House rental

Salford

We rented 2 bedroom bungalow from estate agent. The rent was £700 and house was unclean with spiders and webs, there were 2 dead rats near the gate when we entered the house. During the visit prior to renting house was unclean and agreement was it will be cleaned. The advert said ready to be occupied.

The estate agent is trying to get cheapest cleaner and hence its been more than 4 days since we got the keys for the house and we are told cleaner is not available for another 5 days. Its more than 20 days since we agreed For the let.
There are lot of issues in the house which is a big list to be written in this. And phoning everyday for last 20 days , poor reply to emails, not answering phone messages has been ongoing.

I am pregnant and have no energy left to search another house and go through this process. Also my husband is worried that if we complain then future references for rental house will be problematic. We have kept our house stuff in storage and have been staying in hotel for last 3 days

Please advice

wealdroam

Salford wrote: »

We rented 2 bedroom bungalow from estate agent. The rent was £700 and house was unclean with spiders and webs, there were 2 dead rats near the gate when we entered the house. During the visit prior to renting house was unclean and agreement was it will be cleaned. The advert said ready to be occupied.

The estate agent is trying to get cheapest cleaner and hence its been more than 4 days since we got the keys for the house and we are told cleaner is not available for another 5 days. Its more than 20 days since we agreed For the let.
There are lot of issues in the house which is a big list to be written in this. And phoning everyday for last 20 days , poor reply to emails, not answering phone messages has been ongoing.

I am pregnant and have no energy left to search another house and go through this process. Also my husband is worried that if we complain then future references for rental house will be problematic. We have kept our house stuff in storage and have been staying in hotel for last 3 days

Please advice

After your first visit when you discovered the problems, you should've not agreed the let until the issues were resolved.

You currently do not have a good bargaining position.

You may get more help on The House Buying, Renting & Selling Board, but my advice would be to get in there and start the cleaning yourself. Surely a priority is to remove your hotel and storage costs.

arcon5

I doubt the agent would agree to undertake work on the fact a tenant may sign a lease afterwards!

You could always ask where to send the hotel bill to for the extra 5 days and see if it prompts them to sort it out

wealdroam

arcon5 wrote: »

I doubt the agent would agree to undertake work on the fact a tenant may sign a lease afterwards!

You seem to be suggesting that now they have signed an agreement, they will have no problem.

I am sure the OP will be reassured by that.

arcon5

No i'm saying it's unlikely they would have contracted somebody to do the work at the pre-contract stage.

pendragon_arther

If a tentant has been assured the house is to be habitable on a certain date then it should be as part of the rental agreement. We had the same problem and luckily it was a properly conducted rental with a management advisor as well as the estate agent. The house had been recently decorated prior to our rental with dust and debris covering most surfaces. The two heavy duty cleaners spent almost a day cleaning the day before we moved in. That is how it should be.

Put the situation in writing, send it to the estate agent by recorded delivery, with a copy to the landlord if you have their address, stating you will not be paying the rent until you find the house habitable and that you expect them to pay for the hotel accomodation or you will deduct that amount from the rent.

DandelionPatrol

pendragon_arther wrote: »

If a tentant has been assured the house is to be habitable on a certain date then it should be as part of the rental agreement. We had the same problem and luckily it was a properly conducted rental with a management advisor as well as the estate agent. The house had been recently decorated prior to our rental with dust and debris covering most surfaces. The two heavy duty cleaners spent almost a day cleaning the day before we moved in. That is how it should be.

Put the situation in writing, send it to the estate agent by recorded delivery, with a copy to the landlord if you have their address, stating you will not be paying the rent until you find the house habitable and that you expect them to pay for the hotel accomodation or you will deduct that amount from the rent.

This is why the problem should be posted on the The House Buying, Renting & Selling Board.

OP already has the keys, hence is 'in possession' tenancy law applies and there is very little getout from paying the rent. Rent is not available as a tool to coerce Landlords! If OP had not taken the keys, but there was a contract in place, contract law would apply and it would be much more straightforward to withhold funds.

bris

Once the tenancy agreement is signed it's binding on both parties whether they have keys or not. You should never sign a tenancy until the house is ready, what's in the agreement is what counts, hear say is just that.


Withholding rent is a terrible idea, for one thing they have the deposit, another is court action for arrears can seriously damage your reputation, especially if it leads to eviction and you need references for other properties.

tomtontom

Whilst not ideal, why not negotiate a reduction in rent for the first month and do the cleaning yourself? Seems far more constructive than sitting it out in a hotel ...

swingaloo

We had exactly the same problem when we moved into rented property. I veiwed the house and was promised cleaners would be in the following day.


To say it was a mess was an understatement, frozen food left in the freezer which had thawed, even a tray of oven chips left in the oven. The carpets were full of cat hairs and budgie feathers and seeds in one room.


Due to an issue with the sale of the house we had 3 days to find somewhere or our sale was going to fell through.


No cleaners arrived so I got the keys the day before we had to move and cleaned top to bottom myself with a bit of help from friends. We couldn't have cleaned once we had started to bring furniture in.


I did a letter with a snag list and listed all the things we had had to do ourselves and the management company gave us £200 off our first months rental.


Perhaps you would be better doing the same as there is no guarantee you will get recompensed for staying in a hotel or storing your furniture.

Salford

Thank you all for the advice it's been really helpful.