Tenant Rights - Landlord Issues

wrighthannah

Morning everyone,
I hope you're enjoying the sunny weather that we're finally having  
So, my husband and I moved into our rental property Jan 2020 having relocated from another county. Prior to the start of the pandemic, we had a smart meter fitted in March 2020 where our electricity had to be turned off. Our smoke alarm is mains powered with battery backup so having the electricity turned off led to it going on the battery back up. The alarm started doing the battery low beep a few days after (we assumed having the power back on would kick the alarm back onto mains but didn't seem to happen) so we replaced the battery. 
The alarm started sounding every 15 minutes which we couldn't live with so had to take the alarm off of its base meaning we had no fire protection. 
We reported this as soon as it happened to our property management company but it wasn't fixed despite being a pretty high priority! 
It took over a year to finally get a new alarm installed! We have evidence of us getting in contact with property management about this issue (around 15 emails throughout the year plus reporting on their maintenance portal!!).
I wanted to know what our rights would be in terms of paying rent/possibly getting compensation for this since it was a huge health and safety issue?
To top it off, we've still not had an electrical safety certificate issued which I know is a requirement from landlords.
To show how terrible our landlord and property management team are, there was a leak in our flat which was there before we moved in and it took the owner of the below shop (which had its electrics cut out because of our leak which turned out to be in our ensuite shower that we never use!) to get a specialist in to show the extent of the damage to the landlord. That took pretty much our whole tenancy to sort out! 

So basically, can the housing ombudsman do anything for us and if we did this, could the landlord legally evict us?

Thanks  

AdrianC

"Huge health and safety issue"? If you were that worried, you could have bought a standalone smoke alarm for a fiver and propped it on top of a shelf/cupboard. No, you have zero rights to free rent for that.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071W2YZ3N/

Yes, an EICR is a legal requirement... as of the start of last month. Electricians are quite busy as a result.

If they're that bad, move.

HampshireH

AdrianC said:

"Huge health and safety issue"? If you were that worried, you could have bought a standalone smoke alarm for a fiver and propped it on top of a shelf/cupboard. No, you have zero rights to free rent for that.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071W2YZ3N/

Yes, an EICR is a legal requirement... as of the start of last month. Electricians are quite busy as a result.

If they're that bad, move.

100% this.

No compensation is due you could have picked one up in b&q and fitted it quite easily to protect you and your family if it was that big a concern

princeofpounds

For future reference OP:

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/what_to_do_if_your_private_landlord_wont_do_repairs

laurey0301

When you moved in was an inventory done? As if there was with a working smoke alarm at the time of move in that is all the courts/ombudsman will look at really. As maintenance of smoke alarms is actually down to tenants once the tenancy commences so i think they were generous to replace it. They could have looked at it as the item became faulty after you decided to fit the smart meter.

EICR is a legal requirement now as AdrianC says but electricians are insane busy. Ask your agent when the likelihood is this will be done.
But as said above, you wouldn't be entitled to compensation.

wrighthannah

AdrianC said:

"Huge health and safety issue"? If you were that worried, you could have bought a standalone smoke alarm for a fiver and propped it on top of a shelf/cupboard. No, you have zero rights to free rent for that.


Yes, an EICR is a legal requirement... as of the start of last month. Electricians are quite busy as a result.

If they're that bad, move.

Wow, I'm actually astonished at this response.

Firstly, it's a mains with battery back up alarm so we couldn't replace ourselves as the base of the older unit would have to be removed and there's wiring involved and neither myself or my husband are electricians. So, it's not as simple as buying and replacing ourselves.

In terms of the EICR, it came into effect in July 2020 so that's a year next month which is ample time to get one sorted.

wrighthannah

laurey0301 said:

When you moved in was an inventory done? As if there was with a working smoke alarm at the time of move in that is all the courts/ombudsman will look at really. As maintenance of smoke alarms is actually down to tenants once the tenancy commences so i think they were generous to replace it. They could have looked at it as the item became faulty after you decided to fit the smart meter.

EICR is a legal requirement now as AdrianC says but electricians are insane busy. Ask your agent when the likelihood is this will be done.
But as said above, you wouldn't be entitled to compensation.

Thank you, appreciate this response.

Yes, an inventory was done and it was working when we moved in. 

There was a fault with the alarm as we changed the battery and the next day it decided to sound every 15 minutes as in a full on alarm to evacuate the building. This is why we had to take it down and as it requires wiring etc, we were unable to replace otherwise we would have. 

I'd never put the landlord at fault if a battery needs replacing because that's an easy fix and down the the tenant as you say. 

wrighthannah

princeofpounds said:

For future reference OP:

Thanks for this. 

We've taken most of the steps which leaves court action which we can't really afford unfortunately.

wrighthannah

HampshireH said:

AdrianC said:

"Huge health and safety issue"? If you were that worried, you could have bought a standalone smoke alarm for a fiver and propped it on top of a shelf/cupboard. No, you have zero rights to free rent for that.


Yes, an EICR is a legal requirement... as of the start of last month. Electricians are quite busy as a result.

If they're that bad, move.

100% this.

No compensation is due you could have picked one up in b&q and fitted it quite easily to protect you and your family if it was that big a concern

As I've mentioned in response to AdrianC and written in my original post, it's a mains alarm with battery back up so needs an electrician to wire. If it was a battery only alarm, then yes, we would have replaced it ourselves.

The unit also had a fault (sounding every 15 minutes as in the real alarm to tell us to evacuate) and neither my husband or I are fire alarm technicians so couldn't fix it. 

Also, I wasn't asking for free rent, merely asking if we had any rights to compensation or if we can barter for lower rent due to the issues we've been facing. 

Telling me to "just move" is quite frankly ignorant. If this didn't happen to us, it'd be another tenant because the landlord refuses to fix big issues. The leak being one where the lights went out in the shop below us because water was literally dripping from their ceiling. Landlords need to take accountability and don't get me wrong, tenants do on the maintenance side of things too. 

noitsnotme

wrighthannah said:

AdrianC said:

"Huge health and safety issue"? If you were that worried, you could have bought a standalone smoke alarm for a fiver and propped it on top of a shelf/cupboard. No, you have zero rights to free rent for that.


Yes, an EICR is a legal requirement... as of the start of last month. Electricians are quite busy as a result.

If they're that bad, move.

Firstly, it's a mains with battery back up alarm so we couldn't replace ourselves as the base of the older unit would have to be removed and there's wiring involved and neither myself or my husband are electricians. So, it's not as simple as buying and replacing ourselves.

The other poster wasn’t suggesting that you replace the mains powered alarm.  You could have bought a perfectly adequate battery powered one for a couple of quid and propped it up somewhere.

GDB2222

wrighthannah said:

princeofpounds said:

For future reference OP:

Thanks for this. 

We've taken most of the steps which leaves court action which we can't really afford unfortunately.

I don’t think that you would have any realistic hope of winning much in court. Your damages over the fire alarm would be minimal. As to the EICR, it’s up to the local authority to take the matter to court. If they did that, the landlord would be fined, but none of the fine would find its way to you. There’s no ombudsman, by the way.

I got all my EICRs done by the deadline, and there was nothing serious to rectify. Do you think that there’s anything wrong with the installation that you have? If not, the natty bit of paper is not worth much. On a practical basis, I suggest that you nag the landlord to get the report done ASAP. I would not threaten, just nag. But nag on an almost daily basis!