Student House Rent - House was not fit for occupancy

an1179

HI

My dd got a place at Leeds which was her 2nd choice, therefore she had no accommodation sorted. As this year most uni's are full the accommodation in Halls was also full.

DD and OH went to Leeds and viewed 2 properties. They opted for the Best which was in a mess from decorators and had not been ready made for occupation. I did not accompany them. Agents claim to be Proud members of the Unipol Code . Unipol had none of their own accomodation left

On 1st Sept the 6 girls in the houseshare went to sign the lease and pay deposits etc lease runs from 1/9/2011 to 1/7/2012.

The property was still in the same state of repair. i.e. nothing had been done. The girls made a list of things to be completed before they take up residence 12th Sept.

On 12th Sept DD OH and myself arrived at the property at 4pm. Not a thing had been touched still. We made a list of things that were wrong and took photos. We cleaned and tidied up 3 adults for 4 hours. We continued the clean up on Sunday morning for 3 hours and went shopping to get plugs for sinks.

There were Urgent/Major repairs maintenance issues and minor issues.

I e-mailed the letting agents on Monday morning and sent the list and letter recorded delivery also. We then followed up with a phone call. The agents said they would reimburse us for our time.

Maintenance dept called on the house and checked the requirements then sent in various trades men through the week. Most jobs have been completed now or agreed that they should be left and the list anotated with dates and details of all jobs.

My questions are - as the house was not fit for occupancy by 12th Sept can the tenants claim the rent back

What should payment should we ask for the the work undertaken ie cleaning and tidying

Thanks for looking

AN

halibut2209

If it wasn't fit for occupancy, where did they stay in the meantime?

Optimist

Can I assume the tenants did not move in as the house was unfit ? If they did then you will have difficulty claiming the house was unfit for occupancy, however that should not stop you asking.

an1179

Thanks.

When we went to the house on 12th September we cleaned up and made list of things that needed doing therefore the house was not fit for occupation until we had cleaned it Sat and Sunday our DD stayed there after that and the rest of the tenants moved in on Sat 17th Sept.

bod1467

Do you and your OH work? What are your usual equivalent hourly rates? I would take the average of these and charge this per person per hour (perhaps less for DD as she would likely be minimum wage). So as a rough and ready example ...

You £20 per hour
OH £12 per hour
Average £16 per hour
DD £5 per hour

Total (7 x £16) + (7 x £5) = £112 + £35 = £147.00

You should also factor in consumables that you purchased for the clean up task (you have receipts?), and perhaps also any other out-of-pocket expenses.

Whether this will fly with the letting agents I don't know, but seems a reasonable starting point.

arcon5

I imagine if they did pay for your time then they would do so based on the avergae wage of a cleaner, not the avergae wage for their occupations. Or more realistically they will probably just base it on minimum wage. But even more realistically I imagine they will get nothing but fobbed off.

With regards to a rent rebate, if she didn't stay there the first night then if your rent is £400 (based on a 30 day month) a figure of £13.33 would be closer to what they will pay.

Even still, you would need to give the landlord the opportunity to rectify the situation -- 24 horus may well have reaonable.

With regards to the other tenants, why did they move in several days later? Was this their choice or because of the state of the house? As most students don't move in on the date the contract starts. If it was because of the state of the house, since you finished cleaning it the next day the premises would have been habitable from that point and no several days later.

bod1467

The landlord was given at least 10 days notification of the issues. (Lease signing was 1/9 whereupon issues were notified, move-in date was 12/9). Landlord had ample time to resolve the issues. IMHO the OP would be justified in claiming usual hourly rates, and not those of a cleaning company.

But this is all speculation. If it was my I'd use the above as my starting point.

arcon5

bod1467 wrote: »

The landlord was given at least 10 days notification of the issues. (Lease signing was 1/9 whereupon issues were notified, move-in date was 12/9). Landlord had ample time to resolve the issues. IMHO the OP would be justified in claiming usual hourly rates, and not those of a cleaning company.

But this is all speculation. If it was my I'd use the above as my starting point.

Since the work should have been completed by time they moved in they wasn't in breach of this agreement until that date ie. the date the contract began. So although I agree he had ample time before the contract commenced, they would need to give him the opportunity to rectify the situation which no more than 24hours would be reasonable.

What if the parents was in the legal profession earning £150/hour? It wouldn't be reasonable to charge this rate for cleaning duties.

They would also have a duty to mitigate the losses, in which case the landlord could argue they should have done this by paying for professional cleaning and therefore reducing the costs.

bod1467

I don't disagree. (Double negatives anyone? ) But it's better to have a higher starting point and negotiate down than start low and get shafted.

fluffnutter

The problem with making your own minor repairs/cleaning etc. is that your assertion that the house was uninhabitable can be challenged. You've probably tarted the place up so well that they'll not believe what a mess it was before!

That aside, the suggestions so far are worth a try. I think I'd have tried to get someone in on the 12th though to agree about the state of the place and give a course of action, including a rent rebate as appropriate.

an1179

We have photographic evidence of the state of the premises.
Electrical checks were not evident. Lights would not switch off 28 light bulbs missing or not working,
Gas checks were not evident.
open manhole to saniflow sewer in one bedroom had previously been covered by MDF .
Front garden full of cigarette butts, back garden rubble and old carpets.underlay.
Peoples clothing, post and junk mail
flakes of loose paint
Paint on carpets
Backs hanging out of kitchen cupboards decompsing food in freezer kitch worksurface damaged sealant around sink black
Shower cubicle grouting and sealant black as black and could not be cleaned
Dirty curtains and blinds
Foul smelling drains

I would say that quite a few of the items in the list have been carried forward from more than one year's occupancy and the tenancey agreement lists most of these thing that need to be in good condition when the tenants leave

As stated above the Letting agents were left in no doubt that we would not tolerate the outstanding Urgent jobs being left mnre thatn 24 hours and the remaining items to be completed by 16th when the rest of the tenants were moving in.

To be fair they did comply. I suspect that if we had not taken the stance that we had i.e. sending recorded delivery letter with itemised list followed up by many phone calls and emails the jobs would still be outstanding