Some problems in tenancy, how would you react?

zamasu

Ok so this will be part rant part just wanting another viewpoint/opinion.

Moved to student accomodation 2 months back, I regretted moving as had a beautiful place before but it had storage heaters, single glazed and next to a busy road but it was all inclusive rent and only £5 more than I am paying now.

As I was unsure if I would even continue my studies I didn't apply for accomodation till the last minute so it was almost all gone.

I found one close to campus but next to busy road, smallest room but considering its a massive house even the small room is larger than many.

But had a lot of small problems since I have moved in, which other tenants agree with.

One of the biggest is neighbours have spent every day for last few months fixing up house to put of pulling up floorboards, skip outside front door, they start drilling about 7am and despite thick walls the noise can be heard in whole property, its random spikes of noise that calms down around 5pm but can continue to around 10pm.

When told about it as one of my flatmates is a student nurse so does shift the neighbour denies they make noise (not denying they are doing work but say its not that often and never past 5pm)

It means you never get more than a hour or twos peace a day, so if you have a day off you can't relax and are woken early anyway.

Thats the first thing, how would you react to that?

Second issue is if bus goes past it makes whole house rattle, and yes I do mean rattle, if a lorry goes past everything from the bedroom doors rattle, to the mirrors on the wall and you can actually see them rattle.

How would you react to that?

Other issue affects everyone but me in particular as I have the only room at back of property, wifi bad to the point even a few feet from router it barely gives a signal, my flatmates first solution was move it into entracehall but that is at front so I get nothing, I can get a weak signal that gives me dial up level speeds if I move router a foot from where it sits but then flatmates complain to me about how their speeds have dropped when at least they get a signal good enough to watch hd content and I can't even load youtube let alone watch a video.

So thats a flatmate and wifi issue, the wifi is provided by LL and comes off our monthly utility allowance.

So again how would you react?

With it being a student contract I am tied into June next year, and not that I am directly wanting to move but if a better property came available I would hate to be tied in but as it is I may leave my course if this continues as I can barely sleep, and I cannot get work done.

If I do leave my course I am still tied into contract right?

I know LL has another property which is much more suited to my needs but has no free rooms at moment, its only around the corner but away from the road so no noise and in a nicer part of the town.

Pixie5740

So there's no problem with the tenancy just noise from neighbours and wifi signal?

Neighbour noise, I would calmly talk to the neighbours and explain how their noise was affecting you and the others living at the property. If the neighbours continue to make excessive noise I would start keeping a log of the noise and get the council involved. I would also use ear plugs and noise cancelling headphones in the meantime.

You live on a bus route, not much you can do about that. Next time pick somewhere that isn't on a bus route.

Poor wifi signal, buy a signal booster.

Yes, regardless of whether you quit your course or not it has nothing to do with your tenancy agreement. If you want to leave before the end of your fixed term you will have to negotiate with your landlord who is well within his rights to make you pay until the end of your contract.

zamasu

Pixie5740 wrote: »

So there's no problem with the tenancy just noise from neighbours and wifi signal?

Neighbour noise, I would calmly talk to the neighbours and explain how their noise was affecting you and the others living at the property. If the neighbours continue to make excessive noise I would start keeping a log of the noise and get the council involved. I would also use ear plugs and noise cancelling headphones in the meantime.

You live on a bus route, not much you can do about that. Next time pick somewhere that isn't on a bus route.

Poor wifi signal, buy a signal booster.

Yes, regardless of whether you quit your course or not it has nothing to do with your tenancy agreement. If you want to leave before the end of your fixed term you will have to negotiate with your landlord who is well within his rights to make you pay until the end of your contract.

I am doing IT so yes I know about a booster, but everyones refusing to chip in, and with the signal so bad as it is the only way for every room to get a signal would require multiple home plugs and boosters which I estimate around the £50 mark at the cheapest unless we could run some cable because the signal is so bad right now that even the bedroom opposite the router can barely get a signal or that it does but its so much interference that its slow and useless.

Nothings come up in the tenancy itself directly yet, but when the landlord was informed about the problems with wifi which I have a feeling at least in part is down to a faulty router he just tells us to ring up the isp but we can't as its in his name and he is the one with the security password.

About the noise from traffic, its not the problem that we live next to road but the vibrations are above and beyond normal levels because if a car can make everything rattle and shake by itself then somethings wrong somewhere even if its the doors are old.

My desk and mirror wobbles from a car and I am at the back of property and these are large rooms so its not as if I am a few feet from the road.

And yes wobbling is the way to say it, you see the actual frames move about.

Pixie5740

Everyone else seems to be getting a signal that's good enough for them so I can kind of see why they're not willing to chip in for a signal booster. I once rented a student flat that didn't have a kettle, no one else wanted to stick their hand in their pocket to buy a kettle but as soon I got one it was Pot Noodles galore from the rest of them. That's life. You want a better signal so get a booster, a new router, or whatever security information the ISP needs from your landlord so you can discuss the issue with them, or don't and just put up with a crappy signal in your room.

If the vibrations are that bad, did you not notice when you were viewing the property or are you just exaggerating?

zamasu

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Everyone else seems to be getting a signal that's good enough for them so I can kind of see why they're not willing to chip in for a signal booster. I once rented a student flat that didn't have a kettle, no one else wanted to stick their hand in their pocket to buy a kettle but as soon I got one it was Pot Noodles galore from the rest of them. That's life. You want a better signal so get a booster, a new router, or whatever security information the ISP needs from your landlord so you can discuss the issue with them, or don't and just put up with a crappy signal in your room.

If the vibrations are that bad, did you not notice when you were viewing the property or are you just exaggerating?

No all the tenants notice it, well to go deeper I being at back at property only get the vibrations when larger vehicles go past, but all the rooms at front get them from even cars, its a very busy road.

