HMO and pennypinching landlord

G_M wrote: »

Any hostility is directed at a landlord who gives us all a bad name!

1) check via council website if the HMO is licenced. If not, should it be

2) decide if what you want is
a) to get things improved and stay, or
b) to leave in Dec

If a) see below. If b) put your energy into looking for somewhere else for December or the new year.

3) Read how to deal with repairs. Note in particular the protection you can get (IF you do it right) from revenge eviction:
* Repairing Obligations: the law, common misconceptions, reporting/enforcing, retaliatory eviction & the new protection (2015)

4) what exactly does your tenancy say about
a) electricity usage
b) heating

5) Always communicate in writing so you have a record and history of complaints/reports and LL response

6) if you can act as a group you are stronger than acting individually - Losing one tenant is not the end of the world to a landlord. Losing a whole HMO house-full is not so easy for a LL to accept!

1) it is licensed. I did check thar before i moved in
2) I would like to get things sorted and stay, but at the same time its very difficult to get the landlord to do anything.
3) Thank you for the link i will have a read
4)Our tenancies just say it is incorporated into the rent. It mentions nothing about usage caps or temperature control.
5) Communication goes through the agency but i do have the landlords email, so i copy them both into communications now.
6) Ad it stands, none of us are happy with his control by wifi.

The other stuff in the house currently is minor in the grand scheme of things but the temperature is the biggie.

I work outside most of the time whatever the conditions and with no tumble drier or ability to turn the heating on when i walk in soaking wet and cold is really demoralising and it could make me ill.

We are all on different contracts.

I have contacted the agency today with a request for the landlords postal address, which the agent is reluctant to provide.

I honestly thought the agreement included the month of July but yes it looks like im stuck until Jan because theres no way i can pay 2 lots of rent every month.

It does come on sometimes for an hour during the day, but not for long. The thermostat is in the kitchen, which if you could see the layout of the house is almost like an extension so even if its 19c in the kitchen the rest of the house can be much cooler. Overnight it has dipped down to 12c and we are only in October.

G_M wrote: »

In writing?

Did you refer to the Act?

Agents are often unfamilar with the Act (or pretend to be) - there's no training required to be an agent. And enforcement of the Act depends on the council/Trading Standards being willing to prosecute. Given their limited resources, they tend to only do so where there are significant failures by the agent or LL.

However quoting the Act can sometimes pursuade they of the right thing to do.......

Thank you for that i will try again tomorrow