r/TenantsInTheUK

I am coming to the end of a 15 year plus tenancy, originally had an agent but then the business folded, landlord took over and eventually aigned with another agency. In the meantime my deposit was not protected in a deposit scheme as someone removed it, but neither me or the landlord got the money back (as far as I know). Am I correct in assuming this is fair grounds to negotiate a shorter notice period, and as we have no deposit there is nothing to deduct from for cleaning as they have threatened to do in their hostile notice acceptance? It will be cleaned but everything needs replacing so not going to be getting professionals.

They are also demanding we hand back the keys in person to their office -is this reasonable, office is not nearby? They have also said they will be entering on a specific date to do an inspection and I don't need to be in as they have a key. I believe this to be illegal?

Moved to a new place, had a charity paying my upfront costs, they paid the big deposit, I’d paid the holding deposit, just the first months rent was late...

Day the tenancy started payment hadn’t cleared, refused entry.
Happened 2 more days.
Money cleared they booked me in the next day.

Nowhere in anything I’ve signed says they can refuse me entry for this. I’m treating this a bit of nuance as fair play money hadn’t cleared, but I don’t see how they can refuse entry & charge me. Will be taking this to the ombudsman. Naturally in their complaint email they didn’t signpost me to their redress scheme, so they don’t really know what they’re doing. I will be clarifying via the ombudsman the acceptability of this.

They say it’s a pre-requisite to release the keys. But they’re charging me rent for the days they refused to let me enter what was contractually my home.
Tenancy agreement has policy on arrears, none of them are withholding access.

Next council tax.
Start going through the post & there’s some in my name which is weird.
Turns out nearly 4 months before when I signed the doc that I was applying for the property. The letting agent are telling me, that the landlord has set the council tax in my name.

I have a court summons next week.

I have 1 complaint in already for refusing access.

They have denied any wrong doing for the tax, I’ve done a SAR so I can understand what of my info has gone where. They sent me all the emails they sent to me & nothing else. They advised the SAR was completed in full. I replied asking them if they record their calls & that can I confirm that the absence of anything other than emails to me, means there is no other documents.
(I have evidence it’s not been done correctly)

The directors response was to say getting the information is complex & they need an extension on the SAR. The one the told me was complete already. They’re supposed to give an explanation on what the complexity is, when they delay the response. I asked. They said the reason is the complexity & that they’d be providing no further information.

So I have refusal to enter, what I consider data mishandling, breach of their obligations to me under ICO.

They have yet to apologise for the fact that someone set up council tax in my name which has led to legal proceedings.

I’ve had a mental breakdown, pre-existing ptsd & being denied access to a house will do that to a fella. So I’m off work right now. But we’re not doing sob stories.

Hoping my unions solicitors will support me, it’s a bit iffy though as not sure if they’ll see it as worth it commercially.

So I have checked with shelter as well as solicitor forums and legal advice on here, I get the same answer.

As a sitting tenant before rra if I offer 6 months rent in advance (without being asked) it is completely legal to pay and the agents to hold (and send when needed)

I have recently been told by the letting agents that I'm not allowed to do this and they won't accept it if I try to pay upfront !

I've been a tenant here for over 9 years and according to section 8 of the rra for budgeting purposes if I wish to pay upfront there is nothing wrong with doing so.

So I guess my question is, how do I get the letting agent to accept my upfront rent ?

I'm not breaking any laws and neither are they, but they are saying it will be refused .

How can I get them to accept it ?

I'll try and keep this short. We've just had the landlord around to look at the property before we hand him the keys back next week (for deposit purposes). He's selling the house after we're out.

We've lived here 14.75 years and have always paid on time. However the house is now over 20 years old and he's not completed any repairs during our tenancy.

He's come around today and is annoyed that he's going to have to put money into the property to sell it... His actual words, "well I can't just throw a hundred quid at it and have it sorted!".

I don't know what he was expecting? All the units, carpets etc are all original so are now 20/21 years old. We've notified him of repairs needed but they never got done.

I'm guessing he's going to try and keep most of the deposit... But sure for fair wear and tear he shouldn't be able to? Has anyone else had this sort of issue? Did you manage to use the DPS to get most of the deposit back?

TL;DR: I need to pay the holding deposit for a house where the sewage pipe runs through an internal wall instead of outside. Is leakage a serious risk, or am I being too picky? What would you do?

