So I am currently house sharing in London with 5 other people one of them being the owner of the house and the other his partner. The owner is very weird he's not aggressive and can be a nice guy but has a distorted view on things that happen like he tells me I don't clean my room. I say I have and his retort is that he hasn't seen me do it but he's at work till late while I do it! There is a communal cleaning rota of once every 6 weeks. The events followed like this. First few months I don't do my cleaning because I go home at the weekends to Peterborough and the household was fine with this. He sent me an email saying we need to chat and so we sit down and he says I need to start doing it so I apologize and start doing it every 6 weeks since. I use a bathroom and so he now says I have to start cleaning it instead of it being included in the communal cleaning as I'm the only one to use it (he and his boyfriend use it). I say fine and did it a couple of times since - it doesn't get that unclean. A few months ago. Now he sends me an email saying if I don't do the cleaning he's going to charge me £20 a week to do it! I say I have and he says I don't! He also asks why I'm not cleaning the upstairs where my and his room is every 3 weeks even though he had never said anything before. At this point he's being quite rude around the house to me - ignoring me etc. which I think whatever I just won't talk. So now we finally get things settled to now. I need my deposit to help fund Uni and I asked him a few weeks ago if there was anything needed doing to assure i keep it and I he says it's fine. I get back Sunday night and says I owe him money to do the cleaning I haven't done!!! So I have a go at him and grind him down to deal where if I clean the bathroom and the stairs for the next two weeks he'll right it off. Then I get an email a few hours later saying he now wants £100 for all the cleaning I didn't do when I first got there and for not cleaning the bathroom! I have been emailing him and said we should talk about it tonight he replies saying he doesn't want to talk to me and keep it to email. The thing is in the ~10 months I've been there we've had about 6 different people leave because of him so it's not just me. I have 2 out of the 3 pages of my contract and asked him for the full copy and he refused. What should I do?
Get yourself down to a Citizens Advice Bureau, they should be able to give you some sound advice. Take your tenancy agreement with you as this should stipulate any house rules you are bound to. Probably worth taking copies of any emails regarding the cleaning rota too.
+1 Definitely pay CAB a visit. Also I'm not sure on the legal standpoint of him refusing to provide the last page of your contract, but CAB should be able to advise you on this. But I'm sure he has to provide it on request.
The guy is deffinitively an asshole :-/ I don't it work in UK but in Canada it's illegal to refuse to provide a FULL copy of a contract.
It is a legal requirement for the landlord to supply a full copy of the agreement. As you share the house with the owner of the property this should be in the form of a licence agreement as a assured shorthold tenancy agreement is not really suitable for this instance. The terms in the agreement should cover what is required with regards to cleanliness, etc. Once you have this it will be a little bit clearer. With regards to the deposit, it should have been protected, usually by using one of the 3 recognised schemes. This is a legal requirement and there are penalties that can be enforced against the landlord through the courts system. You should have also been given a statement of condition of the property which is normally in the form of a photographic inventory. This could then be used by both yourself and the landlord with regards to damage and cleanliness where there is a disagreement between you. I would also recommend seeing CAB or shelter who can be helpful in these situations. Also if you're at Uni try your Students Union advice centre who can help as well. I used to run a lettings agency for the local university and without the agreement to peruse it would be difficult to advise you further. Take what you have to any of the places mentioned and they should be able to advise you fully.
Yes well I'm leaving at the end of the month hence why he's brought all this up now. I don't want to pay him anything just because of the principle if nothing else. Thanks for the replies guys i'll lean on him for the contract and get some pro advice.
Move out... sounds like he doesn't want you there and you don't want to put up with that ass. I probably would have punched him but I can have quite a short fuse.
You should have been told your deposit was going into a scheme. I thought legally it had to be done now actually.
The deposit protection came in 2007. I have heard of landlord's having to pay 3 times the deposit back after court. Iifc they have 2 weeks after receiving payment of the deposit it must be protected by law. I believe this was an adition to the housing act to ensure this was statue law.
OP you should have a lodger/licence agreement if you are occupying his primary residence. As such, any deposit can be, but does not have to be, held under the protective scheme as the scheme applies to ASTs. However, provided you abided by all the terms of the lodger's agreement and have not caused damage and the areas to which you have access are left in a clean state and condition as when you took up occupancy he is obliged to return your deposit on your departure or shortly thereafter. If that's the case then you can take action to recover the deposit. Edit: Maybe start with a letter to him advising he is in contravention of the agreement and will take action through the small claims court if he does not refund the full deposit. But you need his stance in writing first, by email for example, in order for you to argue or threaten to argue it in court.
I had another thought about something you could try to persuade him to give you the entire deposit back. You say the house has 6 occupants, so that's representing at least 3 "households". Definition: - A household consists of either a single person or members of the same family who live together. It includes people who are married or living together and people in same-sex relationships. Also, the home is classified as a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) if: - at least 3 tenants live there, forming more than 1 household - you share toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities with other tenants If the accommodation also happens to be on three floors (I don't know cos you didn't say but in London that's a real possibility) with at least 2 "households" and 4 tenants occupying the premises I think it should be registered with the local council as an HMO (although I'm not certain) but i wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't and that would give you leverage as there's a massive fine applicable and it's a criminal offence if it should be but isn't registered. Take a look at the leaflet available here https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/9429/322463.pdf Worth looking into.
