Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => The Dressing Room => Topic started by: Muso on September 04, 2006, 02:58:42 PM
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Yo
I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with breaking a contract and how much SH1T you can get into because of it? Basically I'm renting a place and I want to move out, I've served 3 months of a 6 month sentance on this place, I dunno if they will let me off easy or fight me till the death. I rent off a lettings agency so I'm guessing they will be strict bast4rds.
Reason for moving is that outgoings are killing me, sharing was so much better.
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No 'clause' in contract?
Many do 'first/last' months rent (to move in) and if move out early/badly thats all the grief.
Ask nicely, nothing ventured and all that. BUT, if ya signed a contract with NO clause then full rent is normally expected (sorry :( ).
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It depends on your reason for leaving, too. I broke a contract once because of health reasons and didn't have any penalties. Maybe you can find that sort of loophole for yourself.
Otherwise, you might be able to find someone to take over your lease. Most landlords don't care who's in there so long as they're getting their rent money.
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And also bear in mind that you might need a reference-if you can find a way to get out without acrimony then that is the way to go.Could you perhaps see if you could find someone to take over- probbaly a stupid suggestion I do realise. I thought there were agencies who looked at Landlord/Tenant contracts. What about the C.A.B?
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Ok Here's Johnny!
You won't get your deposit back even if you did stick it out. Part of life mate.
Falsify a reference. I do it for mates a lot.
Sorted.
:twisted:
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Get something to give yourself an edge in negotiation - sneak a dead rat into the room and then later "discover" it or something :lol:
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Landlords tend to want rent (I mean go figure) - it would cost them a load of cash to sue you for the rent, which you probably can't pay.
You cant get into criminal sh1t for breaking a contract in England (in general)- you can only be sued in civil courts for the remaining contractual amount (i.e. 3 months rent). This is if the Landlord or agent can be bothered to sue you (it costs £150 in court fees to issue a claim for possession of land and then upto £500 if they instruct a solicitor and counsel to act for them). If judgment is entered against you and you cant pay you get entered on the record of county court judgments which adversely affects your credit rating. If the debt is over £750 they can petition for your bankruptcy (which costs them about £1000-£1500 in basic legal fees).
Bargain hard - tell the agents you want to surrender your tenancy because you can't afford to pay (and thus will not pay rent) and that you are moving out and they will probably relent.
Alternatively you could do a 'midnight flip' and move out without telling anyone - leave a note that you can't pay your rent and you've gone: leave the keys with the note (that is considered effective surrender in law) - in which case they probably won't chase you as they have no address to serve proceedings to.
Normally agents have to pay landlords rent whether or not the property is let, so they will want you gone and someone else in.
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Wait for Ben (Twilight Oddysee) to drop in.
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Christ on a bike just do one and sort the rest out later! :roll:
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All of this is why I and my mum are gonna be VERY careful from now on. To be more fair with tenants and set ground rules from offset. Pre-warned is pre-armed.
My Dad (who sadly passed away recently) was abit lenient with renters (he/mum have some rental property as retirement fund).
Therefore I am now a 'proxy' landlord and it's a royal PITA!
I am NEVER renting again without first and last months deposit and ref. letter.
You are I am sure FINE I am positive,but there are WAY too many A**HOLES out there whom I would (have in past) had to do the black bin bag/black balaclava stealth ejection on (long time ago mind).
It goes both ways. Good and bad tenants and good and bad landlords.
Be upfront and honest and that should go a looooooooooooong way (would with me anyway).
If ya need to move then let the landlord/agent know and do it (but would not expect any deposit etc. back, just way it is am afraid).
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Otherwise, you might be able to find someone to take over your lease. Most landlords don't care who's in there so long as they're getting their rent money.[/quote]
To HELL with that. Been caught waaaaaaaay too many times. Actually caught one tenant letting a supossed 'brother in law' use the address for mail. Thing is, 'brother in law' is of a VERY Muslim name (and renter is a VERY common English name), in this day and age Alarm Bells RANG loud. Renter dealt with swiftly and with no 'pussy footing'.
Before dad passed he had a female renter who (turns out had fled a junkie boyfriend). Aformentioned ex-boyfriend finds her, she flees again, end up having to get out junkie who was dealing and trashed the place.
Very dodgy territory.
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Thanks for the balance Nick!! I was a good tenant until they let the flat above to a family of dodgy.. :x ..right they were Turkish wrong 'uns. There, said it. They got their kids to jump of their beds every night around 3 in the morning until it all went Red Mist
I lived there for 11 years with very little problems with neighbours. I didn't cane the guitar each day for that time. I used to work out certain times in the weekly pattern. Then it was headphones.
The management company tried and spectacularly f*cked up to convince me this was all in my head. Me and my brother tore their arguments to shreds at every available opportunity.
This bunch of parasitic scum turned up in my life during February of this year and within 2 weeks we had decided to move out and buy. It was the best thing that's ever happened to me.
