Section 21 and Housing Advice Please.

[orlaboutorla]

Hi all,

I am writing on behalf of a friend who is in a situation with her current landlord and local council in the hope someone can offer some advice.

Some background and context…

The young lady in question has a 2 year old daughter and no support from her father. She has been living in a private rented property for the last 2 years that was originally found via her local council. In that time, she has had numerous issues with the property mainly damp and black mould which now has been confirmed by environmental health and a survey.

She has had to buy a new mattress as it became damp, and mould started to grow on the edges. She complained to the landlord looking for help with replacing the mattress last year and was suddenly and quickly told by the agent (a small husband and wife team) that the landlord was selling the property and they served her with a Section 21.

She took this to a solicitor who offered some free advice and also Shelter and she was told by both that it was unenforceable because it was not an official 6a form and essentially to ignore it. She did and the landlord didn’t follow up…

Throughout winter both her and her child have been constantly ill, not unusual given the time of the year but in particular they have both had lingering chest infections which the doctor now believes to be mould related and has written a report saying so.

Following this and as nothing was done about the mould and damp, she has tried to push the agents to deal with the mould and damp and the council regarding her housing situation.

They sent a “handyman” to look who off the record said it was a definite problem and to contact Environmental Health which she has done.

The agents have now served her with another Section 21, again not on official forms or mirroring the wording. Telling her she needs to leave by June 20^th.

She has spoken with the local council who had previously banded her 3 which is medium priority but without much luck, I guess as that at the moment she has a roof over her head.

She is a wonderful and caring Mum and is really doing a great job under challenging and difficult circumstances without much help from anyone.

Her main objective is a permanent home for her and her daughter but also, she doesn’t feel the landlord should get away without reprimand.

Could anyone offer some advice on how to become a priority with the council? i.e move up the banding. And how would she take the landlord to task?

Many thanks in advance.

[dslippy]

By all means pursue the landlord but not to 'take him to task' - you have enough on.

[orlaboutorla]

By all means pursue the landlord but not to 'take him to task' - you have enough on.

Thanks for your reply. I think I worded that wrong... Pursue is a much better word, my apologies.

[islandgirl]

This may be a revenge eviction case and the S21 could possibly be invalid - read this

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housi...sk_for_repairs

However it would clearly be better for this person to move out of such a terrible place unless the council can force full repairs. You can ask the council to use their powers to pursue the Landlord - have you got your local councillor involved? If not do it right away and get them onside. If you have a good one it can really help.

[Crazy council]

Can i just add some point to this.

I was a landlord and Agent for many years and still have my hands in the market a bit.

First point Mildew / damp

There is a major difference between these two, Mildew is common is caused by temperature variation, especially if the tenat uses electrical heating. It looks really bad but can be sorted most of the time with airflow and cleaning.

You can have temporary damp, caused by water ingress , commonly from a gutter, down-pipe, crack in the exterior render, roof issues, or worst of all, a cracked drain.

You can have rising damp, usually you will see salt marks on the wall, the walls may be dry and powdery to the touch. If you see salt on internal wall above 30cm high, you have issue with the damp membrane ( less common in property's under 30 years old )

Mildew is not realy dangerous, i mean, i wouldn't lick the wall, but just common cleaning with keep on top of it while the situation that causing it

Damp ( dry rot or rising damp ) can be dangerous because its dry and easily drifts in the air if disturbed, and the cleanup for that is complex and cant really be done around a tenat.

I worot the above so the OP my understand that if the Agent or LL knows its mildew it may not be a priority, especially if they think its caused by temperature difference. If she has any photos to show on here you will get a good opinion on what it is .

Point 2 The section 21 and the landlord

Lots of landlords have mortgagees on teh property's there renting out, and work to cover that, When you add up mortgagees and agents fees, normal yearly maintenance there not much money left for extras. The fact they served a sec 21 and then didn't pursue probably hints towards that.

Lots of landlords have kids and mortgagees themselves, so dont just have spare money, and a good agent will be more genital with aa small landlord

Over the years i had to deal with every time of dispute you can imagine. and a lot of time both the landlords and tenants get there backs up against each other without considering the other side perspective

I just added the above point so you get some perspective from a landlord/agent

I would suggest to the tenant, if she like the property, try find out what causing the damp and sort it if possible, or , move, but the market has changed since lock-down, prices and pre conditions are higher

I just wouldnt advise the tenant to go for the landlord afterwords unless there really bad ( you do sometimes get bad LL, but its rear )

[atticus]

a good agent will be more genital with aa small landlord

That is a novel approach!