Landlord dispute - As guarantor I'm on the hook for missing payments

[gnicholls]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone can provide me with some advice on the following. I'm acting as a guarantor for a friend who has been living in a flat that has turned out to be a bit of a hole. Based on the below I'm looking to understand whether I should just pay the missing rent and have done with the whole situation or whether I can contest the demand for payment. There is a bit of principle involved here, the flat is really bad and what the landlord has done to my friend and 10 year old son is pretty disgraceful, but I'm not rich by any standards, so willing to accept I might not be able to afford my principles. Anyway......

I have received an email notifying me that my friend has not paid 3 month's rent (3 x £1100) and that if she does not do so the landlord will be looking to myself to cover this (I'm actually not sure that this is accurate I think maybe only two months). My friend has been in the flat for just coming up to 12 months.

There are some complications around this

1 - My friend has been served a Section 21 to leave the flat (if I have it right, no section 18)
2 - My friend says that she has never received a gas / electricity safety certificate
3 - Since January of this year my friend has had an ongoing argument with the landlord over a blocked sewage outlet and sewage backing up into her shower and flooding the bathroom with the accompanying smell
4 - There was a leak from the flat above (also owned by the landlord) which had water pouring through the bathroom lighting (video available)
5 - The electrics in the property are completely shot and since (from memory) March work has been done to try and rectify with at one point an extension cable being fed from upstairs down to my friends flat and then multiple extension cables being run from that.
- This has resulted in numerous electrical failures and the contents of the fridge / freezer being lost
- The wall sockets hanging loose (my friend has a 10 year old son)
- The house is still being powered by either two or three extension cables plugged into one another from a working wall socket
6 - As of a couple of days ago the radiator was leaking and the landlord is not sending anyone out to fix it
7 - As of last night a rat has taken up residence in the flat

I do have video / photographic evidence of the state of the flat

Any advice much appreciated

Gareth

[echat11]

Hi GNICHOLLS

Report the conditions to the Council, they should visit and produce a Report, instruct the landlord to improve the conditions but the Report might also assist with disputing the amount owed on the rent due to the conditions.

When you complain to the Council make sure you have a proper summary with dates, video and pictures will help them to decide on a potential investigation.

Has your friend complained to landlord in writing previously?

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

Other members will advise too.

[gnicholls]

Hi ECHAT11,

Thank you very much for responding.

My friend has texted the Landlord on numerous occasions and I have screenshots of these from WhatsApp (unfortunately said friend has just managed to lose her phone in a taxi moving out of the flat for a couple of night's respite). I have encouraged her to email more recently with regard to the radiator and now hopefully the rat.

I will certainly get her to get onto the council.

Kind regards,

Gareth

[echat11]

Scroll through, templates for repair (select the correct one) that can be sent to landlord, email so he can't say he hasn't received it -

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

[islandgirl]

What form does the guarantor agreement take? Did you see the AST before signing?

[gnicholls]

Hi Everyone,

Things have moved on a lot since my last post and I'm really not sure what to do, and where I stand.

As a re-cap I am acting as a guarantor for a friend who is on benefits. The friend has had numerous run-ins with the landlord on the state of the property (it really was bad) and has not paid 5 months rent (this is what the landlord is saying, I have a feeling it should only be three). Anyway assuming that there is a case against the landlord for a poorly maintained as a guarantor who is currently being asked for £5.5k what would be my best course of action? I have said to the landlord that I will get back to them by the end of next week.

I would like to know
1 - Should I pay a negotiated lower payment that the landlord is indicating they would be willing to accept and then help my friend to pursue a compensation case
2 - It has been suggested that I could get out of the contract because it becomes null and void if you are either coerced or in the case of fraud. Given that my friend is paid specifically by social services an amount for rent and they have not passed this on then this could be fraudulent. I hasten to add here that I have no wish to throw my friend under the bus, so would not want to do this if it had ramifications beyond nullifying the agreement I signed
3 - I signed a contract as guarantor up until mid September, given that there were rats in the property my friend moved out (did not hand in notice) and refused to collect her possessions until the infestation had been dealt with, the landlord is saying that I am responsible for the September / October rent plus storage given that the landlord has subsequently changed the locks on the doors and denied my friend access to the house and since Wednesday bagged all of her items up and placed them into a lockup garage (this is a kind description of the storage location)

Worth noting that although there are plenty of videos of all of the issues that have happened the documentation from my friend as to dates is not great.

