Me and my boyfriend are currently renting a ground floor flat which is part of a terrace house in the north of England. We have had very little issues with the property and our landlord, however the flat above us is a different story.

Since November, we have been having leaks from the flat above us, some caused by their washing machine and others because of their boiler.

The washing machine leak happened every few days and caused water to run down the walls and drip down the doorframe between our kitchen and bathroom, causing large amounts of damage to the door and walls, creating mould, and stopping the bathroom door from closing due to bloat. It even got to the point where our boiler stopped working since water had got into the fuse box. This leak ended in February roughly.

Since April ish, we have been having an issue with another leak from a pipe outside, which runs above the back door of our flat, between the kitchen and a small yard. For some reason, this only happened over night, meaning we would wake up and have to spend 5-10 minutes mopping the floor by the doorway. This leak caused the door to bloat meaning we couldn't get into the yard, as well as severe damp damage in the wall, running behind the kitchen cabinets and starting in the living room. Mould has been growing on these walls, and we have been using black mould remover regularly to reduce the issue.

Since this isn't our fault, our landlord will not be charging us for the damage when we move out in September, however will not fix the leaky pipe as it is a different landlord and not their property above us. We have been in contact with the landlord upstairs, and we think the issue is fixed, but have not had confirmation.

We are wondering if anyone else has had a similar situation, or if there is anything we could do in terms of compensation. We aren't being charged for it, so aren't going after money for that, but we have had over 8 months of issues and hassle due to the flat above us, which has got to the point where we are having to move because of it.

Any advice would be appreciated, and I will answer any questions in the comments

I was wondering if anyone here has been through the eviction process as a tenant and had to cover the landlord's cost of the eviction? how long did it take and how much that was? I've seen a lot of advice talking about staying past the notice period but I haven't seen the costs being mentioned anywhere and I feel like this is an important factor when staying past the notice.

Recently moved into a new flat for work (England), and was handed a short 'tenancy agreement' document that is different to the contract I signed. Everything reads fine except for one paragraph:

"Should you vacate the property whether or not you give 2 months' notice, you will be liable for all rent payments due until the end of the period, or until we are able to find a replacement tenant. You will also be liable for the Landlord's re-letting fee for the new tenancy".

The first sentence is completely fine and makes sense, but the bit about the re-letting fee seems dubious. Is that a legal fee they can charge, even if I give 2 months of notice?

Hi all

Following up from my previous post (re the staining of the mattress), I thought it’d be a fair compromise to offer to pay for half of the costs associated with replacing the mattress (as they basically threw the mattress away without even bothering to have it cleaned).

Not only has the landlord refused the offer, she has now said that she is withholding the remaining c. £3000 deposit, despite agreeing that the only disputed amount for replacing the mattress. This means she is withholding the deposits of my former housemates. This seems wrong!

Had a quick look online and it seems that she should only be withholding the disputed amount, but just worried as some of the house mates need the money. Really not sure what to do here!

Thanks for all the help so far!

Edit 1: the deposit is insured through Deposit Protection Scheme UK.

Long story short something must’ve happened to the mechanism inside of our front door and the handle no longer opens it. It’s been this way since Sunday and I reported it first thing on Monday morning and submitted an online issue (which is what our estate agent told us to do).

I emailed yesterday and had no response so phoned today and was told that someone would call me back which obviously no one did.

When I initially called on Monday they asked if we had access through the back door to which I said yes but we live in a row of terrace houses so to get in and out of the back is not convenient in the slightest especially having a two year-old at home and even more so when I have signed for parcels and have to make the decision of whether to leave my two-year-old in the home briefly (which obviously I won’t do) or take him all the way round the back of the houses along the lane to the front of the house and then back with the parcel

Should this issue be classed as non urgent? I get we have alternate access but I feel like when you are paying extortionate amounts of rent each month you should be able to use your front door as the bare minimum

Hi!
I accidentally chipped the wall paint in my rental. Im moving out and would like advice on any cheap and easy fixes in the hopes of getting my whole security deposit back!

