Landlord refuses to replace unusable sofa in furnished house

AislingMM

Hello everyone,

I was hoping someone could help me with understanding more of my rights as to a problem with my furnished house I've been renting since August. One of the sofas reeks of cat urine and must be around 30 years old. We told the estate agents about this who are managing the property on the landlords behalf and after about 4 weeks they sent a cleaner to fabric clean it. However the smell of cat urine is still very much present. And is immediately noticeable to people who enter the house. So we can't put up with it and I've arranged for the council to collect it. The agent has however said the landlord will only allow us to get rid of it if we replace it with a new one. This seems completely unacceptable to us as he has provided us with a sofa that's stinks of urine. We're renting as a furnished house so I was hoping someone could clarify if we have the right to refuse to provide him a new one to replace the sofa considering its unsanitary condition. It's completely unusable and when I've sat on it, I feel my clothes smelling of urine.

elvenlomadia

Put the cat wee sofa in the shed, buy your own, take it with you when you leave and reinstate cat wee sofa?

nidO

Unfortunately you likely have relatively few rights here.

Firstly: No, you do not have the right to throw the sofa away and not replace it, it belongs to the landlord, it is not yours to dispose of.

Whether you have any kind of right to have them provide you with a replacement sofa depends entirely on what's in your tenancy contract. Is the sofa listed as being something the landlord provides, and if so is any statement made about its condition? In both cases, I suspect not.

Was the sofa not there when you viewed the property? Your immediate issue here is you're stating that the sofa is so awful as to be immediately obvious to anyone entering the flat *after* the landlord has had it cleaned, so how was it not a problem when you viewed the property?
Basically, if you rent a property that has awful (non-essential) furnishings when you view it then rent it furnished with those awful furnishings, it's going to have awful furnishings.

If you want to replace the sofa at your own expense you are of course more than perfectly able to do so, you just need to keep the landlord's sofa to put back when you leave, you can't just tip his stuff.

Guest101

I would ignore it and they can deduct £1.50 from your deposit.

30 year old sofa is worthless

Guest101

nidO wrote: »

Unfortunately you likely have relatively few rights here.

Firstly: No, you do not have the right to throw the sofa away and not replace it, it belongs to the landlord, it is not yours to dispose of.

Whether you have any kind of right to have them provide you with a replacement sofa depends entirely on what's in your tenancy contract. Is the sofa listed as being something the landlord provides, and if so is any statement made about its condition? In both cases, I suspect not.

Was the sofa not there when you viewed the property? Your immediate issue here is you're stating that the sofa is so awful as to be immediately obvious to anyone entering the flat *after* the landlord has had it cleaned, so how was it not a problem when you viewed the property?
Basically, if you rent a property that has awful (non-essential) furnishings when you view it then rent it furnished with those awful furnishings, it's going to have awful furnishings.

If you want to replace the sofa at your own expense you are of course more than perfectly able to do so, you just need to keep the landlord's sofa to put back when you leave, you can't just tip his stuff.

Of course they can. The LL can deduct the cost of a urine cover 30 year old sofa from their deposit.

Nobbie1967

Like they say, it's worthless, but just to cover yourself, maybe keep a cushion from it in a plastic bag in the shed should they start arguing it was in pristine condition. What does it say in the inventory about the sofa. Keep any correspondence about the sofa and it's cleaning.

I wouldn't argue with the agent about it, just chuck and get a new one that you take with you when you go.

slowpoke_rodriguez

Does the sofa meet fire regulations?
Does it need to?
Just a thought...

[Deleted User]

If it smells so bad that people notice when they walk in, did you not notice when you looked at the property? Landlord could reasonably argue that you knew the condition of the sofa when you agreed to let it- in the past we've negotiated on furnishings ahead of agreeing to the rental.

However agree with others that you don't need to keep it (although expect him to take it from your deposit), and you can replace it but that would be at your own cost. If the sofa is really that disgusting then surely it's worth it?

pmlindyloo

slowpoke_rodriguez wrote: »

Does the sofa meet fire regulations?
Does it need to?
Just a thought...

And a good one

This may be your 'get out'.

From Adviceguide - CAB's website

Any furniture provided by your landlord must be fire resistant, unless the landlord is letting a room in their own home, or letting the whole home on a temporary basis.

All new and secondhand upholstered furniture sold after 1 September 1990 should meet the fire safety regulations, and carry a label to say so. The labels should be permanently attached to a hidden part of the item. If a piece of furniture does not carry a label saying that it meets the regulations, it is likely that the item does not meet the regulations and must be replaced.

Guest101

Why is this even being debated?


Fire safety? Him deducting from the deposit?


It's worthless. Throw it away and move on. I'm sorry but if it means so much to the LL they can collect it.


They cant have betterment though.

[Deleted User]

Of course the landlord can deduct from the deposit, if it's on the inventory. Agree should give him the option to come collect it before you bin it though.