Legal advice needed (Tenancy agreement)

[Alex]

Hi guys!

Sorry to bother you with this, but my girlfriend is having problems with her accomodation.

She moved in on the first of October in the UK and wants to leave now. The place is cold (see below), furthermore two girls living there as well are total bitches and it is very far away from her Uni/work (the bus connections are cr@p). I understand only the first problem actually holds any judicial value.

The radiator in her room is not working and she does not have access to the central gas heating, as that is on a timer. The other tenants (it is a shared accomodation) have now negotiated ridiculous settings for the timer - 6.30 -9.00 AM and 19.30 to 23.00 PM only. Despite this, the radiator in her room doesn't heat anyway. She has been given a small electrical heater by the landlord.
Now she will have to have a meter for the energy consumption of this device or be automatically charged 1£ per day if she does not for using an electrical heater.

Needless to say she is feeling cold, miserable and is crying a lot.  :(

I say f*ck them, just leave and stay with me for a while until you find a better place, let the landlord have the deposit. She is of course worried about legal implications (she is a Venezuelan citizen and relies on a Visa to be in the UK).

Now here is the legal situation:

1. I believe the landlord has violated the "Landlord and Tenant Act 1985" since he did not provide working heating in her room.
2. She has not signed the contract. He has read the contract to her and he has forwarded the contract as an PDF to her, she has (unfortunately) sent him an e-mail saying it's ok and she is looking forward to living there.
However, she never signed a single piece of paper!!! As it happens she doesn't have a printer and simply forgot about it or didn't care.
In addition to this the contract - which I have here with me printed out - says Start Date: 01/10/2009 and Finish Date 31/09/2009. Obviously a mistake as it cannot end before it starts, but still...
Also it only has her first name printed on it, not even her full name.
All the other clauses seem fine.

Now my question:
If she leaves the place, would she have to fear legal problems? Could she be held liable in court for this? She is afraid of ending up with a criminal record. The rent is 325£ per month if that is of importance to this matter.

Thanks a lot for the time and reading of this, I appreciate this very much!

[nfe]

Contract isn't valid, I'd assume she can leave without fear of reprisal.

Get her along to Citizens Advice Bureau, they've been very helpful to me before for tenancy issues.

[Alex]

Eventhough she did confirm by e-mail?

Thanks, I have done a search and found this website and have written to them:
http://www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk/ I also found the website you recommended but did not find an e-mail service.

[nfe]

Well, my only real experience with contracts and singing technicalities is with bands contracts. And in all cases there, no signature = no contract. We've had issues arise in the early days after having email confirmations but no signed contract before we were more clued up.

[Nadz1lla]

Aye I am also led to believe that in contract lax no sig = no binding contract. One other thing, was she ever given an inventory to look over, sign and send back too? If not, then she shouldn't have any repercussions in that respect either for the broken radiator.

[MDV]

If theres no signature on the contract AND no provision by the landlord of things in the contract then theres no legal ground to hold her there.

imo a savvy solicitor could rip the landlord a new one if he raised any legal matters. Young woman, new to the country, moving in on good faith, cowboy contractual practices, unreasonalbe compensations for his errors (the heater and meter/payments when he should pay to have it meet the required standard), and the landlord will know this. If he doesnt, I suspect his education will have a severe and expensive learning curve. (I know a couple of landlords that are terrified of falling short on such things: I believe the consequences are quite serious).  

[38thBeatle]

I'd agree with my learned friends above. Also, as you have pointed out, the contract is invalid in terms of the period. The Landlord would not be able to enforce it in court. I think that the "contra proferentem" rule might apply but if Elliott sees this thread he might confirm that. Basically it means that any ambiguity will be construed against the party that included it in the contract and is seeking to rely upon it. No sig, no correct identity of the participants and an incorrect period would work against the Landlord.Your girlfriends e-mail would not help him very much either. In reality I think that if she provides a good reason to go then he is unlikely to want the hassle of court action.

[Sifu Ben]

In answer to your last question, this is a civil matter, not a criminal one, so she won't have a record come what may. In reality the worst that could happen is she loses her security deposit. However, as this guy appears to be a total cowboy I'm betting he hasn't set up the legally required deposit account, in which case he is automatically in breach of contract and in fact owes her money.