Any advice please re: tenants responsibility with garage maintenance

Adorabelle_2

Hello, I am a tenant of a mid terrace property.  The state of the property is liveable but at the minimum level, for example we do not have a shower just an old mixer tap which leaked constantly when I moved in.  I have been in the property for two and half years.

The property has a back garden which was described as "low maintenance" as it had artificial grass.  It was in a very poor state and looked like the grass had been taken from various skips and patched up over the ground.  It had been laid down with no sand or underlayer (not sure what the name of it is), just put on the mud, hence I constantly have weeds growing through it.  They had even put it over the tree stumps and had left a concrete patch with a short metal post in the ground, which could have taken someones eye out had they fell on it. Cigarette butts were left all over the garden.

Over the last few years I have maintained the garden as best as I can (as a disabled, single Mum) but this has been tricky with the constant weeds and overhang from the neighbours trees into my garden.  Anyway, I have been sorting the garden out during the last few weeks and the garage window has in a very precarious state.  It was literally being held in by one nail.  Today the window came out completely, I am very lucky it didn't smash on me or my children, I do not let my children play in the garden due to the dangerous state of the garden.  Inspecting where the window was there is absolutely nothing there which was holding the window in, it is literally just brick and one bit of rotten wood in the bottom corner. The roof of the garage has always been in a poor state and there is ivy growing through the roof from my next door neighbours property.

I would just like to know if anyone has any advice, I am worried that I will have to pay for this, that my landlord will say it is due to my neglect.

On a seperate note regarding the garage, there is a plug socket on the exterior wall next to the top of window.  There is some sort of pipe that connects that through the garage, down by the floor by the fence and into the house.  There is a plug which was in a socket in the house when I moved it but as initially I did not know what it was I unplugged it.  Is this safe to have this or am I just being too wary?

I did view the property before I moved in and due to my situation at the time (ie close to family, the childrens school and I was in a pretty much desperate situation) on face value it looked fine, maybe this was my mistake. 

Thank you

(sorry for any errors!)

KatrinaWaves

Take plenty of photos. Honestly this sounds like an absolute slumlord. Don’t accept any responsibility for it 

AdrianC

Adorabelle_2 said:

I would just like to know if anyone has any advice

Move to somewhere - almost anywhere - that's less of a hole, and with a landlord that gives a toss.

As and when you move out, your landlord will almost certainly try to deduct things from your deposit, with or without good reason. He will need to prove they're legitimate deductions to the tenancy deposit arbitrators.

greatcrested

Much of this you knew when you moved in eg no shower and general poor state. You accepted the tenancy perhaps because the rent reflected the condition?

Having said that, maintenance of the structure is the LL's responsibility. You should write to the landlord (yes, write) at the address provided (usually on the tenancy agreement) "for serving notices", briefly (bullet points are helpful, long essays are not!) listing the areas that need fixing and if relevant highlighting any dangers (eg risk of roof collapse, or of damp damage caused by leaks). End by requesting a date by which you will receive a timetable for repairs.

It sounds like the socket in the garage has been added at some point toprovide power there via a spuroff the socket in the house. If this is unplugged (in the house) the garage socket will be cut off. If you plug it in at the house the garage socket will be live.

Whether this is dangerous or not is impossible to know: If the cable is the right cable, fed through a duct (pipe), and garage socket is not damp (eg from the damaged window) it should be fine, but without looking no one can tell you.

You could request an electrical test. The new Electrical Safety Standards Regulations 2020 requre all new tenancies to have an EICR test certificate, but landlords of existing tenancies have until April 2021 to provide this. You could always refer to the 2020 Regs in your letter requesting a test without actually mentioning the deadline- this sounds like a LL who might well not be familiar with rules.....

Post 2: Repairing Obligations: the law, common misconceptions, reporting/enforcing, retaliatory eviction & the new tenant protection (2015) plus the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018

Adorabelle_2

Thank you for all the responses, they have been very helpful!

@greatcrested - the rent is only slightly lower than the market rent of the area and that is mainly because there is no parking available infront of the house (path way only).  This was not a problems as my Mum lives a minute away so I park at her house.  They did say about there being parking available in the garage ha.