Help ! Writing on behalf of a friend - with residential rental problem. Friend viewed a flat during the day with a known high street estate agent. Flat seemed nice (internally) and friend agreed to rent it. Agreement was drawn up - AST - for 1 year. As friend from overseas, Agent asked for 6 months payment up front and also 6 weeks deposit. However, upon moving in friend discovered many problems that were not obvious or visible when first viewed: 1) There were ac ventilation machines for the whole block on a roof close to the flat - which vibrate all night and make so much noise that friend is unable to sleep 2)There are heating pipes beneath the flat that cause the internal temperature to be apx 30-32c at night, every night 3) There is a large service pipe outside the living room which creates noise, smell and dust to enter into the flat. It makes friend cough, the smell and dust is so bad. 4) The communal areas are dirty. Rubbish is left out constantly. It is unhealthy and dangerous. Friend has had all complaints acknowledged by both the management of the block and the estate agent - BUT neither has done anything. Management has offered to put in double glazing. But this does not erase the other complaints. Friend just wants to cancel the AST and move. In fact, friend has temporarily left to stay elsewhere just to get some sleep for 7-10 days and hoping in the meantime that the situation gets resolved. What can be done? Clearly the agent has taken the money, received their commission and is holding a deposit (which would be held under the TDS scheme) - so they are in no hurry to cancel this agreement. I suggested that the agent finds a replacement tenant and helps friend find an alternative flat. But so far agent refuses to help friend. Is there anything friend can do to cancel this AST and maybe even get compensation ? I would have thought that if an agent was aware of pipes making noises/smells they should have had a duty to divulge such info to in-coming tenants?? Would be most grateful for advice. Thank you.

Hello there, Over the weekend we hired a van which my husband accidentally dented on a lamp post. The dent was at the joint of 2 panels and has tarnished some of the paint. From memory I'd say it's about 15" long. My husband admitted to the damage over the phone and was told they'd probably just replace the panels rather than try to repair them. He paid CDW so our excess was limited to £400 - which they want us to pay upfront without getting quotes or doing the work. Whilst I'm not that sure about realistic repair costs for the damage caused, I don't want to pay an excess if they then don't actually repair it. Would it be reasonable to not pay the excess until we've actually received a receipt for payment of the work? And is there any point asking them to get a few quotes?

