Complaint to new Letting Agents/Landlord

trfcgirl06

Hello again!

After having moved from our soon-to-be-repossessed rental property we entered our new property on Friday. It was filthy...the neighbours have told us the previous tenants left it in this state because that's how they found it... hmmm...
There are also many issues with the house and the LA didn't perform an inventory.

We have written a complaint letter. What does everyone think to the tone and content?


Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: New House Address
We are writing to confirm the repair visits made to the above property on our moving in date Friday 13th January. We reported, by telephone, issues that we had with the jammed front door lock, a leaky radiator and the boiler not working. We would like to thank you for the prompt and efficient response we had to these issues and they are now resolved.

We regret to inform you that we found the condition of the property to be unsatisfactory. The overall cleanliness of the house was of a poor standard and there are damages to the property that we would like to bring to your attention. Firstly, every room in the property had an unreasonable amount of cobwebs on the walls and ceilings, and had dirty windows both inside and outside. It is in our contract to leave the premises, at the end of our tenancy, in a good standard of cleanliness and we expect to have found it with a good standard for us to maintain. We have thoroughly cleaned the property and will maintain and care for it to a high standard.

Here is a report of certain issues we have found with the property:

Kitchen: Oven was unreasonably dirty (now cleaned) and has a switch to the main oven missing making use of this oven difficult.
The extractor fan is also very dirty (and is yet to be cleaned).
The kitchen tap leaks when turned on.

Bedroom 2: There is (what appears to be) a burnt iron mark on the carpet in this room.

Pantry: There was mould on the floor here (now cleaned).
There was rubbish left here such as milk bottles and broken items (now disposed of).
There is a pipe that has a rust stain running down it.

Boiler: There is an underlying issue with the boiler that causes it to leak when the heating is on for a certain length of time (seems to be over an half an hour). The British Gas engineer informed us this was a problem that he was not able to repair at the time. We have enclosed the paperwork he gave us.

Living Room: There was a big circular mark on the marble fireplace that has been cleaned to the best of our ability.
There were drip marks on the brass surround of the fireplace that we have tried to clean off.
There was new carpet fitted in this room. There is leftover carpet and off cuts that have been left in the room. We will dispose of them if the Landlord no longer requires them.

Entrance Hall and Stairs: There has been an attempt to paint the wall by the stairs that stops half way up the wall.
There are items left in the cupboard in the hall, which again we will dispose of if no longer needed.

We are reporting these issues in order to help maintain the upkeep of a property that we are hoping to enjoy living in as a long term home. Although we have been initially disappointed by the condition we found the property, we want to establish a good relationship with both you and the Landlord. We will treat the property in accordance with our contractual obligations and will maintain the property to a high standard; we anticipate this will be displayed in future inspection reports by you. We hope that you will find we are valuable and trustworthy tenants who are interested in the good maintenance of the premises we live in.


We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

trfcgirl06 and hubby

Thanks for any advice. It's sometimes hard to get the tone right when you're so involved in the letter writing!

BitterAndTwisted

Save yourself the time, trouble and effort of writing a letter about the state of cleanliness and lack of inventory. Although I daresay you enjoyed composing it. You are aware that the lack of a dual-signed inventory at the start of your tenancy works more in your favour than it does the landlord's aren't you?

If you are intent on sending a letter just cut to the chase and notify them of all the things that are faulty or not working and ask them when you can expect them to be addressed.

The tone of your missive is unfortunate to these eyes and I would not send anything like that. You ar in danger of being identified as troublesome complainers the moment it's taken out of the envelope.

hellokitty08

I assume you did a viewing at the property before you took it? Did you get the agent to put it in writting what they would do these things before you moved in?

Some people have different standards, and I am not saying that giving anyone a property in any state other than clean is acceptable, but they might have thought if you didnt say anything you were happy to take the property as seen?

If they havent provided an inventory I wouldnt worry about it as they have to prove the condition of the property when you moved in if they intend to make any deposit deductions when you leave. (assuming your deposit is protected)

trfcgirl06

Hi B&T,
Thanks again for your input on my problems.
I did enjoy composing it! It's always good to get it all written down! Gripe, gripe, gripe!

I know that the lack of inventory is to our favour. I kept on telling everyone that all over the weekend over and over again!

I suspect you are completely right and I should just notify them of the faulty things in a concise and unemotional manner. Sigh...

hellokitty08 - We did two viewings! We've had problems with damp and leaking ceilings in the past and we were looking for all those signs! It must have been all the previous tenants furniture that was there was blocking a lot of the dirt and issues. I get the impression they didn't like living there or didn't get along with the LL or LA. They've moved to a house very close by to ours. They also had a very distracting cute toddler that was amusing us whilst we walked around! It's all a learning curve.

Oop and the deposit is protected! It just really gets to me that when we leave if they do try to make deductions from our deposit then we'll have to fight for it back, rather than everything being above board and simple. I suppose whinging and complaining after 4 days of living there isn't going to stop that from potentially happening.

Thanks again everyone. I'm such a lurker on this part of the forum, but I think it's a really useful section.

Maybe I'll just go back to nagging my OH instead of the LA!

Miss_Poohs

Lucky landlord - I only hope my new tenants will be as caring as you.

Miss P

G_M

You've had some good advice above and seem to be taking it on board. It wouldn't hurt to take a load of photos, date-stamped if possible, just in case of dispute later.

trfcgirl06

Hi MissPoohs, we have tried to look after all the properties we've lived in and maintain them to the best standard. There are good tenants and good LLs out there! Shame we don't seem to be in the same part of the country!

Although we do have a cat so that knocks us down on the Top 100 Tenant List

Yorkie1

What you could do, is to send yourself a letter, recorded delivery, just listing the defects (but without addressing it to the LL) and don't open it.

Print off and retain the record of delivery.

Then if they try to stuff you for any of it at the end, you have a contemporaneous record of the state of it.

This is in addition to date-stamped photos.

BitterAndTwisted

Not in my book it doesn't. Cats should be compulsory in every home.

Thing is, if there's no inventory you shouldn't have to fight for your deposit, it should be fairly straightforward to counter any attempts to snatch your money. Now that you know a great deal more than you used to, isn't it?

trfcgirl06

Hi G_M, Yup definitely taken it on board! It's good to have a different viewpoint, especially from LLs themselves. I think just writing the letter made me feel better about the situation to be honest. I've taken photos of damaged things and some dirty, big cobwebs. Haven't date stamped them as can't work out how to do that on my phone (it has a date in the properties folder hopefully that would be proof) - might look properly into that and see if I can retake the ones of the damaged fixtures and fittings.

G_M

trfcgirl06 wrote: »

Hi G_M, Yup definitely taken it on board! It's good to have a different viewpoint, especially from LLs themselves. I think just writing the letter made me feel better about the situation to be honest. I've taken photos of damaged things and some dirty, big cobwebs. Haven't date stamped them as can't work out how to do that on my phone (it has a date in the properties folder hopefully that would be proof) - might look properly into that and see if I can retake the ones of the damaged fixtures and fittings.

I believe if you upload photos onto a server to store them you can get the upload date confirmed. Some broadband providers offer this?

I'm no techie so this may be rubbish!