I’ve been viewing properties for weeks and thought I finally found a good one yesterday. However, there is a weird situation in the boiler room:

The Flue: Above the boiler, there is an open hole where the flue pipe goes directly to the roof (you can see the underside of the roof and insulation from there).

The Sewage Pipe: The waste pipe runs straight down through the floor and inside the house wall rather than outside.

I am especially worried about the risk of water leaking from a pipe hidden inside the walls. The rest of the house has been freshly repainted and refurbished (except for the boiler room), which made me wonder if they just painted over past leakage signs.

Has anyone dealt with a similar setup? What are your thoughts on this?

Hi all we originally had a contact till December 2026, and have been living in our London flat for 18 months.

With the new Renters rights act this is obviously a rolling basis.

Our letting agent has been trying to arranges viewings so the landlord can sell. I’m a bit confused if this is legal or not. Some places seem to say we need to be given 4 months notice, and they need to use a section 8.

And some seem to say as long as it’s not in the first 12 months it’s fine.

Do we need to provide access?

An added complexity is our letting agent says the owner has been tricked into a three month contact with an estate agency and doesn’t actually have the intention to sell? (I don’t get it either)

Hello!

I moved out of my property recently after 14 years, and am currently not coming to an agreement with the landlord about deductions

I want to raise a claim with the TDS, but the certificate still shows my exes name on. He moved out in 2014, and the tenancy renewal in 2016 was changed to reflect my name only.

I have had yearly renewals for 12 month periods since 2016 with my name only.

Should the deposit have been reregistered in my name only, and is this enough to claim back the full deposit?

Thanks!

I am in a bit of a pickle and honestly don’t know what to do anymore. I’d really appreciate any advice.
A bit of background: my wife and I have been looking for a house or flat to rent in Bristol for the last six months. We’ve attended over 30 viewings but haven’t been offered a tenancy anywhere.
Last year, I was a student here in Bristol and managed to secure a one-bedroom flat, where we are still living. However, we now need a two-bedroom property, and despite applying for several, we haven’t been successful.
I’m currently on a two-year Graduate visa, which allows me to work full-time as well as being self-employed. I mainly work on a self-employed basis because I have a disability that makes conventional employment and regular commuting very difficult for me. I have kidney failure and need dialysis every other day for around four hours. I do this at home using a dialysis machine provided by the NHS. The installation is relatively simple, similar to a washing machine, and only requires a water supply and waste line, which are installed by NHS technicians.
Both my wife and I are working, and we also have guarantors available for each tenant. Our combined income, including our guarantors’ income, is over £160,000. We have no adverse credit history and can comfortably afford the properties we are looking at, which are generally around £1,300–£1,400 per month.
Despite this, every time we submit an application, we are told that the landlord has decided to go with another applicant. On a couple of occasions, landlords have even withdrawn from our application after we had already paid a holding deposit.
The main reason we need to move is because I would like to switch to overnight dialysis while I sleep. This would significantly improve my daily routine and quality of life, but it is only practical if we have a two-bedroom property, as we need the additional space for the dialysis machine, equipment and supplies.
After more than 30 viewings over six months, I’m struggling to understand what else we can do to improve our chances of securing a tenancy. We can provide proof of income, references, guarantors and evidence of our good rental and credit history.
Has anyone been in a similar situation, particularly when renting with a disability? Is there anything else we could do to make our application more attractive to landlords or letting agents?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My lease is due to end in just over a week, and I've been expressing that I would like to renew it to both my landlord and letting agency. My landlord is completely fine with it, however the agency is both unresponsive to me and the landlord. I had expressed to my landlord (albeit just under 2 months' time before my lease end date) that I would like to extend.

I've been reliable with my payments, so I don't know why I'm getting slighted by the agency to such an extent. I would like to ask what are my rights, now that I've come so close to the lease end, with so much uncertainty? The situation now is: I offered the landlord to pay him directly if the agency remain unresponsive, but I am not sure if he will accept this. Would there be any legal/insurance reason he wouldn't want direct payments? Thanks for any help!

hi everyone, i was hoping to get some advice on the current situation i’m facing.

I currently live at home but im moving out with my sister in 6-8 weeks time. my sister moved back home last month as her lease ended and she brought her cat back with her. one of our neighbours left their parcel at ours, and when she came to pick it up she spotted our cat and ratted us out to building management + our landlord. the landlord messaged the next day to say we have 10 days to remove the cat as their lease agreement states no pets (so does our tenancy agreement).