If my posts this year are a bit crazy, then it's down to that and I'm still getting over my Grandad's elderly abuse at the hands of his so called girlfriend and her 50 odd year old accomplice from the f*cking so called 'Spiritualist Church'. Now those c*nts made it personnel.
You know that scene in Pulp Fiction....'I'm trying real hard to be the Sheppard'? That's me for the last 16 months.
Guitars keep you out of prison!
:lol:
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My main reason for moving is that I thought I would like living on my own but it sucks cos its so boring. I wanna move in with some friends but their house is only open for the new couple of months.
I don't think I will get my deposit back, I never have done even leaving the house in perfect order. I don't understand why renting has to be so complicated.
Johnny did u not confront those people about their kids jumping up and down at 3am? That royally takes the piss! Sounds hard about yer grandad as well, soo temping to do some damage sometimes innit :D Keep yer chin up lad!
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With us we NEVER use/used an agent.
This A. allows more personal contact with tenant (also cutting out a stupid agent fee into bargain) and b. allows more say in tenant troubles etc.
My Dad (and I) were/are in the NO HASSLES PLEASE school of thought, so did right by tenants (too lenient at times).
This is/was treated as a retirment income (sans cr@p pensions) so was/is treated very seriously with ALL repairs/concerns being dealt with asap (one property now needs total new roof, goodbye £18,000+).
I think, with agents, alot of the 'personal touch' is gone and it's just a 'comodity'.
My dad/I dealt with 'bad' tenants (like yours above Johnny) with a very surgical manner!
Just trying to balance the scales is all. I work DAMN hard now (for my mum) and stress is HIGH (basically as tenenants know my Dad passed away and at least some are trying it on, y'know taking piss abit as think mum is in charge , as I lived in Texas so long). Well guess what, the prodigal son is BACK! lol. Complete with 190lb 6"1 body and 'scary' facial hair LOL, basically looking as imposing as can be. Not saying much, crossing arms and standing behind mum (like an inforcer), then if/when summit said outta place, I become a human WARPIG :twisted:
Hard work, but as ya can see, am kinda having fun in a warped way ROFLMAO.
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Muso yes I did confront the husband. He came flying down the stairs at me after I politely asked him to keep the noise down. It was too easy as he was a f*cking Dwarf and I just staired him quiet after giving him a 10 second spiv in the face. It reduced his scheming wife to tears in seconds as her 'plan' was working in my eyes/failing in her's in that instant. Then she called the police and lied I was threatening them. I never left my flat, he came to me. The police gave them the works and she wailed and lied like the f*cking coward bitch c*nt she is. I laughed then left. 8)
I put Grandad to 'bed' along with the demons. Well once my Mr nasty comes out it takes him 3 days before he will go back to his room and stay there! If I persisted with that I wouldn't be sitting here now before work. In reality I'd be doing a life sentence for murder reduced to 5 for good behaviour! Can you see the temptation of just 5? I could! I know I know! We need to get the deterrents back in Great Britain!
Nick the human warpig! I love it mate cos that is what I'm like. 6'1" a pair of arms which will crush skulls if i need them too ( I worked as a labourer a few years back and re-ignited all my shite!!) and Irish/Glaswegian/London genetic make up that sizzles along nicely most of the time. Do you need a business partner with a miracle man!! lol pmsl!!
Take care dude and keep up the good work! :twisted: 8)
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Otherwise, you might be able to find someone to take over your lease. Most landlords don't care who's in there so long as they're getting their rent money.
To HELL with that. Been caught waaaaaaaay too many times. Actually caught one tenant letting a supossed 'brother in law' use the address for mail. Thing is, 'brother in law' is of a VERY Muslim name (and renter is a VERY common English name), in this day and age Alarm Bells RANG loud. Renter dealt with swiftly and with no 'pussy footing'.
I meant taking over the lease in a legal way, if you can do that there. In my own experience, you can front up to the landlord and ask if you can get out of your lease if you have someone else ready to move in, and they are usually OK with it. there's nothing dodgy and the landlord gets to check the new tenants out just as though they were applying for the place.
You don't rent to muslims? My wife is married to a guy from another country and her younger sister is married to a guy from yet another country. They both have a third sister who isn't married and so has her parent's name, which is another nationality again. Put the three sisters together and you have last names from three very, very different nationalities. It happens.
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NOTHING to do with race at all.
Just DO NOT let tenants allow all and sundry to use the address for mail or whatever.
I said muslim as (due to current climate here) it was dodgy at best as I had no idea who the guy was and tenant had said nothing.
If Mr.Smith is tenant and place is full of mail for Mr.Brown I would still rip tenant a new ahole!
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However, due to Real Estate experienc in USA, I would prefer not to rent to certain ethnic people due to their cooking. It is VERY hard to get some smells out of a place. Bad enough when buying but renting (i.e. normally quicker turnover) quite annoying would imagine.