My initial impression of Sixt was great but within 1 week of receiving a final invoice for my rental has now been completely ruined. I will never use them again as their post-rental policy seems to just be all about making up profit margins. They advertise apparently cheaper prices to get the business but then claw the money back to be profitable afterwards. 1. No one explained about needing to return the vehicle clean - an omission which has now cost me £50+20% VAT. I've been sent emails since telling me they expect all customers to thoroughly check T&Cs before renting a car, so why was it the Return Fuel Fill was clearly explained to me by the woman at the desk, but the cleaning wasn't? I have received no receipts or evidence to justify how a car can cost £50+VAT for cleaning, they have just automatically taken it out of my £150 deposit. 2. Vehicle check process for pre-existing damages on car pick-up: I did the vehicle check together with a nice man who handed the car over to me. He was about to say everything was OK when I spotted the scratch in the paintwork down to the metal on the mirror on the driver's side. I was expecting him to do something on his hand-held device, for there to be a proper record taken of this, like with other car rental companies. So I was a bit surprised when instead he hand-wrote on the back of my Driver's Contract piece of paper "Scratch in paintwork on driver's side mirror" on the back of my contract, he signed it, and dated it (20th June 2014) and I also signed this at his request. He then told me when I dropped the car off to leave that same piece of paper on the dashboard of the car with an additional note on it to say "Reminder: this is your note on 20th to say scratch in mirror was pre-existing at time of pick-up" and for me to sign, date this and leave it in the car. His words to me were "This note will mean I will remember this was already done and I won't charge you for the scratch".This did not feel right at the time, but I trusted the nice man so just went along with his instructions. I was the one who spotted this damage at the point of pick-up and exactly followed to the letter all of the instructions provided by their member of staff. 3. 1 week later after I'd received a final invoice Head office emailed me a Damage Report claiming I had scratched the car - I hadn't, this had been the fore-mentioned pre-existing damage which was noted at the pick-up. After sending me a series of blunt automated emails, some of which were in very poor English, asking me what photos I'd taken etc - the head office team then bothered to contact the Shepherds Bush shop to check facts and the matter was cleared up. When I was contacted by head office with the Damage Report the head office had not spoken to the local office. The only good thing in all of this was the local shop staff did inform head office about the piece of paper and pre-existing damage, so this matter was cleared up, but could have been initially without having to involve me. 4. Only then I received another email saying I'm still going to be charged - an initially unquoted amount - for a full valet of the car - only now drawing my attention to Clause 11.3 of T&Cs (very buried on their website, not explained to me on car pick-up by anyone) to return the car clean "because other people want to use the car after you". Cleaning was never mentioned at pick-up. Returning with a full fuel tank for example was, but nothing about returning it fully cleaned. I've never heard of a car rental company who doesn't clean a car between hires or puts that cost onto the customer or uses this as an excuse to take money out of a deposit. Reminds me of unscrupulous estate agents who keep your deposit for 'cleaning' once you leave a rental property. 5. When I asked Head Office how much they were going to charge me for 'cleaning' they couldn't answer, they referred me to the local branch. This morning I woke up to an automated email ("We friendly ask for your understanding that we create the invoice in the language of the rental location" - just an example of poor English in communication) with an invoice for £50+VAT for cleaning which they'll just take out of my £150 deposit. Who pays £50 to clean a car?! 6. My total rental in the end was far more expensive than Avis would have been who I have always used before and would never have put me through this nonsense. 7. Their processes are flaky - it seems now on purpose so that they can put customers into a vulnerable position after the event where they can charge them - The rental contract which included a list of pre-existing damages was given to me by the lady in the shop. This rental agreement with these pre-existing damages only existed as a piece of paper, I have not received anything electronically. The gentleman who met me and handed the vehicle over to me had something on a hand-held device which also listed these items, so it looked like there was an electronic version of the contract there but nothing given to me. I was told to leave behind the only evidence I had which was the handwritten note.

Hi all, My husband and I have been given 2 months notice to find somewhere else to live by our landlord, as they want to sell the house. We've applied for a house we like through an estate agents - we've applied in both our names and paid £42 each for the credit check. My question is, well more of a concern really... we both have a REALLY bad credit score, we are in debt to multiple credit card companies etc though we have very recently put repayment arrangements in place with them. I have a CCJ but I made the estate agent aware of this and they cleared it with the landlord of the property we've applied for. She doesn't have a problem with it. So what I'd like to know is - is the credit check done to check our credit score? Or just to check that we don't have any CCJ's or other things that we didn't declare in our application? Thanks

Good afternoon, This is only my second post on the forums. I was advised to post about a PCN which I have now done and I'm not sure if this is the correct place for another concern I have at the mo, but it seems to be the best fit. I hired a transit van recently from a local firm that are renowned for battered vehicles. This doesn't bother me too much as I feel less afraid of dinking them slightly. ALso they are the only local firm to hire with a tow bar. The last time I hired one was for an event in Northampton. About a 300 mile round trip for me. Plus other local driving at both ends I had done about 400 miles when I got to Cobham Services last Monday night to find the rear passenger side wheel was hanging off by the last few turns of the last wheel nut. I have written to the company asking for compensation and have so far only received one phone call that, despite my request, they still have not followed up in an email, suggesting that the only possible explanation was that the vehicle was tampered with and that therefore I am liable for all damage. We have photos of the state of the wheel and supporting documents for all our claims. We will get experts to look at the photos but does anyone have any further advice? Many thanks Will

Hi, So I rented a car from SIXT. I took photos of every panel when in the car park before leaving. There were already 8 pieces of reported damage on the vehicle, so identifying anything new was tricky, hence the photos. Upon return, a "new" piece of damage was found (very small - less than 3mmx10mm surface paint scratch, looking like a bit of dirt), and indeed the panel it was on wasn't listed on the pre-hire damage form. I looked back at my photos, and, while quite blurry, they do show the damage pre-hire. So my question is, do the photos take away my liability, or am I still liable for the previous renters damage because I didn't report it at the start of the hire?

