[adamr]

If your friend has rented a room that isnt self contained then really he shouldnt have signed an Assured shorthold tenancy agreement.... however there is another agreement that should have been signed, one that i'm not familiar with. A place to start is as fiona said go to c.a.b with your agreement. there are some websites that may clarify things a little
Association of Residential Letting Agents
Rental Property Knowledge - LandlordZONE
www.housingcorp.gov.uk

may be worth a look. The section about witholding rent is a tricky one. you can withold a bit of it and this should get the landlord to query it, you are quite within your rights to withold if there is a problem. If the landlord doesnt get in contact then you could gamble on moving out without paying. If he has gone bust I doubt he will want to be putting his name through many legal systems.... on the other hand if the company doesnt exist anymore then how can your friend honour a contract ? !

Tread carefully and get legal advice

Cheers

Adam

 

[adamr]

Perhaps the landlord has already broken the contract.
Adrian

This is a good point, if he no longer lives there then he is in effect renting the entire house and so an assured shorthold tenancy agreement has to be signed.

Beware though, I know I said you could gamble.... we recently took someone to court over a tenancy dispute and won... but the circumstances were completely different.

Adam

 

[adamr]

Credit ratings are based on names, not addresses, so your friend would be safe.
Lou

Are you sure this is the case ?? I lived with some people who were bad payers, and as a consequence I had to pay a deposit to sign up to a mobile phone contract. I can say without any hesitation that if my family name was used then I would not have had to pay such a deposit. I queried this and they confirmed that is was the address that caused an alarm. An easy way to get your credit score back on track is to simply take out a short term personal loan and pay it back on time, i know this might cost a few quid but the savings in the long run could be substantial.

Cheers

Adam