Advice needed - Landlord isn't helping regarding bugs in property

bambam789

propertyrental said:

Sounds like the bugs arrived after you did, so not really the LL's responsibility. They came from somewhere, for some reason, either because of you or the neighbours.

The terms within the tenancy agreement are unlikely to mention bugs, and if there IS a clause I doubt it will acknowledge the LL as responsible.......

Yes we have considered going to environmental health. The only reason we've held back is the fear of being kicked out because we've 'reported' them in their eyes.

That's why the Deregulation Act was passed. To prevent 'revenge' evictions.

Is the Deregulation Act in place now? I only ask as I have been served a section 21 notice before for a similar case. We had rats in our walls inbetween our house & our next door neighbours. The rats ended up dying & stinking the property out. We reported it to the council & within 2 weeks had a section 21 eviction notice from the landlord asking us to leave as they wanted the property back for 'repairs'. I won't bore you with the details but I know factually it wasn't to repair anything with the property but rather a cover to evict us as they deemed it we had told on them to the council. So if this Deregulation Act is in place there are obvious loopholes.

bambam789

spoovy said:

If it were me, I'd go round and ask them if they're having similar problems. Based on what you've said so far they may well have. Sounds like there's a food source somewhere up there that needs finding and removing.  This shouldn't be difficult to sort out really.

You may well be right in principle that the landlord should be sorting it, but while you wait for your landlord to do the right thing, you've still got beetles in your biscuits. And waiting for landlords to do the right thing is like waiting for it to start raining £50 notes. In my experience as a tenant it usually made sense for my own mental and physical health to just sort these things out myself.

I may try to speak to them but they speak very little English. I mean very little so trying to have a natural flowing conversation to sort the problem between us won't happen I doubt.

It doesn't state bugs in our contract obviously but words to the affect of it is the responsibility of the landlord to sort out pest issues.

anselld

bambam789 said:

spoovy said:

If it were me, I'd go round and ask them if they're having similar problems. Based on what you've said so far they may well have. Sounds like there's a food source somewhere up there that needs finding and removing.  This shouldn't be difficult to sort out really.

You may well be right in principle that the landlord should be sorting it, but while you wait for your landlord to do the right thing, you've still got beetles in your biscuits. And waiting for landlords to do the right thing is like waiting for it to start raining £50 notes. In my experience as a tenant it usually made sense for my own mental and physical health to just sort these things out myself.

It doesn't state bugs in our contract obviously but words to the affect of it is the responsibility of the landlord to sort out pest issues.

Please quote exactly.

MEM62

bambam789 said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

Well that is more information.

If you have been there for 6 years and they just appeared this year then yes it is very likely something else that has changed.

So any new neighbours in the flats either side? 

I was thinking it could be linked to them & they are crawling into us via the loft then down into our storage cupboard. That part I'm 99% certain on - that they are coming down via the loft. 

In which case any trouble and expense that your landlord goes to is futile.  You have to address the cause of the infestation and if that is not your dwelling you can treat your flat as often as you like and they will still keep coming back. I think you will have difficulty holding your landlord responsible for another property's infestation.     

RelievedSheff

bambam789 said:

spoovy said:

If it were me, I'd go round and ask them if they're having similar problems. Based on what you've said so far they may well have. Sounds like there's a food source somewhere up there that needs finding and removing.  This shouldn't be difficult to sort out really.

You may well be right in principle that the landlord should be sorting it, but while you wait for your landlord to do the right thing, you've still got beetles in your biscuits. And waiting for landlords to do the right thing is like waiting for it to start raining £50 notes. In my experience as a tenant it usually made sense for my own mental and physical health to just sort these things out myself.

I may try to speak to them but they speak very little English. I mean very little so trying to have a natural flowing conversation to sort the problem between us won't happen I doubt.

It doesn't state bugs in our contract obviously but words to the affect of it is the responsibility of the landlord to sort out pest issues.

The devil is in the detail, or wording in this instance. It is unlikely that the landlord will be responsible for an infestation if it wasn't present at the time the tenancy was taken out.

I am happy to be proven wrong if you could post the exact wording of the clause?

propertyrental

bambam789 said:

propertyrental said:

Sounds like the bugs arrived after you did, so not really the LL's responsibility. They came from somewhere, for some reason, either because of you or the neighbours.

The terms within the tenancy agreement are unlikely to mention bugs, and if there IS a clause I doubt it will acknowledge the LL as responsible.......

Yes we have considered going to environmental health. The only reason we've held back is the fear of being kicked out because we've 'reported' them in their eyes.

That's why the Deregulation Act was passed. To prevent 'revenge' evictions.

Is the Deregulation Act in place now? I only ask as I have been served a section 21 notice before for a similar case. We had rats in our walls inbetween our house & our next door neighbours. The rats ended up dying & stinking the property out. We reported it to the council & within 2 weeks had a section 21 eviction notice from the landlord asking us to leave as they wanted the property back for 'repairs'. I won't bore you with the details but I know factually it wasn't to repair anything with the property but rather a cover to evict us as they deemed it we had told on them to the council. So if this Deregulation Act is in place there are obvious loopholes.

Yes. Passed in 2015  and has been in force since 1/10/15. Did you follow the process? ie

Any S21 Notice is invalid if

i) the tenant has reported an issue to the LL and
ii) the tenant has complained to the council and
iii) the council has inspected and
iv) the council has issued an improvement notice to the LL

If all the above steps have taken place, the LL cannot serve a valid S21 Notice, and any already served S21 becomes invalid.

If the landlord serves a (valid) S21 Notice following the original complaint from the tenant (step i above), and then steps ii) to iv) take place, the S21 Notice cannot be enforced even though it may have been valid when it was served.

I assume following the serving of the S21 the LL applied to court for possession? Did you at that point attend the court and challenge the S21? If not the judge would have had no way of knowing the background so could have granted the LL possession, being ignorant of the relevance for the Deregulation Act to the case before him.