean downright illegal, call the police to have her removed, illegal. If I don’t pm you in the next day, remind me as I also have adhd and when I hyper focus on something like this I can be lost for days!