I really would be grateful for some further advice.

Kind regards,

Gareth

[islandgirl]

Hello Gareth it seems there are many strands to this case including possible illegal eviction etc, There are also very specific rules re guarantor agreements (ie you must have seen the AST before you sign, they must be a deed etc). It could well be that your agreement is null and void anyway. You really need a good letter back to the LL pointing out all the illegal actions he (may have) carried out and saying that you will not take action about these if he drops his request for the rent. However without knowing all the facts and seeing the evidence we cannot know if the LL has done anything wrong. Did your friend have an up to date gas cert? Did the council get involved re the rat infestation? One idea is to have a look at the Landlordzone forum - there is a wealth of information re guarantors and some similar situations to read.

[gnicholls]

Hi, thank you very much for getting back to me. I would be very surprised if the eviction was legal, a section 21 had already been served which said my friend could stay up until mid December, then because my friend had moved in with friends while the rats were present the landlord declared that she had abandoned the property (with all of her possessions still in it) and changed the locks after 6 days notice. The problem is that some of my friends possessions have been damaged, she has lost her passport in the move and can't get a new property, the deposit has been withheld and by the looks of things my friend will not be able to rent again anytime soon. Her 11 year old son is now back with her ex, because she can not support him and as such she does not want to let the landlord off the hook if it is possible to prosecute her. This pretty much leaves me stuck in the middle. My preferred course of action would be to see if I can get out of the contract and then help with trying to take the landlord to court.
Kind regards,
Gareth

[islandgirl]

That certainly sounds like an illegal eviction! Was the deposit protected in a scheme? It cannot just be withheld - your friend should be asked if she agrees with all deductions and if not it will go to arbitration. If it was not protected then your friend can claim 3 x the deposit through the courts as well as compensation for the illegal eviction (which is also I understand a potential criminal offence?). I would certainly not pay up as guarantor at this point! I think at this stage I would write back and say that you do not believe the guarantor agreement to be valid and that there are other circumstances surrounding the issue eg illegal eviction which mean that it is not payable anyway and that you will await the outcome of any forthcoming proceedings before addressing the matter further or something simiar. However I do suggest either formal legal advice or at the least a post on Landlordzone who are experts in this area,

[gnicholls]

Thank you so much! I know there are lots of complications surrounding this matter but just as a general guide as how to proceed (mainly don't just pay up) this is just what I need. Your point on the deposit protection scheme is an interesting one, because I seem to remember a couple of months back the landlord turned up at my friend's doorstep unannounced and tried to get her to sign a piece of paper which I think she said was something to do with a deposit scheme (I'll check back with her). Whatever it was I remember her saying she didn't sign it because she didn't understand it.

I'll post on the landlordzone and see if I get any comments.

Thanks once again.

Gareth

[gnicholls]

Please could you just clarify one point that you made in an earlier post "ie you must have seen the AST before you sign, they must be a deed etc"

I did see and sign the AST, but the deed?

Thanks,

Gareth

[islandgirl]

As I understand it you needed to see the AST before signing the guarantor agreement and it had to be made as a deed - I may be wrong but I am sure I saw this somewhere!

[echat11]

As I understand it you needed to see the AST before signing the guarantor agreement and it had to be made as a deed - I may be wrong but I am sure I saw this somewhere!

Quite a bit of information here - https://letbritain.co.uk/legal/Stude...Guarantors.pdf

[islandgirl]

very interesting article Echat11 thank you - and confirms the guarantor agreement I signed for my student daughter is invalid as I suspected!

[echat11]

very interesting article Echat11 thank you - and confirms the guarantor agreement I signed for my student daughter is invalid as I suspected!

That's excellent.