I’ve since emailed twice apologising and begging for an extension as we’re moving out soon anyways and have nowhere to take the cat, but they’ve not budged. since our landlord is a leaseholder and not a private landlord, the new renters rights act clause on pets doesn’t apply. my sister and I are going travelling so we can’t afford to move out so early, but i’m at a complete loss as to what I should do.

I’m aware the landlord can’t evict us or turn up unannounced for an inspection, but i don’t want to create issues as my parents will continue living here. what can i do? :(

Our move out date from our current flat is the 21, we were supposed to move in the new one today the 18th, but goodlord has beed reviewing or referencing for days and it’s getting too close here, agent has been very slow and little unhelpful in getting us in, any tips?

In a shared house under a joint tenancy. One tenant left on bad terms. We (4 remaining tenants) aren’t sure when he gave his formal notice as both he and the agency have had poor communication. Now the agency is saying we must move out by August 31 as the formal notice ended our tenancy but are unable to provide evidence of the formal notice. Can an agency kick us out if they are unable to show us the formal notice that was provided?

We’re meant to be moving into a new flat in 3 days and I honestly don’t know what we’re supposed to do at this point.

We paid the holding deposit to the agency a week ago, did all the referencing and that’s now passed. But apparently the property is owned by a group of landlords and they still need to approve the references and sign everything off before we can get the tenancy agreement.

I’ve been chasing the agency and they’re basically saying they can’t do anything until the landlords get back to them.
But we’re now 3 days away from the move-in date, and it’s just a bit mad that we still don’t actually have a signed agreement.

Has anyone else had this happen? Is it normal for things to still be up in the air this close to moving?

And is there anything I should be doing now, or do I just have to sit here and wait for this group of landlords to reply? I’m getting more stressed by the day..

My rented 3bed house has 7 fire alarms installed (wired). One is faulty and kept going off unexpectedly and wouldn't stop so landlord advised over a week ago to turn the fire alarm switch off at the mains (and remove the battery from the faulty one) and the other fire alarms will still operate due to them having backup batteries inside. This was supposed to be a max two day temporary fix until they came around to look. Well now one by one the fire alarm batteries are dying and I'm stuck with loud beeping. The battery I did take out in the faulty alarm was difficult to wiggle out and i was unable to put a new one back in from fear of breaking this plastic part that's job looks to be to secure the battery lid in place. I couldn't find a way to take it apart without it seeming like I'd break something.

Anyway my main question is what do I do? With the batteries dying due to the landlord not turning up is it still my responsibility to replace them? Even though I can't even get the alarm apart to be able to put a battery in myself anyway? Do I just contact the non-emergency fire services to help fix this at this point?

Rented a room in a shared London flat from 2014 to May 2025. After checkout the manager confirmed in writing: "Deposit £590 … Refund £102 … Total to repay: £692." Nothing paid since, despite three chasers, so I'm preparing a letter before claim.

The 2019 agreement (the last written one; I stayed on after its Aug to Nov 2019 fixed term) was granted by a limited company. The man I dealt with is its sole director, is described in the agreement as its "Guarantor and Agent", and rent was payable to him personally. The deposit, paid into his personal bank account and never protected in any scheme, is covered by a clause saying the company "or its Guarantor will return the Security Deposit". He signed once without indicating capacity; the signature block lists landlord / agent / company / guarantor as options. The actual owner of the flat is a separate person who never lived there. The agreement also states the tenancy "is not an assured or assured shorthold tenancy".

1. Does being named as guarantor in the document, plus the "guarantor will return" clause, make him personally liable despite the unattributed signature?
2. Does the "not an assured shorthold" wording make it an assured non-shorthold, meaning no deposit protection duty ever aros?
3. If it was an AST: per Lowe v Charterhouse and Superstrike, the six-year clock on a s.214 penalty looks expired since late 2025 (deposit last deemed "received" when a new monthly tenancy arose in late 2019). Could the 2023/24 rent increases (deposit unchanged) restart it?
4. Any downside to suing him and the company jointly?

We are first time renters and we have a house viewing coming up.

I just wanted to know if there were any tips or advice anyone had for us, especially feeling like we're "competing" against potentially a large amount of applications and viewings. Anything we can do on the day that might increase our chances, or is it just down to luck? Thank you in advance :)

My landlord sent me 3 text messages yesterday (one of which around 6am which i think would be considered unreasonable, but not sure since it's not a phone call. It did wake me up though). I wasn't in the mood, and also busy with work all day so I ignored it for the time being.

