Do unofficial private tenancy 'Blacklists' exist?
| Related: | Property, Home & Garden•Property & Living•Renting Property |
In February 2009, I moved into a private rented 2 bedroomed apartment managed by Belvoir's (Shrewsbury) Ltd. I am diagnosed with High Functioning Autism / Aspergers with related problems, It took over 2 years to find a property that fullfilled the majority of requirements such as: safety, secure, well maintained etc
Obviously one of the 'goals' was to identify another similar person with a diagnosis and support each to a degree. Unfortunately this proofed to be harder than I realised, so in September 2010 a young man (aged 19) whom attended the same church required accommodation, so I approached the letting agent to request permission to obtain a joint tenancy. Initially they refused, but after considering the facts agreed so the management fee was paid and a joint tenancy provided. I immediately took this contract to the Housing Benefit for A.T. to obtain benefit. A few days later Belvoir's requested the agreement without providing a reason, as a autistic person I did what I was asked and we signed another agreement.
Over the last 12 months the Police Officer who lived below continually complained about noises such as; hoovering, washing machine, walking, kitchen activities, visitors including when visitor required to access the outdoor area for a smoke (via a creeky staircase), the manner of young people talking and most importantly A.T. friends mostly ride motorcycles so he would majorly complain about these. The result is the we have been issued a eviction notice to leave the property by 30th November 2011. In my usual autistic reaction I did the following actions:
b. I made a complaint about how he left his 2 and 5 year children unsupervised outside prospect lodge which is situated in a office car park, whereby they have recently placed a drug rehab. unit, a police sgt informed me DC Hall could do what he liked. I was not satisfied with this so I contact the NSPCC who informed me that it was not acceptable (local Childrens & Family Team has instigated a investigation) The local police still refused to acknowledge my complaints of verbal abuse, threatening of criminal charges for theft / damage and constant harrassment, so the IPCC has instigated a investigation.
The proof of a blacklist is I recently viewed a property and sent in the applications, during this time the land agent contacted Belvoir's and apparently they would not be taking the application any further and refused to comment due to data protection! I have requested viewings from other letting agents and NO response as yet!
If there is anyone out there who can help me? please contact me urgently,
Home (01743) 272374
Mobile (07858) 918679
many thanks
Jamie-Lee
Responses (6)
So sorry for your troubles Jamie-Lee. I am not knowledgeable to
help you with your problems but someone else might be on the Forum
who are conversant with a situation like yours. It would be a good idea
to have your home number and mobile number removed from the
site in case you are contacted by an undesirable person or it leads
to fraud. Good luck to you and hope you find an answer to your problems very quickly.
Hello again Jamie-Lee, neighbour problems are awful, and a new landlord will take references from your existing landlord. I'd suggest you talk to your local branch of the autism society. Even if they do not have housing available, they may be able to find you somewhere suitable, and a suitable person to share with. Sorry Ican't help more
Hi Jamie-Lee, and welcome to the forum.
I'm so sorry you're experiencing these problems. I too would suggest you contact NAS as they should be able to help and advise you. You can email NAS on nas@nas.org.uk or call the NAS helpline on 0808 800 4104. The helpline is open from 10am to 4pm Mondays to Fridays.
Oh, and you're right, you can't remove a post yourself, but you've done the right thing by sending the email, the money.co.uk team will remove it at your request.
Hi Jamie-Lee
I worked for many years within the letting industry. There is no property blacklist, but there is an unwritten code. When requesting references from a previous landlord, you will get one of two responses. It will either be that the landlord confirms the basic information requested - has paid rent, left in good order etc., or the response will be "we are unable to provide a reference in this instance." If a landlord wrote a bad reference regarding a previous tenant that could not be substantiated, they are leaving themselves open to libel and legal action. By not saying anything, they protect themselves are other landlords/agents know this is a code for bad or troublesome tenant. Very unfair in this situation.
what avenue's is available to contact property owners directly, so I can inform them of the current situation first.
Unless you deal with a landlord who is offering the property without using an agent (check local press for ads) then you will not be able to have contact with a potential landlord. It might be worth seeing if the NAS have anybody locally who could act as an advocate on your behalf. As I am sure you aware, one of the biggest problems you will face is ignorance. Good luck. x
The accommodation will be left as I found it also in a improved condition e.g. satelite dish, phone extension to living room, decorative stones within the outdoor area (previously it was a jungle of weeds), chrome curtain rails with curtains to match decor, shower screen. On exiting ALL paint work will be renewed and carpets professionally cleaned.
Hi again Jamie-Lee, I'm afraid that even if you leave the property in perfect condition many landlords will shy away from accepting you if you have been labelled a 'problem tenant', particularly in areas where demand for rental property is high. You could try contacting them to inform them of your situation but I'm not sure it would do much good, to be honest. Once again I suggest talking to the NAS for guidance - I see fruitcake has been kind enough to post the phone number below which I omitted to do last night. Good luck, I wish you well
I decided to go down the property owners who arrange their own and I have paid a deposit move in 23rd Nov (As a autistic I was totally honest and they were very pleased. and discusted with Belvoir's
Thanks for letting us know, Jamie-Lee, good to hear you're getting treated fairly this time, good luck, and hope all goes well! :-)
So pleased to hear you've resolved your problems - good luck, I wish you well
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yes i have just sent a email to content@money.co.uk and requested this (looks like you can not amend was created!)
Good advice, Sabre.
Sorry, I can't help either, but I'm sure somebody in the Forum will be able to.
Good luck k9!
Very pleased you have got sorted out so quickly k9jlv
good luck with your move