Help for my sister please

rach!_3

My sisters landlady does nothing and its really getting to her now(my sister that is)
lots and lots of things, most relavant(sp?) ones at the min, my sister and her partner and 2 kids aged 4 and 2 have had to go 2 days with no heating and no hot water, because when she rang the landlady she said no its not broken mine always does it(the light went out and wont go back on(flame)) so anyway they tried and tried to put it on and nothing so she agreed to get someone in, anyway the bloke didnt turn up, so my sister text her and said can you find out whats happening with this gas fella cos he hasnt turned up, her reply??? " no ring him yourself 07*********" !!!!!! is that about?? and the damp she is saying my sister has caused the damp cos she dries clothes in house, in the middle of winter in peeing down of rain she expects her to hang her clothes out to dry.And it took her a year to get the double glazing man in to fix a window which could have been rather bad it was the kids bedroom window.
so anyway i said i wanted to see her tenancy agreement, and this is the bit i think that mostly says she is breaching the contract

3.The landlord will
3.1 for as long as the tenant performs his obligation under this agreement allow the tenent peaceably to hold and enjoy the property during the term without unreasonable interuption from the landlord or any person rightfully claiming under or in trust for the landlord
3.2 insure the property and use all reasonable efforts to arrange for any damage caused by an insured risk to be remedied as soon as possible and to provide a copy of the insurance policy to the tenant.
3.3 keep in repair the structure and exterior of the property(including drains, gutters and external pipes)
keep in repair and in proper working order the installations at the property for the supply of water, gas and electricity and for sanitation(including basins, sinks, baths and sanitary conveniences)
keep in repair and proper working order the installation at the property for space heating and heating water

this woman has not given my sister a copy of an insurance policy and to be honest i wouldnt be surpriesed if she hasnt even got an insurance policy for the property, now this is breach of contract in my opinion and if it had been my sister who had breached the contract she would be down on her !!! like a tonne of bricks.
so does anyone have any idea what so ever what can be done, my poor baby sister is getting so down because of all this and i feel so helpless because i dont know all the ins and outs.
PLEASE HELP, if you can
rach xxx

nelly_2

Stop paying the rent.

clutton_2

nelly, dont be silly. not paying rent will have the tenant thrown out in no time - as well you know already.

rach - much as i feel sorry for your sisters predicament, it is not always easy to get workmen to "drop everything" to rush round and sort out a gas pilot light (which is what it sounds like). Two days is a fairly short time, annoying as that is. If your sister has been given the number of a workman, why doesn't she ring him and get the job done, and send him to the landlord for payment ?

Re damp - i have lost count of the number of times i have had complaints from tenants about damp, and it is 99.9% of the time due to them drying wet clothes in the house and not opening windows to let the moisture escape.

Whether the landlord has insurance is a different matter entirely.

rach!_3

well i have just found out this morning, that my sister rang this company who had already spoken "to my sister" which they hadnt anyone they claimed they ahd spoken to her at 3pm to book the appt so how could he have been coming this morning
anyway i know my sister does open windows etc if she has clothes drying in the house.
she doesnt expect the workmen to drop everything, she expects the landlady to get a workman, also what is the deal with her ringing and pretending to be my sister?? the woman at the place actually used my sisters full name, thats not right surely???
you say 2 days is a fairly short time???
i have been quoted this on another website

Also its illegal for any landlord to leave a paying tenant with no heat or hot water for longer than 24 hrs.

and its not really a short time when she has 2 kids and its sooo cold, you dont understand what a cow this landlady is she is too busy taking holidays around the world and having boob jobs to take notice of her tenants, my sister also knows of a few other tenants of hers.
she is just lazy and doesnt want to pay out only on holidays and luxuries

clutton_2

""Also its illegal for any landlord to leave a paying tenant with no heat or hot water for longer than 24 hrs.""

this is utterly silly - landlords are not miracle workers (whether they take overseas holidays and have boob jobs or not).

If you have the number of the workmen ring them up again .........

rach!_3

no they are not miracle workers, but surely they have a duty to get somethingdone about it as soon as possible not have people chasing and chasing you for something done, i take it your a landlord and you have obviously had some bother otherwise you wouldnt be like this, but this woman is obviously dodging her responablilities and doesnt want to cough up, she is well in breach of her contract, she has done nothing right since my sister has lived there, yes you may have had trouble in the past with tenants but they arent all the same and my sister is being taken for a mug

clutton_2

either you want your sister to be warm - in which case ring up for her - or
you just want to snipe at the landlord.

one of my tenants boilers did not work for a month because it was utterly impossible to get the spare part for it before then - i moved heaven and earth to sort it sooner - but it was impossible. i gave her fires to be going on with, but, there was no hot water, and nothing could be done sooner. Reasonable tenants understand stuff like this, without demanding 24 hour nonsense.

Gorgeous_George

It does sound like LL is not being as proactive as she possibly could be.

I guess it's a Combi boiler. These are less than ideal in BTL properties IMHO. They fail for the smallest reason and leave the tenant with no hot water and no heating. CORGI gas 'engineers' are notoriousluy expensive and rip-off house owners by pretending the repairs are more expensive than need be.

With a traditional system, the tenant would be able to get hot water by using the electric immersion heater.

Rooms could be heated by portable electic radiators. These should be supplied by the LL and I would make a goodwill gesture to cover the increased costs to my tenant of using such heating.

I echo the comments re damp. More often than not it is the tenant who has caused the damp by drying clothes in the house. My ex-tenants used an unvented tumble dryer in an unvented cloakroom and expected me to fund the repair and redecoration (in the end I did because they left - owing rent and without giving notice - another story).

Whatever the rights and wrongs, the OP's sister should not need to chase tradesmen to fix the boiler. The LL is responsible for providing room heating and hot water.



GG

prudryden

As soon as possible can be a long time when dealing with outside independant business people whether they be roofers, plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers etc. There are very few that can drop their current job or put other jobs back a few days at a moment's notice and rush over to fix someone else's problem.

Mrs_Arkwright

Gorgeous_George wrote:

It does sound like LL is not being as proactive as she possibly could be.

I guess it's a Combi boiler. These are less than ideal in BTL properties IMHO. They fail for the smallest reason and leave the tenant with no hot water and no heating. CORGI gas 'engineers' are notoriousluy expensive and rip-off house owners by pretending the repairs are more expensive than need be.

With a traditional system, the tenant would be able to get hot water by using the electric immersion heater.

Rooms could be heated by portable electic radiators. These should be supplied by the LL and I would make a goodwill gesture to cover the increased costs to my tenant of using such heating.

I echo the comments re damp. More often than not it is the tenant who has caused the damp by drying clothes in the house. My ex-tenants used an unvented tumble dryer in an unvented cloakroom and expected me to fund the repair and redecoration (in the end I did because they left - owing rent and without giving notice - another story).

Whatever the rights and wrongs, the OP's sister should not need to chase tradesmen to fix the boiler. The LL is responsible for providing room heating and hot water.



GG

I take it there you mean 'some CORGI engineers......'. They are not all out to rip people off.

rach!_3

clutton you arenmt getting my point now, we want to know what we can do as this landlady is in breach of her contract, i am well aware of the other workmens responabilities etc but thats not our point, my sister has rung the workmen and they are coming today that will be sorted, this isnt my point she is breaching her contract and like i say if it were the other way round she would be down on my sisters backside like a tonne of bricks as i know from a friends previous experience what landlords can be like, and thank you gorgeous george for your comments, can i just ask do you think my sister is using a dryer?? she is actually only putting them on a clothes horse we in our family dont have dryers never have, have alwayts thought they use too much electric