Our landlord is uncontactable

[MisselthwaiteManor]

Apologies if this is the wrong section but I thought there might be some landlords here.

The landlord will not speak to us over the phone, or come to the house. He will only text, and takes days to reply.

There have been a few issues including a broken boiler and his answer has always been 'google it'.

The kitchen has no floor - he was apparently in the middle of doing it during our second viewing, so we were surprised to see there was still no floor when we moved in.

So DH has been leaving answerphone messages and texts asking when it will be done, landlord has text every few days saying he will do it soon but never does. He's now been ignoring us completely for almost two weeks.

What can we do? The inventory lists a new kitchen floor. We stupidly signed this because we thought he was doing it right there and then. DH would put down some lino or something himself but the agreement says we can't do anything to the house (including putting up curtains/pictures/posters) without his written permission.

I'm annoyed about it because what do we do if there's an emergency with the house and he won't answer the bloody phone?

There's also a back yard which we can't get to because we weren't given the key. We've actually given up hope of ever getting this but are obviously paying rent for a yard we can't use. I wish we could just leave.

Is it a private arrangement or through an agent? We used an agent but they were still damn all good, our landlord just didnt speak to them either.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

It's private, not through an agent.

I don't understand why a landlord would outright ignore a tenant, fair enough not being at our beck and call 24 hours a day, but if I owned a house I'd want to know when there was something wrong with it.

Do you have a receipt that your deposit has gone into a deposit protection scheme? This is law and seeing as your LL is flouting other rules I wouldn't be surprised if they failed to adhere to this one either.

We haven't paid a deposit, is it law that you have to have one or that it has to be protected? I did feel uncomfortable about not having one but couldn't get hold of the landlord to even discuss it, between our first view and moving in he didn't speak to us at all. We had to call his mother to get our second viewing.

If there are safety issues then contact Environmental Health.

Do you have a contract ?

We have a tenancy agreement

No it's the law that any deposits have to be protected.
I don't know other legalities but if I were you, i'd leave to be honest. You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. He's clearly not bothered, I wouldn't bet on ever getting your kitchen floor.

if they haven't paid a deposit, it can't be protected! (If they have, it must be - but there is no legal requirement to take a deposit)

what decent landlord wouldn't ask for a deposit?? The OP doesn't have a decent landlord. Check your tenancy for a notice period or a break point. If there isn't one, give one month's notice to end on the rental payment date. Then leave.

you are legally entitled to his contact details. If he won't give them to you, just tell him by text that you are serving him written notice.

to be honest, this was clearly fishy from the start so start planning to move.

Yeah I know, I was saying that it isn't the law to have a deposit, but if you do have a deposit then it is the law to have it protected. Excuse me for any misunderstanding.

The tenancy agreement says 6 months and then a review, the 6 months ends in August. It also says we have to give 60 days notice to leave, I'm 7 months pregnant so that's a bit of a nightmare. Could we give notice now even though the agreement is until August?

Sorry I know nothing about all this, it's only our second rental and the first was so simple.

The earliest you can give notice is before your end of June payment is due , ie 60 days before the end date in August. AST is a 6 month minimum commitment although you could negotiate sooner and not pay the full 6 months if you got ll consent and it was relet within the remaining period.

Try your local council - they should have a private sector housing team,and I think can help with unsafe accommodation and complaints if disrepair.

Could try shelter for advice? we had a landlady very similar tho this - wouldn't give us any contact details at all, she used to go out to hawaii and email us from there but no phone number we could use or anything, then she went crazy and sent us calls from someone else warning us to never contact her again even while we were still living there!
If you can, I would just leave - luckily you don't have a deposit to loose.
Not sure about the contract, if you can show its unsafe and he's not doing things properly the contract may become void so thats where shelter may be able to give u advice. You will be waiting on the line for ages but once you get through, they are good

Just stop paying the rent. He'll soon contact you then!

Speak to the private tenancy team at the council - they can put pressure on the landlord for you.

If you've not paid a deposit, I would just find somewhere else and leave. Personally I wouldn't pay him a penny more in rent either! He is unlikely to chase you for it I reckon, and if you have plenty of evidence of the condition of the house then you will have good reason in court to say why you left.

I'd check with the council or citizen's advice to see about breaking the contract early due to the landlord failing to comply with his side. If you don't have a floor covering after being in the house for 2 months and no emergency exit out of the back of the house then I'd say this is breach of his side. You have no deposit to lose so I'd find somewhere else, arrange to move and give him notice as you're moving out. I wouldn't even pay the last month's rent until the last minute - in case he plays up. And as penalty for inadequate furnishing. I'd take loads of photographs of the kitchen floor too (with a date stamp) "just in case".

Get somewhere new and less stressful before the baby arrives. You don't want him farting about when you have a new baby. And having a yard you can't go out into means no sitting in the sun with the baby in their pram in what should be our oncoming summer.

Legally, you should have a contact address for him, even if this is an agent. This and the lack of deposit would have rung alarm bells for me in the first place. Get proper advice from Shelter/CAB. You will have enough on when the baby arrives.

ignore the advice to stop paying the rent, that is theft. Two wrongs do not make a right.

However with a missing floor and no way out, I'd go with BonzoDooDah and get advice.

you can give notice now but you signed up until August.

You would have no leverage if you don't pay rent , legally that immediately puts you in the wrong.

Best thing you can do is talk to Shelter.

True about not paying the rent putting you in the wrong. And you need to be clean that way.
But I really would find somewhere else and move as soon as you can. (hopefully that's not difficult where you live)

"ignore the advice to stop paying the rent, that is theft"

It's not theft to not pay the rent. That's a ridiculous comment. LL has breached the contract by not repairing what he should have repaired.

And actually if the LL hasn't supplied address contact details (by way of a section 48 notice) the tenant is not legally obliged to pay any rent until they do!

www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2010/09/03/landlord%E2%80%99s-addresses-and-other-matters/

Thanks for all the advice. I think we will be spending the day contacting shelter/the council etc tomorrow and seeing what our options are.

We have a phone number and a phone number for his mum. We've never been given an address, I will ask for it and see if he replies, will a text count as a written request?