If I dont pay my landlords rent, what will happen?

Question

I have been having problems with my landlord for the past few months regarding the toilet flush that doesn't work properly and the shower that keeps going off after five minutes of use. She says that the shower is not faulty without checking it and she will not get the toilet flush fixed as we have a toilet downstairs too. I explained to her that I have children and in the night they would not go downstairs to use the toilet as they are scared and beside I am paying her rent so I believe I should get full use of all the facilities available in the house.

So after 6 months of row over the toilet and shower, I decided to delay the rent payment for june for a few weeks, until the landlord phoned me to find out why I haven't made last months rent payment yet. So, I told her until my 2 problems are not sorted i will not pay. So she said to me 'ok, u make the rent payment and i will sort the toilet and shower out for you'. So,I agreed and paid the rent in her account, but It is now over four weeks but she has not bothered to get them repaired and I have got housing benefit for july in my account now. I am planning to keep this money until my two jobs are done and not pay her anything until then. Should I do this? I am not bothered if she decides to evict me as I am planning to do so anyway, as I am not receiving full housing benefit for my house anymore because me and my husband seperated two months ago and he has left the house.

The only thing that worries me is that one day she might come and change the locks in my house so I could not get in anymore. Can she do anything like that?

For your information, I have a short assured tenancy agreement which ends in december.

Answer 1

IS this US or England?

Were any of your requests to fix the plumbing problems in writing?  Does the housing benefit program do any inspections of the property?

READ your lease carefully.  You have NO right to withhold your rent in most leases.  You can probably have the repairs done, deduct that from your rent, and pay the balance (ON TIME) to LL giving them a copy of the bill.  

No it's NOT OK for LL to say use downstairs toilet.  Send LL a letter with rent payment and bill, noting that you have repeatedly asked for these repairs, and although they have been promised, they haven't been made.  NOW, if your kids have blocked up the toilet with their toys or washrags or stuff thrown down the toilet, it is your repair cost, not LL, but otherwise it's generally a LL cost, as with shower.

And you may get in big trouble not using your housing allotment to pay your rent.

Answer 2

First, if you don't pay the rent, she can kick you out.

Second, if you are having problems that could cause unsanitary conditions you can do two things. First ,write her a letter and send it by certified mail so that she has to sign for it. Second, call your local health department and turn her in. There are some things that landlords can get away with not fixing, unsanitary conditions due to their negligence is not one of them.

Good luck.

Answer 3

She cannot come change the locks without first having gone through the eviction process.

In the future, don't make an arrangement where you promise payment before the problem is fixed. If you don't pay the rent or even withhold part of the rent, she has a right to begin eviction proceedings. But eviction always takes time; it is a process, usually 30 days.

If you simply withhold all of the rent, the judge will not side with you at all during the hearing. You would be wise not to have an eviction on your record. It will be a stain on your credit that you will want to avoid, as you will have broken a financial agreement. It will only make life harder for you and your children if you allow this to happen.

It may be reasonable to withhold a portion of the rent until the problem is fixed. You may even want to talk to your landlord about this sort of agreement before you go ahead and do it, and GET IT IN WRITING. Tell her, I think it's only fair that you get half the amount we agreed upon until that problem is fixed. Don't lose your cool. A judge will  be more understanding about this because you aren't withholding all of the rent and you have a legitimate reason to pay less because you are getting less use out of the living space. You should know, however, that she has a right not to accept partial payment of the rent.

The verbal agreement that she made with you does count in a court of law, but she will just deny that she said she'd fix the problem and will probably deny that there even is a problem. You might want to go ahead and get a few written estimates for fixing the problem to show that indeed a problem exists. Remember that even if she begins eviction proceedings you still have a right to go before a judge and argue your side of the story. And a judge may rule that what you paid as rent is reasonable given the living conditions of the property. Don't drop the ball and shrug your shoulders at eviction proceedings. Future landlords and employers will look at your credit and it will greatly hurt  your chances of getting housing and employment to have these things on your record, like I said, for the sake of you and your children, take a few steps and look after yourself, but do not refuse to pay rent.  

Answer 4

You may not care about being evicted, but you should.   The STATE is going to come after you with welfare fraud charges.   You can not accept rent money from the government and then up and decide to keep it, no matter what the circumstances.    You are stealing tax payer money and that does not go over well.

Your rent withholding is illegal.     Why not just fix the flush yourself, even a high end toilet only costs $30 for all new flush mechanism.   Your shower works, maybe not to your liking, but it works.

I would take the head off and clean it or just put a new shower head on...at the cheap end you are talking a buck fifty, but you can get a great one for under 10.

Answer 5

find someone that will fix it and take it out of the rent money.  

