Student rental - burst tank - help!

claire2007

I Have been living in a rented house with 2 friends since september. Over the christmas holidays we all went home, and when we returned on monday we found that the tank in the attic had burst, and it had come all the way down into the spare room and then down again into our kitchen. Everythin was wet, with plaster everywhere and a strong odor. Due to this we couldn't move back in, with no hot water, a risk with the electrics and not being able to cook - so we all returned home. We have asked our landlady to fix it, but with the backlog all the plumbers have in our area we don't know how long it will take. our only problem now is that it really is too far for us to commute to university. Do we have any rights to get other accomodation? Who would sort this out for us if this is possible - landlady or the estate agents we went through? I am hoping that we don't have to pay rent for the house while we are not able to live there, but as we pay monthly how would we reclaim this? Also would be have to pay for our temp. accommodation, or would her insurance cover this? Many thanks in advance from a very stressed out student!

PasturesNew

Are you in England/Wales/Scotland?

Did you turn off the water before you left? Did you even know how or think of it?

Given the right set of circumstances/location/etc, the LL should put you up at their expense (not your problem how they do that) .... on the other hand, it might go all "grey area".

claire2007

England. I think my housemate turned off the water but i'm not 100% sure. Our landlady has taken full responsibilty for it, and has said that we do not need to pay for the repairs.

PasturesNew

claire2007 wrote: »

England. I think my housemate turned off the water but i'm not 100% sure. Our landlady has taken full responsibilty for it, and has said that we do not need to pay for the repairs.

Ah - that's good. Why did she take full responsibility for it? Do you have that in writing?

In that case, you should have all been lined up on her front doorstep, cases in hand, waiting for her to hand over the keys to your replacement accommodation.

The LL has the responsibility of re-housing tenants, in suitable/available accommodation, at their expense. It's part of the deal. If you'd hired a car and it'd broken down, you'd expect a replacement to be magicked up from nowhere - same with a house. Obviously she'd need a bit of time, but in a perfect world you'd be put up in a hotel while she sorted out alternative accommodation with her local letting agent, who must have empty properties on his books. Back in the real world, it might take a day or so for her to get her finger out (and you're not sleeping under a bush), but it should have been pulled out by now.

So you need to point this out to her .... nicely. But she does have to sort it out/pay.

property.advert

Yes, you have to pay rent for your place and she pays for your temporary accommodation.

G_M

Sounds like you've been very lucky with your LL. the burst tank was almost certainly the result of your failure to leave the heating on low/turn off the water. Frozen pipes = burst pipe.

You are expected to act in a tenant-like fashion, which includes treating the property with care.

Many tenancy agreements go further and have a clause specifying that heating must be on if the temperature drops.

You could be liable for extensive costs!

Pitlanepiglet

Does your contents insurance give you any alternative accommodation cover? More usual on a building policy but worth checking your contents cover .

As said, unless you either left the heating on or turned off and drained down the water systems fully, I would suggest that it's very likely you caused this damage so I'd be a bit wary of a change of mind from your LL, especially if you start becoming pushy about alternative accommodation.

I think you need to find out what your friend did about water/heating.

DawnW

As a LL I think expecting students to drain the system is a bit much to ask. Also, the OP said that the tank itself had burst, presumably in the roof. This can happen in extreme weather even if the property is occupied / heated (happened to me once).

Personally I would also take the reasonable view that the OP's LL is taking.

claire2007

We did leave the heating on low while we were gone and even contacted her during the holidays to ask her to turn it up, just in case. She has told us that it would have happened even if we had stayed in the house.

dizziblonde

G_M wrote: »

Sounds like you've been very lucky with your LL. the burst tank was almost certainly the result of your failure to leave the heating on low/turn off the water. Frozen pipes = burst pipe.

You are expected to act in a tenant-like fashion, which includes treating the property with care.

Many tenancy agreements go further and have a clause specifying that heating must be on if the temperature drops.

You could be liable for extensive costs!

Sounds like you're being a touch unnecessarily harsh here considering they left the heating on and other posts mentioned they'd contacted her when the big freeze hit. It's annoying me a touch at the moment just how much some of the residents on this forum seem to view those who rent houses as scum who are immediately at fault for everything that goes on - quite why those who rent for whatever reason (I personally have an erratic income which doesn't look good on mortgage applications - but I always make sure my bills are paid - hence I rent) are immediately tagged as scummy scroungers who seem to sit and just think of ways to give LLs a hard time on here... I don't know.

If student term dates are anything like they were when I was there (oh the glory days of 2 hours of lectures and cheap beer - I did an arts degree ) then the students will have gone mid-December, before the massive impact of just how cold it was going to get hit home. Even leaving the heating on hasn't worked for many people - one of our relatives (who is very used to going away for extended periods of time, leaving the heating system on and someone watching the house) has been hit by just how cold it got - and will be returning home to a flooded house, ceilings collapsed, the whole place an utter mess - because winter hit so damned hard this year.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that things do go wrong with houses, despite people's best efforts and the jumping on tenants assuming they've done the worst - even when they've already stated that they took the reasonable measures of leaving the heating on etc... it's hit pretty nasty levels on here in the last few days, and I object to being lumped into a section of society getting stereotyped as !!!!less eejits just because I don't have a mortage up to my eyeballs (why would I try to wreck a house - if the place floods - it's my stuff that'll get ruined).

Quit judging all your tenants as bad - you get most upset if we do the same to landlords.

Sounds like your LL is a gem btw... ours didn't even care when we ended up with a carbon monoxide problem while in student housing!

kmmr

dizziblonde: The OP only stated in the post above yours that they left the heating on, and contacted the LL when it got colder.

It was a reasonably question to ask if they had or hadn't, and once answered no-one abused the OP!

re the general trend to abuse tenants - it depends really on which posts you look at. I see a lot more abuse of LL's than the other way around.