Flat flooded and temporaily inhabitable - what are our rights?

imgiseverything

At the weekend, our next door neighbour's flat flooded (a water pipe carrying hot water burst, spurting boiling hot water out into her flat for a least a day) - as she was away for the weekend, this water eventually spilled over into our flat and caused damage to our MDF flooring and left a lot of water in our kitchen near plugs/sockets/wires. The electrics have had to be turned off because of so much dodgy wiring/sockets were exposed to water.

This means we can't stay at the flat; our letting agent (we rent the property, and have done so since August) has been very accommodating and has put us up, firstly in a hotel and now a guest house in our town. Our issue, is that the letting agent is pretty dreadful at communicating plans and giving us timescales for getting back home, to the point where we are calling him each day (from work) to find out if we are staying in a hotel and which one that night. If he has a day off we have to speak to other employees at the letting agents who tell us they don't know what's going on. On Wednesday we didn't know until 5pm where we'd be sleeping that night. He has told us that we can stay at the guest house as long as we need to and it's not an issue but the owner of the guest house keeps asking how long we're going to be there and she needs to know - so he's clearly not communicating with her the plan either.

Today, the letting agent is meeting the insurance people and has said he will report back will dates when he knows (I presume) how much his client can claim and therefore how/when they can afford the work to be fixed.

We have contents insurance but other than losing some food from the fridge) our possessions are fine.

I guess my question is - what are our rights here? Should we be happy that we've got accommodation (in, what is, a difficult circumstance for all concerned)? We have no kitchen facilities so we're eating out (or buying sandwiches from Tesco's) every night which is costing a small fortune and is not sustainable nor particularly healthy. Should we be getting our rent back for this period as well as the temporary accommodation being paid for - or is it a case one or the other?

Also our rental contract is up for renewal/ends on 31st January, and this work (drying the flat out, replacing the flooring, checking/fixing the electrics) realistically is going to take 2-3 weeks to complete before we can move home again - do we have any right to end our rental agreement earlier and find somewhere to rent rather than sit in a hotel for another 2-3 weeks?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Cisco001

Question - can you ask your guest house owner if you can use their microwave? Ready meal may be better than cold sandwich every night...

imgiseverything

Hi Cisco001

The guest house owner says if we're there for a while (e.g. more than 2-3 days) she'll look into providing a microwave for us - and maybe laundry facilities.

pmlindyloo

Have tried to find some 'law'/regulations about this but to no avail.

Hopefully someone will do better than me!

First of all look at your contract and see if there is a clause in there about such situations.

Your landlord does have to keep your home in a state of good repair.

You have been offered alternative accommodation.

Therefore my belief is that you need to continue paying your rent.

Obviously these things take time to sort out (just as if it was your own house) so I think you need to be a little patient despite the difficulties living like this.

The lack of communication from the LA is annoying but is probably because he is the landlord's agent and needs their permission to make any decisions.

My suggestion would be to keep all receipts for extra meals/food/etc and then come to some agreement with the landlord as regards compensation for your extra expense and inconvenience. Don't forget that this should also include any electricity used by workmen for repairs/heaters etc.

The alternative (and this is why you need to check your contract) is that you could have the right to surrender the property because the contract has been frustrated. This is a tricky area if no clause indicates this in the contract, so you might want to give Shelter a call to ask their advice.

Of course the landlord may be happy to allow you to leave early anyway especially if he will be paying out more for alternative accommodation and your expense (that you are going to ask for!) This will probably depend on what insurance cover he has.

In the end if there is nothing in the contract to cover this situation then it is all going to be down to negotiation.

If you are able to end your contract early have you some where else to go? In negotiations do allow for the fact that you may need time to sort out a new tenancy(if needed)

It is a pain but it has been a relatively short time since it has happened so do be realistic in your expectations. These things do take time to sort out whether you're renting or an owner occupier.

imgiseverything

Hi pmlindyloo

Thanks for your detailed answer - much appreciated.

We are not necessarily looking to get our rent back, just want to make sure what we are and aren't entitled to. We aren't looking to be greedy


I'll check the contract - you're right in so much as if the landlord paying for us to be put up for a month or two makes little sense if the contract ends in 3 months. So it looks to me that a grown-up adult conversation with the letting agent is the way forward on that particular issue

bris

The LL (letting agent) are doing what's required of them, they are dealing with it reasonably and fairly. Whilst it's inconvenient for you they have provided the accommodation required.


You are entitled to consequential losses, if you have any, but the cost of living in a flat and the cost of living in a guest house are about the same. The food you eat costs the same regardless where you eat it, but at least your not paying for the energy to cook it.

imgiseverything

Hi Bris

Thanks for your reply.

I don't 100% agree with food costing the same regardless where you eat it.

We don't have access to a fridge/microwave/oven so we're having to buy pre-cooked food. Surely you can see how that would be more expensive?

kingstreet

A well-known landlord insurance provider is currently marketing its "temporary alternative accommodation" cover which is included in its landlord insurance.

Check with the letting agent if your landlord's cover has this.

imgiseverything

Good tip - thanks kingstreet!

imgiseverything

Thanks to all who replied on this a few weeks ago. I thought some may be interested in an update.

After being out of the flat since 18th October we will move into a new flat on 17th November. We've stayed at a Premier Inn for 4 nights, a B&B for 12 nights and a (not very nice) flat for 2 weeks we've finally got a new flat. We asked the letting agent if we could be let out of the flat contract early and they agreed. It's been a very stressful month and we're glad it's coming to an end.

The work on the flat (drying it out, new flooring, testing/fixing electrics) apparently won't be finished for another 4 weeks (so mid December) at least and as our contract runs out on 31st January it would be madness to move back in there for a maximum of 6 weeks. (before this incident we would have probably renewed the lease for another 6 months).

So far we have accumulated the following expenses:
- loss of fridge/freezer goods
- cost of buying fresh/pre-prepared food each day as we didn't have access to a fridge, microwave, cooker for 2 weeks
- loss of a week's holiday for both of us while we sorted everything out
- early cancellation of 18th month BT broadband+phone contract after 4 months
- extra petrol (driving to/from further away location and moving our stuff from the flat to new places)
- council tax/water/broadband costs when we couldn't use these services (this is a grey area I guess)
- admin fees for new flat

The letting agent has apparently spoken to the insurance loss adjustor and we have been encouraged to submit claims for these items hopefully we will get some money back. The letign agewnt has for the most part been pretty decent. I view this as a quite unusual circumstance and I think they've done their best making sure we had a roof over our heads.

G_M

It does sound as if the agent (and by definition, the landlord) has been reasonable, and done what they can to provide emergency accomodation, keep you housed, and help you through a difficult time.

They are also encouraging you to claim losses on the LL's insurance.

And released you from the tenancy.

All in all, it makes a nice change from the usual litany of disasterous relations we see on the forum!