Jim (not his real name, for reasons that will become obvious) shares a west London flat with two friends. They are all professionals in their late 20s. They’ve rented the flat for two years, love living in the block and are on excellent terms with their neighbours – altogether an asset to the community.

But not, it seems, to their penny-pinching landlord. Although they pay their rent and take good care of his furniture and fittings, he wants them out. The reason? Recently their boiler broke down and he decided he didn’t want the expense of complying with the law by employing a Corgi registered plumber to fit a new one when two of his mates could do the job for half the price. So Jim contacted his local council’s Environmental Health Department.

Jim and his flatmates got a legally installed boiler. But a couple of weeks later, they also got a new lease through their letterbox. Although they had agreed a year’s extension of their previous lease three months before, and had, all three of them, gone in person to the letting agent’s office to sign it, this document has apparently been lost in the post. The new lease contains draconian clauses covering their responsibility for damage and repairs. Unsurprisingly, they find the situation quite unacceptable.

Where do they get help?

There are plenty of organisations representing the various interests of those concerned with blocks of flats. LEASE advises leaseholders but cannot help subtenants. The Federation of Private Residents’ Associations lobbies for a better deal for blocks, but again represents leaseholders. Students can get help from the National Union of Students. Social tenants and council leaseholders have organisations to support their interests. There are four national bodies promoting the interests of landlords. But there is no equivalent body supporting private sector tenants.

Nor can Jim look for help within the block. The managing agent’s contractual obligation is to the freeholder, the freeholder’s contract is with the leaseholder. Jim’s only legal relationship is with his landlord.

Shelter and the Citizens Advice Bureau will both give private sector tenants legal advice. Jim may also be able to get advice from the council. But, while leaseholders have a raft of rights enshrined in law, the assured shorthold tenant has very few. Yes, there is the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme, but that only does what its name suggests – protect Jim’s and his flatmates’ deposit.

Once an assured shorthold tenant’s lease expires, his landlord can evict him without giving any reason. And, warns Shelter: “Your landlord may prefer to evict you rather than carry out expensive repairs.” Jim’s landlord is obviously hoping the flatmates will move rather than accept the punitive new lease. But even if they do accept it, Jim’s “crime” of contacting the council about the boiler will probably mean they lose their home once that lease ends.

Mysterious disappearance

There are other measures they can take. The role of the letting agent – whose client, of course, is the landlord – seems questionable in this case. According to Jim, when he complained about being without hot water for three weeks, the letting agent’s best suggestion was: “Install an emersion heater.” And then there is the mysterious disappearance of the original lease…

If Jim’s letting agent is a member of the Association of Residential Letting Agents or the National Association of Estate Agents, he could approach either body with a formal complaint. But this is unlikely to endear Jim further to his landlord. Jim also has the right to take the new lease to the Office of Fair Trading, which could declare it an unfair contract. But, again, it will be Jim and his flatmates who reap the consequences.

Assured shorthold tenancies originally were created to make letting in the private sector more attractive to landlords by safeguarding them against the problem of the sitting tenant on a low rent who could never be moved on. But times, and our expectations of the law, have changed since then.

The Association of Residential Managing Agents is concerned that the interface between all the various parties that come together in a block – freeholder, managing agent, leaseholder and subtenant – is fragmented by their differing legal relationships, with subtenants slipping through the net. And it is producing a code of practice for lettings in long-leasehold blocks.

But, in the current economic climate, where high mortgage rates and uncertainty about the housing market are encouraging increasing numbers of people to rent, is a voluntary code enough? At a time when most aspects of life in blocks of flats are subject to ever-increasing legislation, it comes as a shock to discover private sector tenants have so few rights. It seems extraordinary three law-abiding flat-dwellers should lose their home simply because they stopped their landlord acting illegally. And it is depressing that there is no national pressure group to help them fight their corner. ®Å½

If you have any comments or opinions on the issues covered in this feature we’d be interested to hear from you. Write to: jamie@newsontheblock.com