My husband and I are due to move in three weeks. We have placed a holding deposit down on a property, at the moment it is still showing as available on websites. Although the landlord says as far as she is concerned it is ours. She said to pay the deposit as soon as possible, would that mean the 1st month and deposit or the security deposit? I only ever signed contracts and made first months payment on move in before. We also moved out of our last place and the landlord requested that our deposit be released so we want to wait for that, should be a few days. Im just not sure what it means to send money without contract. What is the normal way?

Hi .. I am a concerned father looking for some guidance regarding rental leases in Uk. my daughter recently moved from sydney to london and took out a rental lease for a flat in an area that seems ok(ish) . The lease is for a privately owned flat in a block that is partly privately owned and part council. when they moved into the flat they knew that some rennovations were being carried out to the building, they were told that the impact to them would be minimal and the rent would be slightly reduced during that period. what they didn't know (and the landlord did ) was that all of the council tennants have been relocated out of the building leaving the building more than 50%empty...infact the building is almost 80% empty . they are now not happy and feeling very insecure in the building. had they know that this would be the case then this would have been material to them making the decision and not going into the contract . they now actually want to break the contract but landlord is saying they have to stay there until another tennant is found . the likelyhood of finding another tennant is minimal as building works start in april. is there grounds to simply walk away ... or any suggestions / guidance from anyone ...please .many thanks .

Hi, I have a friend who needs some help concerning rental arrears on his flat. Today, he received this email: Dear **** I am e-mailing to confirm I have taken over the management of your flat recently from ****. You should have received a letter a few weeks ago advising you of this. I have spoken to **** regarding your rent arrears and she advised you have an arrangement to pay £5.00 every two weeks. The rent arrears on your tenancy is currently £363.00, only two payments of five pounds have been made in the last nine months. It is essential regular fortnightly payments are made to avoid further action which could result in the loss of your tenancy. At the moment, he receives ESA benfits that entitles him to around £113 per week, so this all goes on essential living costs. His rent/tax is covered by housing benefit. I'm going to help him reply but wondered where he stands legally with regards to court action, eviction notice etc. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

BT claims it has 18 million UK customers, it charges £15.99 per month line rental. (Price increase from 4th Jan) Using those figures, it is bringing in £287,820,000 (two hundred eighty-seven million eight hundred twenty thousand) per month. Or £3,453,840,000 (three billion four hundred fifty-three million eight hundred forty thousand) per year. I've used BT, but they all charge around the same amount. What are we actually paying for ? If we rent a car, there is paintwork, engine wear and tyre wear to be taken care of plus servicing, but wires don't suffer from any of those things.

Hi please help as I'm worried to death. I've just found out that I should have paid tax on my rental income over the past 5 years. I'm about to put my property on the market and am unsure about what to do? I have been told that there is an Inland Revenue form that I must fill in. Any help greatly appreciated.

Two weeks ago, my friend and I went for a trip by rented car. We ordered an automatic mini countryman but instead they gave us a manual mini cooper which has smaller spaces. As we can't drive manual car and too small for four people's trip, we went to the desk for change. Turned out that they only have one automatic car at the moment and left us no choice but accepted it, cuz we had to go... they said otherwise we should wait for other customers to return the car which would take a few hours. so we took it, and it was a huge SUV - Volvo XC70... we didn't use to drive such a big car on a very narrow country path... then we got a big scratch on left side of the car on the way back. we didn't pay extra insurance for the car, so they charged us £2,000 for the scratch as they said calculated by the computer, which we consult the staff from Volvo store - we showed him the pictures of the scratch, and he said it would cost about £1,200 for repairing. in addition, when we were discussing with the staffs from the car rental company about the compensation fee, we ask them to consider the fact that they didn't offer the correct car for us at the beginning and gave us the one and only option which is too big, the staff there denied that she did so, she claim to have given us 3 options to choose which made us very angry. we do sent a complain letter after we paid the money, ask for refund, but no one replied.

