Flood damage to rented property - tenants' rights?

olly300

lease wrote: »

Hello,
From a tenants point of view...Our rented flat got flooded.
Our insurance is putting us up in a hotel, meanwhile our belongings in the flat are being damaged by the smell of the rotting carpet.
Our landlord is wanting us to claim for his carpets as he is not covered for them.

You cannot claim for the carpets as they are not your property and you didn't accidentally damage them. If you claim for the carpets you will be committing insurance fraud.

Our monthly rent is due this week. We can't live in the flat and it may be weeks before we can. We are actually due to move out in 6 weeks time.
You don't pay rent as your contract has been breached as you can't live there.

Our landlord hasn't done much to help us, we have been having to try and sort out his building insurance appointments on his behalf.

You cannot do this as you are not the people named on the buildings insurance and are not agents of the landlord.

In addition it will take a least a month for the flat to dry out and about 4 months for it to be habitable again so don't waste your time dealing with his problems.

Do we have to pay the rent even though the flat is uninhabitable?

No.

Contact Shelter.org.uk and ask them exactly what you are suppose to do and tell them your landlord is being difficult. (You may have to write the landlord letters.)


thanks

The landlord needs to sort out his own business, you need to savage your belongings from the flat asap and ensure you get your deposit back at the end of the term.

lease_2

Thanks so much for your advice.
I felt I was being taken advantage of .. but when I questioned the rent he said 'well who is going to pay the mortgage' and made me feel guilty.
I am a landlord myself and sometimes you just have to cover your own mortgage.. I wouldn't dream of treating my tenants this way.
cheers

irnbru_2

lease wrote: »

he said 'well who is going to pay the [strike]mortgage[/strike]'

business loan.

itm2

Diamonds wrote: »

The tennant should have contents insurance (hopefully) for her contents that are ruined. Your buildings insurance will cover plastering work etc. I would imagine. What sort of flood was it?

It turns out that the only damage was to the wooden floors, which will need replacing. We need to arrange for these to be replaced, but in the meantime the flat is perfectly habitable. Things could have been alot worse....

lozzie84

sorry to bump, my house has been flooded. My LL is taking no responsibilty, claiming it is safe to clean due to it being rain water.

Am I able to break the tenancy and move out early? I cannot deal with the stress of living in a place which is going to flood.

vivatifosi

The houses in my street were flooded this week. Not river - burst water main. The interesting thing is that the water board have accepted liability and have been on site all the time. Having taken up the floating floors (how appropriate a term is that?) the floors are going to take two months to dry out. So I would seriously get a second opinion if you are being told that it is safe to clean as it is only rain water. Ours was fit to drink tap water but it doesn't make any difference when it goes stagnant in places that it shouldn't be...

lozzie84

I have told him I am not clearing up the mess. As it is in the cellar, atm the door is closed and that is how it is going to stay.

Unfortunately I wasn't insured and I was storing alot of stuff down there. TBH I just want to get out of here, the whole experience has been very stressful. We had no power for a day and my LL has been a nightmare to deal with.