Social Landlord refusing to fix oven?

envelope

Hi,

I'm hoping that someone will be able to give me a bit of advice regarding some problems my parents are having with the housing association that they rent from.

They moved into a new build apartment roughly 4 years ago, with the flat including all new mod-cons including a new oven. The tenancy agreement they signed clearly states that the housing association is responsible for maintaining all applicances, but 4 months after they moved in, they received a letter through the post which stated that once the warranty on the applicances runs out, the tenant is responsible for rectifying any faults. The warranty on the oven has now lapsed and it has broken, and my parents have been told that they must pay for an engineer. My parents are on a very low-income, which is why they are living in social housing, and simply can not afford to pay for this to be fixed.

I've done some research and I'm pretty sure that legally, the housing association is responsible for fixing the fault, rather than my parents, regardless of the letter sent after the tenancy was signed. Does anyone have any idea if this is correct, and how I could go about challenging this?

Thanks in advance for any help.

BitterAndTwisted

it's my understanding that if a social landlord is seeking to change any of the terms in their tenancy agreement your parents should have received formal notification with documentation quoting Section 103 Housing Act 1985.

At least mine did when that happened, which was only last week.

Your parents should WRITE to the Housing Services Department requesting said repair

Hump

Erm... Housing Associations (HA) seem to have a certain way about them which seems to frustrate most reasonably minded people at the moment

Your parents should follow what is becoming an all too common SOP for 'Registered Providers' since the government (virtually) gave up on regulating them completely

1. Write to the HA asking them to attend to the broken oven and have it fixed - ask them for a response within 5 working days
2. If they refuse then immediately make a formal complaint and insist they follow their formal complaints procedure (and ask them for a copy of the procedure)
3. Follow every stage of the procedure - unless they capitulate
4. If there's still no satisfaction contact the Housing Ombudsman http://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/
5. Feel free to throw in a serious request for a meeting with the Chief Executive at some stage - you'll probably get a one to one with the Housing or Tenancy Services Director

If the Housing Association is a 'stock transfer' from the local council then look up their board members and look for any that look a bit like the council's representative - normally a local councillor - and give them a call, especially if your parents live in an area which is having a local election on the 5th May.......