What can my landlord do?

[scooby]

Firstly, the guy is an arse.
Secondly, the guy is a REAL arse (no people skills, not reasonable...)
Thirdly, he has history with previous tenants, giving notice, turning and letting himself in etc...

Situation - 2 months left on rental 07/08, House we're buying will be complete 29/06 so we wont be be extending or staying. Deposit in a DPS account. We also go on holiday 21/07-04/08.

2 things:

1 - I dont trust him not to be an arse and try and keep the deposit, however everything in the house will be fine and in the same state as when we took the property. We've purposely not decorated as the previous tenants had cats which caused a lot of scratch damage that the landlord hasnt fixed, and he basically expects us to put right at our cost. I aint doing it. But i can understand why he is an arse based on this, but the two previous tenants did little wrong according to neighbours, who dont like him either. With one more rent payment left, were would i stand legally if I didnt pay this, and let him keep the full deposit (1 month rent + £100 pet deposit)?

2 - Rent agreement states no additional pets (other than the cat we have agreed already) without permission. We've been offered the perfect dog that we've been looking for, but the rescue wont wait 2mths so we either take it now, or miss out and carry on looking (which we dont want to do). Where do we stand legally if we just get the dog and either hope he doesnt find out, but deal with it if he does (i.e. what will i have to deal with)? Any damage that a dog may cause, it wont but it may, I will put right happily.

Advice please guys, as I know some of you on here are landlords etc...

[AtW]

With one more rent payment left, were would i stand legally if I didnt pay this, and let him keep the full deposit (1 month rent + £100 pet deposit)?

Legally you will be in deep tulip.

[scooby]

Legally you will be in deep tulip.

In what manner? cancelling the rent and evicting us? takes at least a month and we'll be out anyway...

[AtW]

In what manner?

You'll most certainly break your rental contract.

From your brief description I can conclude that you are a terrible and very stupid tenant - legally this means landlord will have every right to get medieval on your buttocks.

HTH

[scooby]

You'll most certainly break your rental contract.

From your brief description I can conclude that you are a terrible and very stupid tenant - legally this means landlord will have every right to get medieval on your buttocks.

HTH

I can imagine the weasel trying, but he wont... he just rants from a distance according to the neighbours!!

So, what is the consequence of breaking the rental contract?

[TimberWolf]

Won't the kennels keep him for a month in exchange for a small pile of cash?

[AtW]

I can imagine the weasel trying, but he wont... he just rants from a distance according to the neighbours!!

Sounds like your landlord is MF

Realistically you won't get reference and you'll certainly expose yourself to a lawsuit in small claims court - depending on what kind of scoobags ( ) your landlord normally rents out to he might not bother.

I'd recommend to avoid violations of contracts - he might have to fight for deposit but since it's not in his hands that would be harder and he might not bother. If he sues you for alleged damages you'd look a LOT better if you have not wilfully violated contractual terms.

[NickFitz]

AIUI the current situation is that he can't get a possession order until you're two months or more behind on the rent, and he can't evict you without a possession order.

So holding on to the final rent payment won't give him any legal options other than attempting civil recovery through the courts, which wouldn't be worth his while.

The dog thing I don't know about, but he'd still have to get a possession order to throw you out over it and you'd presumably be gone by the time that was sorted out, particularly as the court will probably require him to try to sort the situation out directly before taking up their time.

[Sysman]

Won't the kennels keep him for a month in exchange for a small pile of cash?

Seconded.

[MarillionFan]

So you've heard he's a twat with tenants. So you've decided not to pay him the final month this making him act like a twat with his tenant.

Don't be a twat. Pay the last month and refer to
Your schedule of condition (ie the photos you took when you moved in).