Renting a property with no Habitation certs.

bawheed

Hi All,

Myself and partner have been living in a brand new rented house for nearly a year now. It was a new build on private land buy the owner of the land and lay empty for about a year prior to us moving in.
To cut a long story short we have found out the building has no certificate of habitation.
I contacted the local council who said a temprary application had been applied for but that it only lasted six months and was no longer applicable.
So from a leagal point where do we stand. The property was let through a ligit letting agency and i have a lot of valubles which is no not coverd by our home insurance as they are say building should not be lived in.
P.S I live in Scotland as i know some laws are differ from the rest of the country.

tbs624

So essentially the Temp Occupation Cert had expired before you even moved into the property?

Send a copy of your tenancy agreement to the Building Standards Officer and ask him/her to formally confirm that there was no Cert of Completion in place after expiry of the temp cert.

See s21 of the Building (Scotland) Act 2003

Is your LL/LA registered as required by law in Scotland?

Have you spoken to either the LL or LA about this?

You may want to contact Shelter Scotland for specific guidance and/or talk to the local Council tenancy relations officer

G_M

What outcome do you want? By raising this with the local authorities/making it an issue you may find yourselves homeless.....

I would quietly start looking for a new home to rent, move on, and leave the owner to deal with the issue.

bawheed

If i do decide to make an issue of this apart from moving house what sort of legal posistion will i be in as thats nearly £10,000 in rent they have had from me for a house that does not meet leagal requirments. Will i be intitled to some sort of compensation or i i best just to move on and let it be someone else's problem.

Kilty_2

bawheed wrote: »

If i do decide to make an issue of this apart from moving house what sort of legal posistion will i be in as thats nearly £10,000 in rent they have had from me for a house that does not meet leagal requirments. Will i be intitled to some sort of compensation or i i best just to move on and let it be someone else's problem.

What "compensation" do you think you deserve? What losses have you suffered apart from moving costs?

bawheed

Anything i can get as ive never faulted on my rent agreement so there must be somthing that can be done to protect my rights if i have to move due to legaly paying for a product /service which does not meet regulation standards through no fault of my own.
I might sound like a money grabber but if you bought something that was not satisfactory you would take it back and get a refund or be givin a similar item.

silvercar

It has not effected how you live in the property, so no compensation would be due.

However, if you are forced to leave earlier than the end of the fixed term of your contract or without your legally entitled notice period then you could have a claim.

bawheed

Yea silvercar just got of the phone to buiding standards officer and he said the same thing.
As its not my house i dont have any comeback however i may be intitled to ask for my deposit back early from the letting agency if i have to find alternate accomodation due to the agecy letting a property unfit for purpose.
Im so angry its a great looking house and its close to our sons school. But should the unthinkable happen (fire,flood or theft) im not covered by insurance which means i loose out.
Its not worth the risk.
Let that be a lesson to all out there if you are renting a brand new house ensure it has a compleations certifcate as if you move into the house and something happens in your home your insurance will not cover any damages or loss of personal belongings

Kilty_2

bawheed wrote: »

Anything i can get

Oh great, another "compo compo compo compo" type.

Your username is appropriate.

Joyful

Is it too simplistic to ask your Landlord to get the certificates?

david29dpo

As i see it the only "loss" is invalid contents insurance. To date you have suffered no loss so it is very unlikely you have a claim for anything from your land Lord.
Get the facts from the horses month (LandLord) and take it from there.