No fire safety labels in fully furnished rental

Dairydodger

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can help.

We signed a 12 month contract on a fully furnished, ground floor flat on the 11th February. I checked the flat over on the 12th and noticed that it wasn't in the best condition, so took a lot of photos as we hadn't seen an inventory. We moved in on the 14th February. The conditions in the flat are horrendous, fly infestation being the worst and I have discovered from another tenant that the drains became blocked a couple of months before, flooding the flat with excrement. We were aware that there were problems with the flat, which entailed work, but not what actually happened. The letting agent assured us that the flat had been cleaned but I have been told, again by the other tenant, that this wasn't a deep clean. In fact she told me to get some Jeyes fluid to clean the floors when I visited the flat before we moved in.

The conditions have affected my OH's health (she has MS) and I made the difficult decision to pull out of the sale of our other property and move us back into it. I complained to the letting agents about the conditions and the effect it had on my OH. I also asked if we could get out of the contract. We were fully aware that we would have to carry on paying the rental until another tenant is found and that we would probably have other fees to pay.

The letting agents acknowledged our complaint and also sent the inventory over for us to sign. After going through the digital inventory I saw that the lack of fire safety labels on the 2 sofas in the flat was flagged up. I've checked both sofas and there are definitely no fire labels on them anywhere. Surely this is illegal?

I haven't commented on the inventory or signed it, but they chasing me up about doing this. I'm really angry about the condition of the flat when we moved in and now I have found out there are no safety labels, I feel like we've been seriously misled. I don't want the next tenants to go through all of this and feel that the landlord/agents shouldn't have allowed it to be let where there are no fire safety labels.

Have they acted illegally and what can I do to get out of this contract?

TIA

Julie 

powerful_Rogue

Dairydodger said:

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can help.

We signed a 12 month contract on a fully furnished, ground floor flat on the 11th February. I checked the flat over on the 12th and noticed that it wasn't in the best condition, so took a lot of photos as we hadn't seen an inventory. We moved in on the 14th February. The conditions in the flat are horrendous, fly infestation being the worst and I have discovered from another tenant that the drains became blocked a couple of months before, flooding the flat with excrement. We were aware that there were problems with the flat, which entailed work, but not what actually happened. The letting agent assured us that the flat had been cleaned but I have been told, again by the other tenant, that this wasn't a deep clean. In fact she told me to get some Jeyes fluid to clean the floors when I visited the flat before we moved in.

The conditions have affected my OH's health (she has MS) and I made the difficult decision to pull out of the sale of our other property and move us back into it. I complained to the letting agents about the conditions and the effect it had on my OH. I also asked if we could get out of the contract. We were fully aware that we would have to carry on paying the rental until another tenant is found and that we would probably have other fees to pay.

The letting agents acknowledged our complaint and also sent the inventory over for us to sign. After going through the digital inventory I saw that the lack of fire safety labels on the 2 sofas in the flat was flagged up. I've checked both sofas and there are definitely no fire labels on them anywhere. Surely this is illegal?

I haven't commented on the inventory or signed it, but they chasing me up about doing this. I'm really angry about the condition of the flat when we moved in and now I have found out there are no safety labels, I feel like we've been seriously misled. I don't want the next tenants to go through all of this and feel that the landlord/agents shouldn't have allowed it to be let where there are no fire safety labels.

Have they acted illegally and what can I do to get out of this contract?

TIA

Julie 

That won't get you out of the contract. If the labels have been lost, the landlord should either have the furniture re-tested or replace it.

Voyager2002

Contact the Environmental Health department of your local council without delay. By the sound of things that flat is unfit for human habitation and so you have an exit from the contract.

tacpot12

The lack of Fire Safety labels is illegal, but what this means in practice is that: 

• the landlord is in breach of their contract,
• you have to notify the landlord of the breach,
• you have to allow the landlord reasonable time to remedy the breach,
• you can only take action to get out of the tenancy agreement if they don't remedy the breach in reasonable time AND the breach is material. 

I am inclined to think that a judge would say that the breach is not material (although you can argue that it is) if all the other furniture in the property has fire safety labels and there were not other problems. If I were the landlord, I would remove the two sofas and offer a discount on the rent of perhaps £20 per month to allow you get your own sofas. If you didn't like this approach, you would be back to making a case withthe judge that the fact that the missing two sofas meant that the property was not "fully furnished" and that you were mislead and that this is enough to allow you end the tenancy agreement without paying the remaining amounts due. 

