Need help urgently please

[Sammy1970]

Can anyone help me please?
A car crashed into the house that I rent, my landlord told me at the time to stop paying the rent as he will claim it on his insurance.
I finally moved 7 months later into Alternative accommodation that i had to find.
I then start paying the rent to my landlord again as his insurance company is paying for the Alternative accommodation.
I then get a message from my landlord asking me why i stopped paying the rent? You told me to? He said that was a misunderstanding??
Hes now asking for the 7 months rent £4550??
his insurance company said that I should have paid the rent still as I was still living in the property?
I had no choice i had noware else to go? Surly landlord or insurance company should have found me someware?
in my tenancy agreement it states if the propery is unhabitable then rent will ceased to be paid? Also my landlord has tried to claim it from the third partys insurance and they have said that i should have paid the rent? I dont understand am i not reading the tency agreement right? And is it my fault as it was the landlord who told me to stop paying?
Thanks in advance
sammy.

[atticus]

Do I understand correctly that you have not been paying rent to anyone while living in the alternative accommodation provided by your landlord through his insurers?

[Sammy1970]

Hi there,
I paid the rent whilst in the Alternative accommodation for the 2 months I was there, but the previous 7 months that i had to stay in the damaged house i didnt pay rent because the landlord said stop paying the rent, as he would claim it from the insurance, it turns out that the insurance wouldnt pay for tjose 7 months so he wants me to pay it?
thanks for replying xx

[jaguarsuk]

If the tenancy agreement says that if the property is uninhabitable you stop paying rent then you were correct to stop paying rent if it had become uninhabitable. However, the property wasn't uninhabitable because you lived in it.

Had you gone to stay with friends/family or arranged your own alternative accommodation then you could definitively say it was uninhabitable, that clause would apply and nothing more could have been said about it.

My interpretation of the clause of rent ceasing when the property becomes uninhabitable would be for you to use the rent to find alternative accommodation, not just put some cash back into your personal finances.

But that clause doesn't matter and here's why?

If you have it written down, even if just a text message, that the landlord told you to stop paying rent then it doesn't matter what the reason was or the fact that what they thought hasn't come to fruition. They altered the contract and you agreed to that alteration in performance by not paying.

If it was a conversation that doesn't mean that it still does not apply, it just makes it harder to prove.

It seems to me reading between the lines, so correct me if I am wrong, that the Landlord has acknowledged in writing that they told you to stop paying even if they didn't initially tell you in writing?

Basically if you have the initial request to stop paying and/or acknowledgement that is what you were told unfortunately for the Landlord they would not win any claim.

Where your problem arises is section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 if you have an Assured Shorthold Tenancy. The Landlord in response to realising they aren't going to get their rent might serve you with two months notice to leave the property, whilst it would be spiteful, section 21 allows them to do this for no reason whatsoever.

Essentially you are going to need to weigh up the situation and perhaps negotiate with the Landlord if you intend to stay in the property.

[Sammy1970]

Thank you for that jaguarsuk

[Sammy1970]

The landlord did only say it in conversation on the day it happened to stop paying as his insurance was ampully covered?
He has now decided to put my rent up to £850 from £650 from March, so i cannot afford to stay now anyway.. is it worth me just moving!
can he chase me for the back rent? He didnt want to go to the expence of using a solicitor to make a third party claim, to claim the back rent so i wonder if he will to chase me!...
I was going to offer him a portion of the back rent as i heard that this might be the correct thing to do as I was still living in a portion of the house?
just not sure what to do!
The back rent that i didnt pay went to the extra gas bills it cost me as there was a massive hole in the house... also lots of other expenses that it cost me because of the accident.
thanks sam x