From: gmeg@oasis.icl.co.uk (Guy Megson)
Newsgroups: misc.legal
Subject: Advise letting House UK (poss. Legal)
Date: 11 Sep 92 13:53:42 GMT
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5


        
 Legal Problems re: Housing (Rented).
 -----------------------------------
         
 I have a problem with the Woolwich property  people,  letting 
 section. If anybody out here knows anything about the Housing 
 Act, has any practical  advise,  or  knows  about  the  legal 
 aspect involved  I would be eternally grateful for your time.
         
 I am having intense problems breaking out of the house I live 
 in.  The  reason  I  am  leaving  the  house,  which  is   in  
 Farnborough  Hants, is to move to Stevenage due to relocation 
 of my job. The agency are saying that I will have to carry on 
 paying  the  rent even though I am moving 100 miles away from 
 the area. The current letting agreement is for one  year  and 
 runs  out  in February 1993 (all the previous agreements have 
 been for six months), this would mean  paying  rent  for  the 
 house  for five, unused, months (no way!). There is one other 
 person leaving at same time a me and I have  written  to  the 
 agency  (recorded  delivery)  stating  that half the house is 
 leaving and that they better sort  themselves  out  with  the 
 remaining  people  (renegotiate  the contract This half house 
 renegotiate idea came out during a  phone  conversation  with 
 the  letting people (they said that's what they would have to 
 do if half the house left). Anyway  I  have  now  received  a 
 letter  in  reply saying sod off, we will not renegotiate and 
 you have to pay us the rent until the end of the lease, or we 
 will  charge you interest on unpaid rent and chase you to the 
 ends of the world. In all our  telephone  conversations  they 
 have never been consistent.
       
 HELP!  IS  THERE ANY WAY, OTHER THAN RUNNING AWAY, THAT I CAN 
 GET OUT OF THIS SITUATION LEGALLY?
         
         
 Additional information:
 ------------------------
      
 The house is rented along with three other  people  (four  in 
 all).  We  all  contribute, by standing order, to the monthly 
 rent of #675. Our contract says that the  tenant  consist  of 
 all  the  people in the house. It also states various clauses 
 from the 1988 Housing Act about  the  length  of  notice  the 
 landlord  (or  agency  as the Landlord is out of the country) 
 have to give us but it does not say anything about the notice 
 I  (we as two people are leaving) have to give to the agency. 
 The agency, meanwhile, say  we  must  give  them  two  months 
 notice IF the whole house are leaving! If only one/two people 
 are leaving then that is a local matter between the people in 
 the house. (confused , I am)
     
 During  the  two  years  I have lived in the house two people 
 have left and been replaced.  Each  time  this  happened  the 
 deposit  was  sorted  out  between the person leaving and the 
 person moving in. We did not deal with the agency other  than 
 filling in a form for them to vet the individual. This is the 
 way I moved in.
      
 During the two years the agency have never  carried  out  any 
 outside maintenance even though the contract states that they 
 must  maintain  the  outside  and   inside   of   the   house 
 (decorating).  To  my  knowledge they have only decorated the 
 bathroom and then they  failed  to  tell  us  a  painter  was 
 arriving  and  we  walked in to this strange person using our  
 electricity for his radio.
      
 I personally cannot stand two of the people in the house (the 
 two  who  are staying). I just do not get along with them, to 
 the point where I feel more stressed at home than at work.
       
 We (two people leaving) have placed accommodation adverts  in 
 all  the  local papers for the last two weeks, which costs an 
 arm and a leg (plus a little finger), and only had one person 
 come  around the  house. The other people in the house do not 
 seem to give a ..... about finding anybody.
         
         
 Help!!!!!
         
         
 Regards
         
 ------------------------------------------------------------
 Guy Megson.  Working but still poor beyond believe due to
              over enjoyment of my degree final year.
         
 gmeg@oasis.icl.co.uk
 gm@BRA0116.wins.icl.co.uk     - preferred mailer.
 ------------------------------------------------------------