Hi all - I am new to this forum so hello and hope this post is in the right place..:- . My partner and I are living together with 1 18mth old child. We both work although in the low income bracket. We receive child tax credits which help with nursery fees but nothing else. We own the house we are living in. We are living in birmingham and all our family is in the south. We would like to move closer to our family and our idea is to rent out our property which will just cover the mortgage . We would then rent a property nearer our family and get work in this area and let the house tick over until we were in a position to buy in the south. This may be a very long time. So that is the plan... The question we would like to know is how this rental income would effect child benefits and also means tested JSA if either if us was out of work at any point. Is it classed as income? Or only the amount left once the mortgage is paid? Big difference! Thank you in advance!

When we 1st started looking for a house it had to be with garage for my classic car. Found a house that came with a garage perfect. Paid for all the fees checks ect and eventually signed a lease to move in. Got the keys and brought my classic car down from old house to put into the garage. Landlord (who lives next door) said she didn't want me using the garage as she didn't want to be liable for anything. Even though house were advertised inc garage. She said i only could use it if i sign a fore fit notice saying that if anything happened garage falling down damage to my car ect then she shouldn't be liable. As we had already given notice and moved put of our old home this put us into a corner and we had to sign as it would have left us with out a home. Its now come for the time for us to move after 10 months and im wondering if there's anything i could do? we move out next week. Am i entitled to a re bait as the house wouldn't have been so much in rent with out a garage? the landlord does contact us alot through text asking us to clean the drive gardens ect and is pretty much on our case all the time hence the reason for moving. any help would be gratefully appreciated. many thanks

My girlfriend lives in a rental property which is unfurnished except for a cooker, fridge freezer and washing machine. On Friday evening the washing machine packed up, she has searched the internet and had tried several online fixes, nothing that involves taking the machine apart but just stuff like unplugging it and letting it stand for an hour. She has emailed the letting agent about the matter but won't hear back from them until Monday morning as no one works at weekends. My girlfriend is concerned that the letting agent is going to come back and and say that she will have to either pay for the washing machine to be repaired or for a new machine. Neither of which is an option as she is currently unemployed. Can someone please advise as to what her rights could possibly be? Thanks

Hello, I wonder if anyone has had a similar experience with being constantly disturbed by viewings in a rental property and can help in telling me the best way to deal with them. My landlord is selling the flat I live in and as I am in the process of buying a property I can't move out as I would have to sign into another minimum 6 month contract elsewhere which isn't practical. The property has been on the market for over 2 months now and he has it on with 2 different agents. They booked 3 viewings at 10.45am, 12.45pm and 3.15pm last Saturday and so I was disturbed 3 times. As I don't want this to happen again I have now asked that 1 agent does a block viewing between 1pm and 1.30pm and the other agent does from 1.30pm to 2pm. Both agents have agreed to this but to be honest I wasn't expecting the viewings to go on for this long and I think the flat is over-priced in the market which is why they aren't getting any offers after all the viewings they have done. This means I will continue to be disturbed every weekend for an hour for the foreseeable future. I text my Landlord last Friday to ask if he thought it was fair that I was to be disturbed 3 times on a Saturday - my weekend and the only time I have to relax and he completely ignored me. They also do viewings in the week and usually email in the morning to say thy have a viewing that day and as I am at work I tell them it's fine and to go ahead. I am working from home today and have just had an email at 12.30pm from one of the agents saying he is coming at 3pm today to do a viewing. I have checked my tenancy agreement and it says I have to have 48 hours notice for someone to gain entry to my flat yet I am allowing them to do the viewing so as not to be obstructive. I was also working from home last Friday and exactly the same thing happened. As I am being constantly disturbed in my home and not enjoying peaceful enjoyment of it - do you think I am entitled to ask for a rent reduction? I pay a lot of rent to live here and resent doing so now that it is being invaded on a daily basis. Any help or advice you can give would be very much appreciated as I am going to write to my landlord to tell him I am unhappy with the current situation and paying full rent. This could go on for months and I have been extremely accommodating so far - even changing plans 3 times to meet with agents for them to measure up and take photos - which really isn't my responsibility but the landlord's. He doesn't seem to appreciate it - rather I feel he is taking advantage of my good nature now and am very fed up with the whole situation. Thank you in advance for any help or advice you can give Pickles18

