Hi all -
I know this may be a long shot but just looking for some general advice. As a side note it is just myself and a female friend living in the flat & I am currently pregnant which makes me worry for my safety even more.
It's a long story:
We have been renting our flat since last August and renewed our tenancy contract in January for another six months. Originally I assumed we had a clause in the contract that we could leave with a months notice but it turns out we do not and are liable for the flat until August 31st. The area is horrible and have had to call the police previously for things going on outside. There are 6 flats in the property - 4 of us are on the first floor and the other 2 flats are on the second floor. About a month ago I heard a lot of crashing and banging from the floor upstairs, was about to go up and investigate when a man I'd never seen before came downstairs and said "don't worry its nothing". Turns out both flats had been broken into and when the police turned up they told us that the doors are basically like chipboard, they were never built to be external doors and even the door to the whole building can be opened with a credit card. The policeman said that we should get on to our agency (we have no contact with the landlord, all rent payments and issues go through the letting agency). The woman who runs the agency pretty much does it as a hobby - the office is in her back bedroom and she has the customer service skills of a wasp. We were left without power for over 50 hours in January because she refused to acknowledge the emergency power company and said it wasn't her problem. Anyway, the estate agent left the upstairs tenants without a front door for two days & we have all been shrugged off when questioning the safety of the building.
To make matters even worse, bizarrely, there is a bathroom accessible on the first floor corridor. Apparently the off license down the road owns the key to this toilet which means they give it out willy nilly to their friends/customers and countless times I have bumped into random men in our hallway who've been to use the toilet or just used the corridor as a social club, smoking away. This is why I didn't question the guy who turned out to be a burglar as unfortunately we are use to strangers.
Neither myself nor my flatmate were told about this extra bathroom - we found out once we had been there a while and noticed strange men coming in and out. I would not have moved in if I had known this.
I have been away for a few weeks and it now transpires that chunks have been pulled out of our front door and big chunks of the door frame for our flat's front door have been prised out as tho someone has either been trying to get the lock out of the door or force the door open with something. We have e-mailed the pictures to the agency but I am really stuck as to what to do. We had already e-mailed the agency prior to this to see if we could move out in June and they said as a gesture of goodwill they will put the flat back up to rent. If suitable tenants can be found we are allowed to move out and if not then we are still liable right up until August.
I do not feel safe there at all and I do not want to be there. It is unsafe and I'm uncomfortable leaving the flat empty. I was actually home at the time of upstairs break in and a door that is on the upstairs landing and is parallel to my upstairs corridor (we have a duplex) was also booted. The thought that those men could have got into my flat when I'm home alone there terrifies me.
Anyway I was just wondering if anyone could suggest anything or knows what we could do!?