Hi,
Just writing this on behalf of my sister. She’s only 21 so still young and a little naive in terms of what she needs to do with tenancy contracts etc.
She was in a fixed term assured tenancy which did not allow pets. She did however live there with a cat despite it being in violation of her contract. She had an issue with her hob which needed ended up needing to be replaced. She asked the agency repeatedly over the course of a good few months to get this replaced. They actually ended up going into her flat without her permission to replace the hob whilst she was away on holiday despite her explicitly saying she did not give them permission to enter whilst she was away and she would be back the following week.
They then messaged her later on in the day to inform her the hob has now been fixed. However they had also found a cat which is in violation of her contract and that she would be served notice. She replied back to them letting them know the cat was temporary etc. They got back to her saying that pets are not permitted in the building under any circumstances. Unfortunately they did not give her this notice officially which is where the situation becomes a bit tricky.
As a result, she then started to look for alternative accommodation which she was able to find and swiftly moved in.
She has since had numerous emails chasing her for rent etc which she has replied back to every time to let them know that she was served notice and was under the impression that she was no longer in contract with them. They’re now saying that as there wasn’t an official notice or letter she is still liable for the rent.
The accumulated outstanding rent since the ‘notice’ is nearing £2k and they’re starting to threaten legal action.
Has anyone else been given an unofficial notice and it then be withdrawn? Or does anyone know of any past cases where this has happened so we can go to them with evidence? Could this be classed as harassment under the tenancy agreement?
Any help on the topic would be much appreciated.