stair bannister - renting - should i have one

penguine

JayZed wrote: »

How long are you planning to stay in the property? Because if you're planning to be there more than another year or so, you'll definitely want bannisters once the little one starts toddling.

Also seems sensible to have bannisters and a handrail when you're climbing the stairs with a baby in your arms.

Rockporkchop

I nearly fell down the stairs and was saved by grabbing the handrail several times when I was pregnant (I was the size of a house, couldn't see my feet from six months) and now the babies have arrived I couldn't even imagine not having a handrail and banisters when carrying them up and down the stairs.

izzybusy23

barnaby-bear wrote: »

And if she had the same issue in the street, park, library, tescos, hill walking, shopping centre ????

How daft! OP is taking about a bannister rail in a rented property, which tbh, should be standard anyway. I can't see any reason why he shouldn't ask for one!

When I rented my first property, I was 6 months pregnant and quite big due to my bouncing 10lb baby! The toilet seat was broken and I asked it to be fixed because I was forever slipping about on it and worried I would fall off and land on my backside with a thud and damage myself one way or other. LL understood completely and it was replaced. No harm in asking and any decent LL would happily oblige anyway.

gemstars

I don't understand why people are being so hard on the OP. Handrails are an obvious way of stopping a lot of accidents, whether the person who's using them is pregnant or not. If they're wern't then why would anyone bother installing them at all?

OP - I suggest as others have said you write to your landlord and explain you'd like a handrail and ask if they'd be prepared to pay for it and install it. If they're happy for you to put one in yourself but don't want to pay for it then go ahead and install one. If they say they don't want one in then that will be the time to start quoting legal obligations etc but you might find that taking a friendly approach in the first instance might get you more positive results.

evosy1978

thanks to everyone whos imput in this thread was positive and informative. and also thanks to those who qouted and responsed to the posters with thee err not so informative and positive posts. :T

Ill let you know how it goes, were gona start with either a polite phone call, or letter to the estate agents to make contact with the landlord, as they are our immediate point of contact.

thanks

itsnotfair_2

I reckon the tenant wins here no matter what.

I recently got commanded by the HSE to fit a handrail to a cellar which led to one electric meter, too small for anything else, for a tenant who said she would never go down because of spiders. She had already lived there 5 years. Strangely the previous owner and his family had gone down that cellar for coal since the turn of the century and lived.

I was also told to fit a handle to a sliding door, which unknown to me one of her kids had pulled off.

It seems tenants must never suffer any type of hardship or minor danger whtsoever. Yet those living in their own homes who are poor, ill or old can fall, be gased, trip, have a tap drip etc with nobody to protect them or their kids.

Mips

itsnotfair wrote: »

I reckon the tenant wins here no matter what.

I recently got commanded by the HSE to fit a handrail to a cellar which led to one electric meter, too small for anything else, for a tenant who said she would never go down because of spiders. She had already lived there 5 years. Strangely the previous owner and his family had gone down that cellar for coal since the turn of the century and lived.

I was also told to fit a handle to a sliding door, which unknown to me one of her kids had pulled off.

It seems tenants must never suffer any type of hardship or minor danger whtsoever. Yet those living in their own homes who are poor, ill or old can fall, be gased, trip, have a tap drip etc with nobody to protect them or their kids.

Difference is, you are being paid to ensure your tenant has a safe home, whereas the other folks are paying for their own home and make do with what they can afford.

When they decide to turn their properties into a business, then I should hope they would make the house safe and suitable.

itsnotfair_2

Yes but that house before it became a business, as you put it, was somebodys home, as it was and they lived to a ripe old age in it as it was. Not to say I don't conform to all the HSE cotton wool rules. I do.

Mips

itsnotfair wrote: »

Yes but that house before it became a business, as you put it, was somebodys home, as it was and they lived to a ripe old age in it as it was. Not to say I don't conform to all the HSE cotton wool rules. I do.

I am not saying their rules aren't cotton wool, however, some Landlords really are asking for trouble the way they charge ridiculous rents and wont even tend to their own properties.

It is good that you do follow HSE rules.

theartfullodger

itsnotfair stated

I reckon the tenant wins here no matter what.

I recently got commanded by the HSE

£5 to your nominated non-educational charity if it was the HSE (Health & Safety Executive)

Does the poster's chosen nom de plume "itsnotfair" tell you all you need to know about him??

Cheers!

Lodger