Money Moral Dilemma: Should we push for a rent reduction or show 'forbearance'?

MSE_Kelvin

This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks...

My housemates and I moved into our house the day before lockdown began. It's in a state - it wasn't cleaned and various things are broken, such as two burners on the cooker, a bed frame and a radiator. We've told the landlord, but he says he can't do anything during the lockdown. While that may be true, we don't think he should have rented out the property in this state. Should we push him to reduce our rent or, given the wider situation, try to tolerate our living conditions?

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Vestraun

Did you not view it before you moved in?

ventriloquistdummy

You should absolutely push for a rent reduction. First of all, and you've probably already done this - take photographic evidence of the condition of the property and the broken appliances and send these to your landlord and request they be added to the property inventory (or else you may be charged for fixing them upon leaving). 

Secondly, I'd make it clear to the landlord that either the property is professionally cleaned, or that you as a tenant are under no obligation to clean the property beyond the current, seemingly superficial standards, upon the end of your tenancy. 

You are well within your rights to request that broken appliances are fixed, regardless of whether they were shown as broken in the inventory (I doubt that they were). Whilst the landlord is obviously correct that these things cannot be fixed currently due to the coronavirus, unless you were made aware of the real state of the property, either at viewing or via the landlord's inventory, then I would make a reasonable reduction to your rental payments and explain politely, yet firmly that you will be happy to pay the full amount once the highlighted issues are fixed. 

It's worth remembering that due to the current lockdown situation, your landlord will be unable to rent the property to anybody else which puts you in a good position to negotiate. But even without the extenuating coronavirus circumstances, I would be notifying the landlord that if the required improvements are not made within a set amount of time, you will reduce your rent accordingly. 

Middlestitch

Ask for a rent reduction until all the items are fixed.

tempUsername280720

Nobody can be evicted for the next few months. So refuse to pay rent until it is fixed. #rentstrikenow

mhoward18

You cannot withhold rent. The fact that you cannot be evicted for a while is no excuse not to pay. Don’t assume the landlord has a 3 month mortgage holiday. If he does it means he will end up paying a load of interest spread across years. So like tenants landlords don’t get let off not paying. Work with the landlord. Explain but don’t demand ur situation. Also Be grateful. Have a Messed up house but safe from virus. Or have repairs and risk your health. Not to mention others being at risk. 

tempUsername280720

mhoward18 said:

You cannot withhold rent. The fact that you cannot be evicted for a while is no excuse not to pay. Don’t assume the landlord has a 3 month mortgage holiday. If he does it means he will end up paying a load of interest spread across years. So like tenants landlords don’t get let off not paying. Work with the landlord. Explain but don’t demand ur situation. Also Be grateful. Have a Messed up house but safe from virus. Or have repairs and risk your health. Not to mention others being at risk. 

Everyone should go on rent strike. It's a good way to save money. If landlords can't afford it maybe they should get a job.

mattyprice4004

stalin said:

Nobody can be evicted for the next few months. So refuse to pay rent until it is fixed. #rentstrikenow

I hope that rent strike hashtag isn’t to encourage people in perfectly good houses to stop paying rent - if so, that’d be the most daft thing I’ve seen in 2020 (an award of high acclaim!) 

mrpunk50

Yes, push hard for a reduction in rent. Check over your contract, and quote the landlord the part about his responsibilities. Get advice from Citizens Advice, or other sources. Contact the agency if there was one involved in arranging the contract.
If the landlord doesn't play ball, withhold rent.
To give yourself some motivation, I also recommend looking up your landlord's address on Google street view. Ask yourself if you are really happy handing over your hard earned wages for a terribly neglected property in order to pay for your parasitic landlord's lovely detached country home (I am using artistic licence based on probability and anecdotal experience).

Dip82

stalin said:

mhoward18 said:

You cannot withhold rent. The fact that you cannot be evicted for a while is no excuse not to pay. Don’t assume the landlord has a 3 month mortgage holiday. If he does it means he will end up paying a load of interest spread across years. So like tenants landlords don’t get let off not paying. Work with the landlord. Explain but don’t demand ur situation. Also Be grateful. Have a Messed up house but safe from virus. Or have repairs and risk your health. Not to mention others being at risk. 

Everyone should go on rent strike. It's a good way to save money. If landlords can't afford it maybe they should get a job.

Wow, just wow. You sound like a right scoundrel. Not all landlords are rich. Many are hard working people, who have SAVED up to buy a second property to enable themselves to have a nest egg for retirement.

You sound like someone who is frivolous with their money and would rather cheat someone of theirs than pay their fair way.

With regards to the original post. Why was this not found when the property was viewed? Negotiate a rent reduction until it can be sorted. If it was viewed and noted that things were damaged before you took on the property, then that's extremely stupid of you so try to talk to them about alternatives. Can you order a bed online for delivery that can replace the old one with? Do you really need a radiator at the moment? Apart from this rainy week, it's very warm during the night and day.

georgiadl

stalin said:

mhoward18 said:

You cannot withhold rent. The fact that you cannot be evicted for a while is no excuse not to pay. Don’t assume the landlord has a 3 month mortgage holiday. If he does it means he will end up paying a load of interest spread across years. So like tenants landlords don’t get let off not paying. Work with the landlord. Explain but don’t demand ur situation. Also Be grateful. Have a Messed up house but safe from virus. Or have repairs and risk your health. Not to mention others being at risk. 

Everyone should go on rent strike. It's a good way to save money. If landlords can't afford it maybe they should get a job.

As a Landlord myself who had a full time office job until Covid-19 but now due to it I don’t and now can’t get one so have no income to support myself or the rental property, I do find some of these comments a rather unfair general statement to make about Landlords. I’ve always been a good landlord and have things replaced/fixed asap but now had my tenant give notice and move out to be with their parents mid lockdown which seems they’re able to do, but I can’t relet it now of course so my very limited savings will have to pay the council tax, service charge etc for the rental property and I will have to live off savings for the new few months as can’t even get a job at any supermarket and I will not get any government support whatsoever so please don’t tar all Landlords with these negative views or think all are these fat cat Landlords, I live in a small 1 bedroom flat myself no garden and will be broke by the time this is all over. 

Having worked in property management you can’t withhold rent in this situation, please ensure you read your tenancy agreement carefully. There should have been a documented inventory carried out with all your points noted when you first moved in, a check in process. If there wasn’t you must ensure you take photographic evidence ASAP and document this all yourselves and if necessary do your own detailed inventory to protect yourselves and communicate this clearly to the Landlord and get their E-signature/agreement on it also if you can. Things like photos of inside the oven/fridge freezer/washing machine drawer if dirty, marks and fixings on walls, chipped paintwork etc and all that’s broken. It sounds like this wasn’t done through an agent or they would be advising you correctly. If it wasn’t clean when you moved in you only have to leave it in the same condition at the end of the tenancy, but this must be documented to ensure part of your deposit is not withheld unfairly at end of tenancy. Items broken the Landlord should repair once able to then update the inventory as and when these are done. Also importantly, you should have note of the scheme your landlord holds your deposit in such as TDS and the reference no for it. They should have sent you details of the registration for your deposit by now, if not please request it. 

It does seem that with the items you mentioned that are broken perhaps your landlord should have delayed your move in, or at least advised you beforehand, but in current situation they may have had problems getting contractors in. 

Open up the dialogue with your landlord if you are dealing direct with them. Be clear and fair with requests and by all means suggest a small rent reduction.