What is acceptable to expect from a landlord

Emmazom

So bit of a long story but I hope you will bare with me.

We currently live in a 2 bed apartment, our landlord recently had one of his 3 bed houses become available and offered that to us. We said we were more than interested and went round to view the property. There were certain things that needed to be done before we moved in, unfortunately not all have been done up to what I think is an acceptable standard.

We have found him new tenants for our apartment and they are ready to move in when we leave and he is happy with them.

We went round to the house yesterday to finalise viewing dates, and I will list the things we don't deem acceptable. I don't know if I am expecting to much, or if they should be done to the standard I was expecting.

First issue is, the landlord and myself an partner agreed to split the cost on removing the fireplace from the living room, the quote included making good of the wall/skirting and flooring. Upon viewing yesterday, the skirting has just had a random piece placed in and the floor under where the hearth would have been has been patched up with a different flooring, different size, colour, style etc, it doesn't even meet the edge of the existing flooring and he is planning on filling in the rather large gap with wood filler!

Secondly, he painted the kitchen before getting a new boiler fitted, the person who fitted the boiler has got excessive amounts of filler all over the tiles, the new boiler is slightly lower than the old one and he hasn't repainted where the old one was, there's rust marks on the wall. The pipes also stick out further than the actual boiler so I can't box it in either.

New vinyl has been put into the kitchen and hallway, very cheap which I don't mind, but it is stuck on to the baseboards of cupboards rather than finishing flat against them on the floor.

The kitchen ceiling was stained in places so he has just painted over the stains which has left horrible flashes.

He said the guttering and conservatory roof would be cleaned, it hasn't.

He's ripped the doorbell from the hallway wall and left wires poking out.

The bathroom has not been given a deep clean, and there is missing grout in between some tiles, floor and walls. I have deep cleaned every part of out apartment and regrouted where needed.

Now we were willing to get over the issues except the state of the boiler, but since seeing what he has done to the floor in the living room we just aren't happy. It's in a worse state than our current apartment, we really want the house and we don't want to annoy me, but personally I don't think these things are acceptable.

We are meeting him again tonight to discuss the matters, how would you approach it and where would you compromise?

Hutch100uk

Typical landlord - doing everything on the cheap. I think the only thing you can really complain about is the fireplace if you are contributing to the cost. Raise the other things as issues but there is no guarantee he will put things right.

I've long since given up expecting anything from landlords. When I moved into my current house, there were big holes in the walls of every room where the previous tenant had put TV's on the walls - landlady didn';t even bother to fill them in and it wouldn't have been a big job. Lino in the bathroom didn't even fit, place hadn't been cleaned etc etc.

Just make sure you take photos of everything you're not happy with to ensure it doesn't come back to bite you.

swingaloo

We live in a rented property and every job that needs doing means that some cowboy who will do the job cheap for the landlord turns up and quite honestly sometimes leaves the place worse than before they came.

Ive had a leak from the bathroom sink into the hallway which was 'rectified' by the guy putting white sealant round the bottom of the taps and then drawing a pencil mark on the hall wall round the wet stain 'to see if it gets any lower' and if it does ring up again!

Ive had my front door glossed whilst it was snowing which meant we could not close our door at midnght as the paint was still wet.

A loose shower screen which needed re-fixing to the wall was made 'right' by using a gun to silicone it to the bath on either side so it could not be moved to clean or to get at the taps without getting in the bath.

The laminate on the kitchen doors is peeling in a good few places and they have been to look at it but 'its only cosmetic so we are not replacing'.

None of the workmen who have done jobs here would have got a penny from us had we been paying for the work.
Ours is a lovely house with a lot of flaws which if we owned the property would be sorted but when you rent your hands are tied.

Cakeguts

Find a different house to rent and a different landlord.

KingS6

Is your arrangement with your landlord in writing? What was the result of your meeting with the landlord?

FBaby

Your arrangement was wrong from the start. You should have waited for the work to be done before agreeing - or not- to move there. You've now not only agreed to it initially, but even contributed financially, so that's put you in a corner which makes it much more difficult to negotiate.

The only way forward is to have a reasonable conversation with the landlord and hope they agree with you, at least to some extent, and that they have the time, energy and funds to do anything about these issues.

Have you already signed the rental agreement?

anselld

The issues are all cosmetic so you can really only negotiate and hope for the best.

"Making good" a hole in laminate flooring is never going to end well. He would be better to cover the gap with an aluminium capping strip (wood filler will just pop back out fairly quickly). You can allways stick a rug over it later.

fishpond

Cakeguts wrote: »

Find a different house to rent and a different landlord.

I would suggest as above.
I think he is taking the p, and you are daft for putting up with it.

anselld

fishpond wrote: »

I would suggest as above.
I think he is taking the p, and you are daft for putting up with it.

Easy to say when you are not the one doing the house-hunting. There will be plenty of places on the market with more serious defects. We don't know the price being demanded, presumably no agent fees, etc, etc.

Not trying to excuse shoddy decor, but the OP needs to look at the whole package and the cosmetic issues in perspective.

AnotherJoe

Seems to me that your expectations are too high, you are expecting the same level of service as if you were your own landlord (eg owned your own house). You are also acting as if you are the owner, by spending money on cosmetic things when you may only have use of those for 6 months or a year at best.

I suggest you behave as if you are a renter rather than an owner, so rather than specifying the finish as if you were choosing a new house and doing snagging, rent places that already have the finish and quality that you like, or failing that, buy your own place.

Norman_Castle

Assuming its a laminate wood floor try finding matching flooring, this can be difficult. The other issues are just painting and tidying. It sounds like you do DIY. Agree an amount for materials and get on with it yourself.