Major issues with LL/LA - Can I sue?

Delboy24

Hi,

Long winded and complicated but in summary (2 adults, 4 kids):

We paid 12 months rent up front

Check-in completed by and signed by us/LA

March - Fire passed safety inspection test when moving in - notified in December following below , incorrect ventilation bricks were fitted and therefore should not have passed test, repaired in January

Boiler packed up in December no adequate heating/hot water for over a week, not "fixed" until end of January despite numerous calls to LA (LL overseas they said they had no response) - we had to move kids with family members for a duration as house was too cold.

During repair work, contractor flooded upstairs bathroom which leaked into living room and carpeted areas downstairs resulting in lots of marking and staining to floors and ceiling in main living room area - very unsightly

Decorating repairs for the above remedial work only completed one week before we moved out in March so from start to finish almost 4 months to carry out work


Can we reclaim for loss of enjoyment for the above?? what is reasonable based on £800 pcm rent?

Check-out

Only issues raised:

Marking on walls from blu-tack and some pin holes (posters) - have tried to make good using paint advised/stored by landlord, but discolouration now in wall due to paint fading on original coat

Oven needed cleaning - we suggested to deduct £40 for professional cleaning following quote of £20-30 by LA

Checkout report completed by LA but not signed by us, now LL family member is claiming door keys are missing, we have also apparently damaged furniture that was marked as "moderate usage" on check-in report (stains/mark on table that were already there)

Result - LL witholding deposit

What can we do about this issue - given other people (prospective tenants, family members etc have been in the property since) - LA agrees all keys were accounted for at check-out per the report and there must be some consideration for wear and tear on the walls given the kids - as pointed out we have tried to make good. LA in agreement with us bizarrely and said LL being unreasonable - thinks it tit for tat cos we threatended legal action for rent recovery a few weeks ago over the issues we had.

Where do we go from here???

Finally - can we request notes held about our tenancy with LA under the Data Protection Act as they logged all calls, emails etc

clutton_2

once you have issued proceedings against the LL you can then claim evidence under the Data Protection Act.

do you have photographic evidence of all the disruption you had to put up with during the "repairs" -

Did you sign an inventory on move-in ?
Where is your deposit ?

Delboy24

Thanks for the reply.

In terms of proceedings - what would I be looking at to claim as reasonable?

Yes we do have photos of the staining on floors and ceiling - these were also passed to LA/LL during emails on trying to get everything fixed.

Inventory on sign-in was signed by us and LA - but not on check-out even tho we were there, we had to request a copy to be sent to us.

In short, the inventory check-in sheet was used for check out with ticks against it and some handwritten notes on it.

In terms of deposit it is logged with TDS I believe.

BitterAndTwisted

Delboy24 wrote: »

Boiler packed up in December no adequate heating/hot water for over a week, not "fixed" until end of January despite numerous calls to LA (LL overseas they said they had no response) - we had to move kids with family members for a duration as house was too cold. This doesn't seem overly unreasonable considering it was the coldest winter for 30 years and most heating engineers must have been inundated with call-outs during this period. Your landlord should have provided alternative means of heating and you should have requested this at the time.

Can we reclaim for loss of enjoyment for the above?? What is reasonable based on £800 pcm rent? There is no official "yard-stick" to measure this against and it could have been negotiated at the time but you are in a very weak position now that you are not in the property any longer.

Check-out

Only issues raised:

Marking on walls from blu-tack and some pin holes (posters) - have tried to make good using paint advised/stored by landlord, but discolouration now in wall due to paint fading on original coat. Trying to make good is not the same thing as actually making good. If the paint didn't match the whole wall/s should have been repainted

What can we do about this issue - given other people (prospective tenants, family members etc have been in the property since) - LA agrees all keys were accounted for at check-out per the report and there must be some consideration for wear and tear on the walls given the kids - as pointed out we have tried to make good. Nope, no consideration for kids. The property should have been returned in exactly the same condition as when you moved in. What you judge to be fair war and tear is actually damage and therefore not acceptable.

LA in agreement with us bizarrely and said LL being unreasonable - thinks it tit for tat cos we threatened legal action for rent recovery a few weeks ago over the issues we had. You threatened legal action when you hadn't actually negotiated with the landlord? I suspect this could be interpreted as rather premature.

Where do we go from here???

Finally - can we request notes held about our tenancy with LA under the Data Protection Act as they logged all calls, emails etc

I think your negotiation skills are going to be called for in spades with this landlord.

Which deposit protection scheme is your deposit lodged with? Get onto the site and dispute the whole of the deposit bar the oven-cleaning you have agreed to. i think you're going to have a challenge in front of you especially considering the damage to the paintwork you have left.