Broken window in rented house

drummer_666

Hi,

I had a small crack on the inner panel of double glazed window.

I kept hearing a weird noise yesterday afternoon. Through the night I kept being woken up by this noise and today I looked and have seen that there are 2 massive cracks across most of the window

I just got my landlord around and he told me that the first crack is not on the inventory which they did before renting the house. I didn't take a photo of this when I moved in.

He has said as its from the inside I have to pay. I haven't done anything to the window.

Birds keep tapping the outside of the pain, I don't know if this is anything to do with it?

Can my landlord make me pay??

rentergirl

I suspect that unless it was mentioned on the inventory, you will find yourself paying. Did you notice it before? Can you meet your landlord and talk, or send a letter (put all this writing). I think the best you can expect is to agree to pay half each. But don't rely on it.

drummer_666

I have just googled and inner panels of double glazing can just crack / shatter for no reason, it's happened to quite a lot of people

some, something has been thrown at outside of window and only inner panel has broken. some they have just woken up and the inner pain is cracked

so i'm not alone on this weird panel cracking over night thing. will that help me make him pay? it's his house, i don't expect to be paying for repairing windows etc until i buy my house!

if he try's charging me depending on cost i'll just say no and he can take it out deposit at the end as i'm trying to buy a house and move out soon anyway

Brallaqueen

To be fair, the likelihood of something from outside breaking only the inner pane is quite small. Much more likely something on the inside did it! I can see your LL blaming you completely.

anselld

It could just as easily be a manufacturing or installation defect. If you genuinely have not done anything to cause this (even accidentally) then it is not your responsibility to repair. Challenge any deposit deduction through the protection scheme and see what they say.

jjlandlord

The landlord is responsible for repairs by law.
But obviously if tenant caused the damage then he's liable for pay it. It can be difficult to prove that tenant caused the damage, though.

nikki_angel

This happened to us recently and to be honest I just sorted it out and the LL doesn't know. I think it was from the window getting overheated as we were putting blackout lining and a thick throw over the net wire so there was no air circulating.

dimbo61

One of the window panels in our velux window shattered will we were in bed one sunny morning after freezing cold night.
I rang velux direct after finding out on the website that they had a recall notice.
You just need a new panel and unless its huge should be £80/100
Landlord should sort this

drummer_666

I haven't done anything to it at all. Haven't even touched the window in weeks and got no sleep last night coz of the weird noise that turned out to be the cracking

It's quite a large window about 36 by 28 inches, apparently only a few years old.

He is generally a decent landlord. Our toilet has blocked twice and he's paid for this. I think it's because it was never flushing brilliantly when we moved in, but now he's saying that he was doing us a favour paying for the toilet as they were local blockages (although only what is supposed to go down a toilet went down the toilet) and that he won't pay for the window

I guess I have to wait and see how much it costs firstly and ask for info, so I can check if there's a product recall

Does he have to prove I did it, or do I have to prove I didn't? Do you think the birds pecking at the window may have caused it? They were doing it constantly today... very strange!

It's just the last thing I need when I'm saving all my spare cash as I'm the process of buying a house

drummer_666

the window cracked more last night..

it didn't wake me up until it was light and it was the bird pecking at the window and I heard more cracking...

if the window is replaced will the birds keep pecking? that seems so weird that it is pecking at glass...

anselld

drummer_666 wrote: »

the window cracked more last night..

it didn't wake me up until it was light and it was the bird pecking at the window and I heard more cracking...

if the window is replaced will the birds keep pecking? that seems so weird that it is pecking at glass...

There is no way bird pecking can cause this. If the crack is growing it implies the glass is under stress, which in turn suggests a manufacturing or installation defect. For example it might be that there has been some structural movement which has placed the glass under strain or it has been fitted too tight to the fram so as not to allow sufficient expansion.