Citizens Advice Bureau - CABoodle Housing

Will I have to pay a deposit if I want to rent a flat?

You will nearly always be asked for a deposit and this will usually be the same as one month's rent. If you damage any property or do not pay the rent the landlord may keep some or all of this amount.

I paid a deposit when I moved into my rented house. I have now moved out but the landlord will not return the deposit. What can I do?

Most landlords and letting agents ask tenants for a deposit as security against damage or non-payment of rent. It is reasonable for your landlord to take money off the deposit to cover, for example, damage to the property or furniture, or missing items. But they should return the rest of your deposit, once things like these have been taken into account.

If you paid your deposit on or after 6 April 2007, your deposit will be protected by new rules. These say that your landlord must put your deposit in a tenancy deposit protection scheme. At the end of the tenancy, you are guaranteed to get your deposit back within 10 days, as long as you and your landlord have agreed on how much you should get back.

If you don't agree on how much you should get back, there's a free service which you and your landlord can use to help sort out your disagreement.

However, landlords don't have to use a tenancy deposit protection scheme for deposits paid before 6 April 2007. If you paid a deposit before this date and your landlord won't pay it back, see if you can come to an agreement with them. You can get help to do this from an experienced adviser, for example at a Citizens Advice Bureau.

If that doesn't work, your only option is to take your landlord to court. If you're in this position, you should get advice.

At what age can I leave home?

The legal age for leaving home without parent's permission is 18. But in most cases no legal action will be taken if you are 16 or 17 and are in no immediate danger.

I have received a Claim for possession from the county court because I have not paid my rent. What can I do?

If you do not pay your rent, the landlord has a legal right to ask a court to evict you. If you have received a claim for possession and want to try and stay in your home then you must act quickly. If you cannot afford to pay your rent because you have a low income, you may be able to get some help with the payments by claiming housing benefit. If you can afford to pay your rent and pay a little extra towards any arrears, you should talk to your landlord. The landlord may be willing to make an agreement with you and stop the court action. It is important that you make the agreed payments regularly.

If the landlord will not agree to accept your payments, you should reply to the claim and attend the court hearing. If you can make a reasonable offer of payment, the court may accept it and allow you to stay in your home. If the court does not agree to your offer, you will be given a date when you will have to leave your home. The costs of the court hearing will also be added to the rent that you owe the landlord.

I had to leave my last home and now I have nowhere to live. Does the local council have to re-house me?

If a person makes an application to a housing authority as homeless, the authority will apply five tests to determine whether or not s/he is homeless and what assistance s/he is entitled to. These tests will be applied in sequence until the status of the applicant is determined. The type of assistance an applicant will receive depends on how far through the sequence of tests s/he progresses.
The five Tests are:-
• Test one: is the applicant a person arriving in, or returning to, the UK, who is ineligible for housing under homelessness law
• Test two: is the applicant statutorily homeless or threatened with homelessness
• Test three: is the applicant in priority need
• Test four: is the applicant intentionally homeless
• Test five: does the applicant have a local connection.

If the homelessness application is successful, the housing authority has a duty to provide accommodation to the applicant for an unlimited period until the duty is brought to an end. This is known as the full homelessness duty.

The housing authority can only discharge the full homelessness duty by providing accommodation in one of the following ways:

• by providing suitable accommodation from its own housing stock. This might be the housing authority's own house or flat, a house or flat the authority has leased from another landlord, or a hostel; or

• by ensuring that the applicant obtains suitable accommodation from another source, that is, a registered social landlord (RSL) or a private landlord. It can include locating accommodation in a hostel or in a mobile home, caravan or boat; or

• by giving the applicant advice and assistance that will enable her/him to obtain suitable accommodation from another source, for example, a private landlord, or assisting the applicant with buying her/his own home (including a shared ownership property).

The housing authority need make only one offer of accommodation, providing it is suitable. If the applicant rejects an offer of suitable accommodation, the housing authority's duties will have been discharged, and the application will come to an end.

What is housing benefit?

Housing benefit is the name given to the government scheme, which helps people to pay their rent. It cannot be paid to owner-occupiers to help pay their mortgage - help for this may be possible from income support or income-based jobseeker's allowance.

The house I rent is very damp. I told the landlord but she has not done anything about it. What else can I do?

As a tenant, you have the right to have the structure of your home kept in good repair by the landlord. This includes some of the installations in the home such as heating and hot water systems. You will often be responsible yourself for repairs to internal decoration and for minor repairs such as a blocked sink. Details about repairs are usually set out in a written tenancy agreement that describes the landlord's and tenant's responsibilities. If you do not have a tenancy agreement the law may still give you some basic rights. However, you should always check your housing status before you complain about housing conditions, as some landlords try to evict tenants who wish to enforce their legal rights to repair.
When you have decided that your repair should be done by the landlord, you must tell them about the repair that is needed. You should write out a description of the problem and collect evidence such as photographs, a report from environmental health officers, and medical reports if the disrepair is affecting your health or the health of someone in your household.
If the landlord still fails to carry out the work you could consider contacting the Environmental Health department at your local authority, or you could take the landlord to court. If your landlord is a registered social landlord such as a housing association or is a private landlord, then the local authority may be able to force them to take action. If you are a tenant of the local authority itself, then you should make a complaint using the authority’s complaints procedure.
You should carry on paying your rent while you try to get the repair work done, as your landlord may try to evict you if you have rent arrears.

I rent my flat privately and the landlord wants to increase the rent. Can he do this?

It all depends on the type of tenancy agreement that you have. If your tenancy is for a fixed term (for example, six months) the rent cannot be increased during the fixed term unless the agreement states that it can, or you agree to the increase. When the fixed term ends, the landlord may ask you to sign a new tenancy agreement which charges a higher rent.

If your tenancy is not for a fixed term, the landlord can charge a higher rent if you agree, or if the agreement allows for this, or by giving you the correct written notice. If the agreement allows for an increase, it should say when and how this should happen, for example, annually.

In some cases you can appeal against an increase if you think the amount of the increase is too much or if you think the notice of the increase was not issued correctly. If you start to pay the increased amount this means you have agreed to it and you cannot appeal against it.

Some tenants have very little protection against eviction and could risk losing their homes if they disagree with the landlord about the amount of rent to be paid. If you cannot afford to pay your rent, remember you may be able to claim housing benefit.

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