Hi guys im new to this forum,

I am possibly going to face a dispute shortly with my landlord and just wanted to pick your brains as i dont really know my rights. I'll try and explain it as simple as possible as its a little complex.

I live in an 8 bedroom HMO property with 6 other people. Myself and two others graduated from uni recently and are currently looking for work, we live with three full time students still at university.
We are on an assured shorthold tenancy from September 1st 2009 til July 4 2010.

Thats the background now heres the dispute. It only involves me and my girlfriend.

Basically my girlfriend decided to move out of her apartment in december into a new house. She had to give a months notice on her old place to avoid paying an extra months rent. However after she handed her notice in she was told that her move in date to the new place was delayed over christmas and its still delayed now as i write.

That meant she had to move out of her old place on January 2nd 2010 and go back and live with her dad.
However on Jan 2nd she didnt have a big enough vehicle to take all her stuff back at once.

I knew we had two spare rooms in our house one very small room and one large room which were empty and locked up.
On the morning of Jan 2nd i tried to ring my landlord and ask him open up the room so we could use it for storage and pay him rent for the small amount of time for using it.

I was unable to get through to him on the phone or in person at his house so as it was an emergency i got my housemate to drill the lock on the door to the empty room so i could put the stuff in.

My girlfriend and I then went to see him the next working day to tell him what wed done and offer to replace the lock and pay him rent fo the room. He said it was ok and we left and thought nothing of it without agreeing a price for the room.
I text him the next day trying to negotiate the rent and recieved no response from him for 11 days.

I then recieved an abrupt and rude text on the evening of January 12th demanding £300 for a months rent and a £200 deposit off my girlfriend. This is after we'd spent the previous 12 days trying to negotiate a fair price.

Obviously we felt this totally unreasonable as we d only used the room 12 days and my girlfriend had not signed anything. Bear in mind my landlord lives 100 yards away so he could have come down anytime with a contract.

We decided that the only action we could take was to get her dad to come and take the stuff out of the room, and back home with him before the landlord came round on the 13th of January for the money.

I informed him that she had moved her stuff back home via text, he then said that i had to pay the months rent or he would charge me the full rental of the room from September 1st! When he knows damn well it was locked from September 09 till January 2nd 2010! He used the room to do some buiding work and then showed 2 goups of students the empty room in the middle of December! Surley he cant do this as i have my housemates as witnesses to prove this?

I have put the situation in writing to him explaining why i did it without consulting him, have bought a replacement lock and got my locksmith mate to fit it without any damage to the actual door. I have also enclosed a signed declaration from the guy who helped me move the gear in on january 2nd and i have a copy of my girlfriends end of tenancy letter which proves she moved out on the 2nd. I also enclosed a cheque for £120.85 for 11 days rental of the empty room.

I acknowledge i was stupid to break a lock without consulting him but it was an emergency.

I think what ive proposed is fair but he has got a really bad reputation and has switched from being really nice and approachable to Adolf Hitlers evil twin as soon as i did this!

Can he take this any further and if he does what could happen?

Sorry this is an essay i know but i really need help with where i stand

Cheers in advance for your help

Follow this link for a discussion http://www.e1buytoletmortgages.co.uk/forum...pic=501&hl=