Problems with landlord (mould, heating, cupboards)

big_boots

Hi, this is my first post here, and I'm not familiar with these forums, but my mum encouraged me to come here for some help.

I rent a 2-bed ground floor maisonette. I was told by the estate agents initially that:
1) The landlady owns around 30 properties, a number of them being the maisonettes in my road.
2) She doesn't use the estate agents to service the property, just to find tenants, and then she deals with everything after that.
3) She doesn't keep an inventory when you move in.

I've been here for about five years now, and right from the start we had some problems, like the new kitchen not being finished, all the new internal doors having no door handles, and the rooms not being painted like they were meant to be. Her handyman does all the work on her properties, and he left me a large tin of paint so that I could finish the paint myself. The kitchen has never been finished. The door handles were done a couple of months after we moved in.

After a while we had a problem with damp, which she was my fault as I had a tumble dryer in the kitchen and so she wouldn't treat it (the damp is mainly in the bedrooms though). I moved the tumble dryer into the shed, treated the mould, open windows for better ventilation, got a dehumidifier, moved the furniture around so nothing was touching the front walls in the bedroom. The handman was then over and told me actually the property has always had damp, and it wasn't caused by the tumble dryer. Neighbours also have the damp in their properties. Handyman says all those properties have damp. It has never come back in the kitchen, but regularly comes back in the bedrooms, especially the master bedroom. I treat it the best I can

Our heating broke recently, and she came to look and bled the radiators and then her handyman came to look. They then called out an engineer. Engineer came and said because of the cupboards he can't get to the boiler. I spoke to the landlady and offered to take the cupboards so it gets done quicker, she agreed. When removing the cupboards a bit of wood was damp and fell apart, and a pipe leaked (this was my boyfriend's fault as he nipped it). So the handyman came to fix it. When the engineer came back out he fixed the heating (I wasn't there, the landlady was as I had to work).

Landlady dropped off a letter saying she was surprised at the damp, and I wasn't maintaining the property properly. She left mould spray (which I use anyway). She said if I don't maintain the property she will end my tenancy. On another note, she refused to give me a new contract after my initial 12 month one ran out, so I'm not sure where I stand legally.

The house is clean and tidy. I keep the windows clean, although the master bedroom one is quick to build up with the black damp stuff.

I then text her asking when she would be fixing the cupboards, and she replied that she wouldn't be, because they weren't taken down carefully enough, and so she won't be putting them back up. She then said that she should charge for the engineer call out because it was my fault because a tap under the boiler had been turned off (if this is true, then it wasn't done by me, but she tried to fix it and the handyman did, so could have been either of them, but she lied before so she may just be saying that).

Also, I had new meters fitted in the summer (which she gave permission for) and he told me the gas meter wasn't earthed. I told her and she said she would deal with it when she was back from holiday but she never did.

So my questions are:

1) Is it my responsibility to treat the mould, even if it was there before I moved in?
2) Can she end my tenancy because there is mould, and does that count as not maintaining the property?
3) If I ask her to give me a new contract does she have to?
4) What happens with the deposit scheme if I no longer have a contract?
5) If she promised the kitchen to be finished when I was moving in, should I keep on at her about it, or is there no point now it's been five years?
6) Is it our responsibility to put the cupboards back up?
7) Is it dangerous that the meter isn't earthed and does she have a responsibility to do this?
8) If there is no inventory, what rights do I have if she tries to not give me back my deposit?

WestonDave

1. - depends on what it is - mould in bedrooms sounds like it could be condensation damp caused by not opening windows to ventilate. There's not a lot you can do about that round windows structurally so you just need to keep on top of it with cleaning and treatment - plus keeping it ventilated.
2. If you are beyond the initial 12 month period then she could give you notice without reason.
3. No.
4. It stays there - you effectively remain on the terms of the old contract but with no minimum term.
5. Unlikely she will do anything.
6. Probably hers but you have little to force her to do so.
7. Its probably not current standard but probably not specifically dangerous either - wiring standards get updated all the time in terms of best practice but it doesn't mean what was deemed safe a year ago suddenly becomes likely to explode.
8. She's going to struggle to prove the state it was in when you moved in - possibly more of an issue for her than for you.

Pixie5740

big_boots wrote: »

So my questions are:

1) Is it my responsibility to treat the mould, even if it was there before I moved in?
2) Can she end my tenancy because there is mould, and does that count as not maintaining the property?
3) If I ask her to give me a new contract does she have to?
4) What happens with the deposit scheme if I no longer have a contract?
5) If she promised the kitchen to be finished when I was moving in, should I keep on at her about it, or is there no point now it's been five years?
6) Is it our responsibility to put the cupboards back up?
7) Is it dangerous that the meter isn't earthed and does she have a responsibility to do this?
8) If there is no inventory, what rights do I have if she tries to not give me back my deposit?

