Hi all, I have been asked to leave my current tenancy, and I'm in the process of trying to find another place to live. My local council (Merton) have told me they cannot help, and that I would need to find a new private tenancy. I am just really struggling to find anyone who will accept DSS. I receive Housing Benefit, ESA (support group) and DLA (low mobility and middle care). If anyone knows who I can contact that would accept me, that would be brilliant. I want to stay local, so I am looking to move to Sutton, Morden, Cheam etc. Thanks all.

Hi there, I have a query on behalf of my mother who is a recent landlord (but has been very ill so I'm picking this up on her behalf): she has two tenants living in her property on a six month contract, with rent due on the 10th of each month. Two months in and the tenants are 9 days late on their rent. I spoke to one of them last week who told me that the other tenant has been in hospital, and all the rent comes out of her bank account, so if we haven't received it she can't do anything about it. I reminded her that it was a joint tenancy and therefore it is a joint responsibility to get the rent paid - she took my number and agreed to call me in two days with an update on the rent status. Since then, neither of them have been answering telephone calls or responding to polite voicemails requesting that they contact me to sort it out. Meanwhile my mother's neighbours/friends in the area have told us that one of the tenants has bought a new car in the last week, that unsightly rubbish is being left out for weeks on end, and that one of them has a boyfriend with a key to the property who also virtually lives there. The property is unmanaged which means the letting agents can't really do much to help, although they have been notified of the situation. As the tenants are not responding to any attempts to make contact - what is the correct (legal) way progress this? At what stage am I able to serve notice? Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Hi, My landlord passed away some time back and although I could get no contact details about the executor I was told to keep paying into the bank account of my deceased landlord. My neighbour in an adjoining flat was told the same. So we have been doing this for over a year, while at the same time unable to get any verification on the name or address of the executor apart from a daughters first name. We both feel this lack of contact was so that no upkeep had to be done on the properties (has been a long time since the last gas check). Today myself and the neighbour received a section 48 notice each, advising us that our landlord is now (a named man) who is executor of the estate. An address was provided as the landlord on this notice. My notice said nothing else. My neighbours though had the date of her contract start date stated (12 month contract, started 3 years ago) and also details of the bank account to now send the rent too. Up until now every letter we got since my landlords death had been identical in every way. We both received court papers for eviction around the same time (still here as they filled out the court forms wrong). Everything has been the same except these letters. I was always concerned that there was something not 'right' about the bank account my rent money goes into (long story I won't repeat here). Now with my rent going into the account of a dead person and someone in the same building paying their rent into the executors account, I want to ask is this normal and legal? The whole situation considering the attempted eviction and now this has left me unnerved. I have a feeling the section 48 is so they can remove us cheaper than through the courts as the executor can just claim rent arrears, which they tried originally and failed as there were no arrears. At the same time I do not want to pay into a bank account if there is something fishy going on. Thanks for bearing with me while I got to the actual questions!

Hi All My Mother In Law is having trouble with letting agents, basically she has been without hot water for months now due to a faulty boiler, which apparently needs a part, someone has been out to look at it, but never came back, he left his number which have text and rung but had no response. About a month or so ago a gas safety cert was even issued which mentioned faulty boiler and they didn't respond to that either. Me and my wife used to live in one of the houses in the same complex and had lots of problem with the boiler and went weeks with no heating and hot water through harsh Snow and icy weather. Apparently they are really bad boilers which fail regularly according to the gas fitter, the guy who came to ours didn't seems to know what he was doing, and when he came he to us to sort our lack of hot water, he made it worse and when he left he left us with no heating too for about 2 week in icy cold weather with a 3 week old baby, its the same person they are using to send to MILs. The best thing is I cant find his name on Gas Safe register, maybe he is hidden under a company name but I have entered his name and 13 entries came back none of them him, and he doesn't usually bring anyone with him, he does carry the logo on his van but no registration number. My MIL and a friend live in the house, both are severely disabled and are both wheelchair users, this is really starting to get them down, the only hot water they have is from a kettle, my MIL is the only one who is strong enough to hold a full kettle and she does get severe wrist cramps if she is trying to lift a kettle full of hot water into the sink and her wrist weakens she risks dropping it all over herself resulting in scalding injuries, its just luck that it hasn't happened so far (bear in mind she is in a wheelchair so the sink is quite a bit higher hense so she has to lift th kettle above her to get it in he sink) About 2 weeks ago they gave my wife some cock and bull story about having to wait for approval from landlords, to me that's absolute crap, you do not wait for approval for an emergency repair such as this, but they don't seem to get that. She really cant afford, nr does she have the will or energy to move but I don't know where we can go with this. We also have a house that we let out with the same agents, trust me as of next week I will be removing that from their books, no way am I having any tenants of mine being treat in this way!

