Private rental from letting agency

mildred44

Hi I wonder if anyone can help me. My moving indate to rented propert was yesterday. Phoned the letting agency at the beginning of last week to make sure everything was ok to go ahead as we would have to hire a van for moving and that our keys to current property were to be handed in our moving in date - they advised no problems. The letting agency called me on Thursday the day before moving and asked if we could postpone the move to Monday as tenant in property would now be moving out on the morning of our move in day. I advised that this would not be possible due to circumstances and they said that move in time for us would then have to be late afternoon. Went to LA and got keys and advised that they could not give us inventory as printer broken but would get this on Monday also smoke alarm would not be fitted until the monday and washing machine would also need to be repaired.

Got to the house and it was filthy with previous tenants rubbish still in the house and garden. We noticed that back dooe key was not given to us and called LA who advised that prev tenant would drop these into us that night (this never happened) and I was concerned that they still had access to the house. Went to the filthy bathroom and noticed that water running from the toilet and attempted to call LA but by this time office closed and emergency number for repairs only is all we had. Explained the situationand advised that someone would contact us to look at. Heating engineer arrived at 8.30pm and advised that toilet was faulty and required new part and plumber and that water would have to be switched off so unable to use filthy toilet. By this time I was beside myself and also have 6 month old baby and did not want her staying in filth. We had to ask around for somewhere to stay for the night and now do not want to stay in the property at all - it has been such a bad experience. It is now Saturday and still no keys from prev tannant and have had to extent van hire as I do not want any of my belongings in the house whenI know someone else has access and really don't know what to do now. Will have to go to LA on Monday - what are the chances of getting my money back, Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

pmlindyloo

The first and probably the most important thing, at least to start with, when did your tenancy begin? ie Did you sign a tenancy agreement to begin on the day you moved in?

mildred44

Thanks for your reply - yes we did. Tenancy agreement began Friday 7th June our moving in date

pmlindyloo

OK, first the bad news. You have entered into a contract which means that you are liable for the rent for the remaining period of the tenancy unless you get in writing an agreed early surrender from the landlord.

This is shoddy in the extreme.

Your tenancy started on the Friday so therefore it should have been ready for you to take possession on that day. The fact that the LA asked you to wait until the Monday suggests that they were aware that things may not be ready and they would need to 'fix things'.

For whatever reason they have messed up.

If the house is truly filthy and, more importantly, there is only one toilet which is not working, then you could stay in a B&B (similar) and present the bill to the LA/LL. Because there is no working toilet then the accommodation is not habitable.

You can ask the LA/LL to have the place cleaned/toilet fixed and a replacement lock/extra bolt for the back door and then move back in. Make sure you get an agreement in writing that the LA/LL will pay your accommodation fees until everything is fixed.

Once everything is sorted then get that inventory and go through it with a fine toothcomb.

Please take lots of dated photographs of the condition of the property. Send them to both the LA and LL with a detailed letter of your experiences. Keep all correspondence copied and send from PO keeping the receipt.

Of course you can telephone the LA/visit them in the first place but you need to keep written correspondence as insurance to protect your deposit.

Do not get 'fobbed off' by the LA. This is appalling.

The LL may be totally unaware of what has happened and may want to take this up personally with the LA which is why I suggest that you copy every letter to him/her.

PS Also bill them for the extended van hire.

mildred44

Thank you so much for your response we will get all of this in place this weekend and contact the LA Monday and will post an update of how we get on. Again I can't thank you enough.

pmlindyloo

Here are Shelter's contact details:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/about_us/contact_us

Take the phone number with you when you go to the LA and use it if the LA is not co-operative.

Fingers crossed for you.

ruggedtoast

mildred44 wrote: »

Hi I wonder if anyone can help me. My moving indate to rented propert was yesterday. Phoned the letting agency at the beginning of last week to make sure everything was ok to go ahead as we would have to hire a van for moving and that our keys to current property were to be handed in our moving in date - they advised no problems. The letting agency called me on Thursday the day before moving and asked if we could postpone the move to Monday as tenant in property would now be moving out on the morning of our move in day. I advised that this would not be possible due to circumstances and they said that move in time for us would then have to be late afternoon. Went to LA and got keys and advised that they could not give us inventory as printer broken but would get this on Monday also smoke alarm would not be fitted until the monday and washing machine would also need to be repaired.

Got to the house and it was filthy with previous tenants rubbish still in the house and garden. We noticed that back dooe key was not given to us and called LA who advised that prev tenant would drop these into us that night (this never happened) and I was concerned that they still had access to the house. Went to the filthy bathroom and noticed that water running from the toilet and attempted to call LA but by this time office closed and emergency number for repairs only is all we had. Explained the situationand advised that someone would contact us to look at. Heating engineer arrived at 8.30pm and advised that toilet was faulty and required new part and plumber and that water would have to be switched off so unable to use filthy toilet. By this time I was beside myself and also have 6 month old baby and did not want her staying in filth. We had to ask around for somewhere to stay for the night and now do not want to stay in the property at all - it has been such a bad experience. It is now Saturday and still no keys from prev tannant and have had to extent van hire as I do not want any of my belongings in the house whenI know someone else has access and really don't know what to do now. Will have to go to LA on Monday - what are the chances of getting my money back, Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Next to zero I would have thought. You have signed a legally binding contract to live there and pay rent and bind you they will.

There is no legislation at all in an AST to ensure places are clean or that you have the right number of keys when you move in. The landlord's only obligation is to ensure the property is safe according to legislation, and that repairs are done, but they have no time limit at all in which to effect these.

By all means call and complain, but you should also write a letter to the landlord, send with proof of postage, and cc in the letting agent complaining that the house is not habitable at the moment and insist that it is professionally cleaned forthwith.

You can change the lock (if its a barrel lock this is easy to do) as long as you return the original when you move out.

Edit: I would certainly be asking for a refund of the days rent for when there wasnt a working loo as well.