I'll tray and include everything so as not to drip feed.
I started renting a rural property with my ex partner. The tenancy was in both our names and we had been living there for 2 years and just signed another contract when he left me. LL agreed for him to come off the tenancy and it to be in my exclusive name, but shortly after decided to put the property on the market and never gave me a new contract. They told me that they would not ask me to leave before the tenancy was up but if I wanted to leave before then they wouldn't hold me to the contract.
I carried on paying the rent on time from the July through to the October but was late with Novembers payment as it turned out my ex had not been paying any of the bills I paid the £1200 rent, he paid bills and I had a summons for council tax arrears I had to pay. I told the LL that I would pay as soon as I could - this was hugely embarrassing but I would pay double in the December.
I knew I couldn't carry on paying the arrears on the electric over £1000 and all the bills and the rent so I started looking for somewhere else ASAP.
In the meantime I had an altercation with the NDN about shooting things in my garden out of their bedroom window and they threatened to 'make my horses dog meat'. Sure enough the two who were in the field adjacent to theirs were poisoned and died but I had no proof. I moved the horses the next week.
Rent was due on 12th December and on the 11th December I came home and found the locks had been changed.
I had moved some of my stuff out into storage and all my clothes were at my new boyfriends yes it was a bit quick but I still had the vast majority of my stuff there. I was downsizing to move into a smaller place but still had my oven, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, kettle, toaster, microwave, dining room table, two double beds, all my bedroom furniture which was antique, fish tank (empty), skiis, lots of horse stuff, a trailer and a crop sprayer for the fields.
It might have looked like I was going to do a flit I wasn't I was trying to downsize all of my belongings but were they allowed to change the locks and hold my deposit back?
Initially they claimed that the withholding of the deposit was due to a missed rent payment but technically it wasn't missed one day to go but still but late. Then they claimed they were withholding it due to having to completely renovate the house due to me leaving it a mess. This wasn't true - they had painted around furniture before I moved in to make the place look fresher but when I moved in and their furniture was gone there were dirty holes in the new paint where their large furniture had been. I as not allowed to decorate. No inventory was done.
Turns out the deposit hasn't been in a scheme and isn't protected so I can't claim.
In addition to this the house didn't have working smoke alarms, there were two log burners and no carbon monoxide detectors, there was oil central heating and no CO detector, the water was on a bore hole and orange and had not been tested by environmental health before we moved in and not since.
I have been unable to contact the owners since as they have blocked my number. I have not done anything about it since as I pretty much has a mental breakdown due to the stress of it all.
What I am here to ask is have I made my bed and now I have to lie in it or is there anything I can legally do? I have lost pretty much everything as they have cleared the house out and skipped and burned all of my stuff :( I'm guessing it's a no but I thought I would ask.
I feel broken by this whole thing :( I am having to live with my new boyfriend fortunately he is lovely and kind as I have no deposit and also now a bad credit rating due to my ex leaving me in a big fat mess :(. My few bits of stuff I have are in storage and all I have here is half a wardrobe :(