letting agent advice

fluffybunni

Hi

I'm looking for a quick bit of advice before I head down to my letting agent.

Long story short is on 21st november we moved into a house. Was advertised as double glazing and white goods. Didnt realise until we move it that it was not double glazing and no washing machine and tumble dryer does not work. Luckily we had a washing machine anyway.
Day we moved in the kitchen flooded from a leak through an eletrical spot light in the ceiling from the shower. Was told no repairs could be done for two weeks and to use the bath!
To this day the leak still hasnt been fixed and since decemeber the gas oven only works when it wants too!
So update is, after 3 gas engineers they are 'looking' to replace the oven. A plumber has advised the bathroom and kitchen ceiling needs to be replaced due to wet ceiling and joist and black bathroom floor boards. Letting agent will only cover costs for shower basin re-sealing and re-grouting.
We have been told the agent and landlady were aware of this leak before we moved in and they did not tell us. they just painted over the ceiling and covered the black floor with a bath mat - we didnt think to look under this when viewing the property.
We have a 12 month lease, do we have any grounds to end it early with a months notice? We hate this place and for my own health I cannot deal with this letting agent anymore, they do not return calls, have no responded to conplaint letters, the list goes one.
Please any advice would be great!
Thank-you

SerialRenter

How long is the fixed period for your tenancy agreement?
Does it have a break clause?
As you're now just over 6 months in you'll be open to retaliatory evictions, but regardless of this I'd still press ahead with action.

You have a few options:
Easiest would be to just move out into a new rental. Although this is dependant on your break clause if you have one.

Report to your local environmental health officer from the council. They'll be able to visit the property, assess the situation and apply pressure to the landlord.

Another option is to follow shelters recommended procedure to fix problems yourself with rent money. Note that this must be followed very carefully as withholding rent is not normally recommended.
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/repairs_in_private_lets/landlord_refusing_to_do_repairs

If you do move out or get evicted, I'd urge you to still report the property to your local environmental health officer to prevent the landlord from simply re-letting the property and leaving a new tenant to be stuck in precisely the same situation.

mrginge

SerialRenter wrote: »

... retaliatory evictions....

What on earth does this mean??

SerialRenter

mrginge wrote: »

What on earth does this mean??

Situation where the landlord gets fed up of maintenance requests, legitimate or otherwise, or other communications or feedback through a letting agent and decides to evict as it's easier to do than actually deal with the problem.

It's not tolerated in America, and it's being considered as a defence over here. Which would be fantastic if tenants didn't feel bullied into hiding and not reporting issues about the house for fear of eviction.

fluffybunni

Thank-you. I would be happy to be evicted to be honest. We want to move and have started looking at new houses but we don't want to lose our deposit.
They are not fixing the leak to its entirety, just covering it up by re-grouting.
I can't deal with this letting agent anymore. I have the landlady address but according to the letting agent, she refused to call us when we requested it, to discuss the issues further. The pulmber said the ceiling will fall down if it's not fixed.
Also there are other endless issues with the house, dodgy electric sockets etc.
None of this was made clear to us and we want out.
I will take your advice and report to the EHO. I have severe asthma also so this is not helping the situation.
We have looked through our agreement and no where does it state a break claus. It's a 12 month contract and just states if we do not want to re-new then we must give 1 months notice. They did offer us a 6 month contract and now I wish we had taken it

SerialRenter

fluffybunni wrote: »

just states if we do not want to re-new then we must give 1 months notice. They did offer us a 6 month contract and now I wish we had taken it

Excellent that you're going to involve a EHO, they should be able to help lots. Although I've found sometimes they need chasing up as well.

Note that the statement saying you must give 1 month notice on the tenancy agreement is meaningless. A fixed term is a fixed term, it ends when it's meant to end unless you agree to continue on a rolling monthly or extent the fixed term. You do not have to give notice to leave the property on the last day of a fixed term.

Although letting agents may argue about it until blue in the face.

They're wrong.

fluffybunni

So there is nothing we can do to get out early??
We are going to ask them tonight if they will agree it, they hate us and now avoid our calls, always busy apparantly. We just want to get of this house!

SerialRenter

I'm afraid unless the house is unfit for human habitation it's unlikely that you could get out of the contract by giving any notice.

To leave you're options are pretty much limited to pestering the landlord/LL with the template letters from shelter and calls from the EHO and hoping they serve notice on you.

Then again, if the pestering works and the house gets repaired, would you then be happy to live there?

mrginge

SerialRenter wrote: »

Situation where the landlord gets fed up of maintenance requests, legitimate or otherwise, or other communications or feedback through a letting agent and decides to evict as it's easier to do than actually deal with the problem.

The LL can't 'decide to evict' within the fixed term, just like the tenant can't 'decide to leave'

Pixie5740

mrginge wrote: »

The LL can't 'decide to evict' within the fixed term, just like the tenant can't 'decide to leave'

The LL can issue a section 21 notice to kick off the proceedings which will eventually lead to eviction at any point during the tenancy. It's just that they won't be able to get the tenant out before the end of the fixed term unless there are extenuating circumstances such as rent arrears or using the property as a cannabis farm.

SerialRenter

mrginge wrote: »

The LL can't 'decide to evict' within the fixed term, just like the tenant can't 'decide to leave'

As Pixie says, the LL can serve notice whenever they want, even if the courts wont issue a possession order during the fixed term.
But more specifically I meant a mutual surrender of the tenancy, which the LL would presumably agree to if they wish to evict and/or have served notice.