Claiming against landlord

LEJC

john_peters wrote: »

FYI, I am now a home owner myself, I had an issue recently which needed attending to quickly, I paid for a plumber to attend and fix a problem in a couple of hours? I did not have to rely upon reporting it to someone else and wait for them to fix it. As a home owner, it is my choice which tradesman to use which could be the cheapest, the quickest, the one with the flashy van etc, as a tenant, I did not have this option, from logging the job it took the agents seven days to get someone to actually come out to the first appointment. I am sure comments will be made in reply to this about it being my choice to live there etc.

I wasn't asking for a same day repair....although what i did want clearly was too much and its acceptable for this problem to go unresolved for weeks and I am being unrealistic in expecting any kind of rebate.

Everything was done through the agent and i asked for the rebate when it happened as mentioned in my previous message, the landlords address for service was the letting agent.
but they have told me its nothing to do with them.

The problem was unresolved for 2 weeks....but under investigation....are you being unrealistic in expecting any kind of rebate....ummm maybe considering its 9 or 10 months down the line.

I can often find a plumber at very short notice too...but it's not much use when it's an electrician that's required and the fault is undiagnosed!!!!!

Actually the bit I do agree with you is that it shouldn't have taken the agent 7 days to get someone to you in the first place...but it also means that actually the fault was fixed in a week....still not ideal but not something that warrants further challenging IMO.

Put it down to the experience of renting and enjoy life as a home owner going forward.

LEJC

john_peters wrote: »

We lived at the property for 10 months.

Why did you leave?

john_peters_3

Ok, thanks for all the responses but just to be clear

the fault was not fixed in a week, it took 15 days in total until we had electricity in the property because each time the part was not on the van or not available at the warehouse and each time a different engineer attended.

I was making a point that if i had the same problem regardless of if i was a landlord or lived in my own property, i would of got this sorted earlier, ill put it down to one of those things and move on like you say. I managed to track down the landlords home address hence wanting to now chase this up as i was getting no joy from the LA.

It seems everyone who has responded to this thread with the exception of giraffe seems to be of the opinion that because i was a tenant, i expected the earth and stars, what I expected is to be able to live in a property i was paying for, not temporarily move out as the house was not habitable, a week after moving in and i am sorry but you are chatting rubbish if you any of you would expect to live without electricity in your houses for over a fortnight...

thanks all for the advice please close this thread.

john_peters_3

we left as we bought our own property

JJM100200

john_peters wrote: »

If the property was mine, i would of paid for this to be fixed sooner than two weeks.

I'm a home owner and currently on day 9 waiting for a repair on my boiler/electrics. The repair company has been out several times in those 9 days.

Just because you own a home doesn't mean you can magic up an instant trades person or a fix for every situation.

I think your expectations may be slightly skewed and now that you are also a home owner you will also find out one day that a problem will arise that you will have to wait a week or more to have fixed. Wait till a cold snap comes along then you will find all available plumbers disappear for 2 weeks under a huge back log of work.

LEJC

john_peters wrote: »

we left as we bought our own property

Contrary to what you may think...I have been interested in your comments and tried to balance things in my replies to you, I am sorry some of what I said may not have been in agreement with you but ...you asked for advice and that is what I tried to offer...

I asked how long you were in the property and why you left purely because that may have had a bearing on whether you could have actually reasonably made a claim....

If you had only just moved there then perhaps that would have been the case but the fact seems to be that you had been there 9 months or so with no issue and the reason you left was not linked to the fault,but because you bought your own home.

It was always going to be very difficult to make a claim after such a timeframe,even though you have now tracked the LL down...the fact that your departure was not connected to the issues would probably be enough reason for the LL to reject your claim for loss.

By all means write the LL a polite letter stating you would like 2 weeks rent refunded....but in all honesty if the boot were on your foot and you were the LL would you be sending a cheque or asking for banking details to rectify something that happened almost a year ago and everyone got on with life....

john_peters_3

i havent even had as much as an apology from him.... I was a week into a six month AST so had no grounds to leave (our tenancy said a month), I have already sent the landlord a letter asking for it and his response was to take a running jump.

it certainly gave us the incentive to save as much as we could for our deposit as our next step was always going to be our own place, but i wouldnt of said we moved out directly because of it, as once the consumer board was placed and some other stuff rectified, no issues with the electric.

LEJC

So how much did you actually ask your Ex LL to compensate you in monetary terms?.....presuming you included this figure in your correspondence to them.....

G_M

As has been pointed out, the LL had (very sensibly) paid for a BG contract so that issues in the property were sorted for his tenants.

The fact it took 2 weeks was down to BG. They made 6 visits, so clearly were on the case.

Yes, you say you could have got an electrician out yourself, but

a) then the LL would have been paying twice (for the BG contract and your electrician), and
b) you and he had no idea what this electrician would have charged, and whether it would have been reasonable, and.....
c) that electrician may have also had to make multiple visits to identify the problem, obtain the parts etc so it might still have ended up being 2 weeks

The LL in this case did not act unreasonably.

I accept there is an argument the property was uninhabitable (though you'd arranged electricity from next door and could have discussed re-imbursing them at the time). But had you serously believed this, the time to make it an ssue was....... last October.

Did you write to the LL at the time, at the proper address? What did your letter say?

The fact that you did not indicates that you had accepted the situation.

Dorian1958

I certainly did not respond to your thread suggesting that just because you were a tenant you expect the earth and stars. You asked for advice, and not knowing all the circumstances ( because you didn't provide them in your first post) essentially provided some questions, the answers to which would help you move forward with a decision as to what to do. I have been following your thread with interest - good night and good luck.