northlondoner
07-04-2010, 08:27 AM
I moved into a studio flat in December 2006. The studio is one of four on the top floor of the landlady's home. Each has a lock and number and is let with a seperate contract. She usually lets them out through a letting agent but as I was introduced to her by a friend, she simply photocopied one of their standard contracts and let the studio to my herself. I had a 12-month fixed assured shorthold tenancy, which then became periodic.
As the landlady lived away, it was a nice peaceful let. After a year she broke up with her husband and moved back in. The place became more noisy. It was good to have her around though, because the bathroom, which I shared with the three other studios, was often having faults. We had frequently had to go without a shower or toilet for weeks on end in the past so finally she decided to have it fixed - by builders who started at 6am in the morning. Which we complained about but she said we had to put up with it. We were never warned, I just stumbled out of my door in a towel once to find them there setting up. Then the noise began and continued every morning for two weeks!
Then the builders converted her attic above my room. Again banging around from 6am. We all politely complained again but to no avail.
Not long after this, she banged on my door and waltzed in one night and started screaming at me at 9pm because I was using the washing machine "too late" It was doing its final spin. At 9pm. I work long hours, what more can I do? she was very drunk (you could even see the red wine round her mouth, and I notice her recycling is always several empty bottles a day) and shouted at me as I tried to apologise and promise to never do it again. She didn't care when I said I'd been visiting my ill mother at the weekend and then working very late every night and this was the only time I'd been home in days and able to wash. So she can make noise at 6am repeatedly but I can't at 9pm. She often played loud music until much later than 11pm. It seemed so unfair.
Shortly after that I found a hand-scrawled note telling me the landlady wanted my studio back so her daughter could move in. I had four weeks to get out. I didn't want to leave because I was in the process of looking to buy but she said I must leave. Her daughter wanted the studio. Her daughter lived with her downstairs so she wasn't homeless. I had no leeway or official notice, just this note and a rude, curt refusal to be accommodating.
Because the date she gave me to move out was just five days after my rent date, I cancelled my final rent and informed her and she verbally said, that's OK we'll take it out of the deposit.
The day I moved out she vanished. I think she hoped to get away with keeping my deposit. I waited for her to come back though - late in the afternoon. She marched straight up to my room and over to the curtain rail. The one which held the net curtain had fallen down but on my penultimate day I had fixed it completely. She looked shocked and said, oh I thought that was broken. She'd clearly entered my studio without telling me.
She then kicked her "rug". It was a piece of hessian with masking tape on the edges. It had been there for the five years my friend lived there before me. It had been covered in stains when SHE moved in, in 2001! The LL said she was keeping my £400 deposit for the rug. I protested. She relented. Then she said she was taking £80 from my deposit because I stopped my last month's rent. Because it was only five days and we had discussed it. She said her bank had charged her £80. She refused. Wrote me a cheque for £255 (£400 minus £80 and five days rent) and told me to leave. I did, in tears.
Can I claim any money back? Was she in the wrong at all with any of her behaviour?
As the landlady lived away, it was a nice peaceful let. After a year she broke up with her husband and moved back in. The place became more noisy. It was good to have her around though, because the bathroom, which I shared with the three other studios, was often having faults. We had frequently had to go without a shower or toilet for weeks on end in the past so finally she decided to have it fixed - by builders who started at 6am in the morning. Which we complained about but she said we had to put up with it. We were never warned, I just stumbled out of my door in a towel once to find them there setting up. Then the noise began and continued every morning for two weeks!
Then the builders converted her attic above my room. Again banging around from 6am. We all politely complained again but to no avail.
Not long after this, she banged on my door and waltzed in one night and started screaming at me at 9pm because I was using the washing machine "too late" It was doing its final spin. At 9pm. I work long hours, what more can I do? she was very drunk (you could even see the red wine round her mouth, and I notice her recycling is always several empty bottles a day) and shouted at me as I tried to apologise and promise to never do it again. She didn't care when I said I'd been visiting my ill mother at the weekend and then working very late every night and this was the only time I'd been home in days and able to wash. So she can make noise at 6am repeatedly but I can't at 9pm. She often played loud music until much later than 11pm. It seemed so unfair.
Shortly after that I found a hand-scrawled note telling me the landlady wanted my studio back so her daughter could move in. I had four weeks to get out. I didn't want to leave because I was in the process of looking to buy but she said I must leave. Her daughter wanted the studio. Her daughter lived with her downstairs so she wasn't homeless. I had no leeway or official notice, just this note and a rude, curt refusal to be accommodating.
Because the date she gave me to move out was just five days after my rent date, I cancelled my final rent and informed her and she verbally said, that's OK we'll take it out of the deposit.
The day I moved out she vanished. I think she hoped to get away with keeping my deposit. I waited for her to come back though - late in the afternoon. She marched straight up to my room and over to the curtain rail. The one which held the net curtain had fallen down but on my penultimate day I had fixed it completely. She looked shocked and said, oh I thought that was broken. She'd clearly entered my studio without telling me.
She then kicked her "rug". It was a piece of hessian with masking tape on the edges. It had been there for the five years my friend lived there before me. It had been covered in stains when SHE moved in, in 2001! The LL said she was keeping my £400 deposit for the rug. I protested. She relented. Then she said she was taking £80 from my deposit because I stopped my last month's rent. Because it was only five days and we had discussed it. She said her bank had charged her £80. She refused. Wrote me a cheque for £255 (£400 minus £80 and five days rent) and told me to leave. I did, in tears.
Can I claim any money back? Was she in the wrong at all with any of her behaviour?