Who pays for what?

vickyjayne

I am currently renting a house but was just thinking that when the digital switchover happens the aerial on the house is not suitable to receive digtal signals so who would have to pay to have the correct aerial fitted, me or landlord?

Also i have lived here for 21 months and have only ever had the gas safety check done week before i moved in, should he have it done annually?

Thanks for any help

Alleycat

The gas safety check should be done annually. With regards to the television arial it is likely that this would be something you would need to sort out unless the landlord is agreeable to pay for it to be done as a possible future investment?

The arial will not actually be broken (just outdated) and so would not be covered by the Landlord Tenant Act regarding repairs.

The only possible comeback you might have if the landlord refused to replace would be compensation if covered in the inventory (as a service/item you are paying for in your rent).

Although would this be covered as a fixture and fitting?

tbs624

Speak to your LL about the gas safety check as a matter of urgency. S/he is obliged to get one done annually,and to keep copies of the certificates for 2 years: any LL who fails to do this places their tenants at risk and may face prosecution. If the LL refuses to comply then you should consider speaking to the Private Sector Rentals Team at the local Council or calling the HSE gas safety line on 0800 300 363

On the aerial, there is nothing in law that says a LL has to provide a TV aerial so you'd need to check whether there is any specific reference to aerials/Tvs in your tenancy agreement/inventory. Usually, it's the sort of thing you would have a friendly chat about and try to reach an agreement on, but if you have a LL who fails on basic requirements like gas safety checks, it's perhaps unlikely s/he'll actually volunteer to foot the bill.

MX5huggy

The aerial:- An aerial is an aerial it is a common misconception that you need a "digital aerial" good money making ruse for "digital aerial" installers. Have you tried a Freeview box on your current aerial yet? you may be pleasantly surprised. If it does not work you may find it works after switch over as the digital signal will be stronger and is improving all the time before then. Check out http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/ to see if you can get a digital signal now and when this will actually become a problem.

If you do need a new aerial you will have to negotiate with the LL. As a LL I put up an aerial for my T’s before they moved in as I wanted the job done properly particularly the routing of the cable, and a happy T is a T that stays. When they asked if they could install cable I also said yes, as a happy T is a T that stays.

Unfortunately as a T I had to provide an aerial myself, I went for freesat from Sky as for £75 they install a dish and give you the box. This was about half the price of getting an aerial installed.

All we really learn from this is that I am rubbish at negotiating!



Finally the LL should be getting gas certs.