Help! How do I cancel a tenancy agreement?

[Louise1234]

To cut a long story short about a month and a half ago my partner and I moved in together, since that time we have noticed a few problems. However we have now a serious problem we now have very serious worries as to damp being in the house, and I have been told this could be causing my serious health problems I am suffering at the moment, I realise this is all speculation at the moment but if this all turns out to be the case could we get out of a six month tenancy agreement?

Sorry if this is garbled, all in a fluster!

Thanks

[LAW_DROP-OUT]

some tennacy agreements , are worded in a way the deems "you are contracted to stay for twelve months " ... meaning if you " vacate the premises 2 before twelve months , you can lose your one months deposit in advance ...... -- but you tenncay agreement , maybe one , that allows you to vacate after the first six months ....... although you would probably need to give them the landlords two months notice ......... check the agreement ......

[Louise1234]

Also just to add. We always picked up from her that it did not end well with her previous tenants. Little did we know that we know the previous tenants and bumped into them the other day. When we mentioned we had just moved in there they straight away said get out now. They sid they used to be able to see what water going up through the walls and had to throw all of their clothes out, the landlord still refused to acknowledge there was a problem and kicked them out and kept their deposit! Of course they could have done something about this but they said they just did not want anymore hassel. Which would explain why they decorated (cheaply) the whole place before we moved in.

[themas]

If it's really that bad, contact the local council Environmental Health Dept. & getr them to come & check the property.

[luckyfish]

Look at the CAB website:
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/family_par ent/housing/disrepair_in_rented_accommodation. htm

under this heading: Local authorities� duties.

I had the same problem in a rented accomodation in 2005. We had found the property through an estate agency so they were able to advise us on what to do. We had moved in in the sept and there was definatley no damp - by the nov it was so bad you could smell it when you walked in the front door.
we notified the landlords but they kept coming up with excuses as to what could be causing it. they even told us it was caused by the condensation of steam after cooking!!!!
the landlords eventually fixed the problem after we threatened to notify the local authorities.

it's very important to keep a detailed record of all phone calls and conversations as well as letters written to your landlord. make sure you write down date, time, who you spoke to and summary of what was said - just incase your landlors don't comply.

it's definatley their responsability to fix - contact your CAB office and get some advise on how you should start addressing this problem.

on the plus side... it's moving into summer so hopefully the damp won't get worse before they fix it.

[Twenty20]

Most damp is in fact caused by poor ventilation. I'm not saying thats the case with your house, but its a common cause. If it's serious contact the Environmental Health Department at the Council who will look into it. If they say it's a problem with the house then the landlord will be obliged to fix it. You can't break the agreement until you get a report from the Environmental Health Department or you will be liable for the rent up until the end of the Agreement.

Don't worry about previous tenants saying the landlord kept their deposit. Your deposit will probably be deposited in a protection scheme whereby the landlord cannot simply refuse to refund it.