Is it legal to rent out a property if the boiler is held together with gaffer tape?

PasturesNew

For those of you who are afforded "true choice" by virtue of your income and/or circumstances (and luck) ... remember that there are many people who NEED somewhere to live, soonest/fastest, and are struggling to find anything at all where they haven't "missed it already" and can afford it - and, of course, have found a LL that accepts benefits.

Choice is what people with more than minimum money have. At the bottom of the heap it's Hobson's Choice.

Smodlet

THANK YOU, PasturesNew, at last, somebody gets it! Are there ever some ignoramuses on here? I wonder how many of them are LLs...

Pixie5740

I've rented some scuzzy places in my time but never one covered in !!!!. Are you sure it's actually as bad as she claims? Have you actually seen this with your own eyes? 3 weeks of cleaning and it's still filthy? It's so filthy that her boyfriend is out tending to the garden but is happy to live surrounded by !!!!? Maybe she's exaggerating but then again maybe she isn't.

If she doesn't want to report the repairs in writing or escalate the repairs to the council then nothing will ever get fixed. The law is there to protect tenants from landlord's issuing retaliatory Section 21s and if she's only been there for 3 weeks then notice can't be issued yet anyway. That's not to say that the landlord might not try and illegally evict her which is all the more reason she should contact Shelter and get on the council's radar. If she becomes unintentionally homeless then they will re-house her, maybe not somewhere great but it would be a roof over her head.

If her boyfriend is abusive then it might be worth giving her the number for Women's Aid too. 0808 2000 247.

Smodlet

Gotta read more about these notices, unless you could precis it for me? I doubt she is exaggerating because the previous tenant had four cats and three dogs who were seldom allowed out...

xylophone

In fact I know of a case where a person accepted a particular property (family reasons/location etc) which had been left in a similar state (although without boiler problems) - she set to and cleaned up with the help of friends and relations.

Smodlet

I have not seen the place with my own eyes but OH has and confirms she is in no way exaggerating. The young lady has moved 70-80 miles to find somewhere she could rent without a deposit/guarantor so no friends in the area and no rellies, apparently. I would help but am not able to, as I said. If you're at a loose end...

hazyjo

No, I'm not rich. Yes, I read the post, but perhaps misinterpreted what you meant when you said "The landlord has raised the rent £25 p.c.m. since the last tenant left yet has not even cleaned the place;" - thought you meant her own rent had been raised, not the prev tenant - thought the prev tenant bit was just about it not being cleaned since then.

One down side to the internet...

Jx

Smodlet

Thank you, so much. That's the sort of thing I was after, not a load of judgemental you-know-whats. I thought there were supposed to be rules on this forum...

hazyjo

Smodlet wrote: »

Thank you, so much. That's the sort of thing I was after, not a load of judgemental you-know-whats. I thought there were supposed to be rules on this forum...

Sorry, what rules do you think have been broken?

tacpot12

Has the tenant reported the problems to the landlord and/or letting agent? Surprisingly not all tenants report problems. Fear isn't a reasonable excuse not to, unless the landlord has threatened the tenant on a previous occasion. If this is the case, the only option is to report to the council and hope they can persuade the landlord to make the necessary repairs, and avoid an eviction.

You can provide moral support, and guidance as to what to report. The gaffer tape is not an issue if the boiler has been inspected by a Gassafe engineer in the last 12 months. The holes in the floor are. The light switch might be - perhaps your other half could advise her, or even replace it for her if it has exposed live parts.

Well done for trying to help.