Landlord using my two months rent in advance as bond!

[Bethaney93]

Hi,

just wanted some advice. I started renting out a property on the 6th April 2017 on a assured shorthold lease £575 a month.

The landlord asked for two months rent in advance (1150) and a rent payment on the 28th of april (575) all in all the first month I paid (1725).

I've never previously rented out a property so I assumed the two month rent was a bond.

The landlord hasn't fixed anything while I have been here, no new kitchen after 3 months which he promised. The walls are damp, paint and wallpaper just comes off. The lights don't work, the windows don't shut properly and let in cold. No heating source in living room.

I am officially fed up and trying to move, someone suggested that he didn't sound above board and said I should do a check on my deposit online I couldn't find any record of it.

I asked the landlord he said i hadn't paid any bond, I had paid two months rent in advance and if I am to leave i need to give two months notice. Pay for the first month of the notice, the second month is already paid for and if he is happy with the property he will repay me the second rent payment back when I leave. Surely this is a bond and should have been protected?
This doesn't seem legit and I don't believe I would ever get the second rent payment back.

can someone please give some advice, thanks in advance.

[ash72]

/Your tenancy should state what the notice period is that you signed, check it. The deposit is upto the LL if there is no deposit that the LL wants they don't need to, it's only if the LL takes a deposit and doesn't protect it there is a legal consequence for the LL.

Rent in-advance can be 1 month or 12 months depending on the agreement you both decided upon. Unfortunately you didn't release rent in-advance and a Deposit are not the same thing.

The Kitchen, do you have anything in writing and the estimated time scale on when this would be completed by? Where the walls damp previously when you viewed the property and the condition of the wall paper, was an inventory undertaken?

You could try and contact the council and see if this merits an enforcement notice for the LL to undertake, if you haven't already you should in the first instance write to your LL stating the issues you are facing and if they don't do anything then you could make a formal complaint to the council.

In future you should check the property you are intending on living in, and understand what you are paying for, is it a deposit or rent payable in-advance. You should send your LL a letter stating your notice on the property, wait your 2 months and your out.

[Bethaney93]

Thanks for your reply,

in all honesty I'm past wanting to waste any more time in this property.

all I'm wanting to know is can my last two months in this house be covered by the two month in advance I paid.

As technically I'm two month in front.

When I said this to the landlord he said only my last month would be covered, and the other month payment I would receive back in cash if he was happy with the house.

then surely legally this would be classed as a deposit and should have been protected.

sorry I'm just really confused.

[AndrewDod]

Please ignore the first two paragraphs of the response #2 above. It is not so simple.

Yes it is most likely to be classed as a deposit. The landlord doesn't know what he is doing.

How long was the initial tenancy, and what happened when that period came to an end. You are holding all the cards anyway most likely.

[KTC]

Hi,
I asked the landlord he said i hadn't paid any bond, I had paid two months rent in advance and if I am to leave i need to give two months notice. Pay for the first month of the notice, the second month is already paid for and if he is happy with the property he will repay me the second rent payment back when I leave. Surely this is a bond and should have been protected?
This doesn't seem legit and I don't believe I would ever get the second rent payment back.

Well, one month worth of that money is definitely a deposit even by his own description. If this is the first you've heard of the don't pay last month since you've already paid it, then that bit is almost certainly a deposit too. If this was pre-agreed (double check your contract and previous communications), then I would say it's still argubly a deposit, but it would be something that's at least arguable by the landlord.

Two months notice? Did you have a fixed term tenancy that ended, are you on a contractual periodic tenancy? The landlord could well be wrong there too.

[MdeB]

I asked the landlord he said i hadn't paid any bond, I had paid two months rent in advance and if I am to leave i need to give two months notice. Pay for the first month of the notice, the second month is already paid for and if he is happy with the property he will repay me the second rent payment back when I leave.

The following assumes property is in England.

Do you have this in writing?
If so, then good.
If not, then try to get it (e.g. email him saying something like "From our conversation on X I understand you to have said <the above>. Is this correct and can you point me to the clauses in the tenancy agreement that say this?").

Saying "if he is happy with the property he will repay me the second rent payment back when I leave" shows that that part is a deposit.

If the tenancy agreement does not say rent is payable in advance, then it is payable in arrears.
The end of April payment may well have been the May rent, which would mean that the second up-front £575 would have been the April rent and not a deposit.

More information is needed to enable people here to give accurate guidance.
- What was the term of the tenancy?
- Is there provision for the tenancy to continue after the initial term?

[duckandcover1]

Some information from your tenancy agreement will be useful, assuming you have one that is, as for some reason I expect you to say you haven't got one

1 - What monthly rental period do your payments cover? Is it from the 6th to the 5th, with the payment date as the 28th? Or, is it the 1st to the end of the month, payment date being the 28th.

If it's the latter, it feels to me that the first month should have been pro-rata and therefore not a full months rent. So I will assume now that the tenancy agreement says the month runs from the 6th to the 5th

As has been mentioned above, the second part of your two months up front for me is definitely a deposit. And I would imagine there is zero chance he/she has actually protected it properly. So he's likely to be fined up to 3 times the deposit if you raise it with the courts

2 - Did you get an inventory at check in, showing the condition of the property> How bad is the damp and the kitchen, do you have anything in writing to say the LL would improve it?

3 - What was the term of the ASC? Assuming 6 months, you normally can leave with 1 months notice, it's the LL that has to give you 2 months in most situations. If it's 12 months you are tied in until April and the LL has no obligation to agree to it

Finally, if the property was in a state of disrepair when you moved in, why did you accept the tenancy? The more tenants accept living in these dumps of places the more landlords will continue to leave properties in a state (the rogue ones anyway).

[mariner]

Please complete & paste https://forums.landlordzone.co.uk/fo...ll-new-posters