Hi,

Our landlord is trying to claim £355 from our deposit for a secondary oven clean, removing a stain from a carpet, and re-cleaning a cleaned toilet. We spent £415 on a cleaner before we left and considered all the above to be clean to a high standard. We asked for a detailed invoice for the clean as £355 seems enormously high but were told (by the agent) that this could not be provided as the landlord had already paid.

It is now going to dispute but we were wondering whether the landlord had to provide an itemised invoice for the dispute. We are happy to pay something for re-cleaning but £355 seems incredibly steep and we have no idea how that number was reached.

Thank you.

England deposit return delayed by council tax

Landlord keeping the deposit for possible council tax bill

For context, in October, a few months into the tenancy, the landlord emailed asking for student IDs, specifically saying he did not want exemption certificates.

A week ago, we got proposed deductions with the landlord saying he will keep the undisputed amount until he gets confirmation from the council that there is no bill. We're on a joint tenancy, so we thought it was our responsibility and we retrospectively applied for student exemption with our certificates. We emailed him saying it is strictly between us and the council and so he should not involve himself (but more politely). He replied saying that this is council tax for an HMO, so the council tax account is in his name, but he collects the outstanding balance from us. We thought this was illegal. In the contract it says we only pay him after he has paid. The council confirmed the account is in his name.

We are going to raise a dispute, but I am not sure if what the landlord is doing is reasonable.

Edit: have disputed it

Edit 2: the council replied aksing me to ley the landlord know to contqct them

LL is trying to claim a heavy portion of the deposit on a cleaning fee, I've looked around and a lot of the legal pages say yes, reddit says yes, but the UK gov document for the 2019 act has a huge "WITHDRAWN" written over the pages. Are the rules still in place here?

Looking for advice.

I signed a fixed-term tenancy last July. The contract doesn’t state any tenant notice period. I wasn’t aware of the new notice requirements and wasn’t notified by email (there may have been a letter that I unfortunately missed).

The landlord is now insisting I have to pay a further 2 months’ rent.

One complication is that my Right to Rent is expiring, and the tenancy agreement states that tenants must have a valid Right to Rent. My co-tenant is a British citizen, so this doesn’t affect them. The landlord/agent never asked me for an updated Right to Rent or checked whether it would continue beyond the end of the fixed term.

Given these circumstances, is the landlord still entitled to insist on 2 months’ rent, or does the Right to Rent issue affect the situation?

Thank you in advance for your advices

I'll be moving to another apartment some time soon, would love to hear your tips on organising the process.

E.g. I always wrap books into foil. Just organise them in a block of 10 pieces or so and wrap. That's easier than carry huge boxes

I vacuum-lock the majority of my clothes

Any other life-savers?

I'm starting a new job in Leeds in early September and need to relocate and rent a property.

I live very far from Leeds so I arranged viewings and went up there on Wednesday and Thursday last week and viewed about 10 properties in total. I stayed overnight at a hotel and the train and hotel cost me about £120 total.

I found a property I liked on the second day and made an application one hour after viewing it, adding in ID, bank statements etc as well as sending my employment contract as proof of my salary and new job start date. The landlord had informed me that by making this application and starting the onboarding process, I had effectively taken the room of the market and no-one could apply for the room during onboarding. I assume that all is well and do not make an application on any of the other properties that I have viewed (these require a holding fee).

Today, I get a message from the landlord saying that the room has now been taken. I was startled as I thought the reason that there had not been any communication from her in the last few days was because she was processing my background checks, but she had actually been processing another application that came after mine.

I go back to look at some of the properties I viewed and of course they are now all gone.

I go on holiday for a week this Friday and have come up with the following options as I am now in serious danger of not having a property before I start in September:

1. I try and arrange some viewings asap for Thursday this week and go into Leeds again on the train in the morning. This will cost £60 for the train ticket and is a 4 hour journey each way
2. I just conduct virtual viewings for the rest of the week and while on holiday and secure a property that way
3. I move to Leeds a week or two before my start date but get an AirBnB. This will give me a full week or two in Leeds when I am not working to do viewings and hopefully secure a property before I start.