1) Depends on the cause of the mould. If you're not opening windows, not turning on extractor fans, drying your clothes inside then you need to clean the mould. If the source of the mould is to do with the building, water leaking in for example then your landlord should sort it. Have you reported the mould to your landlord in WRITING at the address for the serving of notices given in your tenancy agreement?

2) Landlords in England & Wales don't need a reason to issue a tenant with a Section 21 notice. Note however that a tenancy can only be ended by the tenant or a court. A Section 21 notice is just notice that your landlord might go to court to secure an eviction order.

3) No.

4) You do have a contract. You pay rent therefore a contract does exist. When your fixed term ended you automatically started a periodic tenancy which will either be Contractual or Periodic.

5) I'm curious as to why you moved into a property with an unfinished kitchen in the first place. What is unfinished about it? Is it just cosmetic?

6) You'd be surprised how few repairing obligations landlord in England & Wales have. I don't think there's any law that says she has to put the cupboard back up.

7) As long as the electricity meter was installed according to the standards at the time then there's nothing your landlord has to do. Standards get updated all the time but that doesn't mean people have to go around their homes applying them retrospectively.

8) The onus is on the landlord to prove deductions are reasonable. Without an inventory your landlord might find this difficult. If you disagree with any proposed deductions use the deposit scheme's arbitration service, it's what it is for.

Read G_M's guide for:

Ending/Renewing an AST

Deposits

Repairing Obligations

I'm surprised that you've managed to stick it out for 5 years if the place is so horrific. If you have signed a new tenancy agreement from 1st October 2015 onwards then you have some protection from retaliatory evictions for reporting repairs. Make sure all repairs are reported in WRITING!

Cakeguts

Why do you continue to live in a property with all these problems and with a landlady who doesn't maintain the properties to the kind of standard that you would like?

It sounds as if the landlady expects tenants to wreck her properties. The house had no internal door handles. What happened to the ones that were there for the previous tenants? The door handles in my house are the original ones from when the house was built in 1925.

big_boots

The doors were all new when we moved in, but they didn't have handles on them and it seems to take her ages to get stuff done. We are planning on moving but we weren't planning to until next year. In this area it's quite hard to find half decent properties in our price range.

big_boots

Thanks for the reply. It's not horrific, the hall, bathroom, lounge and kitchen were all redone before we moved in. When we viewed the property the work was being done. The kitchen was never finished, because the gas meters were being moved from under the sink to outside, and so they left a pipe in that needs to be removed, and because of that they didn't put up a cupboard, didn't make good the corner wall and didn't finish the sides of the Worktop. It is just cosmetic.

The rooms are big, the location is good, we are near a good school for my daughter, and until recently we both worked nearby.

It's disappointing that she doesn't have to fix the cupboards. I'm not holding much hope of her wanting to give us our deposit back. She already let the holding scheme lapse (she said was their fault). I found out as they wrote to me. She said she then had to pay them to reregister but I never got any new paperwork.

Cakeguts

big_boots wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. It's not horrific, the hall, bathroom, lounge and kitchen were all redone before we moved in. When we viewed the property the work was being done. The kitchen was never finished, because the gas meters were being moved from under the sink to outside, and so they left a pipe in that needs to be removed, and because of that they didn't put up a cupboard, didn't make good the corner wall and didn't finish the sides of the Worktop. It is just cosmetic.

The rooms are big, the location is good, we are near a good school for my daughter, and until recently we both worked nearby.

It's disappointing that she doesn't have to fix the cupboards. I'm not holding much hope of her wanting to give us our deposit back. She already let the holding scheme lapse (she said was their fault). I found out as they wrote to me. She said she then had to pay them to reregister but I never got any new paperwork.

Where is your deposit now do you know?

System

Hi Big Boots.
If you want my advice I think you should move out of there.
You don't want to stay there with a landlady like that.

big_boots

I don't know, she told me she had renewed after it lapsed but I don't know if that's true

System

From what you told us, the landlady is not maintaining the property.
Some of the things you mentioned such as the electric wiring are a health and safety issue which landlords have to look after.
You could go to Environmental Health but if you do that the landlord could evict you.

That's what happened to me when I was in my first private flat where the landlord did not do the repairs.
So you are better off looking for another flat and getting out of there as soon as you can.

If the landlord is not maintaining the property. It's never going to change. So you would be better off to move.

tacpot12

I'd say that you have seen enough to know that this landlord is never going to do what is needed to give you a warm, dry home.