Tenancy Confusion.

[ListenLinda]

Hi all, just wondering if someone knowledgeable can help.
Me & DH rented a house off an acquaintance 5 years ago, on an AST tenancy. We have paid the same every month on the same day of every month, until April 2021. We received a tenancy agreement to sign, a Fixed Term of 12 months with a rent increase too. We did not recieve a letter informing us of why the rent was increased. We signed on good faith as we hadn’t had a rent increase in the previous 4 years and it was still below market rent.
Anyway, since then, repairs stopped being timely, an electric safety test determined the electrics in the house are unsafe (not good with two small children), various other things havent been actioned, including a request to deal with the rats nest in the garden, made from junk they promised us they would remove when we moved in in April 2017. We became fed up and invoked the break clause. We have found another property, we gave 2 months notice and requested the deposit back, and we are due to leave at the end of November.
We have recieved a response saying that we owe another full months rent as our rent payments have always been paid in arrears.
I have no written confirmation of that, I have checked our bank statements at the time we moved in and cannot see a payment that states rent just a large cash withdrawal.
The tenancy agreement we signed that became binding in April 2021 states that the rent is payable in advance, so can anyone advise which it is?
Fully prepared to pay something if necessary but I can’t find any signed document or communication in regards to this and I’m not sure whether to query it or just leave it and hope we get the deposit back. Which is also risky as they never placed it in a deposit scheme.
Does anyone have any advice?

It is very much the case that people ask for the rent upfront and not in arrears.

If you owed money on the old contract, that would normally be sorted out and cleared before/whilst moving into another.

I would start from the point if suggesting you are sure you have always provided in advance, have documentary evidence and suspect they have made a mistake and need to look at their records again. I would tell them that you have bank statement evidence of paying in advance. Have they got documentary evidence of rent payments in arrears….contract? Invoice statement? Tell them you would like to see it, because it conflicts with your own financial records. Also mention that the fact they have never mentioned a debt when moving to the new contract makes you think they have made an error. Tell them you will go through the dispute process if necessary as this is a large sum of money. At the same time, query details of the rent protection scheme the deposit has been held in andnpoint out you’re hoping not to have to pursue an issue of it not being registered properly with a legally required scheme.

Make any contact polite and non-aggressive, suggesting a simple error in checking their records, rather than an attempt to rip you off. Give them a chance to back-down and admit an error.

Do you not have the old contracts? Given your current contract is paid in advance and you will have made that last payment, I think making a further payment isn’t required and you won’t be in contravention of your existing contract.

You can point out to them that you expect the full deposit returned assuming there is no damage and your existing contract will be paid up to date. It is up to them to evidence the fact you owe the money as it relates to a previous, not existing contract.

Thank you all for your assistance and advice. I have begun drafting a letter and will try keep it to the point as possible.

failing electrics & doing nothing about it is interesting - we have had to do electric checks & they have to be done by qualified electricians that are qualified to do this. They have to give you a copy of this cert - if it fails they have to do the dangerous failed part within thirty days -(there are different degrees of electrics being incorrect/not up to date but not essential to fix)
If they have NOT done this (if memory serves me) after last April this is breaking the law!
Just go to CAB please op
Bad landlords give good ones a bad name

If they have not protected your deposit then they can be in big trouble.

I would use the last months rent as the deposit to save waiting and call it quits. If they try to pursue you for it remind them that the court will make them pay 3X deposit if they want to take things further. There are also the matters of the disrepair and the faulty electrics.

Their best plan it to accept things and jog on.

We have never been given a copy of the electric safety certificate or the gas one for that matter.

I’ve begun the letter, just stating that at the point the new one was signed, we weren’t advised of an extra payment to bring everything in line, we have never been informed of the debt or ever asked to clear it (which we would of done).
I will see what their response is before going into the deposit and protected.

This tenancy agreement is the only contract they have with my signature on. The AST I signed in 2019 was placed through my door and I didn’t have to send it back. Frustratingly, I can’t bloody find it but I know I didnt send it back to them. It’s a bloody mess.

If you have statements going back to the lump sum, why can’t you calculate how many months you’ve paid and when and match them up. The lump sum must have matched either the deposit or deposit & a months rent.

@SpeakingFranglais it does. But that isn’t proof of what it was, doesn’t provide proof it was paid and they could turn around and say we didn’t pay it.
A foolish move but as I explained up thread, I was 39 weeks pregnant with DD and spending most of my time back and forth to the hospital, that’s the most I remember.

I was just going to say what @WombatChocolate said

Its a legal requirement for you to have a copy of the gas safety &if a tenant of mine was in arrears they would have been informed how much they owe each month - not at the end again you need to talk to CAB or crisis
They do not sound professional (ahem load of crooks) & to keep any deposit they have to prove what you owe & have conformed to the deposit scheme and the housing at the council would be interested re the electricity cert -