no tenancy agreement

[auntsallyann]

my daughter and her boyfriend have been renting a flat for 4 months off a guy they no, my daughter keeps asking for a tenancy agreement but as yet have not got one (the guy has now moved to spain), no safety checks were carried out on the elec and gas. now they have just received their first gas bill which was for �450, they have the heating on for around 2 hrs in the morning and 4 -5 hrs in the evening. The boiler and tank is ancient and decrepid. My daughter has asked if the landlord will get the boiler checked as the gas bill seems a bit excessive, but is refusing to do so, so they asked if they could reduce the rent by �25 per week for the next month or so and they would get the boiler looked at and repaired if necessary but he is refusing, does my daughter have any grounds with not having a lease. many thanks for any advise

[voltr4m4x]

If, as you allege, no tenancy agreement is in existence then no rent is legally chargeable on the property. Simply advise your daughter and her boyfriend to cease making any such payments with immediate effect. Make it non-negotiable.

But a tenancy agreement will not rectify the faults to the boiler; for this they will need to put in writing a list of their complaints and forward them to the landlord, giving him/her a specified period of notice in which to effect repairs. An examination of the boiler by either British Gas or any Corgi registered installer will help towards listing the faults (if any), but there will be a charge for this.

If the landlord still refuses to effect any repairs which may be found necessary, and no tenancy agreement has been drawn up, and your daughter and her boyfriend are not paying rent, then the landlord will have to apply for a court order to evict your daughter and her boyfriend from the property and it is there where the landlord will meet with resistance. No court in the land has the power to order an eviction from a dwellinghouse in the absence of a tenancy agreement.