Student rental problems

CharlieRabbit01

BigAunty wrote: »

Probably also not want you want to hear, but as I mentioned earlier, as an admin assistant in a Uni accommodation office, despite frequent reports of rogue landlords by students we also used to get inundated with complaints by landlords about student rent arrears, damage and anti social behaviour...

I can back up bigaunty on the uni involment. I work at a university and we advise students on what they can do, but cannot get involved.

mumps

We were obviously lucky with DDs university, she had a big problem with damp and then a leak which flooded the house. They called the evening when it started, nothing happened. Following morning they called the agent, nothing, walked up to agents, nothing. I called uni accommodation, passed to welfare office. He said he would call the agent, give them to the end of business day to get things moving or he would go to the house and if it was as I described, it was, then he would move them all into emergency accommodation and get legal help for them to end the tenancy and report them to local authority. Two hours later the owner arrived with a team of builders, leak fixed, dehumidifiers in place and other repairs done over the next few days. I was really impressed but a little bit of me was hoping he would end up moving them out and getting the tenancy ended so they could move on but at least the house was now dry and warm.

BigAunty

VanyaHargreeves wrote: »

...

Looking at the rules on HMO licencing that you linked to me - yes, the house is a HMO; there are 5 unrelated students living here and we share the bathroom and kitchen. I believe that there's no licence, which is why we've had so many people come and inspect the house. We also fall into one of the areas that requires "additional licencing for smaller houses" as in the page you linked.

When did the council identify this and what are they doing about it?

If they've been as weak and unthorough and non-communicative at addressing this breach as they did with the HRSS inspection that seemed no more than a casual browse, I suggest you escalate it with the council and your MP. I'd be pressing for prosecution if I were you.

mulronie

VanyaHargreeves wrote: »

They are "looking into the matter and seeing what they can do".

We have sent the agency a written letter requesting our landlord's contact information, as we were not given this when we moved in - in fact, our contract states that we are not under any circumstances to contact the landlord personally. But we've been told that legally they have to give us the landlord's information within 21 days of receiving written notice, so we're waiting for that..

The 21 days is correct; it's enshrined under Section 1, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 for reference. Your agent commits a criminal offence and risks a £2500 fine if they fail to provide it in time.

However you need to tell the agent to stop messing about and get the landlord to comply with Section 48, Landlord & Tenanct Act 1987:

A landlord of premises to which this Part applies shall by notice furnish the tenant with an address in England and Wales at which notices (including notices in proceedings) may be served on him by the tenant.

Your rent is not lawfully due until you are given this information.

As soon as you have it, start dealing with the landlord direct by mail. It's his property and his problem.

He'll already have headaches with the HMO poo-storm that you should be kicking up, but I would also take a look into whether your deposit was protected properly, and that you were, in good time, given the proper Terms & Conditions etc.

thegirlintheattic

- Any items that are damaged e.g. sofa/window. Put in writing and ask the LL to fix. Make sure your inventory (you did sign one didn't you?) listed the damage that was there when you moved in or you may be charged. Shelter will give you the steps to take to enforce repairs.
- The vent and wall thing is not your concern.
- Water issues are generally an issue for the water company - contact them about the discolored water.
- The council has told you the mould is not rising damp. Mould is usually caused by bad habits by occupiers - i.e. not ventilating the house, drying clothes in bedrooms, not having heating on etc. Most LL will do nothing if this is the case.
- Your LL is right, you should have got contents insurance. Not their problem you brought an expensive dress into a property that YOU say has mould growing on anything left for more than a few days, and didn't take any steps to protect it.
- Insulation is not really your concern, although it is probably not helping the damp. You can help yourself with some insulation. The preparing for winter thread is your friend there.
- Most contracts say pest control is the job of the tenant.

VanyaHargreeves

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

- Any items that are damaged e.g. sofa/window. Put in writing and ask the LL to fix. Make sure your inventory (you did sign one didn't you?) listed the damage that was there when you moved in or you may be charged. Shelter will give you the steps to take to enforce repairs.
- The vent and wall thing is not your concern.
- Water issues are generally an issue for the water company - contact them about the discolored water.
- The council has told you the mould is not rising damp. Mould is usually caused by bad habits by occupiers - i.e. not ventilating the house, drying clothes in bedrooms, not having heating on etc. Most LL will do nothing if this is the case.
- Your LL is right, you should have got contents insurance. Not their problem you brought an expensive dress into a property that YOU say has mould growing on anything left for more than a few days, and didn't take any steps to protect it.
- Insulation is not really your concern, although it is probably not helping the damp. You can help yourself with some insulation. The preparing for winter thread is your friend there.
- Most contracts say pest control is the job of the tenant.