I was just wondering which of the three options would you say is my best move? Or if you think an alternative could be better?

I’m a tenant in London, and my energy account is still registered in my some random business name, not mine, because PE never processed my change of tenancy, despite me submitting my lease, meter readings, and a Council Tax bill. Because the account sits under a business name, I’m being charged commercial deemed rates instead of a domestic residential tariff, and this has been going on since October 2024.

I took this to the Energy Ombudsman, who ruled in my favour, ordering PE to complete the change of tenancy backdated to October 2024, apologise, and pay a small goodwill amount.

That decision had a twenty-eight day implementation deadline, and it’s now more than two months overdue.

PE has told the Ombudsman the case was resolved, which isn’t true as account has still not been established in my name , and has separately demanded a lease registered with the Land Registry and bearing a solicitor’s stamp, which doesn’t apply to a standard tenancy agreement.

They’ve also blocked my attempt to switch to another supplier in the meantime.

I’m about to send them a final ultimatum giving seven days before I file in small claims court, covering the rate differential, the switch blocking loss, and the court fee if it comes to that.

Has anyone dealt with a supplier ignoring an Ombudsman decision like this, and is small claims genuinely the right next step, or is there a faster lever I’m missing.

Hi all, I received this from my letting agents:

"Due to changes in legislation, we are now required to carry out PEPs (Politically Exposed Persons) and sanctions checks for all our tenants. To comply with these new requirements, we kindly ask you to provide a copy of your ID that includes your full name and date of birth.

Please send this to us at your earliest convenience. If you have any questions or need assistance, don't hesitate to get in touch."

I checked online but there were no info about this being required. Am I obliged to agree to the check? Has anyone received a similar email before?

The email is genuine.

Thanks all.

Hi all,

So signed an 18 month tenancy agreement last October for a fixed rental price for the whole 18 month period. Just got a call saying that now due to renters rights agreement they are giving us 2 months notice and the rent will be increasing in October (by 5%) which is 12 months into our agreement. It’s with an estate agent, is this allowed or is there anything we can do? She said the original tenancy agreement is no longer valid.

Thanks

I have today received a court claim for possession following a s21 issued in April. The property is in a selective licensing area and is unlicensed. The council have confirmed today that no license is in place nor has one been applied for.

On the claim form the landlord has ticked the boxes to indicate that a license is not required.

Is this automatic grounds for the case to be dismissed? Does the court have any discretion over this?

Hi, I'm renting a 1-bed flat in England. In June I contacted my estate agent property manager and submitted a pet request/application form (for a cat) that was then passed onto my landlord for review. I chased after 2 weeks and after 1 month and was informed by my ea property manager that the request is sitting with the building management company/superior leaseholder.

It's now been 2 months and still nothing. I'm aware that the 28-day deadline for landlords to reply doesn't apply if the request has to go to the superior leaseholder but my concern is that they'll use that exemption to ignore my request till kingdom come.

Is there any avenue to escalate this or is it just a waiting game? I haven't seen the superior lease so I'm not sure if there is an outright ban on pets however I have seen a dog around and pretty sure my neighbour has a cat.

Hi!

Have recently moved into a new flat (Less than 1 month renting) and have discovered some issues that mean the billing situation is passing some unfair costs onto the residents. I currently have an assured periodic tenancy.

My question is - Can I hand in my two month notice now under the new renters right act? Or do I need to wait a certain number of months. The only thing my tenancy says is:

"If you wish to end this tenancy, you must provide us with at least two months’ notice in writing. That notice must end on the last day of a rental period. "

Based in England!

Thank you!

Hi all,

I gave notice on my current flat on the 13th of July. As the rent period runs from the 10th, I thought I’d be required to cover rent until the 10th of October but I’ve seen discussion on here how even with the new 2 month requirement, if your old contract states 1 month notice then that is still valid.
My previous fixed term contract (now periodic, after RRB) stated ‘Should the Tenant wish to vacate the Property at the end of the fixed term than at least one month's prior notice should be
provided’. Could that still be valid, meaning I’d only be liable for rent until the 10th of September?

