Hi,
I moved in as a short term lodger with a live in landlord 22 July 19. My work has me up and down the country and after 3 week in an Air bnb, i decided to look for room short term, which was a lot cheaper.
I paid 1 month rent plus 2 week notice period cash in advance so no rent due again until 22/8/19. Now in August the rent was due again.
She insisted I made future payments via a pre paid debit card which my bank kept blocking as the fraud department was not happy . I think this has something to do with money laundering regs.
Anyway, she refused to give me her bank details and insisted on this card or paypal. I reactivated my Paypal and paid her as a business. All hell broke loose when she was charged a tenner for transferring the money out of her account. So she then gave me her bank details.
Next, the day after I’ve been told by my bosses I’m to move again to help set up an office elsewhere on 6 September.
As landlady already has 2 week rent paid upfront in lieu of notice from day one, I gave her notice and request refund of the advanced payment of my rent which Id made as remember she already has 2 weeks notice money which I’m happy to give her.
Response, I don’t give refunds! What the actual…
Can anyone advise as I’m looking to dispute with Paypal given that I have paid her for a service I haven’t had?
Hi Shelley-Anne, sorry to hear about this stressful situation! It sounds like you are a lodger in this room as opposed to a tenant on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy. I don’t know loads about the law for lodgers, as OpenRent only deals with ASTs (or their equivalents, e.g. Private Residential Tenancies in Scotland).
Hopefully another Community user will be able to help!
Well that is a point, Colin, BUT after I move out. In the meantime Paypal have given her until Saturday and then I can escalate and get repaid (hopefully) in 10 days. She has already responded to their request claiming service has already been performed and ‘item’ (ie rent) despatched. But as I paid in advance this cant be the case.
The other lodger is also looking to move out. She’s taken over 3 months in rent off him upfront.
I just wanted to know if anyone knew where I stood in law. Thanks
If you have a 6 month AST with her, which legally I think you should have for a HMO tenancy, the landlord is with in her right to ask for rent up until the end of the 6 month period, also you cannot usually give notice until 2 months before the end of the 6 month AST, which would be after 4 months of starting the tenancy. As well as all the costs for the landlord to re let the roon, agency fees, advertising costs, vacacy costs, so if she has accepted you are leaving and not pushing for you to pay her anything else, you have probably done okay out of this. Although to be honest, there is not too much a landlord can do if you do leave early in my own experience. I guess you can try and dispute it with PayPal but her evidence would be the tenancy agreement you have, if you have one. I’d consider next time to use AirBnB and negotiate a longer term stay amount and you will have the protection AirBnB give. And also put everything through your company in a way that they realise you are paying for accomadation so if they suddenly want you to move to another city they should consider your situation regarding that. Also if you don’t have an AST and it’s a verbal agreement only, PayPal may well be able to refund you, maybe you could make yourself look fair in PayPal’s eyes and just ask for half the refund amount due to the costs of the landlord to re let the place.
Thank you for all your assistance.
After providing them with relevant proof, I just had word from Paypal this morning, who have been reviewing the dispute and they have come down on my side.
I have been repaid the entire sum of the advanced rent stolen by the landlady.
(I had paid her as a business not as using friends and family facility)