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Original poster

Moving on Tues, Housing benefit application accepted, landlady just cancelled tenancy. What do I do, pls?

176 replies

firstchoice · 29/08/2014 21:34

I have been arranging the rental of a flat (previously used for holiday lettings).
I originally informed the landlady I would be on benefits but should be able to arrange a guarantor.
It has dragged on a bit. Landlady abroad all summer.
It then became clear I was going to struggle to get a guarantor.
Landlady not thrilled (understandably) but said to 'press on' anyway.

She sent me a signed witnessed Short Assured Contract for me to sign last week.
I did so and went to Council, gave them copy, and all paperwork for Housing Benefit and HB granted and due to start on Tues (Moving Day). Also did a 'change of circs' re my benefits (separating from H). Kids due to change school on Weds too. Moving Scotland to England. So a lot of upheaval. Separation, over Border, New schools, new home - the lot!

Yesterday, landlady said she didn't feel secure enough without guarantor and wishes to terminate our agreement. I have offered to try to arrange a family member to provide a guarantor letter / credit checks before Tues but she says, no, time was of essence, and it's too late.

What do I do please?
Am devastated.
Also, how do I stop the HB and the Benefits changes????
Will I be in trouble if they start paying me and I've not been able to move in?

OP posts:
WanttogotoDisney · 05/09/2014 23:34

Dear Vile Ex Future Landlady

I had a binding tenancy agreement which you have refused to honour in an extremely cruel manner knowing the difficulty that this has caused to me and my DC. In the circumstances I am offsetting any monies which you consider you are due for the one night we stayed in the property from the substantial damages claim that I have against you for failing to honour our agreement.

Fuck right off and never contact me again

Yours sincerely

First Choice

NeedsAsockamnesty · 05/09/2014 23:52

firstchoice

Who has told you that you cannot separate from your husband yet? Or that you are not indeed already separated.

Obviously I do not know all of your circumstances but it sounds to me like you have already agreed you are not a couple, there are quite a few circumstances under which two separated people can be living under the same roof but not be considered for benefit purposes as living together as a couple so entitled to claim as lone claimants it may be worth seeing a specialist benefit advisor (not one employed by the DWP) face to face to discuss this

RachaelAgnes · 06/09/2014 00:09

Maybe this:

'I have worked out the equivalent in rent pro-rata. Please find enclosed £19.56. This is the correct amount for a single night stay, I have not made deductions for lack of water, and the uncleanliness of the property.
Kind regards'

KeeperOfBees · 06/09/2014 00:13

Don't give her a penny or moment more of your time. She has badly let you down. Fuck that shit.

DancingDinosaur · 06/09/2014 00:45

Send her this. Hopefully it will get your message across Wink Grin

TarkaTheOtter · 06/09/2014 00:50

I think that the cost of your acclimatisation visit to the neighbourhood (including that one night's accomodation) could be one of the costs you would seek to claim in compensation from her for reneging on your contract. In other words, she can do one.

Original poster
firstchoice · 06/09/2014 10:02

thank you everyone.

I am feeling more able to stand up to her.

I do see that she feels aggrieved that I am not in the property and therefore now wants her money for the acclimatisation stay (brill phrase Tarka - thank you - for that is what it was - not a sneaky attempt at a free summer break)

She has the property let out again already for this weekend.
She only had two people (in the visitors book at least) last whole year and only 4 this year to date. I did think at the time she agreed that it must not be doing very well as a holiday let or she wouldn't want a permanent tenant. So her claim that I have 'cost her a fortune' in potential lost bookigns is not convincing to me.
Yes, it dragged on somewhat (she was abroad for 4m) and yes I was unable to provide the guarantor that she wanted but it was HER who broke the contract right before the move in date, although I had evidence of all benefits on paper.

I think I will offer a token amount. I think £100 would be ok but given I have NO money now (all benefits cancelled and in process of re-arranged which will take weeks) I might suggest £50. She can buy herself a nice lunch with that!

NeedsasockAmnesty - that's a brilliant suggestion, thankyou.
H and I have had separate rooms for some years and the marriage is well and truly dead. House not sold (last on market 2 years ago - needs to go back on) and neither of us can afford to move out solo. (Well, I can on benefits but need a LL who wont cry off at last min re lack of guarantor and they are impossible to find).

Am going to have difficulty paying mortgage and buying food next month s my ESA has reduced by £425 now I am not becoming a single parent.
I will look for an independent benefits advisor first thing Monday. Stupidly I didn't know they existed, I just believed what the DWP told me.

OP posts:
Original poster
firstchoice · 06/09/2014 10:04

Dancing

That song is bloody brilliant - so polite and so scathing! Grin

Thanks
OP posts:
Hereward1332 · 06/09/2014 10:11

I don't think you should be paying anything. Had you not been going to rent the house, you would not have stayed there at all.

IIRC she said in a previous email that she 'considered the matter closed'. She cannot then re-open part of it.

PausingFlatly · 06/09/2014 10:35

Sorry, not up to much this morning so please excuse curtness of posting and mistakes in details.

Letter could be something along the lines of:

  1. Had we stayed in the house as a holiday rental, we would have paid a maximum of £52 with no cleaning charge. Regardless of what you claim cleaner said, we did in fact only stay one night, and cleaner actually told us she was there for benefit of next person not us.

