Poor service from letting agents

Sutty

Hi all. Merry christmas and a happy new year. My partner and I pay £450 a month for our rented house in Scotland. When we moved in on the 16th august I had to get the estate agent to send an electrician round because the cooker extractor fan didn't work. He immediatly recommended it be replaced and that was the last we heard for about a month. I rung the estate agent in september and he visited the house and assured us that it would be sorted asap. By November it still hadn't been done so we rung up again. Once again he promised it would be sorted and now, nearly in the new year and still nothing.
I was thinking about holding back £50 out of next months rent and explaining that we agreed on £450 a month including a working extractor fan. As it has never worked I feel that our rent should be reduced by £10 a month until it is sorted. Would this be legal or would i be shooting myself in the foot? Many thanks.

jonesMUFCforever

You would be shooting yourself in the foot, unless your tenancy agreement specifically states that you will having a working extractor fan which is highly unlikely.
Do what we do when ours decides its not going to work -- open a window.
It is hardly worth getting your knickers in a twist over to be honest - now if your cooker wasn't working or your boiler broke down that would be completely different.

wendykearney

How about if half the electrics don't work or come on at random? Intermittant hot water ie half a gallon then freezing in shower and bath. Boiler fires up most of night though heating etc turned off...

Thats not including damage done to plaster work due to water getting in or shoddy paintwork etc that was supposed to havebeen sorted early dec..rotten gate, Extractor fan doesn't extract.

Wouldn't mind but we were promised this would all be sorted the week we moved in, in fact we delayed moving till last min to give them chance to do it whilst all furniture out etc. we are supposedly renting a high spec luxury cottage and are paying a higher rent because of this. Am now wondering wether to start not paying full rent as well until it gets done. The electrican says the electrics are a really bad fire hazard but the LL is delaying giving the go ahead to do the work..

wendy

Sutty

I agree that I probably would be shooting myself in the foot by witholding the rent. I think I may send a letter to the owners of the house and let them know what poor service they are paying the estate agent for. The estate agent is shocking. When we moved in the house hadn't been cleaned, wallpaper was hanging off the walls, a cutain rail was falling down and various implements were not working. I'm sure the house owners would be very interested to hear how their interests are being looked after.

rosysparkle

Sutty, whilst I sympathise, it is quite possible that the agents are not to blame for the poor maintenance, since they have to get the landlord's permission for every repair done.

We have several tenants waiting for repairs, and they are blaming us as the agents, but we cannot authorise the repairs until we get the go-ahead from the landlords. We are busy enough without tenants ringing us for repairs that we already know about, it's not us holding things up!