Landlord won't address year old snagging list before renewal and rent increase

Stakkertoo

Almost a year has passed since I used these boards, and here I am again with the 2nd consecutive useless landlord. Surely a symptom of the buy-to-let boom.

We moved in last October, and immediately informed the Landlord of a number of issues around the house that needed addressing as per the house being let.

Things as small, but essential as:

• installing a deadlock in the front door to replace the previous one which looks like it's been drilled out by a burglar.
• The main oven in a house of 6 people doesn't work because a control knob needed replacing from day one (we have a smaller oven so have been using that).
• Halogen light-fittings fallen out of bathroom ceiling. (one into the bath, one into the shower, leaving wires exposed)
• Green algae caking the Conservatory roof, which she refuses to cover the 35 quid to clean. (i don't think this counts as standard 'window cleaning', especially seeing as it was filthy when we moved in so can't beleive that it's the tenants responsibility??)
• A shed full of garbage that makes it unfit for purpose, that she has refused to clear.

These things seem to have been beyond the landlord, who just got sniffy with us for suggesting that we rented a house of a certain standard and these things should be dealt with as per the house being advertised and let.

10 months later, we still haven't had these things done.


Now the main joke; in the height of winter, for 30 days during jan/feb when the temperature was -4 degrees at night, we were without hot water/heating thanks to the boiler breaking down and the landlord and her contractors ineptitude or lack of care.

When we complained after 3 weeks of freezing household, that she might consider compensating us for having to spend money on electric heaters/stay in hotel/with friends for a month, she effectively said she'd kick us out if we with-held rent. we were advised to just keep paying rent and save any (legal?) action against her for when we left the property.



You can see the lovely kind of person we're dealing with....

And so to conclude, the coup-de-grace: approaching the end of the tenancy, presumably to thank us for having to deal with all this over the last year, she's asked us to accept a 5% rent increase (£220 extra a month)

We decided to push back and hoped for a compromise based on her carrying out the repairs that we'd been waiting on for the last 10 months.


Rather than meet us in the middle, she's basically said, she will only do the repairs if we accept the full rent increase, with literally no negotiation.



What are our rights as per a tenancy agreement? Surely you can't blackmail tenants by the threat of eviction, to accept a rent increase by only agreeing to carry out repairs, if we accept.

The callousness of landlords in London beggars belief, and i've half a mind to move out, but for the fact it would end up costing me more to move less than 12 months since i last moved (i was hoping for a long tenancy)

chanz4

speak to your local council

HappyMJ

Providing a lock isn't really up to the landlord. I read something some time ago that only about 20% of rented properties have locks up to insurance standards. If you want a lock then you install it yourself (with the landlords permission of course).

If the oven doesn't work and the oven is a fixture (not one that can be moved) then really I wouldn't have waited this long I would have written to the landlord giving till the next rent due date (but at least 14 days or so) and if not fixed I would have fixed it myself deducting the repair cost from the rent.

If the electrical fixtures are falling apart then again I would have done the same thing. If you undertake repairs on your own you must get multiple quotes and the electricians who quote must also agree that it is dangerous...they may even decide to cut that circuit off for safety reasons.

Algae on the window...well too bad about that one as long as you mentioned it at the beginning and it doesn't get worse then the landlord can't deduct anything from your deposit.

You say landlord would kick you out for withholding rent...well let them..it doesn't sound like a place you want to be staying in anyway. It'll take months to kick you out and they won't be getting any rent from you at all.

BitterAndTwisted

Once you accept the rent-increase your bargaining power will be gone. In your place I would make it a condition that the repairs are carried out before your current fixed-term ends, on the promise that you will re-sign.

Or, of course you could move out on the day your fixed-term ends without informing your landlord in advance and make her suffer a void-period between tenancies. Naturally, this could make her determined to hold onto your deposit.

It all depends on how keen you are to remain in the property rather than bearing the expense and inconvenience of a move.

I have to say that not all of the things you complain of are what would be considered necessary repairs. The lack of central-heating is unfortunate but not absolutely the landlady's fault. Once the sub-zero temperatures kicked in, heating engineers probably would have been inundated with work and spares aren't necessarily available immediately, and the landlady was under absolutely no obligation to reimburse you for paying for whatever alternative sources of heating you chose to use. This would have happened if you had been a home-owner as well.

DRP

Stakkertoo wrote: »

Rather than meet us in the middle, she's basically said, she will only do the repairs if we accept the full rent increase, with literally no negotiation.

definitely don't do this - you will have absolutely no leverage once you start paying the additional rent...

RAS

Contact the Private tenancy relation officer at the Council.

And read the shelter web-site on how to ask for and then action certain repairs.

Because you have one oven she might get away with that but the lighting in the bathroom sounds plain dangerous.

Idiophreak

You're paying £4k + per rent?

I'd make it clear to the LL that this will add up fairly quickly once you stop paying and they need to try and get you out of the place...Is it really worth them losing 10s of thousands for the sake of a couple of hundred quid in repairs?

To be honest, you're in a much stronger position to be playing hard ball than the LL.

Stakkertoo

Don't get me wrong, its a lovely house, but I feel like we're being treated like mugs, in that her default response to any reasonable request has been to threaten us with giving us our notice.

As for the snagging list, we gave her this back in October, within 3 weeks of moving in. We reiterated it with a letter later in the year, then again when the boiler issue reached a head in mid/late feb.

She has refused our requests for responses in writing and has basically either left testy voicemails or more recently been communicating about the price increase and her refusal to budge, via the letting agent.

martinsurrey

Idiophreak wrote: »

You're paying £4k + per rent?

I'd make it clear to the LL that this will add up fairly quickly once you stop paying and they need to try and get you out of the place...Is it really worth them losing 10s of thousands for the sake of a couple of hundred quid in repairs?

To be honest, you're in a much stronger position to be playing hard ball than the LL.

but equally, the LL will counter with, do you each want a £10k+ CCj on your file and having to find a new house without a reference, because here is a s21 notice...

not on the LL side, but just thinking of reactions to actions

HappyMJ

martinsurrey wrote: »

but equally, the LL will counter with, do you each want a £10k+ CCj on your file and having to find a new house without a reference, because here is a s21 notice...

not on the LL side, but just thinking of reactions to actions

I would assume the poster would have put the money to one side and tried to defend the case. If the landlord were to win then the tenant can pay the CCJ and it will NOT be on their file. I doubt the landlord in this case would give a good reference in any case. Nagging tenants wanting stuff fixed although legitimately aren't good tenants for that landlord. They sound like they want quiet tenants that don't complain.

sare_2

I know the boiler was fixed but has the landlord got the correct (and legally required) safety checks done? The wiring situation makes me think probably not.