Breach of comfort of home thingy

frizz_head

iwanttosave wrote:

What does it matter if it is costing us or not? :rolleyes: We are paying rent to live in a house suitable to be lived in.

I just don't see how you can moan about something that you are getting for nothing.

iwanttosave_2

Well when they don't treat my things with respect, make us live in a house full of dust, have all our belongings in the living room so that the baby can get into the boxes and mess with the cleaning products, break items of mine, leave us with no water over night, try to make me tie my dog outside from 8am till when they finish, make ME rip caprets up because they wont do it, make us live with constant noise and disruption, not give us adiquate facilities to make food, take a bath (which I was reciving electric shocks off for three days), not clean up after themselves, do shoddy jobs taking their time to make more money. Threw our gas card away and left us without heating and hot water for 2 days.

All while paying rent (which is paying for these works) and council tax, I think I am a little entitled to "moan" You might be happy to have your family living in these conditions, but I am not.

bionic_banjo

Hi - just a quick response as I'm off to a meeting.

Your right to 'quiet enjoyment' as a tenant is what you mean here. It is an 'equitable right' in that an express term does not have to be placed in your tenancy contract for you to have this legal right.

The landlord has a duty to provide you with 'quiet enjoyment' of the property and anything which intereferes with your enjoyment of the property means that the landlord is breaching the terms of your tenancy.

What you need to do is get advice from CAB - they will probably advise you to write formally to the Council and ask for the breach of quiet enjoyment to be remedied giving the landlord a time limit eg 14 days. to fix the repairs If the landlord does not sort this out after formal notice has expired, then you will have a right do deduct a sum from the rent each month to reflect the amount to which your enjoyment of the property is being interefered with. Dont refuse to pay all the rent or you will be in the wrong and get thrown out.

Another tact that you can go down is to go and see the Environmental Health officer at the Council so see if they can chivvy the works along. I dont know domestic environmental law but there may be something they can do?

The fastest route to getting attention to this matter (if your Landlord is the Council) Get decent photos and write a heavy duty letter to the chief executive of the Council and enclose photos, copy in the Director of the Housing Department - send both by special delivery. In the letter explain that you have been living in this mess for the past month and if the matter is not dealt with within the next 14 says (eg) then you will be calling the local press.
Hope this helps

frizz_head

iwanttosave wrote:

Well when they don't treat my things with respect, make us live in a house full of dust, have all our belongings in the living room so that the baby can get into the boxes and mess with the cleaning products, break items of mine, leave us with no water over night, try to make me tie my dog outside from 8am till when they finish, make ME rip caprets up because they wont do it, make us live with constant noise and disruption, not give us adiquate facilities to make food, take a bath (which I was reciving electric shocks off for three days), not clean up after themselves, do shoddy jobs taking their time to make more money. Threw our gas card away and left us without heating and hot water for 2 days.

All while paying rent (which is paying for these works) and council tax, I think I am a little entitled to "moan" You might be happy to have your family living in these conditions, but I am not.

I still don't get what you are complaining about. Yes, been there, done that, got the t-shirt to all you describe above. It's called renovation - which is part and parcel of any such home improvement. Only, yours isn't costing you a thing.

nu1isit?

Hello!

Hope your bearing up...We had something similar happen to us while renting through a private landlord. It lasted for months (was suppossed to last 2-4weeks). We didn't complain at first, because we were reasonable and thought, it isn't costing us anything (that was at the start). I'd follow bionic banjo's advice and get down the CAB.

Good luck

SmileyHappyBeing

frizz_head wrote:

I still don't get what you are complaining about. Yes, been there, done that, got the t-shirt to all you describe above. It's called renovation - which is part and parcel of any such home improvement. Only, yours isn't costing you a thing.

Jealousy

Geez the womans having problems, shes entitled to the repairs as a tenant.. but she shouldnt have to live in a sh*t p*t for god knows how long.. Paying or not paying.

TokochickUK

Hiya hun, doesnt matter who is paying for te work, its not a safe enviroment or you and young kids to live. Enviromental health would be a good bet im sure, i had to call them for my mum with damp, they were out within a few days and onto the housing the same day with conditions and my mum was moved within the month due to them harrasing the housing. Hope you get things sorted and give the CAB a visit as well as EH x
good luck
sus

seven-day-weekend

Maybe what frizzhead is saying is that anyone (whether renting or their own place) has to put up with this when having renovations done.

How do you expect them to get done otherwise?

kittiwoz

• People having their own renovations done have some control over the project management which people renting don't.
• She pays rent to have her home a reasonable standard
• These are renovations that have been deemed necessary by the council, probably to bring the house to a minimum reasonable standard, not some vanity that has been requested by wanty so she can live in luxury.
• Unlike people who choose to spend their money on extending and refitting their own kitchens she will not benefit from the increased value of the property.

There's some info on the shelter website. Sounds like you should be entitled to a rent abatement. There's a list of places that might be able to advise you here.

Doozergirl

I'm glad the cost of the kitchen extension, being essential information, was included. I'm not sure I'd be able to live without knowing that.