House renting nightmare ADVICE PLEASE!

magice

Hello everyone, I'm new here.

Just seeking some advice/tips regarding the property I rent with some friends.

I live with six other men in a large house. 2 are students, the remaining 4 work full time. We have lived in the property for six months. Upon moving in, we realised that the house wasn't in the best state and hadn't been looked after, but it is big, in a good area, and fairly cheap considering this. We agreed to let the property for a year, so long as a good clean, painting of the communal areas, and a general once over were done to the house before we move in. None of this was seemingly carried out.
We've waited, emailed, pestered our agency, but they always tell us that they are unable to get through to him. Several other problems with the house (including leaks and damp) have been reported over this time but to no response. Being men, and a bit lazy, we probably should have followed this up more, but avoiding too much confrontation we let it lie.

This all came to a head about a month ago, when it surfaced from a floorboard catching fire, that the house had been very badly wired and was unsafe. We heard the contractors that came saying this. This left us without power in our house for three days, and works and rewiring were carried out for another three weeks (this still isn't finished). The contractors are messy and rude.

Obviously, we were outraged, and argued that we should have some sort of compensation. Our agency were our main point of contact for this and refused to give us our landlord's details, but still told us that they couldn't get through to the landlord, and that they weren't allowed to spend his money without speaking to him first. Even though contractors had obviously been sorted by them having contact with the landlord, they said they still haven't spoken to him.

We have pushed and pushed, threatened legal advice and demanded attention to the electricity compensation and the long list of other problems that have been ignored but we still have had no results.

Today we were informed by our agency that they have disinstructed themselves after consulting their legal department, and we are now to deal with the landlord directly. This shows that we have a pretty big case, if they are trying to wash their hands of the situation. We are still supposed to pay rent to them though, and we paid an agency fee at the beginning of our tenancy.

This is a rather odd case, and we are pretty bemused at what to do. We have been made to live in bad and dangerous conditions, and have had promises made, that have gone ignored. Can anybody help??! :mad:

mlz1413

have your complaints been in writing, or just by telephone?

you should have your LL details on your contract, do you have the contract still and what details are in the relevant space?

do I understand that now the LA have said they are no longer involved and to contact the LL with problems but they still want the rent paid to them? - 3 issues here 1) did LA advise in writing they are not involved? 2) did they forward new instructions/LL details in letter? 3) they have no right to the rent if they are no longer responsible for property.

is this house multiple occupancy? as in do you all rent your rooms and pay indiviually for the room and then the other areas are communal? or did you all sign for the property and so pay a proportion of the rent each but ensure the rent is paid in one large sum?

was the condition of the property noted on the inventory when you moved in and is the inventory signed by tenants and LA/LL?

magice

Thanks for your response.

Almost all of our correspondance has been carried out in writing. We have all of the emails still. These outline the timeline of events, and show acknowledgement that the problems existed when we moved in (the painting of the communal areas etc). We do have a copy of our tenancy agreement, and this has the name and address of the property owner.

We only found this out today, and apparently we will be paying rent to our landlord directly from now on. The agency have removed themselves from the middle, effectively. The agency has said that they have sent a letter to us and the landlord, and sent us new standing order documents. We are yet to receive these.

The house is multiple occupancy. We signed individual agreements, and pay our rent separately.

the condition of the property was taken by an individual agency. They carried out a quick check, as apparently the landlord didn't want to pay for a definitive one. They told us that they had noted the poor condition of the property.

Does this affect our position?

baby_fuzz

magice wrote: »

Thanks for your response.

Almost all of our correspondance has been carried out in writing. We have all of the emails still. These outline the timeline of events, and show acknowledgement that the problems existed when we moved in (the painting of the communal areas etc). We do have a copy of our tenancy agreement, and this has the name and address of the property owner.

We only found this out today, and apparently we will be paying rent to our landlord directly from now on. The agency have removed themselves from the middle, effectively. The agency has said that they have sent a letter to us and the landlord, and sent us new standing order documents. We are yet to receive these.

The house is multiple occupancy. We signed individual agreements, and pay our rent separately.

the condition of the property was taken by an individual agency. They carried out a quick check, as apparently the landlord didn't want to pay for a definitive one. They told us that they had noted the poor condition of the property.

Does this affect our position?

