Forced to leave rented flat, what are our rights?

kateybobs

Two months ago our boiler in our rented flat was turned off by a plumber as it was deemed dangerous due to a gas leak. It took almost a month to get a response from the landlord and in the meantime our letting agent found us an alternative flat to rent. We stopped paying rent to our original landlord and used the money to pay for the temporary place. The original flat had 3 bedrooms, and the new place has two (we are three people including a couple). Its also in a totally inconvinient location for work, and has no parking apart from in a nearby private car park where we have to pay up to 30 pounds per week. This new flat is costing us the exact same rent as our much nicer, bigger and more convienient original flat despite being on the market for 150 pounds less per month.

It took the landlord several weeks to get back in touch with us and when he eventually did it turned out the boiler is going to take months to fix, so we have to find a new place to live, which we have.

My question is, do we have any rights to claim back any of the cost of the whole situation from the landlord. Various people I've spoken to thought he should have been paying our rent for the temporary place but I think this is unlikely, But we've had considerable expense from parking and travel which was made more by the fact the landlord wasn't answering his phone for a month-if he had we would have moved out weeks ago and saved on this!!

lynzpower

Your landlord indeed should have been paying you living costs elsewhere if the property he lets to you becomes unfit for occupation. Having no boiler in your case probably would render the property unfot for rent (NOt sure what the modern phrase for this is, it was unfit for occupation previously)

your ll should have an insurance policy which would pay out.

In 1997 we had this situation whe the rented property we rented at uni was declared "unfit for habitation"the EH officers advised the LL should put us up in a hotel until standards were met. Needless to say we were naive and just jumped into another tenancy elsewhere. Our rights were clearly spelled out by EHO.

Your alternative accommodation should be funded by the LL , yet you still ahve to pay the normal rent for the other place in the meanwhile to fulfil your responsibility under the AST.

things may have changed but this is what we were advised some years ago.

Welsh_Totster

How can a boiler take months to fix, installing a new one takes a day or two! Id be questioning that for a start. Im no help with the rent situation Im afraid, hopefully someone in the know will be able to answer that for you

BitterAndTwisted

When I had my annual gas-safety check in my rented accommodation a couple of years ago the boiler was switched off due to a gas leak. An engineer came from British Gas the same day and fixed it.

I suspect the real reason the boiler hasn't been fixed is because either the landlord won't sanction the repair or they don't have the money to pay for it, so getting them to pay for alternative accommodation might be difficult or impossible to obtain

kateybobs

The reason the boiler will take months to fix is that the original installer used a very interesting design which is not legally allowed to be fixed now as regulations have changed and it is deemed too unsafe (I think!).

G_M

Take a look at this previous thread.

The contract in this case may be 'frustrated' in which case the LL has no duty to re-house/compensate.

clutton_2

""This new flat is costing us the exact same rent as our much nicer, bigger and more convienient original flat despite being on the market for 150 pounds less per month.""

challenge this immediately wiht the agent...

poppysarah

Landlord won't answer phone for a month? I'd have not paid the rent and that would have got his attention.

kateybobs

problem with that approach is that we would then have been left with nowhere to live, as the rent we were paying through the letting agents was being used to fund the replacement property.

The question isn't really over the rent, as I think that ship has probably sailed and we wont be able to get back money we've paid. Would we be able to claim any relocation costs? And the parking costs? Also a new question-we obviously paid a deposit, does the landlord have the right to make any deductions from this as he would if the contract had come to its natural end?

Penelopa.Pitstop

Welsh_Totster wrote: »

How can a boiler take months to fix, installing a new one takes a day or two! Id be questioning that for a start. Im no help with the rent situation Im afraid, hopefully someone in the know will be able to answer that for you

I can definitely answer that one. Our boiler broke down. Engineer came and deemed it unsafe. It appeared that it was wrong type of boiler for block of flats (communal chimney). It took months of sending letters between installer, Gas Safety Register (ex Corgi) and landlord to move the boiler to new location under new regulations. And I can tell you that our landlord was very active and pursued it. Still, it took 8 months.

DVardysShadow

G_M wrote: »

Take a look at this previous thread.

The contract in this case may be 'frustrated' in which case the LL has no duty to re-house/compensate.

If the place burns down, there is no way that the LL can fulfil the 'time is of the essence" aspect of the rental contract. With the boiler, it is far more under his control, so I don't think the contract could be described as frustrated - more accurately, it is unfulfilled by the Landlord. Ending the contract by mutual agreement seems the right way to go, but it may be difficult to negotiate LL to that conclusion.