Is this grounds for not paying rent? Also, grounds for eviction...

[carolineg]

I have a question and am wondering if anyone can help.

I took out a 10 month AST on a shared property. I have to leave the house, it´s not an option to stay. I´ve contacted the housing agency about the agreement and rent and they´ve said that I have to keep paying rent until the end date which is another 2 months. It´s a seperate agreement just for myself, not the house as a whole. I have to move to another house so I can´t afford two lots of rent.

When I came to the office to sign the agreement it was fairly busy. So I was reading through it with the admin person but she had to go and deal with someone else. So she asked someone, whose else to witness it. What this other woman did instead of either signing it or witnessing it was to sign the admin persons name herself and then witness it as herself. So therefore surely it isn´t legally witnessed? Would that be grounds for the agreement to be invalid?

Looking at my agreement, I can't see anything about having to leave the house early other than in relation to nonpayment of rent. The situation, in short, is that I opened a couple of letters that were for my housemate and also took a possession of theirs that did not belong to me. Though they have found a couple of other things in my room that they say were theirs which I actually am disputing. They have contacted the police for an incident number apparently but they're not actually taking it further and the police haven't even spoken to me. I actually tried calling the police myself to talk to them about it rather than waiting for them to come to me and they said that they didn't need to talk to me and wouldn't be proceeding with matters. Is this grounds for me to be pushed out of the house?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Mortitia]

Hi,

I take it this is in England or Wales? If so you need only to give 4 weeks notice, never mind what anyone else says.

The witness on the tenancy is not really going to help you. You signed it and wanted to live there - now you don't for your own reasons so having to pay 2 lots of rent is down to you and no-one else. No one is pushing you out - there was nothing in th agreement to say they had to talk to you and now they don't want to. Stop being paranoid why not apologise for past behaviour and leave having settled your differences.

Give 4 weeks notice and go. Simples

Mortitia