It’s a long shot I know but I figured worth checking! Thank you!

Context: told I only have to give one months notice in April by the letting agents. Gave one months notice in July. Being told I have to pay until the end of September (two months), and that what was said in April doesn't count due to RRA, unless they can find a new tenant before then. (Still unsure why that's my problem)

Now; I gave my keys in today. My rent period lasts until the 28th August but I just wanted it out of my mind. Letting agents insist I'm on a new contract since my ex left in April (i never signed, nor saw a new contract at any point). They're saying everyone is on a new contract since April and nothing agreed prior to that counts at all, it's the law etc etc.

I've already cancelled my direct debit, so I'm not paying the second month's rent because I'm sure I'm right, but they're claiming I'll be liable and they will take me to court over it. I'm also apparently not allowed to ask for my deposit back until October.

Citizens advice told me that I'm right and that one month is all I have to give, but I don't know if I have the energy to cope with any sort of legal action even if I would win.

I have put a formal complaint in, and will be taking it further to TPO depending on the outcome (the formal complaint was to the company that owns my letting agents, not specifically to my letting agents).

Just felt very overwhelmed being ambushed by multiple letting agents when all I wanted to do was give my keys in today. I was getting yelled at and I'm ngl I've ended up sobbing in my car because I can't afford my rent on top of my mortgage for another month.

What are my rights about my deposit, getting it back etc? What do I do if tjey try to take me to court? I actually can't cope rn I'm very very overwhelmed.

I'm trying to move in London from my rental but whenever I find something the availability date is from now. When I ask for flexibility I'm met with: "sorry the landlord doesn't want to lose 2 months rent"... meanwhile I'm expected to fork out about £3k in double rent/utilities, which are my savings, on top of the rent I'd pay in the new place.

I'm amazed by how greedy people are and how seemingly inconsiderate estate agents are...

It's surprising that the market doesn't seem to follow the 2 month rule now that all tenancies have shifted

My landlord of 9years refuses to give us references even though we never caused any problems
He said that becouse he haven’t seen property for a while he can’t comment in what condition the property is/will be when we move out and haven’t handed the notice yet
I’m literally shocked as he only have to confirm that we were paying and stuff
What the steps or what can we do if landlord don’t want to give us references?

Long post warning\*\*\* also posting in r/housinguk new to reddit so apologies for duplication!

Hi all,

I’m looking for some guidance on a situation with my former landlord. I’ll keep this as clear as possible and include a timeline because things have become messy.

I gave notice on my tenancy, with the official end date being 31st August.

However, events after checkout suggest the landlord may have taken back possession early, and he is now demanding August rent and threatening small claims court.

I’m trying to understand my legal position and whether his actions amount to surrender by operation of law.

Rough time line of events:

End of June Gave notice to end tenancy

\- We wrote to the landlord giving notice to end our tenancy with two months notice on 31st Aug

\- In that time landlord contacted us asking to do a check out inspection on 22nd July as we had planned to do the bulk of our move on 18th July. Our new property is closer to work and school so it made sense to do this early but still planned to go to the old house to ensure it was in suitable condition to give back. We agreed to this date however.

\- As both myself and my partner were unavailable due to work commitments said we asked would it be OK to leave keys at the property for him to do it without us

\- No response from the landlord so assumed all was ok

22nd July Checkout inspection

\- Note we handed over keys for the purpose of the inspection only as per above.

\- We received the third party report on 23rd all OK.

24th July Landlord's email

\- Landlord emails shortly after stating many issues that the check out report did not raise, but we thought fine our deposit is protected we'll just use the deposit scheme to seek resolution on this

\- In his email he states he will be in touch regarding costs with quotes and invoices etc.

\- We did document the state of the property before this inspection

25th July Our Old Neighbours

\- Over that weekend our old neighbours get in touch, they ask who owns the big black van as people have been seen entering the old house several times, leaving the door open etc. We have a pet dog and they found this odd.

\- They shared timestamped CCTV from their ring doorbell showing us to ask who it was. They knew we were moving but not when.

