Tenants in the firing line #2

Tenant A – being evicted because of his dog

I received this email from tenant  A the other day, and he kindly allowed me to publish it.  This sort of thing does not put our country in a good light:

I have just relocated to London from the US. I found a property through an estate agent online. I told the estate agent from the beginning that I had a dog and would only consider properties that allowed her. He told me my dog was so small it was best not to mention it.

I couldn’t mention it if I wanted to because I was never given the landlords contact details until after the tenancy began. When the landlord let me into the flat he saw the dog but I told him I notified the estate agents in the beginning. I have proof if this in emails.

Now they are trying to evict me. No where in my contract does it say no pets. Are they allowed to do this? I have no family here and nowhere to go and am terrified that they will change the locks or hurt my dog. I am afraid to leave the apartment.

The toilet and shower don’t work and I have no keys to the post box either and I am expecting to get my new bank details sent but the landlord won’t respond to me. I have no internet and am afraid to sign up to a contract if I do get evicted.

Another thing is the estate agents put the wrong address in the contract as well as the wrong spelling of my name. I asked them to send me a new contract before I moved in but they never responded to my emails. I am unaware if the landlord has signed the contract.

They have had my money for over a month and as far as I can tell have not secured my deposit in one of the 3 schemes which according to the DHA means they can’t evict me, but the DHA are flakey and I don’t know whether to believe them.

There are so many examples of bad landlord / agent practice here that it is difficult to know where to start.  Here are a few points that come to mind immediatly

• You cannot be evicted (legally) other than by court proceedings – if the landlord tries to evict you by changing the locks this is a criminal offence
• If there is no tenancy agreement clause prohibiting pets, then you can keep a pet
• The landlord is in breach of his statutory repairing covenants by not keeping the toilet and shower in proper repair
• If the tenancy deposit has not been protected, then the landlord cannot use the section 21 no fault ground to evict you
• The best thing to do is to contact your Local Authority Housing officer and see if he can help.  However often they are very busy and it is hard to get hold of them

Does anyone have any other comments?  What is the best thing to do about the post box?

If YOU are a tenant in the firing line and have a story to tell which I can use for this series – send me a message via our contact form on this page.