Should I deduct from my rent?

iwanttoberich

I missed one rent payment two years ago and have never managed to make it up. My landlady hasn't said anything and is hardly around. Here is my problem.

The shower needs fixing and today I think a fuse blew in the kitchen so I have no lights in the kitchen, living room and bathroom and one electrical outlet in one bedroom is not working.

Would it be cheeky to deduct the cost of the repairs from the rent, considering the fact that I owe one month? Or should I just pay it and minus it whenever I do come up with the overdue amount? I am not sure what the right thing to do is? Not even sure if I am on the right board.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

PasturesNew

You should attempt get in touch with your landlady in any case.

Have you checked the fusebox? Might just be a case of flicking up/down the switch that is the opposite way to all the others

thepinklady

If it was me in this situlation I would speak to the landlady and see what she says. She might have somebody who comes out to fix problems should you have any.

clutton_2

"" Would it be cheeky to deduct the cost of the repairs from the rent, considering the fact that I owe one month? ""

yes it would

gps_2

ask yourself why have you not got in touch with landlord first?

if you cannot, why is this?

what happens in an emergency i.e no heating, gas etc?

Debt_Free_Chick

It's not only cheeky, it's potentially unlawful.

You have no right to deduct from the rent, unless the contract specifically allows this.

A blown fuse would almost certainly be the tenant's responsibility anyway - unless there is something fundamentally wrong with the electrics. The general rule of thumb is that a tenant deals with anything that they would normally deal with, if they were the householder e.g. changing a fuse/lightbulb, unblocking the sink etc.

For anything else, contact the LL.

What's wrong with the shower?

eco-friendly_2

Your LL should have brought you to book for missing your rent , rather than ignoring it, and could have worked out a payment plan for you to catch up, arrange a meeting with your LL. You don't actually say if you have reported the repair, I guess you have not, maybe you feel you can't , due to the arrears, contact your LL now. No tenant can carry out repairs in lieu of rent.

PasturesNew

I've found this link, which includes step by step what to do about repairs and how/when to take direct action (see near the bottom)

http://www.bton.ac.uk/ubsu/advice/html_files/housing/repair.htm

poppy10_2

Blown fuse is your responsibility. In any case, in most modern houses all that is needed is to flick a circuit breaker back on - cost=£0.00