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Rent Contracts -anyone know about these?

13 replies

Moominsarehippos · 31/12/2012 10:16

My friend near me has a truly awful neighbour.

A family moved in to a (privately) rented flat above her (she has owned hers for about 40 years) earlier this year.

It's a family of 2 parents/2kids (about 4 and 6). The dad works very odd hours (nights but he manages a shop) and they are all (kids included) are nocternal! Last night they were all up to five am, and this is in no way unusual. They are asleep now.

The kids run around and yell. Dad yells and mum shouts, music blaring. They sleep during the day. God knows how the kids go to school (which they both do as the school/nursery is around the corner and I see them trotting off in the mornings)! The flat is uaually quiet by 3am. I was there at midnight (mid week during school term time) and the kids were running up and down, up and down, screeching, banging and dropping things on the wooden floors.

My friend and the neighbour on their other side went up to ask (all smiles and friendly) if they realised that the flats were rather noisy and if they could please try to keep the noise down. The dad told them to piss off and slammed the door in their faces. He is quite intimidating.

They spoke to the owner (who is a friend) who said that she won't renew their contract (in March) but can't give them notice.

Is that right? You can't give a tenant notice? Whenever I have rented there has always been a clause of a month either way. They are renting direct and not via an agency, so maybe they don't have a contract? The owner (actually, her uncle owns it and she lools after it) spoke to the dad a few weeks ago and nothing happened. She is reluctant to speak to him again (I suspect because he is rather intimidating).

The council have their nuisance line but last time I used them, they wrote to our neighbours and CCd the letter to me (doh!) So my friend is worried that she'd have the neighbour at her door!

Can she do anything? Is the owner talking rubbish about the contract?

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LIZS · 31/12/2012 10:19

tbh he can only give notice to the end of the tenancy within first 6 months of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (could be longer of terms were specified) unless ll has other grounds such as non payment . Not having an agent doesn't affect this. Realistically it would take that long to go through the legal process anyway.

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Moominsarehippos · 31/12/2012 10:27

Oh lordy. Protect the pains and bugger the pensioner then? The last lot were students who partied all the time!

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Moominsarehippos · 31/12/2012 10:41

Oh, so aparently the contract says (she's just called my friend) they can give them a month's notice. Hmmmmm. We will see if she does or not!

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LIZS · 31/12/2012 10:45

but is that a month at the expiry of first 6 months rather than within ? Most tenancies in England are AST by default.

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forevergreek · 31/12/2012 10:48

ours 2 month notice, but only after 6 months. (so the shortest time in property would be 8months). its the same 4 years on

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Moominsarehippos · 31/12/2012 10:59

I hope it's correct! They are very disruptive and any man who thinks than menacing an elderly lady who asks him to try to keep the noise down is ok, is a complete arse.

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1605 · 31/12/2012 14:26

2 months' notice by the LL to end any tenancy (well, I simplify, but I assume the owner isn't providing a short let, holiday let, or licence of occupation).

Your neighbour's stuck with them, I'm afraid. There are various kinds of legal action she could take, but all of them would take beyond March to resolve.

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1605 · 31/12/2012 14:27

Moomin If your friend's LL really thinks she can just a month's notice, I hope she has a good lawyer and a lot of LL insurance.

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Moominsarehippos · 31/12/2012 15:11

Oh god. They are all asleep now! Why would any family be nocturnal, whyyyy?

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crazyhead · 02/01/2013 13:26

How loud is it? Calling the council noise officers in might be a better approach in the first place.

At least March isn't far off really - imagine they were owner occupiers!

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OldLadyKnowsNothing · 02/01/2013 13:33

If the owner is planning on chucking the tenants out in March they'll need to give notice soon... Even on a 6 month contract the landlord needs to give 2 months notice.

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forevergreek · 02/01/2013 14:21

Tbh, I know being overly noisy is unfair, but being nocturnal isn't.

If parents run a takeaway or something like many, and children are taken along, then they prob aren't all home until 2/3am. Then sleep 4am-4pm. People have to do things sometimes which aren't the norm

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Moominsarehippos · 02/01/2013 21:28

He runs an 'shop' (apparently). I've just seen him hanging about giving mobile phone boxes to blokes in the street. But even if you work nights, you have to sleep sometimes - and why would the whole family keep your hours? They have frequent friends and family staying (so loud parties, more yelling, etc etc). My friends ran restaurants and the kids were mever there, and kept normal hours (they were at school, how could they?) And a friend's friend/huusband runs a takeaway and her kids have an 8pm bedtime.

It is very very loud. The flats are purpose built, so should have some dampening but you can hear very cleary the two kids running, squealing, yelling, dropping/throwing things. Dad is a bit of a 'macho' type and just shouts a lot and the mum joins in too (it sounds like she is yelling 'shut up the lot of you!'). You can actually hear then two floors away, especially if the windows are open.

They are breaking a lot of the block rules which everyone is supposed to get copies of - no noise after 11, no music after 8... And he's a thug. Threatening an OAP, and his other tiny neighbour who also dared to ask him to keep the noise down. She tapped on his door at 11am and the wife answered. She asked her if she could maybe please keep the noise down after midnight and he charged up, shoved the wife out of the way, and yelled "woman, you wake me up!!!! Go go away!") in her face and slammed the door as hard as he could in her face.

I'm going to live on a desert island...

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