Landlord has two clowns doing all his home maintenance

JC1440

Hi, all,

I moved in to a flat, going on about a year ago. It's in a great location, but is an old place and I always knew needed some work doing, though nothing major, new vinyl flooring in a small bathroom, a few things sorted in the kitchen.

Now I'm getting around to it, I've started noticing all the ways in which the landlord obviously has tried to save money by fixing the place up on the cheap. It's small stuff, but cumulative; kitchen cupboard doors uneven, parts on cupboards looked like they were put together without being measured properly. Latest thing I noticed is the laminate flooring in the kitchen is tiled, but along every tile are long cut marks, amateurish stuff.

Anyway :rotfl:I just wanted to hear from other people that experienced this kind of situation.

stator

Yep, the house I live in is a complete DIY botch job. The living room door is only painted on one side. The kitchen door has the catch mounted the wrong way around (you can push it open but have to pull the handle to close it). One of the bedroom doors wasn't even mounted on the hinges when I moved in. I had to put it up myself and it still doesn't close. Polystyrene tiles all over the place. Dodgey wallpaper etc

missile

Can't be that serious if it has taken you circa a year to notice these "faults"

JC1440

Ha, sorry to hear that, Stator. Are you fixing all the issues up?

No , Missile, like I said, they're not serious, just annoying, and it'll cost me money to get the place looking acceptable. I just don't understand why a landlord would do it. It's a great house, but all this stuff cheapens it.

I think the landlord's maintenance guys are responsible. I've had dealings with them and they're complete clowns. What's even more shocking is I think it's their day job, though God knows who hires them :eek: I wouldn't let Laurel and Hardy do any maintenance on my place if they said they'd work for free.

stator

Only one thing that matters to a Landlord £££££££££££££££££££££££££
If they can do a job on the cheap they will, regardless of how crappy it makes the tenant's life.
ps forgot to mention the holes in the wallpaper where the old security alarm used to be and the old central heating units.
I don't plan on doing anything about them, I'm certainly not painting around all the glass on the doors or remounting a door. I've painted a few walls since it's easy enough, so the place will be slightly better than I moved in, but it will still be a crap hole.

G_M

I'm unsure from your post if you are this landlord's tenant, and are madly proposing to waste your time/money improving the place for him, or have bought the place and are simply complaining about the previous owner (who happens to have been a landlord)......

:huh:

[Deleted User]

I have laminate laid without the required gap against the walls so it all buckling and damaged, had leaking waste pipes under the bath, kitchen plugs all lead off the light ring circuit so you can't plug anything like a kettle into them without the trip switch going off. The kitchen cupboard doors have several holes for hinges, not one of them lead to a straight cupboard door in any of them. When I put a new bathroom in, I found a piece of cardboard covering the door hole in one wall. Hammer holes in the kitchen worksurface (someone's bashed it with a hammer in quite a few places). Gloss painting that includes fluff and dirt (textured look). A boiler with a temporary wrong circuit board so you can't see the water temp (or anything, not of the digital readings show). That's just the start of the list. Loft filled with chimney rubble, directly loaded on the ceiling below (how it didn't cave in I'll never know).

But I am afraid, a lot of its down to the owner of the place before the LL bought it. The LL just hasn't done anything about it.

However I do know he isn't too bothered about good work, just cheapest price. Worked on a flat he was refurbishing together with some painters. He didn't pay me much to clean it up but I had the place sparkling, including scrubbing away all the vinyl matt paint drips on what was supposed to be gloss paintwork. He seemed to expect me cleaning yellowed doors would make them white too. I had them gleaming, but still yellowed lol. What makes me laugh is he inspected my place when I painted it to make sure I could paint neatly enough ha ha. But he paid people to do the botch job I'd seen a couple of months earlier and didn't give a damn!

OH well, logic never seems to have anything to do with anything lol. If its cheap and you can say its done, it doesn't matter if if looks terrible, works, or is dangerous (except for gas safety).

I have improved things, mostly to make things easier for myself. No way could I use a mouldy bathroom so redid a lot of it as cheaply as possible, did a brilliant job but have had use of it for four years thank god, have to put up with the electrics (asked many times but ignored), repainted paintwork because my dogs scratched a door and I thought might as well redo the irritating fluff effect while I was at it. The floors were too expensive to replace so I just have to not look down too much. For me, if it wasn't going to cost too much, and it irritated me sufficiently, I've sorted it. But very aware of the word 'mug' on my forehead.

Also lived on a tenant managed social housing estate. They employed odd job men. Had toilet installed on a gradient, repairman was very rude when I asked for it to be redone. Bath installed without enough gradient, then silicone applied to an inch thickness when I asked for that to be redone!

I now prefer to do repairs myself whenever possible.

silvercar

Always a balance between feeling you are doing the landlords work for him and wanting your home to be to the standard you feel comfortable with.

theartfullodger

So all these faults: Terrible:

And when you wrote (yes, WROTE! - keeping copy) to landlord about them what happened??

Why did you wait a year or so before doing anything about them?

Cheers!

ognum

stator wrote: »

Only one thing that matters to a Landlord £££££££££££££££££££££££££
If they can do a job on the cheap they will, regardless of how crappy it makes the tenant's life.
ps forgot to mention the holes in the wallpaper where the old security alarm used to be and the old central heating units.
I don't plan on doing anything about them, I'm certainly not painting around all the glass on the doors or remounting a door. I've painted a few walls since it's easy enough, so the place will be slightly better than I moved in, but it will still be a crap hole.

I am a LL and I have recently re-let two properties. Both are in great locations in the same city, both are in purpose built small blocks with parking and gardens. Both are let to professionals.

The first I have just bought, fitted a complete new kitchen, complete new bathroom, new gas central heating boiler, redecorated etc. Looks like new.

The second I bought tenanted, is a bit shabby with electric heating and I planned to to a complete refurbishment but the tenants left just as I was going away so I got it completely deep cleaned and thought I would try to let it and if it didn't let I would refurb it when I got back.

The shabby one let in 24 hours the refurbed one took a couple of weeks! Price, the same!

G_M

OP still has not clarified if he is an owner or tenant.

Either way, bonkers!