And when I viewed they were doing building work and spent most of time in living room as it was finished

And the signal is bad for everyone, unless you think 6 feet from router and getting nothing or at best having to refresh page is tolerable, for me I have to move computer to location in middle of floor to connect at all, if you think taking minutes to load a page is ok then its tolerable,

And the internet is paid from the household allowance so its not free LL even chose a different isp than I recommended I even told him not to go for this one as there was a cheaper better one and the router this company gave is cheap and nasty.

So we pay like £35 a month for internet for something that doesn't work.

And all the tenants complain about the internet daily hence when I moved it under a foot from its current location so I could even connect at all another tenant moved it back as his speeds dropped (still enough for streaming and gaming though)

So yes thats a housemate issue too, I bet if I moved the router back to the master socket which meant I got a strong signal, and the other rooms next to mine got a good signal the people at front would complain.

As it is everytime someone uses the shower I lose signal, if they turn the light on (and forget to turn it off as they do) I get no signal.

bouicca21

If you can't work in your room, work in the library.

TBagpuss

OK, the noise is an issue with the neighbour, it'snothingto do with your tenancy or the landlord.

Drop them a polite note askign that they ensure that there isn't any work before 7 a.m. or after 6 p.m. You could also ask when they anticipate that the work will be completed as while you unerstnad that noise is unavoidable, it is quite disruptive as youare often working during the day, so it would be nice to kno how long it is likely to continue.
If they are saying hat there isn't any nise in the evenongs then probably the best thing to do is go round in the memomnet - so if you are at home at (say) 9 p.m. and can hear sounds of baging, driling or whatever, go round then, explain that the drilling / whatever is very noisy and ask them to stop until after 7 a.m. the next day.

The wi-fi issue is a housemate problem, you would ned either to persaude them to agree to share the costs of a booster, persaude them to agree to moving the router sothere is a fairer distribution of signal, or accept that you care more than them about this and fork out for your own booster. If you thin kthe problem is with the router then rite to the landlord, set out the problem and ask whether he can provide you with the password etc so you can contact the provider directly, or alternatively, ask tt he do so and request a better outer (or whatever is needed)
Is replacing the router yourself an option?

marksoton

zamasu wrote: »

I am doing IT so yes I know about a booster

zamasu wrote: »

As it is everytime someone uses the shower I lose signal, if they turn the light on (and forget to turn it off as they do) I get no signal.

I'd suggest you need to spend longer at uni and less time at home.

DaftyDuck

Since you are studying IT, change the router yourself, and stick with that ISP, or run a wireless extender from the router, or run a cable from the router to a simple wireless access point at the rear of the house, or similar, to a switch... all can be done for £15 - £25 using Ebay and reasonable kit... £5 - £10 if you use cheap Tenda/Geeya kit... would take 10 minutes at most, and would be good experience. Going down the Home Plug route would just be excessive expense. I didn't study IT.... but....

...As MarkS suggests.... losing signal when there's a shower or light... there's something for an IT brain to ponder....

The traffic noise is just something you'll have to live with and, if you do rent again, it's something to watch out for. Quiet streets might be more expensive, and may be more off the beaten track but, if you want quiet rooms, it is a price you'd have to pay.

The neighbour's noise is slightly different. You either have to deal with it politely and directly with them, asking them to restrict the hours they do the work, or you have to make an approach to the Council, but you'll need evidence, it will take an age to gather and process it, and the refurbishment will likely have completed by then.

Your rental contract is (almost certainly) unlinked to giving up on a course.

zamasu

marksoton wrote: »

I'd suggest you need to spend longer at uni and less time at home.

I mean you no disrespect but with the course I study I need access to a desktop as I do things that require quite a powerful computer, even if a laptop did the job it would cost a lot of money (im talking over £1000)

And the computers for students in places like library are weak in themselves, only the ones in the teaching classes are good enough but we can't access them unless we have a class.

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Since you are studying IT, change the router yourself, and stick with that ISP, or run a wireless extender from the router, or run a cable from the router to a simple wireless access point at the rear of the house, or similar, to a switch... all can be done for £15 - £25 using Ebay and reasonable kit... £5 - £10 if you use cheap Tenda/Geeya kit... would take 10 minutes at most, and would be good experience. Going down the Home Plug route would just be excessive expense. I didn't study IT.... but....

...As MarkS suggests.... losing signal when there's a shower or light... there's something for an IT brain to ponder....

Your rental contract is (almost certainly) unlinked to giving up on a course.

I should make it clear I am a mature student, and I have made networks before at home by running cable under carpet and through skirting boards so I know how it works, but in this instance its hard to pinpoint if its the router or the fact its a old building that is causing issues.

I myself was wanting to make a semi wired network into spare routers I own but I have no way to route cable under carpet without ripping it up, or stapling cable to walls which will look ugly and I doubt landlord will be happy.

If I lived by myself it would be all wired as I dislike wireless I just tolerate it.

So yes I already had all the things about wireless pre prepared before I mentioned here, its just guessing if its the router, the building materials or a bit of both as I can pick up neighbours signal from their router more than my own, even if it was upstairs it shouldnt pass through the walls and still be as strong.

It says a lot about my flatmates when they decided to plug the router into a extension socket rather than the main one as its a better location even though its beside the front door and I always trip over it as cable is everywhere.

essjae

If your housemates find the wifi sufficient for streaming and gaming, than that suggests to me that the router is fine.

If the location of the router suits the majority of them better than where you want to move it to, why do you think your preference should take priority?
It's really not very wise falling out with the people you live with over such a trivial matter - why not sit down with them and have a reasoned discussion?

You can get a powerline kit for £20 on amazon - no need for running cables.