The next morning, I receive from the same number what appears to be a phishing SMS.

Do you think:

1 an actual scammer spoofing her number? (timing seems too good to be a coincidence?)

2 landlord trying trick me to get me to contact her

3 landlord actually trying to scam me

what do you think?

Scenario 1, not her fault and not much we can do about it.

Scenario 3, she just committed a crime

But for Scenario 2... even if it's just to trick me to get me to contact her, this would still be a crime since this is an individual pretending to be a legitimate business right?

The SMS claims to be from Currys (which I have never ever been to) with 2 URLs asking me to do a survey.

Edit: just to add a bit more context. We've been texting back and forth because I'm due to move out in a couple weeks, and she is demanding I repaint the walls, but I've bene refusing because there is nothing wrong with them other than normal wear and tear. I didn't respond to 3 messages she sent yesterday, and now I get this "phishing" SMS from her.

https://preview.redd.it/aklopbi02jjh1.png?width=1446&format=png&auto=webp&s=53b0845b07b2b1c3f377b50e1e365cf2d1d49789

Hey, it's my first time ever renting a place, and I'm doing a flat share in London for the next 12-months. I am just a bit confused about how I would end the agreement? My rent is a monthly payment on the 27th of every month and I want to end the tenancy exactly a year from when I started (27th July).

How exactly does it work? When should I put in my notice, what even counts as a notice (email, letter etc.), where should I put it? How early? All this stuff is completely new to me so a dummies guide would be appreciated for this.

Just to make a bit more clear, I'd ideally leave on the 26th of July 2027 so I am not accidentally entitled to paying for July 27th - August 26th.

HMO with 5 tenants unlicensed for over 7 years. No repairs done. No gas checks or EICR/EPC done in 7 years. No renovations. No furniture provided. Old, tired property. Adding two extra bedrooms (the dining room split into 2) to a 3 bedrooms flat. No fire alarms. Tenants not vetted properly nor screened (those displaying violent and antisocial behaviour not removed). No access to balcony, vacant rooms, extra bathroom, basement (all locked up). Landlord lives overseas. Fired rogue agent stealing our rents, telling him we had stopped paying. Has friend living in Wales coming randomly to act on his behalf and harass us. Tried to evict us with 1 month notice just before Christmas, pretending he wanted to move a family member in and needed it vacated (not true, just to raise rents). Prosecuted and fined by the local council. Left us with no working lights for over 6 months. Ignored requests to provide EICR, came back unsatisfactory then delayed repairs for 6 months. Zero communication. Had to live through full 1 month rewire of whole property and still expected to pay full rent. Bills unpaid for months. Council tax unpaid for years. Cleaner and broadband cut off. Unprotected deposits. All of these included in the tenancy agreement. Finally gets the HMO licence and the same day attempts to raise rents from 1000£ monthly to 1300£. Charging rents the same for smallest room and largest room with ensuite bathroom. Property in desirable central London location (only upside), but small and overcrowded. Trying to force us out by raising the rents above market value. Can he do that? Challenged it by filing for rent tribunal already. Also filed for Rent Repayment Order months ago (pending tribunal).

Hello, my partner and I began renting this 2 bedroom small apartment/flat since December 2025. Beforehand, we rented the apartment down the hall (we switched because of preferences), so we have rented from the same landlord for about 2 1/2 years now.

For our current flat, we pay rent to the agency, and our utility bills to our landlord directly as they're in his name. However, the meter that our landlord reads from is locked within a separate room within the flat that we cannot access, and therefore have to rely on our landlord to come monthly to read how much we owe for that month.

This has become such an issue as he doesn't commit to coming every month. We may be lucky to see him every 3 or 4 months. Since moving in December, we have only paid the utility bill once or twice. Whilst some people may not consider the issue with this, it means for us that our bills rack up and essentially puts us in debt, and as a single income household, this is absolutely something we're afraid of.

I suppose my question here is, what else can we do? I have multiple texts between myself and the landlord asking when he can visit next to read our meter. I don't think that by texting him again, it will change. But when our time comes to move elsewhere, will this be reflected on us as our responsibility, or his, considering that we've been trying to pay for our bills but cannot. Basically, what can we do?

Thank you in advance for any replies. This has been on my mind constantly and really stresses me out.