A quick way of making your LL do something about the situation would be to hold your rent until somthing is done about your list of defects etc. That, whilst equivalent to holding the LL to ransom, should get their attention...

magice

We have considered this, but was unsure whether this would affect our standing in this.

It's worth noting that the poor electrical setting of the house caused a fire. Luckily there were contractors there at the time. But this caused huge upheaval for a few weeks, and we're pretty nervous about the standard of the house, and worried about how safe it is.

We would like all of the problems fixed, some compensation perhaps for the problems and maybe even an apology!

Q1969

Move out as soon as you can.

princeofpounds

1) Go take a look at landlordzone. It will be a great resource for you. You may also wish to take advice from CAB and Shelter, but all will be telling you similar things.

2) Contact your landlord immediately to establish communication channels, forget about the agents for the moment. The LL is the party you have a contract with, the agents can be dealt with later if they have done anything wrong.

3) Don't withold rent just yet as long as you can actually use the property and would like some kind of resolution. There is a legally-established way you can get all the repairs done if you wish, within a couple of weeks at most given that you have already complained in writing and had responses, and offset the rent. If you withold rent it can look very bad in a later court dispute over deposits and compensation.

4) Decide what you actually want to achieve here and tell me. Get the repairs done? Have the electrics tested? Get out of the contract? This will affect what course of action you now have to take.

The good news is that there is a lot you can potentially do. The council, courts and various bits and bobs of legislation can all potentially help.

barnaby-bear

magice wrote: »

Thanks for your response.

Almost all of our correspondance has been carried out in writing. We have all of the emails still. These outline the timeline of events, and show acknowledgement that the problems existed when we moved in (the painting of the communal areas etc). We do have a copy of our tenancy agreement, and this has the name and address of the property owner.

We only found this out today, and apparently we will be paying rent to our landlord directly from now on. The agency have removed themselves from the middle, effectively. The agency has said that they have sent a letter to us and the landlord, and sent us new standing order documents. We are yet to receive these.

The house is multiple occupancy. We signed individual agreements, and pay our rent separately.

the condition of the property was taken by an individual agency. They carried out a quick check, as apparently the landlord didn't want to pay for a definitive one. They told us that they had noted the poor condition of the property.

Does this affect our position?

Local council should have a private letting officer who can advise you particularly if safety concerns as this is an HMO and they are pretty good and tough on safety issues. Plus there are a whole host of extra regulatins for HMOs your LL needs to be adhering to with 6 of you all as separate households.

mlz1413

A signed inventory is the only way for a LL to prove what condition the property was in when you moved in, so not having one would work in your favour in a dispute.

If you have all the emails to the agent I would print them off and send them with a covering letter by recorded delivery to the LL stating what is still outstanding and requesting a time guide for the work.

As princeofpounds has said you need to decide what you want now and then request this from the LL, you are basically starting again so give the LL some time to advise but obviously you don't want to be ignored.

If the unsafe electrics were dealt with immediately then as long as they now safe they should not be a problem, it maybe worth asking to see the electrians certificate for signing off the work. I also think in HMO you need to have PAT tests done yearly so you could ask your LL when that is due.

If you can show inconvienance during the electrics work then it might be worth asking for some compension, but if there are more pressing issues to get done it might be worth pursuing that first.

barnaby-bear

barnaby-bear wrote: »

Local council should have a private letting officer who can advise you particularly if safety concerns as this is an HMO and they are pretty good and tough on safety issues. Plus there are a whole host of extra regulatins for HMOs your LL needs to be adhering to with 6 of you all as separate households.

The students amongst you can also seek advice from the universities accommodation officers and student union who will have experience of private sector issues and usually and advice service.

clutton_2

have you got a corgi landlords gas safty certificate ?

are you deposits lodged with a Deposit Scheme ?

would the contractors be willing ot put into writing their concerns about the wiring ?


if all the answers to these q's are no - then, if you want to stay, i would go to the local council Private Sector Housing Officer and ask them to write to the landlord telling him of his legal obligations - and asking the Environmental Health officer to do an urgent inspection. EOs can force LLS to do work, under compulsion, and if they dont, there are serious legal consequences - EOs take Health and Safety breaches very seriously indeed - you could all have been injured for goodness sakes.

Does your LL live abroad - if he does - he HAS to have a UK agent - and if he does not have a new agent - you may be legally entitled to with-hold rent until a new agent is appointed.