Any property rental gurus with advice would be most welcome. We (my partner and I along with my 6 year old) rent a managed property through Ellisons and 4 months into our 1 year contract extension (our 2nd extension) they served us a 2 month Section 21 Notice requiring possession dated 4 April.Exacyly 6 months into the extension. The effective notice is 8 June. Our monthly rental due date is the 27th every month. A few days after the notice was served I told them that we would prefer a moving out date in accordance with our rental which is the 27th May as it would cause complications for us otherwise. They refused. Then I requested the first weekend after the 27th to do our move - the weekend of the 1/2nd (to check out on Monday 3rd of June as they dont work weekends)...and they said they would contact the landlord and get back to me if he was prepared to let us leave early. 7 weeks passed and I heard nothing until the Friday of the weekend I was to move. I organised my moving schedule and email the agency the friday before the move that I was moving out the pre-arranged weekend and would be at the check out on Monday the 3rd. They then informed me that I could not check out until the 8th and that i would need to pay extra rent to cover 3 - 8 June, plus any council tax and other utilities. Even though I have cancelled my bills already! i am a bit peeved as I am now sitting in my new place after having moved and having to continue to pay Ellisons rent even though I told them I was moving 7 weeks ago, and also wasted my afternoon today as I intended to check out today and they told me they werent going through with it . Now I have to schedule MORE time off work to check out on the 8th - which is 2 months and 5 days after I was served my notice requiring possession. I am also now likely to lose hundreds of pounds in extra rent and bills and a full day of work (I am a highly paid contractor and stand to lose £300 because of this). Anyone know what I can do to even the score? I told them I was not happy having to wait 7 weeks for a response to whether the landlord would allow me to move out on the 3rd (which as it happens is exactly 2 months after the notice was served and would have worked out fairly for me). I believe that their bespoke notice of the 8th is unfair because it's mid-month and not our rental day, and there are no decent rental properties available on at that time of the month either. To top matters we now have to wait an extra week or so for our deposit (minus the extra £250 in rent and other deductions I am sure)- and I just know they will try and shaft us even though we have looked after the property and cleaned it to a higher standard than it was when we moved in. Please help.

My daughter rented a house and tenancy began on 08/02/2012, it is a six month tenancy which continued as a periodic tenancy once the original six months expired. The rental agent is what can only be called a rogue agent the fact that she has had continued problems with getting them to do repairs, which has culminated in her being injured when kitchen units fell from the wall. Currently there is a claim for damages in force. The problem she now has is the fact that the housing benefit office has refused to accept a periodic tenancy again and have said she cannot get benefit if she cannot provide a new tenancy but the agents are saying that the original suffices and on advice from the landlord not to sign her into a new tenancy on the basis of it complicating the claim. I believe this is purely a retaliation move. Any advice please.

Hi We have been renting our house for 4 years now. We initially signed a 12 month agreement. Last year the letting agent sent us an addendum saying the rent was going up by £50 and the notice period would now be 2 months instead of 1. They charged us £75+vat for the addendum to the contract which we paid. We have just been sent another addendum with a bill for the same amount to extend the contract for another year. There is no change to the rent and the 2 month notice still stands so why is this an addendum? Are they allowed to charge us for extending the tenancy for another year? Do we have to sign and pay this? Many thanks

Hi All I just received my new rental agreement from my landlord. Seems ok it is for a year with a break clause after 6 months. A slight rent increase, not an issue. My concern is that he wants to have one month notice period on either side......I thought it was two for the landlord and one for the tenant? The forms has been put together himself. Also I have never received anything about my deposit since moving in on the 6th April 2012. I am just concerned he will want to take his property back after the six months. The problems is I have children and would find a month too little time to find somewhere suitable. My other gripe is that he still has all of his post delivered there and never did an inventory when we moved in. All very slapdash and want to cover every angle. Thank you

