Need landlord/tenant help

clutton_2

last year, i took on management of a house for a landlord who had been cheated by his previous managing agent. i made a detailed list of all the repairs which we expected them to pay for as a result of their incompetence, and as soon as i invoked threatening to take them to court re the Gas Safety (Installations and Use) Regulations 1994 = they backed down immediately. The penalties are huge for ignoring these gas regs.

i can understand your family's reluctance, but, i do admire your courage also. you cannot let your children live in a potentially dangerous house. Should this landlord ever try to get rid of you, you can always claim victimisation and use this thread as evidence !!!!

With the legislation as it currently stands, it could take a landlord 6 months to get you out anyway.

kittiwoz

I wouldn't worry about getting the firebrigade to do an inspection. The Greater Manchester fire service put leaflets through the door offering all households a free inspection. They will fit free smoke alarms and help you make an exit plan for escape in the event of a fire. They are very keen on prevention and are really pushing to make this a standard thing that anyone in a new home should do so you needn't see it as a big deal.

I'm afraid I wouldn't hold up much hope for any help from the lanlord who is paying the letting agency to not have to deal with any of this stuff and is probably going to be quite happy as long as he keeps getting the cheques. He may say he's quite happy for the work to be done but that's easy for him to say when it is all in the hands of the agent. You'll be very lucky if he is actually prepared to expend any effort on your behalf.

I think you need some advise from qualified persons so would recommend you make an appointment to visit your local Citizens' Advice Bureau which you can find here. The CAB also has some online advice on this subject. Here is a direct link to the info on repairs in private tenancies on the Shelter website as recommended by Sparky67. The number for their free housing advice helpline is 0808 800 4444.

Georgecarol

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't been on to update, have been extremely busy. So here's the latest......

I had the inspector round, he listed the doors, the gas fire needed looking at, but as the gas was capped off, it wasn't an emergency. A fire alarm was suggested, but is not law, and it's an illegal kitchen as the electric stove is too close to the sink and the power bar has to be run across the top of the stove to reach the counter for the kettle. The security locks on the windows are not required by law, so I was disappointed with that.

Anyhoo, I drew up my letter asking for the problems to be rectified, along with my request for a rent reduction and partial rebate for the last few months and took it in on Friday with my rent money. The first thing she said was that she had the plans for the kitchen, I pointed out that it was coincidental, as I had my letter for my rent reduction!!! Then she proceeded to tell me that she possibly had another place for me that wouldn't be ready for another couple of months, but it's looking good. I then handed over my letter with all my points, followed up with my request for a rent reduction and she asked if she could sit on it for a while, as in all fairness, she would like to defend herself against some of the points I made. I agreed, but said hopefully it wouldn't take her too long to put her side across. (Was I wrong in agreeing). She then proceeded to show me the plans for my new kitchen. Now when my landlord had said the place needed renovation because of the size, he asked for 3 sets of plans to be drawn up, one with the kitchen as it is now, turned into a utility room and the dining room as a kitchen. The next with the wall between the 2 knocked through to make one larger room as the kitchen, and the last with an extension and he wanted estimates with it. She handed me a piece of paper and I flipped it over, and looked for the rest!!! Basically it has taken 6 months to come up with one design which was a computer generated picture of the kitchen I have now with new cupboards and a new stove:mad: I just looked at her in amazement, I couldn't believe what I was being shown. That's when she said she was really angry with everything now. She said she's been badgering him for weeks and this is what he dropped of, all this for 1300 pounds. (sorry, have a dodgy keyboard and haven't been able to find the pound sign yet!!!) Then we had the discussion about the workman she sends over to find out he's been lying to both of us and has been telling her the work has been done. This still does not excuse the fact that she never calls me about it all, just relies on assumptions.
So, as it stands, we're back to square 1, nothing has been sorted, except for the fact that we could possibly be moving into a new place in a couple of months. I asked her if we would still get a rent rebate if we moved, and she just shrugged her shoulders. It has been left with her and the manager promising to tear a strip of the workman and send him back to do the jobs immediately. I had said I would prefer someone else as he doesn't fix anything properly when he comes, apparently he only has one other guy right now and he's busy for another 3 weeks. I said I'd waited this long, what's another 3 weeks, as long as I know it will be done properly. He insisted on getting things done immediately because I'd waited so long. But it's Monday afternoon and I haven't heard anything yet, so who knows.
I'm getting quite frustrated now. Should I have given her a time as to when to send the letter off to the landlord, what should my next move be? I'm not handling this very well at all. I feel that if I say what I would like to say, nobody's going to be happy because people don't see my wrath very often as it's a scary thing to behold:eek: I have to bite my tongue and try and get everything resolved. Grrrr.

