Wish to break a lease

[supernaturalfan]

Hi peeps,

Hope don't mind me hijacking this thread. I also want to break a tenancy agreement but my circumstances are different and also noticed this post was dated 2005 and so the law might have changed since then.

I recently took on an agreement for a property, quite hastily, long-story short, the place I wanted to rent was sold instead after I'd paid my deposit and had 2 days before lease on existing place expire where I couldn't stay because of job relocation and I was overseas when this all happened!

It's a private lease through a private letting agents and I am having so many problems to the point I'm miserable

Things in the house keep going wrong which I know can't be helped but the time it takes for them to get repaired is unacceptable. The shower didn't work (it's the only one) and it took almost a fortnight for someone to come and look at it and almost another fortnight for the landlord to decide whether to replace the shower or repair.

I also didn't realise that this is actually a council housing estate and that the tenant purchased this house from the council. So all the council tenants can call me a bigot if they wish but I was raised in a council estate and so I know that the way of life is just not the same. Here there are neighbours that leave bin liners of rubbish outside on the pathways because their wheelie bins are full and there is rubbish everywhere creating a health hazard.

My next door neighbour whom I've never met keeps throwing rubbish into my garden and I'm too scared to approach them as they are known (I have been cautioned by other neighbours) for being quite aggressive and physically fighting with people. This is the same neighbour that leaves the rubbish everywhere.

My car parking space isn't outside my house but is in the area where the wheelie bins are left for collection. Next to another house. The resident of this other house takes exception to the time my neighbours leave their wheelie bins uncollected and at the fact they leave bin liners of rubbish and for reasons I cannot fathom has taken to moving the wheelie bin and bin liners in front of my car. On the last bin collection this person rammed the wheelie bin for my neighbours into the bonnet of my car.

I wrote him a note and put it through his door asking him not to do this and if it continued I'd have no option but to contact the police. That night this man's son came to my door and was shouting and threatening me.

I'm so miserable. I worked hard to get out of a council estate and all this grief that goes with it and now I'm paying for a private let but am in a council estate with certain people leaving rubbish everywhere and deliberately littering my garden and making me scared to do or so anything.

So I might not actually have an option but to break the lease, if things get worse I can't stay here, I live on my own (I'm female).

Can someone please advise what, if any rights I might have?

Thanks in advance.

[Snorkerz]

If I read your post correctly, the only thin that the landlord has done wrong is the time it took for the shower to be fixed. I agree that that is a long time to get it fixed, and if this has happened frequently, I would have a chat with the "Tenancy Relations Officer" at the council to see if he can help or liaise between you and the landlord to get the issues sorted.

The rest of the problems are police or council issues. They are not your landlords 'fault' and would certainly not be valid grounds for breaking a contract. If you decided to go you could be liable for rent until the earlier of:
- The end of the contract
- A new tenant moves in
- You agree a surrender with the landlord

[supernaturalfan]

Unfortunately that's what I thought.

The landlord was living here before renting and I suspect that's why they decided to rent but I guess they were under no obligations to tell me about the problems. Was also confirmed when a friendly neighbour told me the landlord was having problems with the neighbours mentioned above.

Will the council tenancy liaison officer help with a private tenancy agreement?

The issue isn't just the shower, there's many. The shower repair resulted in a leak which I noticed when a large area of the carpet in the hallway was soaking. The bathpanel was taken off to repair and a hole made in the wall where the shower is. They repaired the leak but left the bath panel off, the hole in the wall and I'm still waiting for them to fix that. I paid a small fortune in electricity drying out the carpet and wall as it was soaked.

The landlord didn't do the garden before I moved in, the hedge is riiculously overgrown to the point where it's blocking the path running outside the house, there is weeds everywhere and I had to borrow a petrol mower to cut the grass as it was too long for my flymo. The landlord also left the wheelie bins full so I couldn't dispose of any rubbish until after they were emptied. Just lots of things like that which really frustrate me, coupled by the neighbour problems.....like I said I'm pretty miserable