Reference issues??

[kiwitraveller83]

Hello all
My partner and i have been living in our current flat share for the last 18months. But we are now planning on moving into our own flat..I am worried about having references though. Our current landlady is not the most trustworthy and because of this we are not going to pay our last months rent (she has not protected our deposit; no inventory was done; with one of our ex-flatmates she protected his deposit but put 2 of her own email addresses down so that he was not involved in the process at all; charges people who leave various fees including a cleaning fee but then no cleaning is ever done; charged our other ex-flatmate £400 for advertising for his room as he was leaving slightly early but she got the new tenant from one of her other properties; none of the 4 tenants who left got their full bond back for petty reasons; never pays the TV licence on time and this is included in our rent - I could keep going). Obviously she is unlikely to give us a reference so how would prospective landlords view this? We are both in full time employment and my brother lives here so could give us some kind of reference....sorry for the long message but wanted to outline why we are doing what we are doing!
Thanks in advance

[mariner]

If you are moving flat in the same town/area, other LLs/LAs may be familiar with your LL. I would be suspicious of any LL ref handed to me by T. I prefer to approach LL direct. Often they fail to reply or may give a damning ref. If the latter, I ask why has she tolerated you for 18 months?
Just offer her name, address, tel no.
Do not blot your good record by witholding final months rent, despite your fears. T witholding rent = black mark against prosp T. You can recover your deposit & any disputed charges, with little effort, via small claims against LL if nec.

[Snorkerz]

Unfortunately witholding your last months rent is a breach of contract, and that may be reflected in your references. Two wrongs do not make a right.

If you had taken action to resolve these problems beforehand it would not be an issue for you now.

This letter may be of use: http://tenancyanswers.ucoz.com/index/my_deposit_isn_t_protected/0-4

[kiwitraveller83]

Thanks for the replies...in terms of her tolerating us we are good tenants, pay our rent on time and look after the place so she doesn't have any reason to not tolerate us. This was the first place we have rented since moving to the UK. We didn't proceed with going after our deposit because we were worried she would either evict us or put it in a scheme once we kicked up a fuss...and given the fact that she didn't even involve one of the ex-tenatns in the process to get the deposit back how can we trust her? I am just worried that we are going to end up in a fight with her and not get all our money back.

[Ericthelobster]

This was the first place we have rented since moving to the UK.If you're not a UK national then that's all the more reason to play by the rules - most landlords will tend to be wary about you anyway as if you've only been here 18 months you won't have a full credit history etc and your one-and-only landlord reference will be very important.

[Snorkerz]

We didn't proceed with going after our deposit because we were worried she would either evict us or put it in a scheme once we kicked up a fuss....But wouldn't that be the aim of 'kicking up a fuss'? I'd prefer to describe it as standing up for your law given rights.

[kiwitraveller83]

Once again thanks for the replies...I think we will send the letter that one of you left the link for regarding the deposit and see what happens from there.
She just makes it hard to trust her when we know what has happened to everyone else that has left.
Thanks for the advice and I think we have learnt a lot from our experience and hope that this will help us know what to look for and do when we rent our next place.
Merry Xmas to you all!