Writing on behalf of a friend who's not on MN.
Does she have any legal redress against her landlady?
Six months ago, she responded to an advert for a lodger to share a large maisonette with the landlady only. The place was indeed huge, and for £175 pw she would get a large bedroom, and also full and unrestricted use of a kitchen-diner, dining room, living room, and a large luxury bathroom (with bath and shower). The offer made was verbal.
Four days before moving day, the landlady texted to say the rent would now be £200 pw. My friend still thought it was worth it for such spacious accommodation and moved in.
Soon the landlady withdrew access to the living and dining rooms, and converted both into bedrooms to be let on Air BNB. She converted the bathroom into a 4th bedroom and installed another lodger. She then used half the kitchen to install a tiny narrow room with a WC at one end with a basin integral to the cistern, and a tiny shower cubicle at the other end.
My friend is now confined to her bedroom. There is now nowhere to sit in the
kitchen, no lounge or dining room, so she has to eat in her bedroom.
Because there are three permanent residents plus Airbnb guests, of which there are between two and four per room every night, sometimes eleven people have stayed, causing a queue for the toilet/shower room every night and morning.
I imagine she has allocated two bedrooms to Air BNB to get around the HMO rules here, which state that one can only have two lodgers (three would make it an HMO). (Apparently Air BNB guests do not count for the purposes of HMOs.)
Every morning my friend has to straddle the toilet seat in order to brush her teeth because the only basin is the one integral to the toilet cistern.
Air BNB guests are unvetted and do not have to provide references. My friend has to suffer meeting an ever-changing stream of strangers outside her bedroom door, on the stairs, in the kitchen, entering and leaving the toilet, etc. Because they are only there for one or two nights they leave the kitchen filthy and leave piles of dirty pans and dishes. She can no longer leave any food in the kitchen or toiletries in the shower as the guests will help themselves, so her small room now has to accommodate all her kitchen and bathroom items.
They are also often noisy, and many come back drunk in the early hours, making a load of noise and making my friend hoping the lock on her door is secure.
She has now moved out. Does she have any legal redress against her landlady for breaking their verbal agreement regarding who would be living there and which accommodation (rooms) was included in her rent?
Can she sue in a small claims court for her six months' back rent to be partly refunded on the grounds that the original offer of certain accommodation was removed, in breach of their verbal contract?
Is the landlady breaking the law by overcrowding the flat so that up to eleven people are sharing just one toilet (with no proper basin) and one tiny shower?