Currently in a periodic tenancy after AST ended and landlord served me 2 notices to quite last year Aug 20 the first being 6 weeks notice & the second 3 months. However just tonight I had two gentleman came round at 6:30pm I wasn’t in but my friend was then returned at around 8:30pm (same day). One was recording me behind the first gentleman. He said he was acting on behalf of the landlord it was a private company. I asked for his ID and the name of the company. He replied “I cannot disclose the name of the nor would that be of any use to you”. He had an A4 notepad and 5 brown envelopes labelled “How To Rent 2019-2020” “How To Rent 2020-2021” and another document about the tenancy I couldn’t clearly see it. This was all handwritten on the A4 notepad he persisted I must sign the A4 paper to confirm I have received all the documents. I replied how can I sign something that I have not had a chance to view and read. He replied “im taking it as your refusing to sign then yeah” repeated it twice and that I would know about it as it’s regarding about me still living at the property, then they left. I felt extremely vulnerable & comfortable I feel that I am being watch then I called 101 afterwards where do I stand with this please?
The landlord has messed up the eviction because he hasn’t done all that he should have done when the tenancy began and he is now trying to fix the problem by serving you the required documents. It doesn’t matter that you refused them, dont worry about that as assuming that the documents were left with you, they have the recording of them serving the documents as evidence. You will now probably get another s21 notice in the post or through the letterbox with a 4 month notice period. They probably won’t bother you again until the notice has expired so I wouldn’t worry too much that they’re watching you. Their main aim is to have evidence of service.
Just out of interest, is there a reason that you are not moving out and giving the landlord possession?
Ah right I see I just had the landlord tonight with a friend both of them recording me she was walking past and he was driving but I understand now just why chose this way to do it. I am a civil person I understand they want their property back but due to the law they must do this correctly if the roles were reversed I would have to abide by that law too… I have the documents now as police told me to check and that its a civil matter. They gave me EPC certificate, Gas Safety Certificate May 2021 which I already have, a copy of the previous tenancy agreement and more How to Rent documents. still no evidence of my deposit and prescribed information, thank you for clearing this up for me.
If your deposit was protected they will have to serve you the PI before they can serve a valid s21. If the deposit wasn’t protected then they will have to refund it before the s21. Either way, a penalty is potentially claimable.
I have no clue where my deposit is nor was I given anything not even PI. So they would need to return it if first I see plus my renewal fee I paid too. If they just serve another section 21 will that be invalid as I feel because they have given me all of these documents there in some way think their in the clear now? I just read it has to be on a 6a form too both previous notice to quit was on letting agent headed paper.
Nothing is valid until they confirm your money is with a deposit protection scheme & they have to tell you which scheme and the detail of how to contact them. Stupid stupid landlord: ignore things until they do that if you want to stay. But your experience seems very intimidating indeed & there are much nicer ways your landlord could have done this that would have cost nothing. You are due your deposit back. They have no right to keep it. If it is in a deposit scheme landlord must tell you details. If you don’t want to move just leave it but landlord seems intimidating & that might carry on. If you want to try to work things out with LL perhaps simply ask fir the deposit scheme details. If that’s not forthcoming, they are breaking law
If the landlord does start to harass you then it’s no longer a civil matter. Go to the police. But they will want evidence which is often hard to get unless you have cctv or another person witnesses it.
Yesterday I sent a complaints letter the to letting agent about this but funny thing is the agent and landlords have been friends for a long time. I have a police ref number just incase most neighbours have ring doorbell or I’ll just ask them to witness if anymore harassment. I’m going to try not to worry from now on they need to blame their LA friend as she is the one who should of completed all of these documents before hand not me in just using my rights as a tenant they will probably go to court & say I either damaged something or where I have paid rent late or that try are entitled to keep deposit as I didn’t move when the notice was given. however I always make sure there’s no arrears and when I eventually leave this property there will be nothing outstanding. No inventory check but I will do my own check out I always take pictures & video.
They have no right to have your money for deposit without putting into a deposit scheme. Write to agent requesting information on the deposit scheme & proof of deposit. They were supposed to give you that at beginning of tenancy. You have a right to that info. If they can’t, demand the money back
I have a long list of calls from Shelter they were extremely helpful and CAB too. I have also spoke to my council they said remain in property until you go to court. I have contacted council again about the landlords getting relatives and friends to turn up at the door council will telephone me shortly. Shelter has advised (yesterday) that I keep quiet as they conducted their own search and cannot locate my deposit on the 3 government agencies (yay) no offence but these people Amy are awful. They said I have a claim, I will do this myself as I have been researching all night.
Tenants are taking advantage of every loophole and mistake that their landlords are making. So many Landlords are selling up because of it, the nett result is that rents are rising and tenants are not happy. Its called Karma.
I am a landlord. I think the refusal of the guy to say who the company serving the documents was is poor. I once had a similar problem with debt collectors. He said he wouldn’t give his name because of the line of work he was in. I raised a complaint with the debt collectors that this was intimidating. I got an abject apology. The debt was cancelled (it was in dispute anyway which was why I hadn’t paid).
Given their tactics and your landlord trying to record you I the street, I think you should tell them to stop harassing you. It is not right.
Re the deposit talk to one of the housing charities about claiming 3x back. That will help ensure they follow correct procedures in future.
It turns out the gentleman ‘who couldn’t disclose sensitive info nor would it of been any use to me’ is the landlord’s long time friend, neighbour recognised him. Well done for exercising your rights. Thankfully I am persistent called police (101) I have a ref number they said its classed as harassment as It is not right doing this plus I was recorded 3 separate times in two days. I reported it to the LA who is good friends with the landlords she knows them very well and knows that they did this she’s just pretending ‘oh I did not know this happened’ oh please, so I wrote a complaint to her as the LA is with a redress scheme she now has less than 8 weeks to respond.
I am sorry to the landlords who do make an honest mistake of not protecting the deposit or doing it late which is better than not the tenant should not bring a claim, again forgetting the PI then serving it as soon as remembered I would not bring this to court. However for rogue landlords like they one I have experienced, I have never had a landlord do this to me, wanting me out in 6 weeks when the coronavirus act said first 3 months then extended to 6 months they just said ‘I want you out in 6 weeks’ and now getting relatives and friends to also harass me because at the start of the tenancy they forgot to serve the EPC, Gas Safety Cert and How to Rent Booklet and wanted proof by recording me which I understand but they way they carried it out, is out of line they will get what’s coming to them.
This is common practise and I personally don’t see anything wrong with it. Any evidence produced by a body cam can protect you as much as the wearer. Occasionally visits to properties can turn violent and having this on cam is actually good. It therefor serves as a deterrent against violence. Turning up to serve papers while wearing a body cam shouldn’t be seen as anything strange. Having said that did you say that they came 3 times in two days? This does seem a little odd.
It seems that you have already taken advise about this so I’m not going to limit my input to the issue of body cams.
I just find it disgusting. This is a business & landlords must comply with regulations. Not knowing they were supposed to protect a deposit or issue an epc is not forgivable to me. But all this works in your favour & I would just lie low about the deposit if they haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe they do know but hoping you don’t. At least you know you can get it back
