Useless Landlord

mays4026

Hi there.

Im a student living in london and have been living in the same house for one year. Our landlord has to be the laziest person I have ever encountred, the amount of things that need to be fixed in the house is ridiculous yet, whilst saying he is going to fix them, he does nothing.

He is also charging quite alot in rent not including any bills. I was wondering if anybody has any advice on how to deal with him, someone suggested witholding rent but im not sure if this is legal and dont want to find myself in trouble.

Many thanks.

theartfullodger

a) When did you sign the most recent tenancy & how long was the fixed period??
b) Re repairs follow the advice here...
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/repairs_in_private_lets

Cheers!

Lodger

BitterAndTwisted

No, it absolutely is not legal! If your landlord is a lazy goodfornothing consider doing simple repairs yourself if you are able. I wouldn't bother contacting the landlord about leaking taps or loose door-handles, trivial stuff like that for instance, I'd do it myself in five minutes. Put all of your requests in writing and be as explicit as possible about what is wrong. "X isn't working properly" might not attract much attention but "X isn't working and it's damaging Y" might.

The amount of rent you're paying isn't relevant even though you think it aught to be. London rents are very high and they charge at that level because they can, even without keeping their own massively-expensive asset in good repair.

What sort of repairs are you wanting the landlord to take care of?

Jowo_2

Nobody made you sign the agreement if you weren't happy with the level of the rent. Rent excluding bills is fairly common since landlords (except some live-in landlords) expect tenants to pay for the services they use with the service providers directly.

The problem with repairs is a separate issue and the Shelter link provided by an earlier poster will serve you well.

You should not withold rent to force repairs as being in arrears is a serious breach of your agreement, despite the landlord's slackness. But, the Shelter website does have a section with a process whereby a tenant can undertake work when the landlord ignores a written deadline for action, get numerous quotes for each piece of work, choose the cheapest workman and then deduct the sum from the rent. This process must be followed correctly.

Failing that, identify the type of agreement that you have and when you can serve the correct notice, then hand in your notice and leave when you've found yourself better accommodation. The posters on this site can advise you about the notice period if you provide more information about your tenancy (type and dates on the agreement).

sjcollett

Hi, you don;t mention what sort of repairs they are - what are we talking about here?

bigifsh

You should talk to your uni accomodation office about it, they may have specialist advisors to help you in the situation. Or refer you to someone who can offer the best advice.