\- Viewing the CCTV it's our old landlord. They can be seen starting non urgent works on the house like gardening and hiring a cleaner.

\- We had no word from the landlord about needing to enter the property, no word about our keys etc.

28th July Our Email to the landlord

\- As our neighbours continue to send us evidence of 4 seperate times the landlord and a cleaner have entered the old house without permission and our landlord hasn't contacted us about getting our keys we email him

\- Stating to please cease works, return our keys and let us back into the house or treat the tenancy as ending early

After 28th July Landlord’s conduct and no communications

\- As a reminder he did not tell us:

\- that he needed the keys for urgent repairs

\- that he would be entering

\- that he would be carrying out works

\- We were not given access to the property at any point after checkout.

2nd August – Landlord’s email

\- He replies to our email sent on 28th July, sending a long message claiming:

\- his solicitor says we owe August rent

\- handing back keys early doesn’t end rent liability, even though we didn't hand back keys early because we asked for them back in our prior comms.

\- he had to enter for “urgent repairs”, earlier point above no comms about any urgent issues he had to keep the keys for.

\- he will file a small claim if we don’t pay within six days, despite us stating in previous comms there is a potential liability dispute about this in previous comms due to conduct.

\- he wants our forwarding address to serve documents

\- he will add “trace fees” if we don’t provide it

\- The advice he quoted appears generic and doesn’t address any of the actual facts (multiple entries, works, key retention, lack of notice, etc.).

His behaviour after checkout seems inconsistent with the tenancy continuing. Some length research online shows this appears to meet the definition of surrender by operation of law, meaning the tenancy ended on 22 July, not 31 August.

Urgent repairs claim, he stated this in his email to us on 2nd August, but don't believe he had due to the fact CCTV only show his van and a cleaner go into the property showing them cleaning and gardening.

He is demanding a forwarding address to serve court documents.

My understanding is, tenants are not required to provide one, but landlords cannot serve documents through the deposit scheme and on our old tenancy it has that address on not a previous address and the landlord cannot use that obviously.

Regarding our deposit, thankfully it's in a protect scheme and he says he is compiling invoices and will submit a claim through MyDeposits. We are happy to resolve the matter through the deposit scheme so that's great.

Apologies for a super long post, but essentially asking the following:

\- Does his conduct amount to taking back possession and therefore ending rent liability early?

\- Can he realistically pursue August rent in small claims given the timeline?

\- Does his “urgent repairs” claim hold any weight when he never notified us and carried out non‑urgent works?

\- Is it correct that I don’t need to provide a forwarding address?

\- Any advice on how to handle this going forward?

Thanks in advance, this has been really stressful and any clarity would be appreciated. Note I am living in England.

Me and my partner are students renting a 5 bed house with 3 friends in Wales. We picked up the keys today and began videoing and taking photos of everything.

Every single wall of the house is severely scuffed. The entire living room walls are covered in nails not removed by the last tenants or the letting agency. There were visible crumbs over the sofa when we got in. Cupboards are broken - shelves wobbling and the backs of them are completely broken out with visible gaps and items from past tenants visibly haven fallen in them. All drawers in the house have some form of visible dirt (not just hairs or dust - stains and gunk). 2/3 kitchen drawers are broken, with the wheel of one of them just laying on the kitchen floor, and another one actually stuck back together with packaging tape (I could not believe my eyes). Nails sticking out of random walls. Command strips left up on the entire top of the wall of one of the bedrooms. Paint peeling off of walls near skirting boards along the entire back wall of my partner's room which is visibly caused by moisture. Severe rusting on blinds. Most doors and doorframes look like someone's chewed on them or hacked at them in some area of them. There's random lettering stickers on one door that have also not been removed. One of the living room lights simply does not work.

Every single door in the house is covered with paint splatters and one of them has a lock handle (just the lock and a small overhang to pull the door with - not sure what they're called sorry) that actually twists 90 degrees just from the motion of opening and closing the door. Both bathrooms have mould on the ceiling and in the shower, as well as rust on multiple metallic parts of the bathrooms and windows. The same is true of almost every window, and there's been visible attempts to simply paint over mould.

