Broken door lock - maintenance issue but being deducted from deposit?

EagerLearner

Hi Clutton,
Thank you for the extra pointers.
We originally have mentioned her promises to fix it in recent e-mails and she has not denied this. We would say 'Gas Safety Certificate' in the e-mail rather than Service.

I was thinking of writing the e-mail along the lines of how negligent she has been and how failure to repair the lock ties in with failure to comply with gas regulations and her cancelation of attending checkout due to entertaining guests.

We just thought if she was reminded of this now before it goes further, we would still log the dispute before sending her an e-mail, but it could save alot of time as she might change her mind.

We have logged this now at DPS and I have saved my draft e-mail.

EagerLearner

Hello all,

Just to reply to a couple of bits on Cluttons post, we do have texts from landlady - as an example, one from September saying 'I keep forgetting' (re shower). I no longer have my sent text but she might.

On the day of checkout another saying she would attend at 11am, then another a couple of hours later canceling saying she would no longer come due to having a guest over and also saying that if we had left the place with cleaning as discussed, we could go and she would attend later.

poppy10_2

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

However, I think the law is stupid

I don't expect Avis or Hertz to make sure that I wear a safety belt.

You do expect them to ensure that the engine is maintained so that it isn't leaking deadly carbon monoxide into the car, though.

clutton_2

GG - i do wish you would stop banging on with your irrelevant views on Tenants and gas appliances... whether you like it or not, its the law... please just deal with that and stop moaning about it... you do only have one property to worry about (when all said and done,) not a lot of work per year....

clutton_2

EL - if you have texts in yoru phone which are relevant to the arbitration process, i would type them out, go to a local solicitor with a Statutory Declaration form, give him £5 and he can sign it for you to say that the text messages are there... this will give your evidence more "gravitas" than just your say-so

EagerLearner

Hi Clutton, thankyou, we have a solicitor so could do that yes. Plus he's really friendly which is always nice.
Can't get to work today due to snow so I'll wait to see if any response comes through re DPS. I imagine is she is attempting to get quotes the snow will slow this down too.

Does anyone know if she will be able to take another tenants deposit whilst this is being sorted I imagine she can but just wondered.

N79

EagerLearner wrote: »

Does anyone know if she will be able to take another tenants deposit whilst this is being sorted I imagine she can but just wondered.

Of course she can as a deposit relates to a tenancy not a property. New tenancy = new deposit.

chodges84

clutton wrote:

However - this (Gas Boiler) has nothing whatsoever to do with the deposit deduction issue, why are you bringing it up here ?

I would also bring it up, as you can potentially hold her over a barrel.

If it was me, I would ask if she has gas safety certificates. If she says she hasn't, or tries to avoid the issue, I would point out that if she does decide she wants to deduct money from the deposit that I would go to the relevant authorities and she could face up to a £5000 fine.

This should make her play ball. If she was then to withhold the deposit, then I would challenge it and report her to the council (or whoever is responsible) about the boiler and see how she likes that. If however she decided that she would not withold the deposit, I would report her anyway because of the boiler issue. She might get a hefty fine, but she'll learn the hard way, won't do it again and it may even save the lives of future tennants who could have died from Carbon Monoxide poisoning if the boiler were to malfunction.

EagerLearner

Hello chodges84 and thank you for your thoughts, I was thinking along those lines only in terms of if possibly saving a long process, as she might be unaware of the Landlord Gas Safety Certificate issue and choose to resolve to pay the deposit without going further.
However at this point we will wait to see what happens today/tomorrow, as for all we know she may sleep on it and just decide to only charge for the £25 we have already agreed to. However given that I have already been told she is considered an awkward customer by a professional third party who 'likes to show she is boss', my hopes are not very high...

A quick, possibly daft question - she might have attended the property once a year without us being there, to do the gas safety check and keep the certificate herself, but all this would mean is that she did not give us due 24 hour warnings to attend? Highly unlikely, as she would have talked to us about it...

Gorgeous_George

clutton wrote: »

GG - i do wish you would stop banging on with your irrelevant views on Tenants and gas appliances... whether you like it or not, its the law... please just deal with that and stop moaning about it... you do only have one property to worry about (when all said and done,) not a lot of work per year....

It is no work per year as my BTL is all electric. That doesn't make my opinion any less valid than yours'.

There are two different problems with gas.

One is the devastation that can be caused by an explosion (as seen in Shrewsbury recently) and the gas safety checks are unlikely to detect the problem in this case.

The other is the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning. The safety checks may prove the property is safe at the time of testing but the installation of carbon monoxide detectors would provide protection all year round

GG