  2. This was not, in fact a holiday rental. We were there solely as a lead up to the rental contract on which you have now reneged. There was no clean linen, we slept in sleeping bags, we ate out. And we in fact cleaned up the garden - in the expectation this was going to be our home from 2 September. It did not meet the conditions of a holiday rental. Therefore I will be paying you nothing at all

At the back of your head, you can plan to pay £50 if she drops her demands to that. But she's clearly a cheeky fecker who tries it on, so if you start by paying her anything at all, she'll think you're a soft touch and she only has to keep pushing.

KillmeNow · 06/09/2014 10:49

WhatPausingFlatly said ^

I think its says what you need succinctly .

Original poster
firstchoice · 06/09/2014 10:52

hereward - yes, she did say she 'considered it closed'. After the first request for £116, before the second request for £216...

pausing - thankyou. I like your point 2 - it wasn't actually set up for a holiday rental - clean, beds made up, etc. I think I'll make those points and see what she says.

I expect she thought she was being nice but all the' bonhomie' upset me a bit. Surely she realises I am on the floor and my kids have missed the start of their new schools??? I don't want her 'hoping I can find somewhere cheaper as it is such a nice village'. I wanted her to honour the contract. Aaargh.

OP posts:
monkeyfacegrace · 06/09/2014 10:54

I've just read this last bit like this Shock

What fucking planet are you on?! You stated the night as you were meant to be moving there, not for a fucking holiday!

I'd tell her to back her fucking truck up. Don't you dare pay her a penny! No no and NO again!

It's like you are being bullied by the bigger girl in the playground.

please don't get trampled over.

PausingFlatly · 06/09/2014 10:57

I expect she thought she was being nice

Nope. She thinks charm and bonhomie will get her what she wants.

Look at what she does, not what she says. Stop thinking she's nice - she's not!

PausingFlatly · 06/09/2014 11:01

I think I'll make those points and see what she says.

It doesn't matter what she says.

You are not negotiating something or trying to come to a mutually acceptable agreement. You are saying No.

You could have a mental fallback of "I'll pay her £50 in the end to make her go away", but that's all it is.

Please stop trying to please her!

Original poster
firstchoice · 06/09/2014 11:06

OK. This is why I NEED MN Grin
I am not an assertive person (to say the least) and I have trouble keeping boundaries around me (since childhood).

So, I will send a brief polite email explaining that

A. This was an acclimatisation stay prior to a rental agreement which LL has terminated so my whole trip and costs (financial and emotional) were pointless anyway.

B. the house was not set up as a holiday let. Not clean or aired, beds not made up, trash by door and animal dirt in garden. Therfore standard holiday payment (from £52 per night) is not appropriate.

C. the cleaner was pre-booked to come in prior to your weekend guests anyway and there is no need for you to pay her twice.

I'll send this and let you know what she says (see you in small claims court prob!).

OP posts:
DiaDuit · 06/09/2014 11:07

I do see that she feels aggrieved that I am not in the property and therefore now wants her money for the acclimatisation stay

Confused. Why would she feel aggrieved? She is the one who stopped the agreement to move in?

KirstyJC · 06/09/2014 11:19

Wow - just tell her to fuck off and then fuck off some more! Seriously, I can't believe you are even considering paying her anything - either money or more head space!

Just email her saying you are not paying her a penny and that you now consider the matter closed.

And then ask her whether she has received the paperwork from the Small Claims Court yet......

And then refuse to answer any further emails.

Job done. And stop worrying about what 'the village' think - chances are they won't even know her, or give a shit if they do, and if they do know her well then they will have recognised that she is a cheeky grabby little cow. Either way - SO not your problem.

PausingFlatly · 06/09/2014 11:39

C. the cleaner was pre-booked to come in prior to your weekend guests anyway and you are trying it on.

Or just drop the end completely.

Otherwise she'll sidetrack you into a discussion about what was "needed" cleaning-wise. All of which is a red-herring.

tribpot · 06/09/2014 11:44

Don't forget to say that you now consider the matter closed. The phrase she used on you several times.

TickleMyTitsTillFriday · 06/09/2014 11:44

That is beyond cheeky?! I'm Shock

notapizzaeater · 06/09/2014 11:59

Wow, just wow, brass necked mare !

Original poster
firstchoice · 06/09/2014 12:18

pausing -yes, you could be right. will alter.

will put this on end I think:
"
It is a great pity it has worked out this way.
We are both good people, both of us wanted financial surety, which wasn't available until the very end (but WAS available) and it could still have been fine, even at the end.
As you felt unable to go ahead with that, I do not think there is any more can be salvaged out of this situation now, for either of us."

I hope this makes it clear that I think she is trying to 'salvage' some money from me now she has decided not to go ahead. Which is not right.

OP posts:
PausingFlatly · 06/09/2014 12:26

Well you could.

But "I'm a people-pleasing doormat who'll do anything to propitiate anyone no matter how much they screw me and regardless of the harm they cause my children" would be shorter. A bit.

KirstyJC · 06/09/2014 12:27

No, for goodness sake why are you still trying to explain?!?!

Just tell her 'since we were only staying there in advance of moving in, and since you illegally broke the contract and we are not moving in, I will not be paying anything.

I now consider the matter closed and will not be entering into any further discussions. Please do not contact me further since I will not be responding'

And then STOP explaining yourself and trying to be nice. She has done neither.

Seriously only on MN are people so soft - stand up for yourself! She has treated you illegally and totally abysmally. Stop allowing it!