Landlord hasn't fulfilled promise made to us - Do we stand anywhere

David1973W

I'm pretty sure I already know the answer and this question won't turn up much new. But hey everyone, I'm new here and just looking for some advice.

I've been renting a 4 bedroomed house in Doncaster with my husband for the past 6 months now. We have two children and two dogs.
We went to view the property because it was fairly cheap and a decent size (We needed 4 bedrooms as I routinely work from home) It also said on the listing that pets were allowed. This is great as we've struggled to find places that accept our dogs in the past. Another reason we viewed the property was because the listing stated it had an enclosed, large rear garden.

When we arrived at the viewing we liked the house but noticed that the back garden wasn't enclosed at all. You could clearly see that a fence and gate had once been there but for some reason had been ripped out and taken down. Can't understand why, because on the listing the fence to the back garden was clearly visible (Or we wouldn't have viewed the property) Of course, as I said above - we got there and that fence had miraculously disappeared.
My husband said we liked the house but didn't feel comfortable signing a tenancy agreement because the back garden wasn't enclosed as described and the fence had disappeared.
The letting agency got in touch with the landlady who said that she would put us a new fence and gate up if we moved in and signed the agreement.

We didn't get this in writing. Call us idiots but we signed it, mainly because we desperately needed somewhere to live that accepted two dogs, we were facing homelessness with two children under the age of 6.
It's been 6 months and no fence has gone up. My husband has contacted the landlady directly several times, she is polite to him and comes across as friendly and keeps claiming she is going to send someone over to sort our fence out. She has claimed this four times now.

My husband last contacted her 2 weeks ago and asked her AGAIN when the fence would be done. She replied claiming she was on holiday but would reply within the next 5 days. No reply. She never sent another message.

Do we have a leg to stand on here? Our tenancy agreement is due to end very soon and we're honestly contemplating if it's worth leaving the property and finding somewhere new because having two dogs with no safe back garden is becoming a huge struggle. They have to constantly be let out on leads and because they're fairly young dogs (1 year and 11 months old) we've had tonnes of accidents on the landladys carpet due to us not being able to get their leashes on fast enough.

Any advice is welcome!

Comms69

You can put a fence up yourselves; the cost isn't huge.


As for accident in the home; I'm sorry but that's on you. at 1 year old my dog was house trained for around 7 months.

need_an_answer

You cant force the LL to put up a fence ...you saw what you were signing for when you signed the agreement unfortunately.


Perhaps the best course of action is to move to somewhere you feel is more suitable.

If you hand in your notice with the reason clearly stated then at least the LL knows why they are losing their tenant.


I've no idea of the size of the area to be fenced/enclosed but presumably at this present time its a cost that the LL would rather not have to accommodate..going forward they may find tenants that are happy to accept the situation without a fence so its likely that's what will happen.


Unfortunately I don't think you really have much bargaining power in this situation,its either accept it,leave or put up your own makeshift temporary repair at your own cost which you can eventually remove when you decide to leave

A lot of the time agents use old pictures to advertise a property so the fact that there were pictures of the fence doesn't mean there will be a fence,you need to go on what you actually saw when you viewed the property not the picture representation.

Mela322

We moved into a house 2 months ago. At the viewing, we were told that the garage door would be repaired as it had dropped and was partially open. Went to sign the agreement and was told that they wouldn't be fixing the garage. We were annoyed as the house was advertised with a garage and we were told it would be fixed.

Turned out, it was only £20 for parts and our labour.

For us, we choose not to have pets as renters. Too much hassle and expense and you never know what damage may happen. I have children so we already have some risk.

As Comms said above, dogs are easily trained at a young age. We had a pup when living in the states. From the day we brought him home at 8 weeks old, we stayed outside with him till he had a wee, and then we trained him to ring a bell hung on the door handle when he needed to go out. Was such a good pup. Lived for nearly 18 years. x

perfectspiral

Tell the landlady you are happy to bear the costs of erecting a fence if she is happy to cover the costs of replacing the dog **** carpet when you move out?

need_an_answer

perfectspiral wrote: »

Tell the landlady you are happy to bear the costs of erecting a fence if she is happy to cover the costs of replacing the dog **** carpet when you move out?

regrettably the carpets may fall under the assumption of the deposit to rectify as its not something that would be classed as wear and tear.