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.
Our American friend has encountered one of the many crappy agents we have in the UK who just take the money and move onto the next one.
To be honest, if any agent told me not to mention the dog to the lanldord I would have walked straight away. Their dishonesty was plain to see in that one statement.
I think Tessa has the legal angle summed up in her 5 points but I’ll bet it wont end there.
In order to evict for dog nonsense, as Tessa points out, there would have to be a clause in the contract saying ‘No Pets’. As there isnt, they havent breached their contract.
If the agent is registered with a governing body such as ARLA or RICS then a complaint to them wouldnt go amiss,especially as he has copies of emails relating to the dog. I would even suggest that the agents have been deceptive to their client, the landlord but half the agents in the UK are registered and amazingly there is no law that says they should be. Anyone can start up an agency tomorrow without any professional bodies governing their behaviour.
At the moment there is little going on with the statutory law side of things, it all seems to be about contracts and reasonableness and those sorts of cases/challenges are always up in the air.
If it was me I would write to the landlord and inform them that the agent told him not to mention the dog and that as there is no clause against it he hasnt broken the terms of the contract. The section 21 ground wouldnt apply here anyway as a breach of contract claim would go under Section 8, so deposit protection isnt relevant in that sense.
Contact the local council’s housing advice team or tenancy relations officer if they have one and find out if they know the landlord and agent concerned, we often do.
This one is going to come back I fear.
Oh and as an addendum to the above, message direct to the bloke who contacted Tessa. KEEP EVERYTHING IN WRITING FROM THIS POINT ON!!!!!
I’d also comment that it’s not just at the small fly by night agencies that sharp and dishonest practices are used. I recall that the OFT has recently given Foxtons, they of the wine bar offices and corporate BMW Minis, a reaming. Foxtons were also implicated in the BBC’s “Whistleblower” documentary a few years back.
Probably the worst incident with a lettings agent I ever encountered was the one where a tenant had a possession order made against them in rent arrears, said arrears came about because the agent was taking the rent and not passing it on to the landlord. Depressingly, though, this I’m sure is not uncommon.
I think there are several areas where agents let their clients down. At the bottom end are the people who set out to make a quick buck, regardless of service. These can range from the incompetent to the downright criminal. These guys often end up ripping off landlords and tenants alike. This type are worryingly common around my way and I have seen a distinct rise in them over the past 2 years.
Then there are the agents who try but just dont have too much of a clue about what they are doing. this lot fail to serve their clients by blundering around rtaher than any bad intent.
Then there is the top range agents. I get the impression that they can be quite good at keeping their lanldords happy (thats where the bulk of their income comes from) but tenants often feel they are ignored once they have handed the cash over. The most common complaints I hear are that the agents dont want to negotiate or be intermediaries when the tenant has a query.
A lot of the time it is the individuals within an agency that are where it all lies. A good person in a rubbish egency will affect a person’s experiences and I have dealt with some clueless idiots in otherwise reputable companies.
I just find that it beggars belief that agents arent properly licenced and controlled. It is a professional service for God’s sake. You couldnt start a take away without staff having food safety training, or a solicitors without qualified staff
On behalf of all good agents may I take this opportunity to apologise for your treatment.
I know that if an apartment is new build it more than likely has a clause in the leasehold agreement with the landlord that pets aren’t allowed. if this is the case then it should have been clearly pointed out to the tenant.
I have to agree with Ben that if someone is asking you to keep quiet about something then they aren’t acting in your best interests.
I’d always advise someone to speak to their environmental health officer as I believe these are different to housing advise teams (although this may depend on the local council). There is a statutory right to working sanitary ware.
With regards to your bank details perhaps ask the bank if they can offer you any help.
Your right on Environmental Health Sandra. The level of communication/cooperation between environmental health and housing rights will vary depending on the organisation.
I know it’s frustrating that different departments have different remits but the fact is I wouldnt have a clue what I was looking at when presented with a crack in the wall, likewise EH wouldnt know one end of a notice to quit from the other.
It would be really good if there was an organisation out there where small, decent, honest agents could join forces to help each other out and promote good practice.
You couldnt expect the likes of Foxtons or Haarts to get involved but my best experiences, both as a housing worker and a tenant myself, have been with local agents who build relationships with both landlords and tenants.
Last year I was viewing a flat with someone from Foxtons and asked him what he knew about the landlord. He looked at me as if I had just asked him to describe the life cycle of the Thorny Star Fish