You have stated that the conditions in the flat have affected your OH's health, but not said what these conditions are. Have you written to your landlord for complain about the conditions yet? If not, this is step 1. Again you need to ginve them a reasonable time to remedy the problem. What is reasonable depends on what the problem(s) is or are.

If they don't fix the problems you can go to your local authority who will have a team that deals with enforcing standard in the private rented sector. They can force your landlord to fix what ever problems there are.

I would expect taht the first thing the team would ask is "Have you told your landlord, and what have they said they are willing to do?"

Dairydodger

powerful_Rogue said:

"That won't get you out of the contract. If the labels have been lost, the landlord should either have the furniture re-tested or replace it."

Thank you.

The inventory was completed on the 11th February at 8.30am and a note was made by the agent photographing the sofas, that there were no safety labels. Wouldn't this mean that the agents rented this to us illegally as they knew this before we signed the contract later that day?

For the record, it's not just about getting out of the contract. We are concerned that the flat will continue to be rented to others, putting them at risk.

user1977

But they can easily make it legal by getting rid of the unlabelled furniture. I don't think that solves your problem though.

Dairydodger

tacpot12 said:

The lack of Fire Safety labels is illegal, but what this means in practice is that: 

• the landlord is in breach of their contract,
• you have to notify the landlord of the breach,
• you have to allow the landlord reasonable time to remedy the breach,
• you can only take action to get out of the tenancy agreement if they don't remedy the breach in reasonable time AND the breach is material.

Thank you.

As far as I can tell, the agents were aware that there were no safety labels on the sofas as there was a comment about the lack of them along with photos of the sofas. There were comments and photographs of the labels on the upholstery in the bedrooms, so this person was looking out for them during the inventory. This was completed at 8.30am on the 11th. We signed the contract later in the morning, so I would have thought that this was known by then.

I haven't commented or signed the inventory yet as I'm a bit confused about how to deal with all this and I don't want to put another tenant in the same position as us. We are fortunate because we have somewhere else to live now I pulled us out of our house sale.

The conditions were a fly infestation, evidence of faeces on the tiled floor, blood on one pillow and mattress protector and a strong smell of poo, basically. As I said my OH has MS so is immunocompromised. She had a relapse, and became confused within a week of being there and I strongly believed that it was the conditions that brought it on. Our solicitor (for the house sale) was concerned that she may not understand the legal process with the sale of the house, so I pulled out of the sale 3 days before completion. Since moving out she has improved.

I have written to the letting agents complaining about the conditions. I asked if we could be released from the contract and was expecting to carry on paying the rent until another tenant moves in, as long as the place was cleaned. It was only when I read the inventory they sent to me after I complained, that I saw that there were no fire labels on the sofas.

I'm angry because I feel that we were misled as to the condition of the flat and I don't want the agents to re-let the flat to someone else when there are no fire labels. 

Dairydodger

user1977 said:

But they can easily make it legal by getting rid of the unlabelled furniture. I don't think that solves your problem though.

Thank you.

My point is that they already knew that the furniture didn't comply, yet they still allowed it to be rented out.

theartfullodger

If the furniture looks very old worry, but if it looks very new & eg identical to a current item from a reputable supplier - e.g IKEA chair - then I'd not worry. Problem is, if there is a fire the lack of label will likely disappear in the conflagration.

But if you remain concerned write a calm, polite, letter listing those concerns & the excrement issues & any other matters using this link which contains a draft letter. Send it to landlord (Yes, LANDLORD, copy agent, keep copy).
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/how_to_report_repairs_to_a_private_landlord


Your contract is with whoever is named as landlord in tenancy: Yes I appreciate agent may have been handling everything, but it's the landlord in charge, not the agent. 


Best wishes & good luck.

Dairydodger

Thank you everyone for your comments.

I'm going to talk to a solicitor on Monday to see what they say.

Have a good weekend

Julie

Alderbank

Just to be clear, we are all talking about the permanent safety label and not the display label?

The permanent label, the one required, will most likely be sewn or stapled into a cushion or on the underside of your sofa.
People sometimes confuse it with the display label, the cardboard square dangling on a bit of string. That one can be thrown away once the furniture is delivered, but many people believe it must be kept.