Potential rental dispute

elCroux

So we're in a flat in Edinburgh (part fo a biggish four-story building). Moved in last July, and have a contract from July 2015 to July 2016. The place has a nice decked patio out front, which was prominantly advertised along with the property.

One morning the other week some scaffolders turned up and started putting up scaffolding. When we got back from work they'd ripped the decking up and placed a huge amount of scaffolding all over the building, and put a sign on the patio door fobidding us from going outside into the patio area.

We had no notice of this. Phoned up the agent, they were confused. Got back to us the next day that the scaffolding was going up after the resolution of a longstanding dispute between the building owners and an insurance company, and now maintenance work could be carried out on the roof. The scaffolding is going to be up for 20 weeks apparently.

The reason we weren't informed before renting the flat or in any time since is because the letting agent wasn't included in some mailing list, so they're saying they weren't aware of it.

We basically want to either leave the property in the next month or two, without penalty for breaking the contract or we want to get some money knocked off the rent.

Are either of these possible or are we stuck until the end of the contract?

Cheers.

theartfullodger

Does your tenancy contract or the inventory mention the patio??

When you wrote (yes, WROTE! - kept copy) to the landlord, copy agent, about the matter what response response did you get?

elCroux

Will check inventory/contract for explicitly mentioning the patio area, thanks.

Conversations all done via email (saved).

HouseBuyer77

Have you asked the agent about either of these possibilities? What did they say?

elCroux

Not asked yet, trying to guage the level of confidence we should go into the conversation with.

elCroux

Does your tenancy contract or the inventory mention the patio??

Apparently yes it does.

nkkingston

Emails don't carry the legal weight of letters, so if you want to make formal complaints (or offers of reduced rent) do it in dead tree format.

Guest101

elCroux wrote: »

Apparently yes it does.

Exact wording please

HouseBuyer77

If you have a copy of the advert mentioning the patio and the contract/inventory also mentions it then I think you have a decent case.

Writing a letter is often a good way to get their attention. Make specific mention of the advert and the place in the contract/inventory the patio is specified and then state that as this is now being denied to you you want a rent decrease of £X (come up with a number, try and look at similar properties online and work out how much the rent should be sans patio based on current market values). Go on to say that instead of a rent reduction you would accept an early contract surrender with no costs payable by you.

Guest101

An Advert saying there is a patio, is no different to saying there is on street parking and a shop with-in walking distance. It's just stating a fact.


The contract must make mention of use of and access to this asset. Even then it would be reasonable for a landlord to conduct repairs on common areas.

MrJB

Guest101 wrote: »

An Advert saying there is a patio, is no different to saying there is on street parking and a shop with-in walking distance. It's just stating a fact.


The contract must make mention of use of and access to this asset. Even then it would be reasonable for a landlord to conduct repairs on common areas.

I think that's really a case of reasonableness - the patio area isn't owned by a third party and outside of the landlords control as on street parking or local amenities may well be.

Stating that there is a patio, will lead any reasonable person to presume that there is the benefit of the same for the entirety of the contract and is what enables the prospective occupier to make a reasonable conclusion as to the market value of the property - which is obviously less without it.