Reducing rent paid if years old house problems continue to stay unfixed?

MultiFuelBurner

janewatts said:

anselld said:

Follow the Shelter process ...

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

Thanks very much, I'm reading this through and will start the environmental health team report next. It's not on to leave a family in a damp environment, everyone knows that now.

Have you got any pictures of the issues?

strongeyecontact

Thank you so much for your reply theartfullodger. I will look into all that too. 

RAS the info I read said you need to be a month over to be classed as non payment of rent. Underpaying £50 per month would take over two years to accumulate a month's late payment, but I am very grateful for your response.

Alderbank this space has a separate room with the washing machine in, and is basically an extension of the lounge. I only call it a conservatory because of the crappy corrugated plastic roof, but it has brick built walls. It's definitely an essential part of the house.

HampshireH it has been 'fixed' by a plumber many times but it never stays fixed, so I doubt my very disabled niece could do it with any amount of video assistance. I'm over 100 miles away but doubt I'd be any better. I'm grateful for your reply though and have definitely decided to go the council private renting complaint route.

marcia_ this is interesting, can you send me any links to related stories please? I'd love to get my PR mate to go to town with the press if this did even look possible. Thanks very much for your reply, as always.

propertyrental thank you so much. This is why I posted on here, because I know you guys have so much specific knowledge. I am 100% going to follow the correct route. I'm just so p****** with the agent and landlord right now!

RAS

janewatts said:

RAS the info I read said you need to be a month over to be classed as non payment of rent. Underpaying £50 per month would take over two years to accumulate a month's late payment, but I am very grateful for your response.

Assuming England? Being two months in arrears means mandatory eviction. But as artful points out being £1 in arrears for a day could attract an S8 notice, not that a court would comply.

Being consistently in arrears, particularly increasing arrears, means eviction is at the mercy of the court but they will grant it, as per some of the threads here.

Interestingly, a landlord's failure to repair after an EHO report is a defence against an S21 notice.

strongeyecontact

Thanks for your reply MultiFuelBurner, it's hard to get evidence of some things in a pic (such as draughty doors and windows), but you can see the missing flashing even on Google maps! We've got the massively differing water bills, plus photos a roofer took when fixing the next door neighbour's roof, which were all sent to the agent/landlord 18 months ago. Quotes were done by contractors sent by the landlord last week, but strangely enough she didn't like them and won't let my niece see them. Other companies won't quote for my niece directly without charging anything from £70 - £120 for the call-out, as they know they won't get the work, so she's a bit stuck!

strongeyecontact

RAS said:

janewatts said:

RAS the info I read said you need to be a month over to be classed as non payment of rent. Underpaying £50 per month would take over two years to accumulate a month's late payment, but I am very grateful for your response.

Assuming England? Being two months in arrears means mandatory eviction. But as artful points out being £1 in arrears for a day could attract an S8 notice, not that a court would comply.

Being consistently in arrears, particularly increasing arrears, means eviction is at the mercy of the court but they will grant it, as per some of the threads here.

Interestingly, a landlord's failure to repair after an EHO report is a defence against an S21 notice.

Yes England. Thanks so much again RAS, I appreciate this. I don't want my short fuse to get my niece into more trouble else she'll end up living with me 

sourpuss2021

My understanding is that in a periodic tenancy a landlord is perfectly entitled to propose putting the rent up multiple times during the same year.  

The tenant doesn’t have to accept, but the landlord is allowed to ask. 

propertyrental

sourpuss2021 said:

My understanding is that in a periodic tenancy a landlord is perfectly entitled to propose putting the rent up multiple times during the same year.  

The tenant doesn’t have to accept, but the landlord is allowed to ask. 

The same is true in a fixed term tenancy.

Provided both sides agree, rent can be changed in any tenancy.

_Penny_Dreadful

sourpuss2021 said:

My understanding is that in a periodic tenancy a landlord is perfectly entitled to propose putting the rent up multiple times during the same year.  

The tenant doesn’t have to accept, but the landlord is allowed to ask. 

Landlords can only issue a Section 13 once a year. Any subsequent rent increases in the following 12 months would need to be by mutual agreement with the tenant.

Ramouth

Just a note on the water, your niece should be able to get a rebate from the water company as the clean water running through does not require treatment.  You can only get this once at each property so worth holding on until the problem is fixed but definitely worth doing.  We have had toilets constantly running a couple of times in the past and in both instances it was fixed by replacing the flush mechanism.

theartfullodger

Just to reiterate, it's the tenant, neice who needs to report matters.  No offence but you have no relationship ir contract with landlord.

Good luck to you both