goodfella

Thank you very much. I have still some uncleared questions: 1. Would the contents of this letter be to my advantage in court or would not? 2. Can this property be classified as a HMO or not if two other persons are brothers? 3. Should I sign the letter or is it better to just print my name? Why?

Thank you everyone for your advice . I'd like to know what do you think if I give the agency the following reply to their letter(see the picture in post 27) Dear XXX estates staff, As you already know I could have read your letter much later than it is dated.That's why I'm replying respectively later. Please take into consideration that I never agred with the Landlord that I was going to be the only tenant of his property. That's why I am surprised that your letter came only on my name. There are several unrelated persons living in the property. Everyone has separate oral agreement with the Landlord.The fact is that each tenancy has been agreed separately between Landlord & respective Tenant and no new Tenancy Agreement has been signed with all tenants each time household composition has changed. As for me, I’ve always been renting a room and not the whole flat as it’s has always been HMO. I want to stress the fact that I have recently been collecting rent from other tenants & passing it on to Landlord, but only on an informal basis to help him out, not because I had agreed to take on responsibility for the whole tenancy. If you want me to start dealing with you and if you want me to sign an agreement with you, you should accept all my amendements to thaat variant of agreement that you tried to make me sign. I hope you understand that I don't want you to change the terms on which I've been living at this property. The most important of them is : one of the clauses should state that the Landlord will pay the council tax charges and water rates. This was part of the terms on wich I moved in to rent a room. Otherwise I wouldn't ever moved. And of course, as u already know I've never agreed with the Landlord to the late payment charges. So, why did you mention them in your letter? It is very odd and looks like you are trying to impose changes on the terms of renting. As we(me and the rest of the tenants) already mentioned in the list of amendements, any charge for late payment will be accepted by us only if a clause stating a grace period(14 days minimum) will be mentioned. Sincerely yours, Mr Tenant Mistakes correction wellcome

Right you are, but I'm trying to collect as many information as possible befor I go to the CAB on monday. Everyone's opinion is wellcome. By the way, what do you think: 2 guys living in the other room are brothers. So, it means that they are related to each other but not related to me. Can it be classified as a HMO then?

Thank you. I returned the tenancy agreement that he offered me to sign. I told him to edit it taking into consideration my amendements. 3 days passed and he still didn't reply to me. But what is my concern is: should I start correspondence with the agent from my only name or from all the tenants? I mean how should I let him know that I do not accept the charges for late payment that mentioned in his letter to me? How should I let him know that it is a change of the oral agreement with the landlord?I think it is better to du in written form, but it will mean that I started dealing with the agent as a tenant... so , should I write a collective letter from behalf of all of the tenants mentioning that it is HMO. I think it would be good to mention it somewhere and it would be usefull in court for example. What do you think?

And whose account I'd better pay the next month's rent: the agency's or the landlord's?

I am very gratefull to everyone who helped me with advice. By the way, there is a detail I'd like you to pay an attention to and comment on it. In december 2009 my landlord without letting me know gave the management of this property to an estate agency. So, on 17/12/2009 they gave me this letter: plus they wanted me to sign an agreement with them(as they represent my landlord). I told them that i'll sign the agreement only after I study it and after they edit it taking into consideration all my amendements. I gave them the list of amendements, they still didn't bring me edited copy but ask me to pay into their account. This month's rent I paid into the landlord's account as usual, thought they asked me to do so into their account. And now , on the 1st of february i'll have to pay my rent, but not sure into whos account: into the landlord's or into the agency's. The landlord says it is ok if I pay into the agency's account because he pays them money to manage his property. But I think I shouldn't do so as it would be one more evidence that I accepted that I am his only tenant. What do you think should I do? By the way, would it make sense to write a collective letter, on behalf of all the tenants of the property that we are not going to deal with that agency? Please read the last sentence of the letter. it says they will charge me for late payment, though in the first sentence they said "everything will stay the same". We've never agreed on any charges for late payement, that means that the agency introduces a new term in our oral agreament... What would you do if you were me?

