Cheap repairs in high-end property

Munin

I have recently started renting a high end(-ish?) flat. There were some agreed works to be carried out ahead of my moving-in to refresh some of the rooms showing general wear and tear. These works have been "carried out", but to what I feel is a very low standard relative to the rent. For context, annual rent is about £50k, and a bathroom repair has had the imported slate tiles replaced with uneven floor boards covered with £40 worth of ill-fitting lino.

LL doesn't seem to be involved, repairs have been directed by management company. Currently trying to resolve this with the management company, but do I have any recourse here? Is there an implied expectation on the quality of repairs? Or at least a degree of like for like? Or now that the tenancy has been paid for, am I stuck with cheap shoddy work?

leslieknope

£50k a year??!

are you renting buckingham palace?

Pixie5740

You'd be surprised at how few repairing obligations landlords in England and Wales have. Unless you have something in writing from the landlord, or an agent acting on his behalf, stating the standard of the refresh or the type/quality of flooring to be used you've got nothing.

Munin

Pixie5740 wrote: »

You'd be surprised at how few repairing obligations landlords in England and Wales have. Unless you have something in writing from the landlord, or an agent acting on his behalf, stating the standard of the refresh or the type/quality of flooring to be used you've got nothing.

That confirms what I feared. Thanks.

Pixie5740

I might have been a little hasty. If the landlord has opted for a fully managed service from the letting agent it is possible that he doesn't know what poor quality work has been done which no doubt the letting agent will have charged him an arm and a leg for. You could contact the landlord directly and let him know about the poor workmanship. If you don't have your landlord's contact details (other than an address care of the letting agent) you can write to the letting agent requesting your landlord's contact details and by law the letting agent must supply you with those details within 21 days.

Then again the landlord might have sanctioned the work and be happy with the standard of work carried out but you never know.

AdrianC

leslieknope wrote: »

£50k a year??!

are you renting buckingham palace?

£1k/week is not exactly ridiculously high for prime London.
https://www.foxtons.co.uk/search?submit_type=search&search_form=keyword&search_type=LL&price_to=1000&price_from=900&sold=1&location=Zone+1

Doozergirl

Landlords of tenants with high rents like this are very keen to keep them. They aren't that easy to find.

If you aren't in contact with your landlord directly then it might be a good idea to be. At least you can then establish if they think lino is appropriate because you're 'just a tenant' or if they appreciate that you're paying a premium for both location and standard.

Doozergirl

AdrianC wrote: »

£1k/week is not exactly ridiculously high for prime London.
https://www.foxtons.co.uk/search?submit_type=search&search_form=keyword&search_type=LL&price_to=1000&price_from=900&sold=1&location=Zone+1

That linked to things for sale for under £100k for me. You'd think they could build a pretty garage for the price!

MonkeyDr

I would contact your landlord directly.

I let a flat. I wouldn't describe it as 'high-end', and it certainly isn't £50kpa, but it is London and isn't cheap, I had lived in it for a number of years and kept it in decent condition, and when I initially let it I thought that I might move back in at some future point. However, when a room needed redecorating after water damage from a blown-off roof tile, the job the managing agents' team did was absolutely appalling.

- clearly done in great haste, single coat, uneven, could see the underlying colour between brush marks in lots of places (previously white, now done in magnolia, even though I had been told that they would colour-match)
- had not bothered to take a painting off the wall so there was a clear big rectangle of white in the wall of crappy magnolia.

I was very grateful for the tenants telling me.

Of course I got the agent to get it re-done for free, but it taught me to use my own contractors whenever I can if I want to keep things to a decent standard. It may well be that your landlord feels the same.

AdrianC

Doozergirl wrote: »

That linked to things for sale for under £100k for me. You'd think they could build a pretty garage for the price!

How very odd. There's a couple of spaces in one of the search term parameters - remove those, and it works. But if I go to edit the post, they aren't there TO remove...

getmore4less

you cannot cut/paste long links into MSE the parser messes with them use insert link.

https://www.foxtons.co.uk/search?submit_type=search&search_form=keyword&search_type=LL&price_to=1000&price_from=900&sold=1&location=Zone+1


looks the same but works