Sparky67

I still think you should look at proper legal advice.

There is a pre-action protocol for disrepair claims (see http://www.dca.gov.uk/civil/procrules_fin/contents/protocols/prot_hou.htm). This basically sets out what you (and your landlord) should do before issuing formal court proceedings. You may find that doing this makes your landlord and /or landlord's agent see you mean business and pull their finger out!

clutton_2

""the gas fire needed looking at, but as the gas was capped off, it wasn't an emergency"" - so what sort of heating have you got ?

i suggest you contact the local council private housing officer and let them approach your landlord/agent for you .

regularsaver1

I am sure that having fire alarms are a regulatory requirements on rental properties by the landlord. are they not?

clutton_2

unless it is a HMO, i dont think smoke alarms are compulsory. i have them in all my houses anyway, But some tenants take the batteries out !! what can i do ???? as each property needs some re-wiring work, i am installing hardwired ones, but, it is not cheap.

Georgecarol

clutton wrote:

""the gas fire needed looking at, but as the gas was capped off, it wasn't an emergency"" - so what sort of heating have you got ?

i suggest you contact the local council private housing officer and let them approach your landlord/agent for you .

This was an issue I pointed out with the cold season rapidly approaching. We have rads in the living room and the hallway, and a small rad in the kitchen, but it doesn't matter how high you turn it, it doesn't seem to throw out much heat. Plus, it is right next to the back door and as the kitchen is so small, if we're boiling pasta or something that throws off a lot of steam, we open the back door to avoid dampness as there is no extractor fan. There is no other heat than the disconnected fire in the living room, which is why I consider no heat in the back of the house.

Georgecarol

I'm wondering how long I should wait before I ask the agent if she's sent the rent reduction letter off. What sort of time should I give her to "in all fairness defend a couple of points"? I was thinking Monday, that would have given her since last Friday, and I want to get the ball rolling. I feel by sending this letter to the landlord, who may not know what's going on, she will have pressure from both sides then and I may actually get something done sooner.
BTW, still have not heard from any workmen, considering the manager this time said this was not acceptable and the repairs had to be done immediately

hedley

Hi!

My sympathies...we had a similar problem- gas problems- that we ended sorting ourselves- the agents were taking so long and it was quite dangerous.

I'm just wondering how much you want to stay in your place?

We were consistently lied to for 3 years over redoing the kitchen and renewing windows and other building work. We were even conned into paying a higher rent,as 'next month' it was going to be 'top class' (!)
Sooo, we had to stay at home for people to come around to measure up, give quotes- think we had close to 20 over the 3 years for all the different jobs.
Then nothing!! We were quite active- ringing the agents/agreeing time scales but nothing was ever done!
The other thought I have- is do you want to stay in the property if all the building work takes place? I once was present when we had an integrated fire alarm fitted- what a joy that was! We had workmen arrive unannounced,as the agents had forgotten to tell us, saying ''we've come to rip up your floor boards!' They duly did so, then vanished on holidays for 2 months- we had no floorboards in our hallway- the agents were unconcerned! I then threatened not to pay rent- so they then sent around a 16 year old to replace at least some floorboards!!

In my experience, when there are agents and LL involved it gives them an excellent ruse of blaming eachother, and also delaying things -'we're waiting to hear back' etc etc. This can and does go on for ages!
Sorry could not be more hopeful,
I hope you manage to get this sorted!