Am I being an unreasonable T/should I move?

lily_livered

clutton wrote: »

"I don't really care about it being fixed "" - if you dont care, then why report it - as you only end up very frustrated ? As you say its his property deteriorating not yours.....

Surely a tenant should report faults like the rotten window so that the tenant isn't blamed for subsequent deterioration to the property caused by the disrepair. I'd recommend reporting issues like that in writing regardless of if the tenant cares about any repair being done.

clutton wrote: »

There is a procedure over on Shelter's website showing how you can pay for the repairs yourself and then deduct the cost from the rent... Would you landlord accept that or would he ask you to leave ? Only you know the price to be paid for such a move....

if you love the house, and the rent is cheap, and you can ignore repairs that dont affect you - then why move ? At least you know he does not bother you and you have a tried and tested tenancy - better the devil you know..

Perhaps because living with flaky heating and hot water in the winter isn't fun and as the OP says "I'm not paying for a new boiler when I have no security of tenure, so I think that the LL should be paying for that". If the LL won't sort the boiler then moving seems a sensible choice IMO as 5-10% rent discount is peanuts compared to putting up with the hassle of the disrepair.

Annisele

clutton wrote: »

"I don't really care about it being fixed "" - if you dont care, then why report it - as you only end up very frustrated ? As you say its his property deteriorating not yours......

You're right - but my tenancy agreement does say that I have to report things that go wrong with the building, and I only tell him again about things like the window when they get worse. (Plus I'm worried that eventually it might fall out and thwack somebody on the head - I know that's unlikely, but as I say I don't actually know how long windows take to finally die. If I stay here I guess I'll learn!)

I've had a look at the procedures on Shelter's website, but they seem to be more about serious things, that are definitely broken now and must be fixed. None of the problems I have are remotely a danger to my health (with the exception of the gas safety certificate, but that's cheap to fix). There's no mould, no condensation, no escapes of gas or noxious fumes - nothing that can hurt me.

Most of the repair issues I have are "not really a problem now but might be so in time" kind of things - there's the window, the fact that dandelions are growing in the gutters, and so on. The property looked to be in pretty decent repair six years ago (though I know nothing about property), but the LL hasn't done anything since then that could really be called 'maintenance'; he just (eventually) fixes the issues that I jump up and down about. I don't know when it last had a proper overhaul.

The other issues I have are more about improvement than repair; I don't think that it would be reasonable to use Shelter's procedures to get myself a new boiler - and anyway that might end up costing more than a month's rent. There's no real need to replace the boiler other than that it keeps breaking (I'm not convinced the multiple plumbers a year thing hasn't cost my LL more than it would have cost to get a new one to start with, but that's his issue).

The LL says that when I move out he intends to do various things, like put a decent shower in, but he can't do them now because he can't afford to (I'm not quite sure how he's magically going to be able to afford to do them when he's not receiving rent - but again, his issue).

I posted my original message whilst pretty annoyed with my LL, and I've calmed down a bit now. I'm not generally an unreasonable T (in my own eyes - though I suspect that everybody is reasonable in their own eyes).

@lily livered - from Clutton's other posts, it looks as though she looks after her Ts very well indeed (want a new T Clutton?), but there's a big difference between 'running a business well' as Clutton seems to, and 'running a business on just the right side of the law with minimal effort' as my LL likes to. I suspect if my question had been "as an LL, what would you do in this situation" I'd have got a rather different answer re the old boiler.

G_M

Whether a problem is major (gas safety etc) or minor (blocked gutters) you'd be advised to report them. This is a) so as to get them fixed and b) to cover yourself if they become more serious later. You cannot then be blamed for allowing them to deteriorate.

But you must report them in WRITING. Have you been doing so? Phone calls, text, email are not sufficient. In writing to the official address for the LL which should be on your original contract.

I suggest a letter listing ALL the defects, major and minor, and asking for the LL's estimated times for repair of each one.

This also helps if you decide to go down the route of fixing any of them yourself and deducting from rent. You MUST be able to show you reported them in writing and gave the LL the opportunity to fix himself. You must also show that you subsequently advised the LL, again in writing, that you intended to get them fixed yourself. Whether the LL responds is up to him, but you must follow the proceedure as per Shelter here.

clutton_2

thank you very much for your kind words Annisele ... this LL is indeed very casual about his reponsibilities - thats for sure... and you could certainly cause him grief by reporting him for lack of LGSC - but you have adopted the pragmatic approach

Boilers (plus installation, flues, etc etc)@ do indeed cost a lot of money (£1500-£4k) and not every landlord has a substantial "warchest of cash" - whether they should is a different question..

