No notice, because “it’s my house”!

Sounds unbelievable, but my landlord just called a locksmith to come and change the locks and has taken possession of his house without any kind of legal process.

I caught him in the act and made a video. He thinks he can just do this because “It’s my house”.

• He called a locksmith and drilled the locks and installed his own locks to exclude me from the property.
• He served no notice, no section 8 or section 21, not even any kind of written or even verbal notice.
• He has not even returned my deposit and did not even register my deposit even 7 months later.
• He also did not give me the written tenancy agreement. he got me to sign it, but did not give me my copy.
• He always wanted the rent is cash and gave no receipts.

Only five months into the tenancy I finally had enough and got him to sign a “Confirmation of tenancy agreement” letter I wrote up to protect myself. In that letter, he confirmed that he was renting the house to me, with the start date of the agreement. He also confirmed I had paid him a £550 refundable deposit.
The letter also confirmed that I had paid all rent up to date, in cash.

He also confirmed that I had permission to sub-let the property if I chose to.

I had paid all rent up to date except I was now 8 days overdue, because I intended to return the property to him within a few days, so it made no sense to pay rent in the last month as he already had my deposit.

Once he broke in, and changed the locks I logged the incident with the police and am now in the process of taking legal action.

Here’s the fun bit:
The reason he had not given me the tenancy agreement was because he actually was NOT ALLOWED to rent the property to me because…..
wait for it…..
it had not been signed off by the council as habitable.

They were waiting for (1) proof that he had DAMP COURSED the property
and (2) installed the required amount of insulation in the kitchen ceiling.

He had done neither of these, and no council tax was being charged as it was UNINHABITABLE. I was not aware of this until I had already taken possession.

Then the damp appeared, and paint began to flake off and the electrics would turn off because of damp in some sockets.

I still paid the full rent.

As far as I can see, he has broken just about every rule in the book.

Yet when I spoke to some lawyers, they seem to think I have a weak case, just because he had not given me a copy of the tenancy agreement.

Let’s see how many of the rules he has broken

1. Rented an uninhabitable property when expressly not allowed by the council
2. Taken a deposit and not registered it for 7 months
3. Served no notice of any kind on me to leave the property
4. Always insisted on a CASH payment – maybe so they could deny I was even a tenant. However the signed letter proves I was
5. Drilled the locks while I was away from the property.
6. taken illegal possession without any legal right to possess.

When I caught them in the act of changing the lock, all they said was “It’s OUR property, not YOURS!”
They said I was not allowed to change the locks. The reason I changed the locks was because they had entered my property several times without my permission.

Has anyone ever dealt with such a landlord, who flouts all the rules?
and thinks he can just get away with it?

Art

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