Witholding my rent AIBU

[littledragon99]

I'm a woman in my late 40s, living in a 3-bed Victorian terrace in West London, where I pay £1,200 a month with all bills included. I signed an AST in May.
I work in recruitment and DJ on the side. Despite being skilled in my job, financial difficulties have arisen following my mother’s death, and I've struggled with timely rent payments. I’m currently in therapy to manage my depression.
Recently, my landlady has begun Airbnb-ing the living room, removing the communal space I was paying for. Given this change, I believe the £1,200 rent is no longer justified.
Additionally, she inappropriately contacted my boss, (my boss was my reference) about paying rent directly and has threatened eviction. I’ve consulted Citizens Advice and suspect my deposit wasn’t placed in a Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), which may breach legal requirements.
Due to these issues, I’ve withheld my rent since August 1st and am prepared to take further action if needed.

so basically the landlady is stuck with a non paying tenant and it will cost the landlady to get rid - through no fault of her own

oh well I suppose that teaches the landlady never to accept someone without all the credit checks etc as it had backfired on her kindness / stupidity

and the op will take advantage and not pay any rent at all until the day the bailiffs arrive...

It's part of being a landlord. I would say don't become a landlord if you don't want to obey landlord/ tenant law.
Would we really want to go back to a time when landlords could just chuck a tenant on the street?

Eviction takes AGES. if you don't need a landlord reference on the future you could withhold rent and wait up the 6-12 months while she evicted you. My nextdoor neighbours seem to do it with every new tenant, it's a way of life for some people

But otherwise I'd look to move out, don't bother trying to negotiate with her or claiming your legal rights, you'll just be robbed off for months, seen as a difficult tenant until eventually handed a no fault eviction anyway.

Then she has failed in her duty as a LL and the fine/compensation legislation is still applicable. Did she ever provide you with the prescribed information? Or the details of where you could find it at least? I’m guessing probably not since she will know she was late in doing it and has left herself open to a court claim. Firstly if it wasn’t protected in line with the legislation then no section 21 can be valid until she returns the deposit in full. If she serves one do not tell her! Wait until the court date to bring it to the judges attention. Your ast states she has to give you two months notice. There are very specific rules on when the section 21 can be served, when the notice must begin and end etc. also you mentioned you’re two weeks in arrears but your ast says you have to give a months notice? If you pay rent weekly your ast should say you have to give a weeks notice? So it seems as though this LL has made the usual error of using a cut and paste ast for a unique situation and as such, has likely made many other mistakes. This is all in your favour. Use each of those mistakes to get the section 21 thrown out. She will have to serve again with another 2 months notice each time. As long as you pay your rent on time and never fall into more than 8 weeks arrears she can’t use a section 8 for eviction and she can’t serve both at the same time she has to make a decision. If she serves a section 8 and has it thrown out then serves a section 21 she has to accept that the rent owed is lost. That’s because a section 21 is a no fault eviction. Anyway, doing this can extend your ast long enough for you to save some money and find somewhere more affordable to live, should you choose. However, theoretically, with no prescribed information having been issued (which is why I said in an earlier reply, not to tell her!!) until after she returns the deposit in full, the prescribed information can’t be issued after the deposit is removed from the scheme and returned and so a section 21 can’t ever be valid. I’m not sure this has been tested in court yet but that’s certainly the way the legislation reads. Had I not decided to move, I certainly would have been testing this in court at the same time that I won my £11,000 compensation! So pay your rent on time but pay less for the loss of the room. Do not allow the shortfall to go above 8 weeks rent in total. You have up until the moment you walk in to court for a section 8 eviction to reduce it below 8 weeks and it will get thrown out. Keep the deposit information to yourself, do not be tempted to use it and tell her as you will be giving her time to cover her arse. There is no defence in court and she will be liable for compensation there is no option for the judge to do anything else, he HAS to award a minimum of 1x the deposit plus deposit returned and up to 3x plus deposit returned. That is my advice based on my own personal experience and I’m happy to help walk you through it including relevant legislation, timings etc if you want to pm me

That’s illegal.

@littledragon99 - again - what were your living arrangements prior to moving into this property in March?

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

She should get right on that ASAP.

This one is gonna bleed her dry.

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.

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.

My AST is for bedroom only plus kitchen & bathroom. So the LL can just move back into another bedroom whenever she wants since they are Airbnb?

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.

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.

I lived in Oxford but got my flat repossessed as my business went tits up when I lost my mum. Hence bad credit rating

@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?

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

No I’ve been ill for 2 weeks