SPARK ENERGY oh dear... I rented a very small two bedroom house and moved in on November 14th 2011. SPARK ENERGY were the electricity and gas supplier. When I received a huge bill from them and looked at their tariff I was astonished at how they were overcharging. They were just using a series of excuses to ramp up 'extra' charges and a higher tariff. They were impossible to telephone and they refused to email me. They sent me a bill for £323 for just six weeks consumption and I can see they are charging about double per Kwh electricity unit than other suppliers. They are also charging me about £300 'extra' per year for not having a direct debit. Of course I am not expecting to be involved in direct debits when I am trying to transfer to another supplier & I never signed a contract with them and don't want anything to do with them - ever ! ! They are totally unprincipled and I advise anyone never to have anything to do with them. They are appalling !!!!! When I asked Scottish Power to supply me, SPARK ENERGY refused to transfer the account. Scottish Power said there was nothing they could and the would be unable to supply me if my previous supplier refused to transfer the account. Can this really be true ? If so I am in hock to an organisation which you can never escape from rather than a power supply utility company. What can I do ? How can I escape? Help anyone !!

My son rented a flat from a private landlord, on a short-term (6 months) assured tenancy agreement, under the Housing (Scotland) Act, 1988. The landlord provided him with a Lease which was packed with conditions that were only in favour of the Landlord. My son paid the Landlord a refundable Security Deposit of £380- when my son vacated the flat on the day the 6 month Lease was up, an Agent of the landlord did an inventory and inspection of the flat, just before the keys were handed back. This Agent told my son that the only 'faults' were a bag of rubbish left at the front door and a dead insect at the back of one of the kitchen drawers (both were removed by my son, before handing the keys back to this Agent) Just prior to this 'inspection' my wife and I had scrubbed out the whole flat and it was spotless. As after 8 weeks following my son moving out of this flat, he had not received his £380 deposit back, he sent a recorded delivery letter threatening Sheriff Court (Civil Claim) action for the return of his money. The Landlord replied after 9 days, but only returned £190 of the original deposit of £380, deducting money for things like 'cleaning charges and costs of £60' - £40 for 'administration fees' - £20 for the Landlord having to 'redirect any potential mail arriving in the future' for my son, and £12 for unspecified 'cleaning materials' - no receipts were provided to my son by the Landlord. The Landlord enclosed 'photographic proof' why cleaning was required- a small stain on a cooker grill pan- 2 chips left inside the freezer, and a total of 7 tiny pieces of rubbish (including a single 'Post-It' piece of paper) which he said he found under a bed. We decided to take this Landlord to our local Sheriff Court, for the return of the balance due from the Security Deposit, of £190. On checking with our local Authority Council- the Landlord and Rent Registration Officer, we have discovered that this Landlord is NOT registered with them as a 'fit and proper person' registered Landlord, nor is the rented premises registered with the Council as 'premises registered as suitable for letting' In Scotland, if a person lets out any property and is NOT registered with the local Authority as a 'fit and proper person' - this is actually a Criminal Offence, punishable on conviction by up to a £5,000 fine. The same applies if an unregistered property is let to a tenant by an unregistered Landlord. The Landlord is still insisting that the original Lease he provided to my son, stands, and so he can make deductions from the original Security Deposit of the £380, as he sees fit. Will we be correct when we apply to the Sheriff Court for return of the full balance of the Security Deposit, in basing our case on the fact that as the Landlord was not registered, as per the Scottish Law requires, and the premises rented were also not registered, that the Landlord was acting illegally (an actual Criminal Offence) in renting the property to my son, and therefore any Lease provided by the Landlord, as it was part of an illegal act, automatically becomes null and void, resulting in any terms and conditions contained within the Lease becoming legally unenforceable by the Landlord.?? We are asking the Court to rule that the Lease and its conditions are illegal, and thus the Landlord MUST refund the balance of the Security Deposit, in full. What do you think- are we right to follow this pathway? Any advice or support would be really appreciated, thank you.