Boiler broken - letting agent not returning calls, plumber lying through his teeth...

missimaxo

Hi

We rent our house via a letting agent and our landlords live in Germany. Up to now we have never had a problem with either.

On Friday night our boiler broke, so after a cold night we phoned the LA and they arranged a plumber to come round.

The plumber stated that the fan had gone and told us that he would be back Monday, all fine and dandy we think. A couple of cold nights but back to norm soon.

Monday came and I got back at 5pm to find nobody had been.... I rang LA but although they shut at 5.30 nobody answered. We had plumbers no. so I left a message for him. He phoned me back to say that he hadn't said he would be back monday, he said he would order the part monday. He said he had done this, it would arrive tuesday and he would fit Wednesday. So pretty angry about the continuing delay I agreed.

Yesterday came and I rang the local agents (not letting dept) at 4pm to ask if he had been for key. The answer was no. I then contacted the LA from 4pm - 5pm every 15mins trying to get hold of "the girl dealing with our case", she eventually phoned me back at 5.15 to say that the plumber had told me on monday that the part would take 48hours to come and he woud fit today (Thursday).

I stated to her, that with all due respect the plumber was lying through his teeth and making excuses, and told her what he had told me. She guaranteed to me last night that he would be coming today to mend it.
I told her that if he failed to turn up, I though we had been patient enough and that we would be asking for a rent reduction to seek alternative accomodation as to have no boiler broke the terms of our letting agreement.

Well its now past 12pm, we have had no contact from the plumber to say he is coming (they have always said he will ring first before getting the key). I rang the agent 1 hour ago to say that he had not yet turned up, and I wanted an expected time as I was home today. They have not returned my call.

Where do I go from here? I have 2 young children and only gas fires in the lounge to heat the house with. If they had said Saturday that it would take a week to fix, I would have arranged for them to stay with my mum for a week. I am sick of being lied to. What are our rights?

Thanks

ruggedtoast

Very little Im afraid. Isnt renting in Britain marvellous?

You can check out Shelters website - they have a lot of information there. Basically you can ask for a rent reduction, whether or not they give it is up to them. In cases of dire need when the LL fails to take action you can get some quotes and then have the work done and invoice the LL for the work. All this needs to be documented to the nth degree and with no guarantee that the LL will pay and no right whatetsoever to with-hold rent you could end up stuck with the bill.

The good news is that your landlords probably are fine, just out of the loop and the plumber is just messing you all around. If you can contact them in Germany and complain I would do, otherwise keep on at the letting agent. It has to become more effort for them to ignore you than it would be to fix the problem unfortunately.

vyvyan_2

In my experience landlords are often reasonable people being kept out of the loop. It's the agent that end up causing the hassles, lies and various misunderstandings - all hidden behind the facade of 'acting on the landlord's behalf'. Not that I'm bitter or anything......

Good luck - is it possible to threaten to get it repaired and issue them an invoice for the bill? After all you have young children and it is VERY cold just now. Follow up if necessary with that you took resonable steps but to no avail and you think it is unreasonable it to be left this length of time and Christmas is next week and a call out will be nigh on impossible.

MissMoneypenny

Phone your local council and ask for Private Housing and tell them about this. They will be able to go for your LL if he doesn't sort this soon.

BTW, your LL has to (by law) give you his UK contact address. I would also tell the council that they have failed to do this. If it were me, I would also be dropping a letter off at the LA telling them they are required to give you this information. If they fail to do this by a certain time (I think it is 21 days) then report them to the council and they will take action against the LA.

"All landlords have to give their tenants their name and a UK contact address. If the property is managed by a letting or property agent, they must also provide you with the landlord's full name and address. Any requests should be made in writing, you should also keep a copy of the letter and send it by recorded delivery, if you want proof of postage. If you don't get a reply in writing within 21 days of them receiving your letter, the landlord is committing a criminal offence.
Your next step could be to report your landlord to your local council's tenancy relations officer (TRO). TROs can get involved in disputes between landlord and tenants and can even prosecute the person who does not provide this information."
http://england.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-3181.cfm#wipLive-17064-3

Also, contact Shelter. They have a freephone number listed on their website.

lexie55_2

Depending on make /model of boiler, most spares are readily available, if not, can be sourced and couriered overnight (Parts Center is one). Also, if the fan, he could have taken it away and got a reconditioned one. You say Plumber, but was he Corgi Registered....

firsttimetom

Unfortuantely you are dealing with people traditionally associated with Lying - Estate Agents and Plumbers.

There are those in both fields that don't lie. In my small town, there is only one plumber I would ever use. The rest I know are useless.

I would also be looking for rent reductions and would be writing a nice letter to the Landlord to inform him how his letting agency have acted.

P.S> Good luck in getting it sorted, no one wants to be in this situation especially in the coldest week of the year.

missimaxo

Well after phoning every half hour we finally have an answer....

They can't make it today but the part arrived this afternoon and they will fit it tomorrow. Not much use and I afraid I'm of the view "I've heard it all before".

In the end my husband rang and in his words gave them the biggest rollocking of their lives - got put on speaker phone to a supervisor (despite me asking for one 4 times to be told they are never there).

We'll see if they arrive tomorrow....

Oh and I've rung Corgi and apparently they are corgi registered.

What happens with regards to LL's who do not have a UK address? I know they haven't been contacted over all this, and I have no gripes with them (they have always been very reasonable about paying for repairs in the past). This used to be their house but they moved to Germany for work so I think genuinely do not have a UK address (one of their surnames if German).

Thanks for the advice.

roses

Have you got your landlords contact details? I would write or call them to say how crap the agent is. Your landlord probably does not have a clue what is going on.

missimaxo

Yes - there address is on our TA - I think I will do this!

tiggerwoo

It will be actioned today/tomorrow...sorry but can't get hold of the landlord...so and so is in a meeting(again!!!!!!!)....system has gone down.....can't get thro' to xxxxx must have transposed number....Don't know anything about that.....I' m not dealing with your case,you will have to call back.......can i take your number and I'll get him to call you back.....we have'nt had the paperwork back yet.......blah blah blah blah blah.
Does all this sound familiar??

Loretta

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Phone your local council and ask for Private Housing and tell them about this. They will be able to go for your LL if he doesn't sort this soon.

BTW, your LL has to (by law) give you his UK contact address. I would also tell the council that they have failed to do this. If it were me, I would also be dropping a letter off at the LA telling them they are required to give you this information. If they fail to do this by a certain time (I think it is 21 days) then report them to the council and they will take action against the LA.

"All landlords have to give their tenants their name and a UK contact address. If the property is managed by a letting or property agent, they must also provide you with the landlord's full name and address. Any requests should be made in writing, you should also keep a copy of the letter and send it by recorded delivery, if you want proof of postage. If you don't get a reply in writing within 21 days of them receiving your letter, the landlord is committing a criminal offence.
Your next step could be to report your landlord to your local council's tenancy relations officer (TRO). TROs can get involved in disputes between landlord and tenants and can even prosecute the person who does not provide this information."
http://england.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-3181.cfm#wipLive-17064-3

Also, contact Shelter. They have a freephone number listed on their website.

They do have a UK contact address for the landlord, it is his Letting Agent