I really need advice, what do I do?

[KJEL]

Hi, I had a small shop in Brierley hill that sells baby wear and nursery. i took the shop on about 5 months after being in the market hall. when i took the shop on i was told that certain problems in the shop were going to be fixed, for example the shop window was cracked quite badly and i waas told this would be fixed in a couple of weeks, to date it's still the way it was only worse. since being in the shop, and after sorting the walls out and painting them, all the mould has come back. the floor is breaking up in several places, and to top it all rats were getting into the shop floor by eating their way through the floor from the cellar. the landlord gave us rat posion to put down, but needless to say this hasn't worked and it has got to the point where we were losing stock every day.to top it all off in the bad rain we had last weekend, it the celing started to leak...
i've had enough of listening to the landlord saying he's going to get it fixed and does nothing so after the leak, we moved all our stock that was any good and left. now the laandlord wants his rent for the last week and we owe him for the week before. couldd anyone give me their opinion please on what i should do. many thaanks

[davidakerr]

Suggest you take a copy of the lease to your local CAB office and have them contact the Landlord.

[KJEL]

the lease isn't one that a solictor drew up, it was a peice paper that he wrote on stating that i had paid a deposit, how much i was going to pay a month and the address i was taking over. i signed it and so did he. i think this is still legal, but again i'm not sure.

[consultant]

do you have any written agreement on the works to bedone? If not, it is a difficult, although not impossible, thing to sort out.

Do you have a copy of the scrap of paper? If there is no defined length, you may be better walking away from it.

You could also refuse to pay until he sorts things out or even send him a bill for lost stock (do you have insurance?).

I fear you will have a more problems ahead, before things get better!

[KJEL]

no i don't have it written down what he said was going to be done to the shop. he only told me what he was going to have fixed and the rats have been an on going problem which he thinks buying us rat posion is going to do the trick. when i mentioned telephoning the envirnomental health, he asked me not to because he would sort it out. ive then since found out that if environmental health decide the rat problem is done to something you've done they can charge you a great deal of money. and to be honest it is of his own doing because he stores old furniture piles and piles of underlay and carpets and half of the cellar is flooded.
on the lease it does say that iam taking it over for one year, paying 540 a month including eletric and sorting out my own business rates, and the ammount of deposit left.

[consultant]

you said that you have not signed the lease, so what it contains in irelevant.

[KJEL]

what i have signed is a peice of paper that has written on it that i am having the shop for a year, the amount of deposit, the amount per month and that i will be paying the business rates. it wasn't anything that had been drawn up by a solictor, he wrote it when i handed over the deposit. i did sign that and so did he.