Help for my sister please

clutton_2

well said and me too GG

by the way GG - that quiz was most interesting - showed me what a good "people" person i am - although not necessarily on forums !!!!!!!!!!

franklee

Gorgeous_George wrote:

I think, in this case, it may be possible that the LL is not happy that the tenant has not maintained the property in a satisfactory condition. The damp problem has more than likely been caused by the tenant being a bit thick. By not providing suitable ventilation and drying clothes inside, this tenant has probably caused many £££s worth of damage to the landlord's property. Many rooms may well need to be redecorated and the cost could easily outweigh any deposit that may have been paid.

I am quite staggered you reach this conclusion based on the information posted. Apart from the fact that we all dry our clothes inside this time of year (it's been raining here for days), to protect the house you need heating and ventilation. Now in Rach's case she's clearly stated there is ventilation, post #4:

rach! wrote:

i know my sister does open windows etc if she has clothes drying in the house.

What's more there seems to be no heating, post #13:

rach! wrote:

i have just spoken to my sister 5 mins ago, the bloke can put a boiler in today, the landlady wont do it as she wants central heating in and that cant be done until 2 weeks time.

post #17

rach! wrote:

he gas fire in the living room doesnt work, that is the only source of heating well that and a electric radiator in the landing/hallway area

Of course apart from clothes washing other living activities such as cooking and showering produce water moisture. Again the tenant should provide ventilation and heating to clear this but in a house without heating and where the tenant does open the windows it seems hugely biased of you to assume the damp is the tenant's fault.

Installation of bad quality double glazing just makes the problems worse as it seals the house up even more, cutting down ventilation. I do not know what the cowboy's newly installed double glazing is like but if it doesn't allow for the tenant to lock open windows a small amount then it makes providing ventilation much harder.

Some of the other "advice" has been shocking too. If even the good landlords think a month without hot water is acceptable then goodness knows what the bad ones do:

clutton wrote:

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.

I would have asked you to replace the boiler. When you are running a business you do not have the luxury of this kind of downtime, what if it fails again? You should have a boiler with more easily sourced spares and accessible repair men or insurance. At the very least you should have provided access to a working shower, how can a family last a month without proper bath or shower (maybe a deal with a local B&B or health club)? Maybe you should try it and see if you can face people without having washed properly for weeks. I would say the limit of acceptable downtime for hot water is a week, maybe two at the very extreme.

prudryden

Rockin' mama also said in the first post that she didn't know "all the ins and outs." That's probably the only rational thing she has said thus far. People came on here to help initially especially GG. But some things that were said did not agree with her preconceptions and thus she flew into tantrums. So the possible help she would have received has been withdrawn.

rach!_3

gorgeous george who in the hell do you think you are to call my sister thick??
and prudryden you are talking out of your backside
and gorgeous george i expect an apology, its bad enough that most of you have pulled me down but to do it to my family you are bang out of order, you know nothing of what you are talking about and are talking out of your backsides

i do say tho thank you franklee for actually seeing it from our point and not the point of that as a landlord as the rest of them its very much appreciated

oh and tantrums??? im 27 !!!!!!

thesaint

Rach!,

If you have advice that you believe is good, then take it and ask your sister to use it to sort out her problem. Although sympathetic, I do not believe that the advice you agree with on this thread will sort out the problem at hand.
We can give you tea and sympathy, but it achieves nothing with the landlady in question.

I don't think that anybody agrees that your landlady is in the right. We know what the landlady should be doing, but it ultimately boils down to "What are you going to do about it"?
If you believe that you having contact with the landlady would " Have it sorted", then it would be best for you to do so.

When you punctuate sentences with !!! and ???, and use !!!!!! and !!!!!!, it comes across as very aggressive, and so I guess that is why people have taken your posts as aggressive.
This may not be the case, but maybe you can see what is putting people's backs up?

I do hope your sister gets it sorted out.

Liseyloo_2

Perhaps your sister could visit a local legal advice clinic and speak to someone who specialises in Landlord and Tenant issue - I am only Conveyancing I am afraid so can;t really help.

Most local Solicitors have a free clinic once a week or send her along to the CAB

franklee

rach!, Take at look at this post, written by paul_f, a very experienced and well respected member of landlord zone:

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=4478&postcount=3

I hope it helps, if you want to read the rest of the thread the link is at the top right labelled Thread:

If this drags on too long then the place to complain to is the Environmental Health department at your local authority, but I'd say it's too soon for that yet.

PS if this isn't sorted soon and you sister does make any complaints then be sure she mentions there are children in the household. Meanwhile keep written records and dates of what was said to the landlord and the replies and the engineers visits.

seven-day-weekend

This is one of the reasons I have a British Gas Homecare plan for my house in the UK (lived in by our son and two lodgers). Try getting a Corgi plumber at short notice. With Homecare they are out the next day.

As regards the condensation - We had an investment flat and the last tenant left it with mould growing all over the walls. We had to redecorate three rooms before we sold it. It had never happened before with other tenants. A surveyor said it was due to inadequate ventilation. The house had plenty of windows, all of which opened.

thesaint

franklee wrote:

rach!, Take at look at this post, written by paul_f, a very experienced and well respected member of landlord zone:

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=4478&postcount=3

I hope it helps, if you want to read the rest of the thread the link is at the top right labelled Thread:

If this drags on too long then the place to complain to is the Environmental Health department at your local authority, but I'd say it's too soon for that yet.

PS if this isn't sorted soon and you sister does make any complaints then be sure she mentions there are children in the household. Meanwhile keep written records and dates of what was said to the landlord and the replies and the engineers visits.

The post on the landlordzone forum suggests witholding rent, the tenant does not have a right to withold rent and could find themselves in court and have to pay court costs as well as the missing rent.

There is no time limit to get these repairs done, so the landlord has not broken the law.

Involving the enviromental health will probably ensure that the tenant gets an eviction notice the next day, the tenant can go to court and try and get some compensation for the non-working boiler, but this is hit and miss.

The O.P. needs to be aware of the downfalls of taking the action suggested.
Like many others have said, it would be best to move out?

rach!_3

thank you liseyloo and frankleei will look at the link later as i am off to see my sister now,
i use !!!!!! and !!!!!! because you are all(except a few) saying in being childish when really you are all being childish by not looking at it from both sides only from the side of the landlady because i presume most of you are landlords/ladys yourselfs, but unless you are all dodgy then you shouldnt really be sticking up for her because it is people like her that give you all a bad name, oh and by the way why does using several exclamation marks or question marks make me come across as aggresive?? I use them in emails and texts and have never been accused of being aggresive cos of it.
and the only time i have really been aggresive is when someone came on here and called my sister thick i think she needs to taker a look in the mirror