Renting - Can we refuse to pay this and end our contract early due to work not been carried out?

[pregnantbelly09]

We signed a 2 year contract on our house at the end of April 08. So it will expire end of april this year. We would rather move before that as we are struggling to pay the rent.

There are lots of things that should have been done ages ago that I have been on at them to do and each time they say they will get somebody to call me to arrange etc and it never gets done. Our shower has been leaking for about a year. The roof leaks when it rains and we have plaster coming off the walls in places and cracks in the walls everywhere. They re-plastered 2 walls 2 years ago and were meant to come back and re decorate but they still haven't done it!

We were wondering if this was enough grounds to get out of our contract early? I have emails back and forth to prove that I have kept asking and that they have said it will be done etc.

Also, our rent was meant to increase by £25 a month last April, but the bank didn't increase it on the DD like they should have done and it went un noticed until Christmas and we now owe them the money - can we refuse to pay this because of the work that hasn't been done?

you need to get some formal advice on this please ring shelter england or scotland and get the right advice.

You can't just arbitrarily stop paying. You do have the right to do work that should be the landlord's responsibility yourselves and withhold rent for it, BUT it's very complicated and there is a process you must follow, see here which may be too much trouble if you want out. You can't just stop paying, or withhold rent if you haven't followed the process. If you do, the landlord could start eviction proceedings which can take as little as 14 days.

Are you sure you have a DD not a standing order for the rent? I ask because we set up a standing order for ours online for the few months we rented last year, so only we could change the amount.