Landlord charging me for late rent payment?

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Hello!

I'm actually living in London and, as a french girl, I'm an alien to english laws and rental agreements...

I'm living in this place for 8 months by now and yesterday, as I was giving my rent for the month, my landlord told me I should pay an extra of nearly a month as a charge because I was paying late since the beginning.

I was supposed to pay my rent on the 10th of each month. There we are, my money was received on my french bank account a little bit too late each time (just for me the time to receive the money from the company that still employ me and the time for the bank to make the transfert properly). Then, I was paying 3 or 4 days AFTER the 10th everytime. Except on june, when I had to pay on the 20th, again because of some problem with my company...

I warned my landlord about it. He always said that it was fine, that I shouldn't worry. I really appreciated that he understood my situation, not noticing I could be charged for that (in France, it's different. As long as you pay for the month that is due, it's not a problem).

The thing is I'm a little bit doubtful. First of all, he hasn't sent me a letter just to specify I was paying late and I could then be charged. He only told me that yesterday, producing a statement of the dates he received the money and the dates I should have paid. Here it is :

9.11.11 - 7.12.11

7.12.11 - 4.1.12

4.1.12 - 1.2.12

1.2.12 - 29.2.12

29.2.12 - 28.3.12

28.3.12 - 25.4.12

25.4.12 - 23.5.12

23.5.12 - 20.6.12

20.6.12 - 18.7.12

I assure you that I paid each month! And for july, as I told you, I paid on the 12th...

And then, why telling it to me now? Why not in december or january at a moment that I could have been able to pay the amount overdue?

Other thing : one of my flatmate (we are three french girls) and I haven't received any tenancy agreement since we arrived. I even had to ask him for this myself. He said he would send me a copy. Two or three days after I signed, I sent him a text, asking for my tenancy agreement and I had the same answer. Yesterday, I insisted again to have it, to see, as you could guess, concerning those famous charges. Same story, if I may say, with one of my flatmates as well as she's still waiting. The other one haven't asked for any tenancy agreement.

What can I do? Will I be into trouble if I don't do what he says? Let's say that 1400 pounds in a month is pretty hard to find...

Thanks for your answers and sorry if my english is not that great...

Pauline

[delrico]

Go to the CAB for advice. I don't think he can do that unless there is something in the contract covering late payment fines.. I suspect he is hoping you will leave because of the Olympics approaching. Landlords will be able to charge enormous amounts of money.