rent rebate

conniemander

our landlord seems to take forever to get anything fixed and when he does its botched. just wondering if we could claim some sort of rent discount for all the hassle.
1: end last year some time: every time we turned the oven on the electricity cut out so obviously we had to stop using the oven. took a week for letting agent to ring us to say they'd informed landlord after we'd left a message on their 'emergency' answerphone, another week for lanlord to contact us, then a further 4 weeks until oven replaced: 6 weeks total without oven feeding two adults and toddler on a very unreliable electric hob.
2; last nov. sometime: water starts pouring through kitchen ceiling, lino starts floating inch off the floor, cupboards full of water, ceiling starts to bow. upstairs neighbour (same LL) not in. rang letting agent (during office hours) on emergency line, left a message, got back to me 8 hours later, by which point there is a hole in the ceiling but water has stopped. told plumber will be round tommorrow. cleaned up mess. plumber arrives next morning to look at damage, told me he'd been called a week ago but he was told not an emergency, apparently neighbours had been plugging a leaking toilet cistern with towels for that time. therefore totally avoidable.
3: 2 weeks after flooding: LL arrives with teenage builder who glues pieces of ceiling back up and paints over cracks, spraying kitchen utensils with large blobs of paint which have never come off. next day watermarks show through dodgy paint job.
4: jan: LL comes back with the 'monkey' as we have dubbed builder. tells me he needs to spray ceiling with sealant. LL leaves and i wait in next room (6 mths pregnant) with toddler while monkey sprays ceiling, spraying away with nothing to stand on and nothing over his mouth (this stuff stinks the flat out and i can hear him choking and wheezing). after about an hour he leaves quickly, closing the kitchen door behind him. i peek around door and find everything, including freshly bought weeks fruit and veg, covered in fine powder. he'd also painted the ceiling again with a roller and so also covered everything in paint spots. kitchen absolute mess. it takes me two days to B]scour every single surface from ceiling to floor, throwing out all food, scraping paint off utensils/hobs/new cd player from partner for christmas etc. some cds which had been left out needed to go in the bin as i obviously coudnt scour them. worried that i was inhaling something that could harm unborn baby as powder was coating my face as i cleaned so was obviously air bourne. very very angry. complained to letting agent, no word from LL.
5: feb 9th: burgled. police came round to take statement and said it would have been easily avoidable if door had had secure lock in the first place (it had simply been pushed open). luckily only partners bike stolen from hallway, worth about £4000 (his baby) but was insured and is replacable. LL arrived three days later with monkey to replace lock. seems irritated that weve put him out.
6: Feb 10th: boiler stops working as pressure has dropped. luckily I know how to fill it up so can get hot water and heating but needs filling every 2 hours. LL arrived, had a look and admitted he knew nothing about boilers, then left. week later get a call from plumber saying will be round next week. next week ring to say he cant make it. does this several times. finally turns up 5th march, looks at boiler, tells me whats wrong then says he cant do anything until has been given go ahead by LL. have currently been refilling boiler approx every 2 hrs for 25 days and counting. am having to get up in the night to do it also (now nearly 8 mnths pregnant) and not happy.
7: last weekend: electricity cuts out. ring edf who come round next morning. very nice engineer replaces meter but tells me i must inform the LL that meter is too high up (is 8ft off floor and must be no more than 6ft). edf will do this for free but need LL permission as is not my property. left message with letting agent monday but as yet no reply.
8: today: phonecall from building company saying their quote for repairing and redecorating kitchen ceiling has been given the go ahead and when should they do the work. explain its already been done which confuses woman on phone who says she'll get back to me. cant have been a company fishing as she knew it was leak into kitchen from upstairs bathroom, and gave name of letting agent. im confused as to how they decided upon quote, does this mean theyve been in the flat when we werent there? rang letting agent to find out whats going on, once again had to leave message, as yet no reply.
our rent was put up just before christmas, and yet there just seems to be one problem after another. takes ages to get response from LL but when he does get back to me he says he'll be round in 15/20 mins. hes supposed to give 24hrs notice but as it takes so long to get response i just agree and cancel whatever i'm doing just so it gets done. also found out upstairs neighbours refused to pay rent increase which was accepted, but we'd already signed new lease (at end of old one). sorry to go on and sorry if this is on the wrong place but surely must be able to get some sort of rent rebate for all the hassle? lease signed until sept 07 plus new baby on the way, plus we cant afford a deposit on a new place. please help!

clutton_2

what a sorry tale of woes - i can understand your frustrations. I do have to say, tho, that leaving fresh food and presents out when ceiling repairs were about to happen was perhaps a little thoughtless on your part ?

I am a landlady and spend half my time phoning builders to get them to do jobs - its the nature of the business, and it can take a lot of time to get repairs done. Any builder who can come at a moments notice, is usually rubbish in my view.

If you stop paying the rent the landlord can take you to court and will get you out - baby or no baby.

If you choose to only report problems to the landlord directly, (on the grounds that the letting agent rarely seem to report to him quickly) so that he can repair small jobs (which are cheaper) rather than waiting for them to become bigger jobs (expensive) - he might want to deal with you directly. Seems to me he is paying for a rubbish service from his LA - perhaps he is not aware how long it takes the LA to report to him ?

The other way might be - next tiem there is a job to do, write directly to the landlord and suggest that if it is not done within x days you will get it done yourself , give him the receipt and deduct it from next months rent. this might move him !!"!"!

conniemander

if i had known what he'd be doing i would have happily cleared out kitchen completely but as usual he turned up with no notice and i didnt realise what was going on until it was too late. also his 'builder' doesnt seem to be a proffessional, it could even be his son etc earning some cash on the side. i didnt realise he would paint the entire kitchen ceiling either, as it didnt need doing because i'd done it myself (with permission) and no mess recently, without having to evacuate everything.

also have asked landlord for his number but he won't supply it, saying i should deal with LA, but even in emergencies (like when the drain outside backed up and came through back door ruining the carpet which i forgot to mention) they said they couldnt do anything without his direct permission, even if he wasnt available.

i understand builders etc can be difficult and that this property is there for profit not a hobby but he genuinely doesnt seem to care at all what state we're living in, until of course our lease expires and we try to claim the deposit back.

if he'd just treat it like a business and except that sometimes he has to put himself out or pay for services i'd be happy that he was trying.

theres more i forgot to mention:

the cat flap door has fallen off (yes we do have a cat who uses it regularly but i dont think i can blame the cat as hes using it for the correct purpose!) leaving a large hole in the back door through which the wind is blowing straight in and alot of heat is escaping. we really dont have any money at all to fix it (have 70p in my purse to last 3 days) but weve complained so much recently. was wondering what peoples opinion on whos responsibility this would be (cat flap was already here when we arrived a year ago and LL knew we were bringing a cat)

also when you overfill the bath the water goes down the overflow thingy and soaks the carpet. we thought for a while that it was our daughter splashing but on close observation realised it wasnt, and took bath panel off to find that there is nothing connecting the overflow to drains. yes i know we could just be more careful when filling bath but its just another example of botched work in our flat.

also (okay we can live with it) but the paint on the walls in the bathroom which was redone just before we moved in is obviously the wrong type because if you brush against walls when wet from shower/bath the paint comes off on your skin as a powder, and bathroom is tiny so your pretty much guaranteed to get it on you somewhere after washing.

lifted carpet in the hallway the other day (its not fixed down and seems to move around by itself) to find no underlay and the draught was blowing with some force through gaps in floorboards through which i could actually see the rubble several feet below.

god i do go on sorry but there is just so much botched diy in this place and its so easy to get frustrated/angry when heavily pregnant and v.poor.