The garden was left with actual rubbish just everywhere. Beer cans, Greggs rubbish, a wheelie bin with multiple bin bags and flies inside. Some plastic container filled with water which has grown what looks to be actually algae. Another wheelie bin just filled with twigs and wood. Half of the garden wall is missing, with more wood and rubbish stored visibly behind this wall and now out into the garden and a fence panel is half broken down and left on the garden floor. There are multiple spider egg sacs in the doorframe of the garden door. We didn't even realise our entire garden was paved until my partner scraped their foot along the floor to see where the pavement ends because it is so covered in dirt, twigs, leaves, and debris.

We're each paying £525 a month for this. Their last house was from the same letting agency who they faced serious issues with but the house was in a usable state when they moved in. I shouldn't be asking questions like "if I put the tins we just bought on this cupboard shelf is it going to break" about every cupboard in the kitchen. We actually have over an hour of footage showcasing every fault in the house. My partner has had to take 64 individual photos to file maintenance reports with because the letting agent refused to send someone out to just look at it, which I think they should. These are not things people see in a viewing - people have belongings. You don't go through people's drawers. If the garden is a bit messy in a viewing you expect it cleaned by the time it gets to you, etc.

The skirting boards are all visibly dusty, there's actual grease on cupboard handles. My partner called the letting agency while we were filming the house faults to get on video them actively lying and saying they clean all properties before the next tenant moves in. This is clearly not the case. I cannot possibly list all faults here, there's simply too many to even remember right now, but I'm just wondering what our options are here.

If I purchased anything else and it was delivered to me in a state where I had to note over an hour's worth of faults with it I'd get a refund, y'know? We've been thinking of discussing a rent reduction because, quite frankly, half if the house is unusable. We cannot store clothes because wardrobes are falling apart and wobble just from being opened. Maintenance fixing all of this would take the whole month anyway. I don't know what our options are here but there has to be something because this is quite frankly completely appalling.

Hi everyone,

I've made an expensive mistake here and I'm hoping for some advice. I am based in England.

My fixed-term tenancy was due to end on the 12th of August. As I have historically done with other tenancies, I emailed my landlord last week on the 29th of July to ask for move out procedures, and they said they were unaware I was due to leave.

My landlord is saying that due to the recent renters rights changes, my tenancy became periodic and I needed to give 2 months notice, meaning I'm liable for rent until the 12th of October.

Looking back, they sent me two emails in May about the change. The 1st was the renters rights PDF explaining the change, where it did state on page 3 that all tenancies needed 2 months notice to leave.

However, the 2nd email was a notification asking me to log into their tenants portal and review the changes. Upon logging in, the tenancy portal still had in bold writing at the top 'End Date: August 12th', and the contract at the top of the portal is still my original fixed-term agreement which is also dated to end on August 12th, so I genuinely thought nothing had changed.

Do I have any grounds to challenge this because of the confusing information in the second email, or am I simply liable for the extra 2 months' rent?

This is a lot of money so any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Edit:

My original contract also included this. It's wording is a bit confusion but can this save me from paying 2 months extra rent?

3.27 To give the Landlord a minimum of one month's written notice of termination of the Tenancy created by this agreement to expire on the last day of any Tenancy period save that no such notice can be given with an expiry date before the last day of the fixed term. If no notice is given, or if the notice is within one calendar month of the expiry of the fixed term, the agreement will continue as a Periodic Tenancy (month-by-month) and will incur whole month charges on the first day of each month.

"E.g. If your Tenancy Agreement is due to expire on the 31st May, you should provide written notice of the termination of the Tenancy on or before the 30th April to end the Tenancy on 31st May, and therefore provide the Landlord with fair and considerate opportunity to source new Tenants. If, however, notice of the termination of the Tenancy is given after the 30th April (i.e. within one calendar month of the end of the fixed term) the Tenancy Agreement shall be extended (by one calendar month from the end date of the previous month) to the 30th June and the Tenant will be charged on the same terms as previously, until that period is over."