Thank you very much! I really appreciate your advice! If I knew that the landlord paid the council tax and now tried to "beat this money out of me" so it wouldn't be a problem for me. I would behave just as you reccomended - I would just firmly rejected anything backdated. But something telling me that it's not the case and the council tax hasn't been paid at all. Otherwise why the landlord told me that he is going to tell the council that the previous tenant lived here up to november 2009 ? The landlord's affairs are definetely chaotic , and now he appears to be back-tracking trying to rectify errors. By the point is that all his actions can cause lot of troubles for me. I'm at a loss what is the first step that I should do now: 1) should I go to the council and tell them everything about it or 2) should I sit and wait when a bill from the council comes for my name or something else.. I'm afraid I just can't afford a lawyer... Oh, that is what I am sure about - i'll never sign anything with backdated liabilities!

Thank you very much endeed! I'll definetely try to do what you advise me. I've already started a thread on www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/ I suspect that it is the scenario one, but I am not sure of it...

But why should he have registered on the electoral register? He lives with his family at alternative address. The setup is as follows: there is a house with 2 flats. The flat 1 is our landlord’s property and the flat 1a is another landlord’s property. Our landlord property consists of 1 big room(living room) and 1 smaller room(a bed room wich is occupied by me). Since the day I moved in there were 2 beds in the first room and 2 beds in the second. If necessary the tenants could confirm that they are unrelated to me and I only helped the lendlord to collect their rent to pass to the landlord. That’s the most dangerous thing: incompetent people can cause very much trouble … I’ll definitely go to the CAB. But if you were me, what would you tell them and about what would prefer to keep silence? As for me, I never heard about a rent book and its importance. By the way, I think he can prove that I was a tenant by showing a print of his bank account stating that the full amount of rent has been coming once a month. It comes from Goodfella1 (My first name(in reality it’s not Goodfella of course) and the number of property). And of course I think the council can contact British Gas and find out who has been paying the bills for this period.

Thank you. I'll be away for one hour. But when I come back I'll give you the details

Thanks god(google:)) it is not a jail! Today it is too late to go to the CAB. There's always a great queue at this time. I should have done it earlier in the morning. I'd better do it on monday. But before going there i'd like to collect as much information as possible.

Shylok and Matt Henson, What do you think if I chose this way of solving the matter: I will get down the council asap & tell them (a) How long I have been living there ( b ) Who has lived there with me during that time & when ( c ) That each tenancy has been agreed separately between Landlord & respective Tenant and no new Tenancy Agreement has been signed with all tenants each time household composition has changed (d) Landlord told me & several other tenants that he paid the C/Tax and that I should not worry about it. (e) That I have recently been collecting rent from other tenants & passing it on to Landlord, but only on an informal basis to help him out, not because I had agreed to take on responsibility for the whole tenancy. If I can back this up with written statements & contact details for previous tenants, this should hopefully be enough to convince the local authority that it is an HMO, am I right? I will also tell them what Landlord is planning to do (re blaming a prev tenant for C/Tax arrears) as this is fraud. I certainly will not sign any TAgreement under any circumstances, as I will then be liable for C/Tax, am I right? Of course, doing the above could well result in my Landlord serving me with S21 out of spite. But it will be pretty easy for ex-T that L is intending to stitch up to prove that he has not lived there, so ultimately I imagine council will get in touch with me. I will then have to provide above info to prove that I am not liable for the arrears. So, do you think guys I should do it sooner rather than later, as volunteering the info and reporting Landlord for attempted fraud proves my honesty a bit more?

Prior to that I paid the rent in cash. I didn't have any rent book.Now I've been paying the money into his account. The next payment he want me to do into the account of the estate agency that not long ago took over the management of his property But if I provide signed statements from some guys who lived there stating that he said that he would pay the council tax? The landlord said the summ is over 4000 pounds(iCT probably was not paid for 4 years). It seems to me that the council contacted him already if he knows the exact amount. What is CCJ - Country Court Jail..??! well, if I lose all the battles in court and they make me liable to pay this great amont of money, I will just not be able to pay it...what happens then. If only my credit rating suffers I will not much care I think...

Yes. I started paying the full rent into his account only in autumn 2009. i didnt put myself on the electorial register. Unfortunately I paid gas and electricity bills in my name... What do you think can happen to me if I do a runner..?

I would be happy if you were right...