How many issues is too many issues? (renting)

Cairez

Oh dear. I'm back again. I'm going to preface this with that I may be a bit of an over-worrier while my partner doesn't think these are as much of a deal as they are.

But I'd like some advice/insight on when the issues in a rental property may become too many?

So. We moved into this flat mid-March. It's been about a month and a half of living there and here are all the issues that have sprouted up since then (ordered as they happened);

• When moved in (it was on the inventory as well) the bathroom sink was leaking - has since been fixed
• Kitchen sink leaking - has been fixed
• Washing machine broke - replaced with another machine, clearly from somewhere else but it works so whatever
• No extraction fan in the bathroom - enclosed small bathroom with a broken extraction fan, we managed to get the landlord to fix it eventually
• Extraction fan in the kitchen didn’t work - same thing with the bathroom, they replaced the fan with another one, kind of like the washing machine
• Huge gaps between the bath and tiles - this is weird, the bathroom is so poorly done, there's huge gaps between the tiling and bathtub where water can go down the sides, landlord sent her husband out to put some sealant around but its just kind of gone inside the gaps and the water can still go down
• Mould growing in bedroom near on skirting boards and walls - yeah, we spotted mould growing on the wall in our bedroom, we cleaned it off and open the window after we shower to see if that helps
• Heating temperamental - now doesn’t work at all - will elaborate on this later on
• Oven cooks at one temperature, too hot - this is also weird, the temperature dial doesn't seem to affect the oven at all, put it on 50 to heat up plates, its BOILING, put it on 200 to cook food, its BOILING - it cooks food faster than it should, causing stuff to burn etc
• Electric meter is broken - sigh. yeah. noticed this after a month when I went to check the readings. its not moved. don't know how long its been broken. I've got my electric supplier coming out to fix a new one at the end of the month.
• Toilet unfastened from floor and leaking - noticed the toilet is moving back and forth on the tiles and there's slight leakage at the back where it goes into the pipe
• Kitchen cupboard broke off from little use - where we keep the cat food, the hinge just broke off and there's huge holes so we can't even screw it back in cause the holes are too big

HEATING - haha, oh my god. the damn heating. so it was temperamental at best, we'd turn it on at the wall, it'd make noises for a minute then turn off, then turn back on, turn off. etc. but the flat heated up so we weren't too bothered. we just turned the whole thing off at the wall when we didn't want any heating at all. the programmer doesn't work, it doesn't 'listen' to it and i don't think the temperature thing works either.
Landlord eventually sends a plumber out who fiddles about with the tank in the cupboard, identifies a potential problem, then leaves.
THEN.

The heating just stopped working. Radiators not heating up. Thankfully the weather has been alright so we didn't really need it. I tell the landlord again. Eventually she says she'll send the plumber around again. He's coming tonight. Last night I figured we'd turn the heating on to see what it's doing so I can explain the situation to the plumber - cue the smell. Oh god the smell. Eggy, gross, head swimming smell. We call the emergency gas services and a guy comes out and yep, we have a gas leak. So there's that.

Also contacting the landlord is such a pain! I email her everything that's happening (and I feel like such a problem tenant, always complaining) and she takes ages to reply. She then has the balls to send my partner a text saying we never paid rent when we DID and I email her all the proof and ask her to clarify this. She comes back with "It’s fine, I shall check my bank account in due course." NO, check it NOW, do NOT accuse us of not paying rent then blow us off" I didn't say this but this is how I feel

My partner says I need to chill out about all this but I'm so annoyed, everything in this flat seems half-assed and cut corners. The tiling in the bathroom with no grout, the uneven floors that stick up in places, bad paint jobs, etc. I know people want to save money but this seems extreme. So many issues coupled with the dismissive landlord is just driving me up the wall. And its only been a month and a half! What's going to happen next? I don't want to move, i just want these things fixed (or to not happen in the first place) but I'm getting worried that the landlord is going to see me as an issue and try and get rid of us or something

I LIKE living here, and that's what gets me. We've got all our stuff in the place, our cats have settled in, its a great distance from work and town and we like living there but there's just these little issues that makes it just not...perfect.

we've rented before and it was fine, its not like i'm just super anal about stuff - for example in our old place the oven broke, I reported it and they fixed it. simple right?

ugh, i don't know. I guess i'd just like some validation for the way i'm feeling and a place to vent it all out. thank you for reading.

cybervic

Even though some problem might be very small (such as your kitchen cupboard door) remember to take photograph and report the issue to LL so you won't be responsible for it when you move out.

Cairez

cybervic wrote: »

Even though some problem might be very small (such as your kitchen cupboard door) remember to take photograph and report the issue to LL so you won't be responsible for it when you move out.

Yeah everything has been reported, I'm starting to feel like a pain in the !!! tbh

[Deleted User]

Personally, it sounds neglected (by the LL) and I'd be looking for somewhere else as soon as I could. But I'd check the next one a bit more carefully before moving in. The signs of a lacklustre LL were clearly there.

Cairez

deannatrois wrote: »

Personally, it sounds neglected (by the LL) and I'd be looking for somewhere else as soon as I could. But I'd check the next one a bit more carefully before moving in. The signs of a lacklustre LL were clearly there.

Its a 12 month tenancy with a 6 month break clause which we might go for - I had wondered if there was a way to leave earlier because of all these issues but moving is such a pain in the !!!, ugh (moved from scotland to england recently)

AnotherJoe

Cairez wrote: »

My partner says I need to chill out about all this but I'm so annoyed, everything in this flat seems half-assed and cut corners.

Pay more for a more upmarket flat or buy your own.

Cairez

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Pay more for a more upmarket flat or buy your own.

£800pm is not cheap for a small 2 bed flat

and I would like to buy my own, but I need a deposit and money to do that, and it's kinda hard when you currently need a place to live that costs £800pm lol

its a slow process...

Slinky

We bought a house we are about to move into, a couple of years ago, full survey. We needed to rent it out til we were ready to move, and so spent 2.5 weeks 'camping' there whilst making it fit for rent. The number of little things we found out that were problems which did not come up one the survey were huge. If we'd rented it straight out, our tenant would have rightly driven us nuts with the issues which needed fixing. Some things you only find while living in a property for youself. I would really recommend any landlord to live in their property for a week, not just send the decorators in, as the OP has found, things can look OK but still there are issues under the surface waiting to appear.


And it wasnt a cheap house, but had been empty for 18 months.

AnotherJoe

Cairez wrote: »

£800pm is not cheap for a small 2 bed flat

and I would like to buy my own, but I need a deposit and money to do that, and it's kinda hard when you currently need a place to live that costs £800pm lol

its a slow process...

Depends where you are. Is this the sort of finish you expect?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-61744611.html

AnotherJoe

BTW you can buy a decent humidifier for £100 or so. Recommended to keep moisture down and thus mould.

Cairez

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Depends where you are. Is this the sort of finish you expect?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-61744611.html

That's pretty snazzy, and its only £300 more a month, for LONDON (it also looks bigger than our place too) :'(

I'll look into humidifiers, thank you

And yeah, a lot of these issues have only come up by living in the property - how were we to know the electricity meter was broken? The number was on the inventory and we checked it, yep that was right and then only a month or so later when we checked it again was when we noticed something was wrong
Leakages and break downs happen, as annoying as they are and I can look past my decoration hang ups but a gas leak is kinda worrying