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Being a lawyer.......ahem...
You can break, but you will be liable for the loss on the contract, that is the 3 months rent that is due. You could be sued for that, it might just come down to a question of whether it is worth the agent pursuing you, or whether they are willing to write off the loss.
Often, being honset and reasonable can help. Nobody ever does as they try and pull fast ones. I would be tempted to 'fess up that the rent and out goings are killing you so as to give the agent a chance of getting a new tenant. The flip side is that if you do a bunk you have already sown a seed in the agent's mind that you are not worth suing as you do not have the corn.
If you do get sued and lose you will get a county court judgment and have to pay it over time. It will stay on your credit record for three years.
These days it is a lot easier to sue for small amounts as the court have an online system.
If you do decide to risk being sued don't let a collection/bailiff company bully you too much.
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I would add that if you do a bunk, service of proceedings on your last known address is legal service (i.e. where you did a runner from) so the agent could get judgment against you in default of you defending the case and you may not even know about it.
Which is why it is better to agree a surrender of the tenancy with the agent first.
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My ex landlords agents were so incompetent that they never got the contract signed for the new term. That should have been in December and we left last May. They just could not organise the proverbial in the brewery.
The other things I remember about my last few months in the rented flat were;
Being flooded out 7 times in the bathroom to the point when the ceiling was virtually hanging down along with most of the fungal growths that go with it.
The kids putting a security chain across the door when we were at work, so it had to be kicked off. Then removed.
Police called twice over us asking them nicely to stop continuous banging and screaming. The plaster used to fall from the ceilings.
Kids unsupervised after school running riot in the back alleys, up and down the fire escape and bashing the nice kids.
Trying to pull the wool over the police's eyes by saying we were on benefits, racists and anything else she could make up on the spot.
All in the space of 4 months. Then the old man tries to take me on , on the communal stair case. I've never seen such cowardice fall apart in such a good way. They were like rats on a sinking ship. Kebab shop workers, I've since found out. Which are in a lot of cases are fronts for the H trade. We don't need a Kebab shop every few hundred yards! They can't support themselves in that kind of saturated competition. Not to mention the saturated fat!
Rant over.
:D
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Johnny Mac,
All you say justifies not paying rent. However, the way the law is framed not paying rent is (legally not morally) the wrong thing to do.
Always remember most laws are framed by politicians......if you can't trust their answers on TV why trust what they put in print and that has the back up of an entire legal system........???
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If your bathroom is flooded, the ceiling is hanging down and there is mold growing then you can withold rent on the basis that the landlord is in breach of his obligation to keep the structure and exterior of the property (under s.11 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985) and you are entitled to set off the rent until he repairs the damage.
Furthermore ASBOs are available against noisy nuisance neighbours - it just takes persistant complaining to the Police.
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+1 on witholding rent - thats what I did when I used to rent and things needed doing. Always worked for me.
:twisted:
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If your bathroom is flooded, the ceiling is hanging down and there is mold growing then you can withold rent on the basis that the landlord is in breach of his obligation to keep the structure and exterior of the property (under s.11 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985) and you are entitled to set off the rent until he repairs the damage.
Furthermore ASBOs are available against noisy nuisance neighbours - it just takes persistant complaining to the Police.
Technically no you cannot withhold rent. I am not sure why as I am not a property lawyer, but every property lawyer I know lives by the rule of always making sure their client pays the rent.
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Although a guitar pickup forum isn't really the place for this, I am a property lawyer - to be pithy I was not 100% accurate in terms of the exact legal position but in essence the common law recognises that a tenant has a right of self help by witholding rent to pay for the repairs himself (i.e. you can't go down the pub with the rent) and for compensation for the loss in the value of the tenant's legal estate. There is plenty authority on this point (e.g. Lee-Parker v. Izzet [1971] 1 WLR 1688, British Anzani Ltd v. International Marine Management [1980] QB 137), although it is important to note that the landlord's liability to repair only arises once notice of the disrepair has been given.
As almost all residential property is covered by one of the residential housing statutes the landlord's only remedy is to sue for possession and for arrears: a breach of covenant does not entitle the landlord to evict the tenant without a possession order and the doctrine of forfeiture has no place in short term residential property lets.
At that point the tenant defends by way of a set off of the expense of repairs and counterclaims a) for specific performance of the landlord's repairing covenant and b) general damages for the inconvenience of living in a property.
Furthermore County Court judges tend (on the basis of books full of authorities) to have in their mind a 'tariff' of general damages for a tenant living in a property in disrepair of between £500-£4000 per annum depending on the seriousness of the disrepair.
If the disrepair claim is genuine, the Landlord often finds that he is out of pocket to the tenant and has to stomach the huge costs of his action.
So witholding (but not spending) the rent is a permitted mechanism of forcing the landlord to get on with things.