Answer 6

i think what your doing is right she should fix the toilet and shower because you are paying the rent. You shouldn't pay her a penny until the problems are fixed and if she evicts you you could just find somewhere else to move but start looking before and make sure you have a place but usually she will give you notice before you get evicted  

Answer 7

my mom had a problem like this..something with the plumming and the landlord kept saying she would fix it and she never did so this is what she did...she went downtown to the court house and they can hold your money so you can't in trouble for not paying the rent becaue you paid it but yeah you guys go and basically your forcing her to fix the problem lol i probabloy make no sense but yeah.....

Answer 8

You will be asked to vacate the premises. In other word be evicted if you dont pay. Some landlords have been known to take their guests to court because they didnt pay for their rent. If you two are aruging about the house and what not why dont you take him to court and have it resolved there. There are the court fees and paper work fees but if you think you can handle it then you may go fourth. Unfortuntly you have to pay up you probably signed and agreed to a written agreement by contract before you moved in which gives the land lord power and authority to what every he wants with in reason. If he wants to charge an extra 50 bucks for heat and hot water he has the authority to do so. But like I said if you think theres some kind of civil matter that needs to be sorted out by all means take him to court.

Answer 9

First of all ignore all the responses except for the ones that mention your state laws because thats what really counts. It also sounds like you need some extra income so you should check this out .   http://www.projectpayday.com/go/1407394/...

Answer 10

You'll be evicted.

Answer 11

Well in my state, we legally can use the rent money to repair the damages that the land lord is responsible for but never has fixed.  So instead of giving him rent you give him a receipt from Joe's fix it service company.  Technically you are obligated to pay the rent, you cannot hold rent as punishment for not fixing something.  That just will not hold up in court.  

Secondly, your land lord cannot switch the locks on your door without giving you an eviction notice which allows you 30-90 day to vacate the property.

you have to check with an attorney to see what your state laws are.

Bottom line,  pay that rent!  

Answer 12

You need to document everything that as happened between the two of  you, including everything that you have said.  Send her a certified letter explaining the problem and offer solutions-not threats. Case in point, now you have the upper hand. If she changes the locks with out notice, which is illegal- you can take her to small claims court- you'll win. She has to give you notice!  If she doesn't fix the toilet and other health issues, you still have thupper hand because now you have a letter where to prove that you have asked her to fix the problem.  You could also state in the letter that you are going to use the rent money to pay someone to fix the toilet issues giving her a time limit and if you do that, save your receipts and you still have the upper hand.  

Answer 13

Pay the rent for now but see your Solicitor and tell them of the problem.  If you have a legal tenancy agreement, it is the landlord's responsibility to attend to these sort of issues.  A letter from your solicitor might scare her into acting upon it.

Answer 14

Under the law she must give you 60 days notice to quit, even then you can stay in the house until the landlord gets a court order which can take months.

Answer 15

You will get evicted for non-payment of rent, and it will be difficult for you to rent elsewhere with an eviction on your record. She cannot legally change the locks in the US.

Answer 16

Actually,  it depends on the local laws of your state.

You can make a complaint against the conditions to the housing authority in your locale and actually make the rent payments to the local court until the landlord corrects the issues.....  that way you can't be evicted for lack of payment and your credit cannot be ruined...

might want to check it out before you just decide not to pay at all......

Answer 17

I think you are writing for the U.K. and the laws are different different there so I can't give you advice on that. I know there are many citizens counselling agencies you can contact. One thing I would stress to you is that you make a record of each phone call time and date and what was said. Then write her a letter and say: On this date at this time

we spoke regarding my complaints and you agreed to do this for me as long as I paid the rent.  That is my understanding of this conversation. If i am in error please provide me with your

understanding of our telephone conversation IN WRITING within 7 days of receipt of this letter. Your mistake was not to get everyting in writing from her. If she fails to respond to your letter correcting you you have the proof she agreed to do these things. It was a contract between you two and she has failed to live up to her end of the contract. IF this matter ends up in court or a tribunal you will have written proof you did everything that you agreed to and a judge would find in your favour.

I cannot stress this enough for ANYONE who is having problems with landlords, car dealerships,insurance companies etc. Make notes of

any conversations all with date and times and who you were talking to.

You can bet that the other people make those notes and if you have to testify you will be humming and hawing about when or where the conversation took place and what was said and the other people will have it all in their notes.

Answer 18

If you don't pay rent they can evict you. The best thing to do is to keep paying it and insist that if the landlord doesn't get it fixed, you will speak to a lawyer.

Answer 19

Prepare to get evicted.

YOU CANNOT WITHHOLD RENT FOR THINGS NEEDING TO BE FIXED!!!

If you do not pay your rent - you will get evicted - PERIOD!!!!

She cannot just go change the locks - that is illegal!  The eviction process takes time and she has to go thru the legal procedure.

EDIT: we know that you intend to give it to her eventualy - but here that is also ILLEGAL - withholding or delaying rent is the same thing.

Answer 20

She can't change the locks as that will go against your contract. the best thing to do would be to get the council involved now that you've had to wait so long. Always pay the rent or you could get in trouble with the council and the whole thing would backfire!