help with private renting please!!!Hi everyone thank you very much for accepting me. I need help, w

pitusa

Hello

I need help, we have a problem and I don't have a clue on how to act. I do apologise in advance for the long post 😔

We live in a block of flats, the fire alarm was going off all the time for no reason several times a week so when there was a fire earlier this year no one paid attention to it as we were so used to it, until the fire brigade came and told everybody had to leave. Luckily there were no human victims, but the poor doggy in the apartment that fired up died.

Since that day our 6 year old started having panick attacks whenever the alarm went off, one of those days she was really upset shaking crying her eyes out and I don't know what happened to him but my husband normally a very peaceful, quiet and kind man went outside the flat and took the sounder off the wall.

There's cctv in the building and obviously they caught him on camera, we received a letter from the lettings agency stating we'd have to pay for repairs, we said we would and apologised.

It took a while for them to come and fix it, and the sounder was different from the one that was on the wall before

Now we have received an invoice for over £600 in that invoice there are two devices ( in our floor they only changed one) and a charge for 4,5 working hours.
I phoned the company on the invoice to enquire about the invoice and the person that answered told me that they first cam in to check the alarm as something was wrong with it, then came another day to keep investigating and then they realised our floor's sounder was off the wall, they came in a 3rd time to sort it and the fault they found on the 3rd floor's smoke detector, which was the one triggering the alarm.

I then told the lettings agency the block's management company was making us pay for our liability and for the repair on the 3rd floor and we didn't agree with that.
The agent called them too and was told the same thing he then said he was going to ask for written confirmation from the contractor, now the email from the contractor states that the overhaul cost of the invoice is attributed to irresponsible actions of a tenant at site, ( this action endangered the safety of all tenants in the block and possibly the fire and rescue service, should they have been a fire, this action could have ended up with criminal proceeding)

We attended site for a call out, to establish the extent of the damag, and then returned with the appropriate equipment installed and comissioned.

But that's not the same they told me and the agent on the phone!

Can please someone advice me on this, I think it's too cheeky of them to make us pay for the repair of the smoke detector on the 3rd floor. We do realise he didn't act correctly but we just want to pay what we must, not the managment's company repair.

Thank you for your time reading this and for the help you may be able to provide

Slithery

So your husband endangered the lives of everyone else in the building and he wants to be let off?

Just be glad that they're only going for expenses and not pushing for a criminal charge as well.

onwards&upwards

I think you should suck it up i’m afraid.

This is Karma, your husband put not only his own family’s lives but the lives of other residents in danger, and he is lucky that the only consequence is a bill.

Consider it a fine from the universe.

G_M

I tend toagree wih the sentiments expressed above, but having said that, in a strict legal sense I'd have thought


* your husband is liable for the cost of fixing the sounder he removed
* your husband is not liable for the cost of fixing the faulty smoke detector, or other issues he was not responsible for
* your husband may be liable for the cost various initial visits whilst they determined what was wrong and what needed to be fixed (re the sounder)


But as with everything related to law, it comes down to evidence and proof. If you can prove that the £600 incudes fixing the smoke detector, then you have a strong case to get that bill reduced, but it sounds like you are relying on a phone conversation that might not easily get transfered into a written statement.......

[Deleted User]

I have had children get very stressed about things that wouldn't stress an adult (including for months every night I'd have to reassure my then 6 year old that we wouldn't get hit by a Tsunami while he slept). I suspect it is a bit harsh to blame parenting..., its just how some children are. Particularly if they are aware there was a fire and a pet died. Its not like they wouldn't know there was a fire.

But while I understand the frustration and stress the alarm system was causing, there were other ways of getting it fixed. As you are aware, removing the sensor was not clever.

And as G_M says, unless you have proof that the £600 cost was for work not to do with replacing the sensor, you will have a problem arguing your case. And I suspect if the company takes this further, you will have legal fees added to the cost.

I think this was a learning experience. An expensive one.

onwards&upwards

deannatrois wrote: »

I have had children get very stressed about things that wouldn't stress an adult (including for months every night I'd have to reassure my then 6 year old that we wouldn't get hit by a Tsunami while he slept). I suspect it is a bit harsh to blame parenting..., its just how some children are. Particularly if they are aware there was a fire and a pet died. Its not like they wouldn't know there was a fire.

I completely understand a 6 year old being scared of fire, I don’t understand a parent’s reaction being to INCREASE the danger to her!

iammumtoone

onwards&upwards wrote: »

I completely understand a 6 year old being scared of fire, I don’t understand a parent’s reaction being to INCREASE the danger to her!

Whilst the OPs husband shouldn't have done what they did. It seems due to the amount of times it went off everyone was ignoring the alarm anyway. In some way the OPs husband has done the other residents a favour as now it has forced the situation to get the fire alarm repaired.


OP I think you just need to pay it without fuss. You want this situation regarding your husbands wrong doing to go away as quickly and quietly as possible not to drag it out and draw more attention to it.

onwards&upwards

iammumtoone wrote: »

Whilst the OPs husband shouldn't have done what they did. It seems due to the amount of times it went off everyone was ignoring the alarm anyway. In some way the OPs husband has done the other residents a favour as now it has forced the situation to get the fire alarm repaired.

Not sure the police/courts/any victims’ families would have agreed if the worst had happened.

M_Python

pitusa wrote: »

We live in a block of flats, the fire alarm was going off all the time for no reason several times a week so when there was a fire earlier this year no one paid attention to it as we were so used to it, until the fire brigade came and told everybody had to leave.

OP - how many times did you report the fact that the alarm was going off all the time to the lettings agent/landlord/management company?

pitusa

I just want to make clear that the alarm was still sounding in the rest of the building, it was only the sounder that was next to our door that he took off , it's a block that has 5 floors and several sounders in each one, so we could still hear the alarm, just not as loud as if it was inside our flat.

We reported this several times as did other neighbours and we also told the fire brigade when they came for the fire, the fire happened more than months ago and it wasn't until now that it's being repaired.

ognum

pitusa wrote: »

I just want to make clear that the alarm was still sounding in the rest of the building, it was only the sounder that was next to our door that he took off , it's a block that has 5 floors and several sounders in each one, so we could still hear the alarm, just not as loud as if it was inside our flat.

We reported this several times as did other neighbours and we also told the fire brigade when they came for the fire, the fire happened more than months ago and it wasn't until now that it's being repaired.

Your husband did the damage you should pay.

Now the real question, why haven’t you moved. You say you are in private rented, this has had dramatic effect on your lives. Why stay there?