I managed to safely maintain a 30 year old boiler for another 4 years after one gas engineer wanted me to replace the entire system,... rads, boilers, pipes.... the next engineer flushed through the rads, and pipes, jiggled with the boiler, replaced the pump and i had another few years out of it....

So i can understand this LL trying to get the most use out of it.. What i dont understand is why some landlords let their property deteriorate... small jobs cost small money... leave a small job and it becomes a big job and then costs big money....

Its quite unusual for tenants to care so much about things like guttering and how a property looks, you sound like a really good tenant...

Whereabouts in the country are you looking for a property ? PM if you would rather do that

N79

clutton wrote: »

Boilers (plus installation, flues, etc etc)@ do indeed cost a lot of money (£1500-£4k) and not every landlord has a substantial "warchest of cash" - whether they should is a different question..

This is not a new problem! From 1936:

"In some cases I have noted 'Landlord good' or 'Landlord bad', because there is a great variation in what the slum-dwellers say about their landlords. I found - one might expect it, perhaps - that the small landlords are usually the worst. It goes against the grain to say this, but one can see why it should be so. Ideally, the worst type of slum landlord is a fat wicked man, preferably a bishop, who is drawing an immense income from extortionate rents. Actually, it is a poor old woman who has invested her life's savings in three slum houses, inhabits one of them and tries to live on the rent of the other two - never in consequence, having any money for repairs."

Its quite unusual for tenants to care so much about things like guttering and how a property looks, you sound like a really good tenant...

Indeed. Cleaning guttering of leaves (as opposed to repairing the guttering, which of couse is a S11 obligation on LLs) is a mark of a great T.

Whereabouts in the country are you looking for a property ? PM if you would rather do that

Are you touting for trade Clutton?:D

clutton_2

no - i only have a small flat empty at present, and i'm sure its not suitable for the lovely annisele.... but i do know a lot of landlords - and agents.... all over the country - and thought i may be able to reccomend her to some...

now i've read it again......

"touting for Trade ?" - what SOrt of trade exactly might you be referring to young N79 ? :cool: :rotfl:

N79

clutton wrote: »

"touting for Trade ?" - what SOrt of trade exactly might you be referring to young N79 ? :cool: :rotfl:

The residential kind, I'm sure.:A

tbs624

Annisele wrote: »

T @tbs - I know it's a criminal offence for him to not deal with the gas safety stuff, but I'd rather be not dead than have him convicted of something. I don't know what (if anything) would happen if I reported him for not dealing with the gas safety, but I don't anticipate it would be much.

Couple of cases for you

LANDLORD’S SAFETY FINE

A landlord who failed to produce a certificate guaranteeing the safety of gas equipment in his rented property has been prosecuted by Hounslow Council.
Jasjit Dhami, of West Ealing, was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £1,063 in prosecution costs after concerns were raised about his rented house in Wheatlands, Hounslow. Further inquiries found he did not have a CORGI certificate for its boiler.
A CORGI certificate guarantees the boiler is safe for use, and failure to haveone is an offence. Cllr Mark Bowen, deputy leader of Hounslow Council and lead member for strategic housing, said: “Where landlords do not even fulfil basic safety requirements, we will come down hard.”

Source

Didcot landlord fined for ignoring gas safety

An Oxfordshire landlord has been prosecuted for failing to ensure gas appliances in his property were safe and fit for purpose.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought the prosecution against Graham Barnes, 49, from Bicester Road in Kidlington after he failed to have gas appliances at the Didcot property he rented out safety checked.
Didcot Magistrates Court today (1 February 2010) heard that between January 2009 and July 2009 Mr Barnes failed to arrange the annual safety check to be carried out on gas appliances and flues at a residential property he owned; and also failed to maintain gas appliances at the same property.
He was fined a total of £8,000 and ordered to pay £1957.70 in costs, with £15.00 victim surcharge.

Source

LLs do get prosecuted and fined for non compliance with the gas safety regs. Ts should always report a LL who fails to meet his obligations in this way - either to the HSE or to the local Council EHO/TRO.