What are my rights? UK tenancy law

Factual Questions
1

So, Londoner here. Landlord is generally ok (it’s a housing association), but a saga has been written.

So we moved in last May, and we were told then to pay a month’s rent up front, as we were told, to pay for our first few weeks in, and then to pay regular monthly rent at the start of the next month, as is standard. The person who arranged the contract signing for us told us this covered 8 May to 8 June 2014. Apparently, it didn’t, it covered all of June only.

In September, we were contacted about the direct debit not being set up properly, so we were in arrears. Turns out our direct debit instruction had simply got stuck in someone’s in-tray for months. We dutifully paid the arrears, as the money had just not gone anywhere, and set up the direct debit properly, starting from September.

Now they’ve called again, saying we are in arrears for nearly a whole month’s rent, this time because they’ve discovered we never paid for the ending weeks of May 2014.

Only just now. Just now.

What are my rights here? I am pretty annoyed, as I don’t have that kind of money budgeted. Surely it’s their fault that they’ve a) had a whole year to notify as, and b) have notified us about something else, which we complied with, and overlooked the arrears then.

I’d be surprised if I could get them to settle the arrears as their own incompetence, but I feel like socking someone on the nose at least. Any lawyers here? What can I do?

I haven’t paid the money yet as I need to find it for one thing, but can I object in any way? Is it recommended?

2

Well first question is, do you really owe the money? Look back in your bank statements and see if the money for May 2014 was taken from your account. If you really do owe it then perhaps they would work with you on a payment plan, maybe add 1/4 of it to your rent for the next 4 months?

3

If you failed to pay what you agreed to, you owe them that money, full stop. It is not your landlord’s responsibility to hold your hand through making payments. It sounds like you’re living paycheck to paycheck. If so, how did you not notice that you had an extra three weeks of rent money lying around?

First thing to do is figure out if you actually owe it. It sounds like no one has been doing any careful bookkeeping here. If you do, I agree with control-zs suggestion tell them that you’re very sorry for the mistake, and see if they’ll accept, say, an extra week’s rent each month for the next few months until you’re even.

“I forgot to pay you, but it’s your fault for not noticing it until now” is not a recommended approach.

4

You should first total up exactly what you owe. This would be for all the complete months plus a pro rata for May. (about 75%)

Compare this with what you have paid in total by adding it up on your bank statements - if you bank online, it’s easy to search for a particular payment. You could also ask them to send you a statement so that you can compare records.

The difference is what you owe and that is all you should offer. As noted above, it would be quite reasonable to offer a little extra per month until the debt is paid, but this should be a reasonable period - a year at the most. You should also keep track of it so that you stop overpaying as soon as you are square. You clearly cannot rely on the housing association to do it.

5

You misunderstand. We were told we were square in terms of payments, as the money we have was to cover the first month. So we weren’t expecting, and didn’t have, any remaining money left over. The person who told us all this had his facts plain wrong.

What people have been saying over trying to get the money paid in installments is a sensible move, and I will explore that.

6

I apologize for implying that you were trying to weasel out of an obligation, but I’m afraid I still don’t understand exactly what’s going on.

Is it just an issue of where the boundary falls? Like you’ve paid for 3 months, and you thought it was from the 8th of each month forward, and now they tell you that you were paying from the 1st, and just making your payments three weeks early, so your payment on or around March 8 paid your rent through April, but they expect you to pay for the first three weeks.

If so, I think you have a much stronger negotiating position, because you have actually paid sufficient rent for the whole time you’ve been there, and lining up payments to the calendar shouldn’t be that hard.

If not, can you explain it further?

What’s written your rental agreement/lease about rental duration and how payments will be applied? If you don’t have one, that’s a bummer, but this is a relatively cheap lesson on always putting any arrangement over money in writing.

7

If you haven’t already you might like to post your question here. They’re UK based and there are people there who take an interest in this sort of thing.

8

I guess the question is - what did you think you were paying, and what does the contract say?

The landlord sounds pretty disorganized, but essentially if you were paying 1000 pounds a month, since May 8th, then you owe what? About 750 for May, 1000 for each month thereafter, Presumably like most North American leases, your lease also running from first of the month to first of the month? If the documentation of the lease you signed said the 8th to the 8th, then that’s the official answer. If they misspoke - I think it was Samuel B. Mayer who said “a verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

When asked for the outstanding (July through September) rent, did you not notice that the amount was 3 months’ rent, not 3 months and 3 weeks? If you thought you were paid up to June 8th, then the bank account should have held almost 4 months’ rent, not 3. Somewhere in there you should have noticed they didn’t ask for 3 weeks’ rent.

The short answer is, if you created a debt, if you owe money, then you owe it. A person springing a long overdue debt on you can expect you may have difficulty paying it, but one way or another you must pay. Here it is almost half a year later - sooner or later the landlord was likely to have a lucid moment of a helpful accountant to discover that they had missed almost a month’s rent. you should have paid more attention to the totals and been ready for this. Following and controlling your finances is your responsibility, and if you owe money be prepared for the other party, however disorganized, to eventually realize it.