Moved into a new rental flat, a couple of niggly things...

nzseries1

Hi all,


Moved into a new flat last night. There's two things I'm not totally happy with, and I'm wondering whether you guys think the landlord is responsible for fixing these two things.

1. The door that leads out onto the balcony doesn't lock. It's a second floor balcony, so the only people that could get onto it are the close neighbours (or anyone determined to climb the wall), but I'm not happy with the idea that any door into my property doesn't lock.
2. There are blinds rather than curtains. At night, when it's dark outside and the lights are on in the flat, it's possible to see straight through the blinds - there's nowhere for me to hide. So people in the high rises opposite and everybody on the train on the adjacent train line can see what I'm doing even when the blinds are down. And the train's headlights shine right through the blinds when it goes past while I'm trying to sleep.

Do you all think that the landlord should legally fix these two things? The pessimist in me thinks that when I mention these to the estate agent that their attitude is "no, you're signed up now, wotcha gonna do about it".

N79

nzseries1 wrote: »

Hi all,

Moved into a new flat last night. There's two things I'm not totally happy with, and I'm wondering whether you guys think the landlord is responsible for fixing these two things.

1. The door that leads out onto the balcony doesn't lock. It's a second floor balcony, so the only people that could get onto it are the close neighbours, but I'm not happy with the idea that any door into my property doesn't lock.
2. There are blinds rather than curtains. At night, when it's dark outside and the lights are on in the flat, it's possible to see straight through the blinds - there's nowhere for me to hide. So people in the high rises opposite and everybody on the train on the adjacent train line can see what I'm doing even when the blinds are down. And the train's headlights shine right through the blinds when it goes past while I'm trying to sleep.

Do you all think that the landlord should legally fix these two things? The pessimist in me thinks that when I mention these to the estate agent that their attitude is "no, you're signed up now, wotcha gonna do about it".

Curtains are your responsibility. Just go and buy some.

The door lock is a grey area. Arguably it is not a legal repairing requirement but also any reasonable LL would provide a lock on all external doors. In this case perhaps a polite letter to the LL asking for a lock to be fitted may produce results?

EDIT: OK - I may have misread the OP. Are we talking about repairing an existing lock or installing a new lock?

poppysarah

Ring and confirm what you say in writing to the landlord.

Lock issue is urgent IMO.
Are there curtain railes? Could you put curtains up?

poppysarah

N79 wrote: »

The door lock is a grey area. Arguably it is not a legal repairing requirement but also any reasonable LL would provide a lock on all external doors. In this case perhaps a polite letter to the LL asking for a lock to be fitted may produce results?

No it's not a grey issue.

Ring your own insurance and ask if they mind if you don't have a lock on an external door.

Watalie

I think that they should put a new lock at least on the door. I would presume they "have" to do that but I am sure one of the seasoned LL's on here will confirm.

With regards to the blinds, surely you could simply ask if you could put up a curtin pole and buy some curtains? Seems the most sensible thing to me.

N79

poppysarah wrote: »

No it's not a grey issue.

Ring your own insurance and ask if they mind if you don't have a lock on an external door.

The grey area is whether, having let the flat without a lock, the LL is legally obliged to install one. This is not a repairing obligation under S11. That leaves an argument over duty of care etc. This is a balcony door, high up, no access etc - I think this is a difficult case to show that the LL has a legal obligation.

I'm not arguing with the premise that a good LL will ensure there is a lock however.

I'm also not sure what relevance any insurance I may have has to this discussion.

If you believe that it is covered by a legal obligation then I'm happy to hear your argument.

EDIT: See above post - I may have misunderstood the OP.

nzseries1

poppysarah wrote: »

Lock issue is urgent IMO.
Are there curtain railes? Could you put curtains up?

I thought it was urgent too. It's a fully furnished flat so I'd like to think the landlord won't want his stuff stolen.

There'd be room to put up curtains if I took the blinds down I'm pretty sure.

Watalie wrote: »

With regards to the blinds, surely you could simply ask if you could put up a curtin pole and buy some curtains? Seems the most sensible thing to me.

For some reason I thought that putting up curtains would be a big deal, but I guess really it's only a curtain pole and £20 worth of curtains from Argos isn't it. I'm not very DIY savvy but I think I could probably even do that

nzseries1

N79 wrote: »

That leaves an argument over duty of care etc. This is a balcony door, high up, no access etc - I think this is a difficult case to show that the LL has a legal obligation.

It is a balcony that is physically attached to the neighbour's though, so the neighbours on either side could very easily get onto my balcony from theirs. I guess I'm surprised that such a lock isn't a legal obligation.

I'm going to call the estate agent at lunchtime to see what they say.

PudseyDB

Repairing the lock is definately the landords responsibility in my opinion. A polite email or phone call will hopefully make them aware and hopefully get it sorted asap. Do they even know that the lock doesnt work?


As for the curtains - you might need to ask if its ok to put up curtain rails since this involves drilling holes in the wall. I wouldnt expect the landlord to do this or pay for it, but you might need to get permission to do so or risk losing part of your deposit.

Another option would be to replace the blinds with black or white black-out blinds. These dont let the light through and offer more privacy.

poppysarah

N79 wrote: »

This is a balcony door, high up, no access etc

If you believe that it is covered by a legal obligation then I'm happy to hear your argument.

I know a tower block where people have successfully climbed down balcony to balcony where no sane people would try...

The OP's insurance will almost certainly require all external doors to be lockable.

I would suggest also that the landlords own insurance requires the property to be secure.

LilacPixie

OP is there already a lock on the door? Is it a UPVC door?? Do you have the key?