1. Yes we did sign an inventory, however some things have become evident after we signed it, such as the vent/wall thing.
2. There's a hole in the wall, leading to the outside world, which aside from being a frightening place is quite cold at the moment. It's letting quite a bit of cold air in and because we have to have the windows open anyway, it means that the house is extra cold and we don't like the fact that we have to have the heating on and we're not reaping any benefits from having it on. It's freezing all the time.
3. We spoke to a water company about it and they told us that we had to get our landlord to look at our pipes. Not really sure what that's about.
4. As I've stated a few times already, we have done all that we physically can except stopping breathing to prevent and discourage the mould growth. So I really don't see what else we can do.
5. This is the first time that I personally have had mould growing on my personal items when left in my room. I've had glasses of water go mouldy and Charlie has had items in HER room go mouldy. Furthermore I don't see why I should pay extra to have something so basic - do you, when you look to rent a property, factor in the price of taking out contents insurance to make sure that your stuff doesn't get damaged by a fault of the property?
6. Insulation is our concern when we're freezing our butts off even with the heating turned on high. We're all students, we don't have much money and we can't afford to have the heating on high 24/7, so there are periods of the day where the heating is turned down to low. It won't be so much of a problem now that it's getting warmer (if there are no more freak snowstorms!) but that week when it snowed was hell.
7. As stated in this thread before, the pests were here before we were. So we expect the landlord to sort it out.

VanyaHargreeves

BigAunty wrote: »

I'm not saying that they are directly involved with pest control, just that it should be on their radar as a hazard - it could well be the case that they discharged their responsibility with this left hand telling you that the right hand will deal with it if you raise it but if they didn't even look for cracks, holes and voids, it seems quite cursory. I don't even know that there is an obligation for them to produce anything in writing but verbal findings does seem a bit lazy.

It's just that if you think their assessment is weak or flawed, if you disbelieve condensation as the primary cause, then at least you know now that you could appeal it, demand another assessment or escalate your disatisfaction to your MP. As well as the EHO hazard assessment appeal process, the council should have its own general complaints process and then there's the council ombudsman, too.

Hope that's clearer. I happen to think your main attack should be the HMO flaws and going through the formal repairs notification/rent witholding process - they got Al Capone on tax evasion, after all.

If tenant behaviour did result in the mould and pest problem (" a crumb is a meal to a mouse!") then this is only the start of your problems as you might not see a penny of your deposits and might even find the landlord chases you via the courts for extra costs. Were your deposits placed in a deposit scheme? Do you have proof of this?

I know that it's probably the first time you've all lived away from home but I'm not impressed that so far into your tenancy, and with so many of you allegedly having research and communication skills, you are still in a mouldy, damp, pest ridden property with broken furniture. I know that you've contacted various bodies and they've not been particularly effective on your behalf but there does seem to be a lot of dawdling. I take it that your flatmates have dumped this issue onto you?

PS - I know that Brighton council has farcicly bad services. My partner rented out their private property for 3 years on their private sector leasing scheme which encourages landlords to consider letting the council manage their properties. She had the property returned in a totally trashed fashion, many months after the tenants should have left (they refused to leave until the council gave them a nice council place and the housing officers admitted that they couldn't evict the tenant because of the Human Rights Act). We thought they had opened up an anti social case against the tenant because of the frequent police visits and complaints by neighbours about their behaviour, only to find out belatedly that they dismissed every report as unsubstantiated hearsay.

My housemates' interest in the issue fluctuates really, sometimes they do all the work, sometimes they just don't care.

I can't remember if I said - apparently the last council person to inspect the house (I was out) told us that the agency have officially submitted an application for a licence to be registered as a HMO.

The damp inspectors that were supposed to come today between 3-4 did not turn up. The contractor who was meant to replace our kitchen yesterday also did not turn up. I tried calling the agency today but apparently the woman who deals with our property normally is not in today, so there's nothing they can do.

I tried calling EH again yesterday but got put on hold and gave up after about half an hour. Will try again tomorrow.

We're preparing ourselves to take the agency to small claims court to get our deposits back, we've had written promise that we will not be charged for removal of the mould in the bathroom and in charlie's bedroom but we don't trust the agency. We also spoke to quite a few second and third years, and they told us that when they rented by the agency, they had a lot of trouble getting their deposits back too. My housemate says yes, it was through a deposit scheme though.

VanyaHargreeves

Ooooh, also, I've just been informed that the agency has booked someone to come over next week to deal with the mice. Success! Now, whether they actually turn up is a different story...

RAS

You need a bit of a house meeting.

You also need to get stuff in writing rather than ringing. If you are fighting to get you deposit back a phone call is useless.

WRITE ( paper and pen not e-mail) to the LL and EA listing the problems and all the dates when each one has been reported and all the failures to deliver (like the one's today and yesterday). Thank them if they have actually done anything. Send two copies from different postoffice and get certificates of posting (free).

You do also need to understand the law. If your deposit is registered, you claim the deposit back from the scheme not the courts. The LL tries to reduce it and puts in a dispute. If you use the dispute procedure, the LL has to prove you caused the damage.

Have you been sent the prescribed information regarding the deposit scheme? Find out and if this was nt done within 30 days of the tenancy starting you can claim upto 3 times the deposit.

RAS

By the way, you do realise that any muppet can start a letting or estate agency with no qualifications and no legal training?