I advised a client recently who had an unusual problem. After signing the tenancy agreement for his rented property, he discovered there was a total stranger living in a studio flat above his garage! He had no idea that it was there. Neither had he realized that there was only one water meter and one…
Announcing a new Landlord Law service : www.tenancydepositclaim.com. About the tenancy deposits scheme Since April 2007 landlords have been required to protect tenants deposits (for ASTs) in one of the three government authorised tenancy deposit schemes. This has largely infuriated landlords but there are a number of good reasons for it: The deposit money belongs…
The excellent housing law section in Legal Action magazine has five cases reported this month on harassment and unlawful eviction. I summarise them below. 1. Fakhari v. Newman, Woolwich County Court, 7 January 2010 Here the landlords failed to protect the deposit, and there were repairing problems with the boiler, and the windows. However it…
We have written on the Landlord Law Blog about scammers before. Ben Reeve has kindly drawn my attention to this article on the BBC web-site which warns of yet another internet scam, the “advance fee fraud”. This is where you are asked to wire money to a friend or relative to prove that you can…
Those of us living in Norwich who work in property, all know about Mr Mike Billings. He is one of the biggest landlords in Norwich, letting mainly to the lower end of the market, with properties of variable standards of repair and safety. I once lived in a Billings flat myself, when I first came…
There has been a positive flurry of tweets and emails crossing my computer screen today, preceding and then following, the announcement from the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Dept. about their plans for the Private Rented Sector. You can read the news item here, and the report itself can be downloaded from here. This follows…
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Notorious Norwich landlord has jail term slashed after payout
Many readers have been shocked by the case of Michael Billings, the landlord who regularly flouts heath and safety regulations and who was jailed on 7 May. The sentence related to the near death of teenage tenant Ms Skalli from 80pc burns after she was trapped in her flat, and was rescued, just in time,…