Hi, I have found a nice house that I'd like to rent. The landlord is going abroad for a year and has asked me to pay the council tax and bills directly to him. I understand that this is not commonly done and have a few questions I'm hoping someone can help me answer: 1. I suspect that the landlord has not received permission from his mortgage lender to rent out the house and that that's the reason for not wanting to allow me to pay the council tax in my name. If that is the case, how would this affect my rights as tenants? In other words, if he is not allowed to rent out will my tenancy agreement with him be valid should problems arise between him and his lender? 2. In the event of a fire or a break-in, will our contents insurance be valid if the overall building insurance isn't valid because the landlords failed to obtain permission from their lender? 3. Can I be listed on the electoral roll if I'm not registered as an occupant at the address (e.g., through paying council tax in my name)? Would a lease agreement be sufficient for this purpose? Does the electoral roll office and council sync their data? I was ready to sign the agreement but I now feel nervous about the implications of this. The landlord seems very nice and honest, but I would also understand if he is trying to avoid getting permission since it might increase his mortgage. The question is how it affects my rights as a tenant and whether it's risky for me to go along with this arrangement... Thanks for any insight or advice you might have!

Hi i recently moved out of a rental property and got charged £50 for marks to the carpet 1. is this money for repairing the damage or for compensation to the landlord 2. i feel this is a high price there were 3 marks/burns all less than half a centimeter in diameter 3. we left a cooker which the landlord agreed to pay £50 for a bit coincidental our tenancy agreement ended 22 days ago and we still haven't received a penny. please help thank you Duncan

Good Day, I require some urgent information in regards to my home which is i am renting from a private lanlord. I am currently in rent arrears and the lanlord has corresponded with the county court to have me evicted I have filled in N244 and stated my situation and that i can agree to pay back as much as i can - also the situation has slighlty changed as my wife is currently expecting too. The fee of £80.00 will be paid tomorrow to the county court - however i very worried as i may have been too late? Please advise Mr Y

I've not been a BT customer for some time now but find I'm still stuck with the BT line rental rip off no matter which company I chose to supply my phone or broad band service. When I challenge them about this they say nothing to do with us its BT! Well I'm sick and tired of being taken for a ride and think the government should abolish this cash cow which BT just keeps on milking. To this end I have raised and e- petition requesting that line rental be abolished. please go and read the petition and if you agree sign it. You never know if we get enough people complaining they might actually do something about it. Thanks. follow the link for the petition. e-petition at: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/42514 Thanks

I would really appreciate some clarification about the situation I've gotten myself into with a rental car! Earlier this month we rented a car from a large car hire company. This week I received an invoice from the car hire company explaining that we'd received a parking fine while using the car and that the car hire companyhad charged it to our credit card and charged a £42 administration fee ("the charges on this invoice cover costs incurred in providing the driver or renter name and address to the relevant authority in the UK, subject to notification of a traffic offence that is alleged to have occurred during the period covered by the original rental invoice"). I had no idea about the fine and was not aware that we had 'committed' any parking offence. The car hire company phrases the issue as a traffic offence, which is presumable not as ParkingEye has no real right to charge us - correct? However: Under normal circumstances, everything I have read about ParkingEye's methods and their 'fines' leads me to believe that I would not and should not pay. The complication is the car hire company and the 'driver' rule. If the car hire company pay the charge with our credit card (and charge us on top of that), we've lost. We phoned the bank but they wouldn't stop the charge from going through. Having read more of ParkingEye, we're phoning the bank again tomorrow to clarify the situation and see if they'll freeze the transaction for now. The car hire company can identify us (and have) as the ones in possession of the car during this period. However, it was a single driver agreement and I was not driving. And it is my address they have (the driver lives abroad). What to do? I don't want to get into a dispute with the car hire company, but I don't think we should have to pay this 'fine' as well as a £42 administration fee. It seems that the car hire company, who will be aware of ParkingEye's activities, have jumped on the bandwagon to earn money. (I phoned the car hire company today and the representative said they'd waive the admin fee as a gesture of goodwill if ParkingEye granted an appeal. However, PE is unlikely to do this because it wouldn't benefit them!) Any advice greatly appreciated!