Being made temporarily homeless by private landlord while girlfriend pregnant – help!

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If this experience has caused you mental distress then good luck with the rest of your life, you are in for a rough ride!

CH27

VicariousThrills wrote: »

I don't know what sum we are talking about. That was why I was posting here - I was wondering whether there was any case law which established what was reasonable here.

We had been on a two year tenancy with a one year break, so the landlord has not been able to give us notice. However, we've just reached the break clause, so he can now. So as you say, it may be more trouble than it's worse. I hadn't thought of this, thanks.

We pay through the nose to live in this property - far more than the mortgage costs. We are consistently treated with contempt. I have reason to believe the landlord was not granted permission by his mortgage provider to let the property, that there was never planning permission to convert the house into flats, meaning the house is an unlicensed HMO, and in fact the house is in a conservation area where splitting houses into flats is forbidden. And yet the landlord and letting agent know they could fill this flat in two seconds if we left. One political party really needs to improve the situation in the PRS because this is a complete joke.

So why stay there?

Kynthia

It is disgusting as it seems that the landlord deceived you by saying you only needed you out for one night. If they had been upfront about how major the works they were planning were and how long you'd be out, you'd have possibly insisted on being rehoused somewhere. Their deception meant that you weren't prepared and had to find somewhere to stay for the subsequent nights with no notice and did not have all the stuff you needed.


Keep a record of all the expenses you are incurring for food, laundry, new items, travel, etc including receipts where possible. Then when you get back into the property see if anything is damaged or lost and add that to the list. Present this to the landlord along with the rent abatement and maybe an extra amount per day as compensation, and see what happens.

princeofpounds

It is disgusting as it seems that the landlord deceived you by saying you only needed you out for one night.

I agree it sounds like a rather dismissive attitude for them to have, but I would bear in mind that with damp, it is quite possible the full extent was not realised until the cupboards and white good were removed.

I_have_spoken

Things will look better once to CB starts rolling in

agrinnall

Kynthia wrote: »

It is disgusting as it seems that the landlord deceived you by saying you only needed you out for one night.

"Disgusting" is a bit OTT isn't it? Personally I can symapthise with the LL, when I had some work done to repair damp in my flat it was expected to take a couple of days but the initial work revealed more extensive issues that ended up taking a week to resolve. These things happen, and I don't see any problem with what the LL seems to be offering.

Argghhh

once your girlfriend has given birth, you will understand the true meaning of mental distress after a few nights with no sleep lol - i agree with this part of Kynthias post "Keep a record of all the expenses you are incurring for food, laundry, new items, travel, etc including receipts where possible. Then when you get back into the property see if anything is damaged or lost and add that to the list. Present this to the landlord along with the rent abatement and maybe an extra amount per day as compensation, and see what happens."

Kynthia

agrinnall wrote: »

"Disgusting" is a bit OTT isn't it? Personally I can symapthise with the LL, when I had some work done to repair damp in my flat it was expected to take a couple of days but the initial work revealed more extensive issues that ended up taking a week to resolve. These things happen, and I don't see any problem with what the LL seems to be offering.

If it was unexpected then I would expect the landlord to have contacted the tenants, be apologetic, explain the situation, check they have somewhere to stay, offer assistance, see if they need to access the property to collect belongings, etc. Nothing too over the top, but common decency. The OP seems to indicate much less care and communication which indicates to me that there was possible duplicity or a very unfeeling landlord.


However as I stated it's best to be factual since compensation for 'pain and suffering' has already been treated with derision. So keeping a list of all additional costs with evidence where possible is the way to go. Plus the OP needs to consider how much they want to return to the property or whether they would be happy to move on, as that would change how they approach things slightly.

Thrugelmir

VicariousThrills wrote: »

I would like to suggest we are due some funds to reflect the needless distress and disruption caused to us by not telling us in advance that we were in effect going to be made temporarily homeless.

To be frank staying at your parents for a week hardly justifies your rant. I've lived through worse situations in my own properties over the years while having essential works done. In addition some have lasted several weeks.

Be thankful that the property you are renting is now greatly improved.

Halle71

If landlords had to pay compensation every time there were unforeseen repairs or inconvenience to tenants when trying to make repairs, I would expect landlords to be cautious about taking any action. After all it has to get pretty bad to be classed as uninhabitable so landlords would just ignore problems.

Would you really rather stay in a damp house with a newborn baby or stay at your parents for a week so it can get fixed?