landlord refuse to offer compensation for impact of a water leak

ripplyuk

_Penny_Dreadful said:

nc11 said:

marcia_ said:

nc11 said:

hi all

i've been renting a flat for 6 years from a private landlord. never had an issue or a problem. 7 months ago, we had a leak from the flat upstairs which has been noticed only recently. the walls are damp and there's water standing under the floor all around. 

landlord has been "trying" to handle it with his insurers for months. lots of appointments, plumbers and other contractor visits, a lot of disruption and recently also health issues (headaches mainly). a couple of weeks ago he finally informed me that i'll have to vacate for a month or so and have the floor can be raised and everything repaired.

the problem is that the contract ends in 2 months and he wants to raise rent by 15% which is too much for me. it means i'll have to leave and possibly have nowhere to return to. also, he refuses to offer any compensation for the 7 months ordeal i had. i tried to reason with him saying that i'll drop the request if he's reasonable on the rent but he doesn't care.

does anyone know what's a reasonable compensation for such disruption? is it based on a standard of some sort?

thank you!

 Is he providing alternative accommodation? 

yes he agreed to that, however by the time the work will likely finish the contract would have run out and i might find myself with nowhere to come back to.

How will the contract have run out? Your right to occupy the property doesn’t end just because the fixed term ends. You either need to serve notice to bring the AST to an end or your landlord would have to serve a valid notice and then go to court to get a possession order. 

The tenant doesn’t have to serve notice to leave at the end of a fixed term. 

saajan_12

nc11 said:

subjecttocontract said:

Your landlord is not responsible for gravity or a leak from the flat above yours. There is no automatic right of compensation. Tenants should not expect any better treatment by virtue of them paying rent than an owner occupier would receive in the same situation. It looks as though your landlord has been trying to resolve/ fix the problem and has offered a solution. It's take it or leave it, your choice.

understood, however as he's the owner i would have assumed its his responsibility to address and repair in a 'reasonable' timescale. 6 months is not reasonable especially with damp and mould!

Sure, but he's only able to do his part in conjunction with the multiple other parties involved, ie upstairs neighbour, insurer, etc. You would need to break down the 6 months and show which step(s) the LL was unreasonably slow at, as well as the damage resulting from this additional delay. If there's a wait for fixes by other parties or for parts to be in stock, then that may add up to increase the overall timeline to 6 months but the LL isn't liable for that. Basically the question is if you were the owner occupier, could you have done any better? 

The other avenue is the cause of the leak, if arose from negligence - but that would be against the upstairs neighbour. 

nc11 said:

_Penny_Dreadful said:

nc11 said:

marcia_ said:

nc11 said:

hi all

i've been renting a flat for 6 years from a private landlord. never had an issue or a problem. 7 months ago, we had a leak from the flat upstairs which has been noticed only recently. the walls are damp and there's water standing under the floor all around. 

landlord has been "trying" to handle it with his insurers for months. lots of appointments, plumbers and other contractor visits, a lot of disruption and recently also health issues (headaches mainly). a couple of weeks ago he finally informed me that i'll have to vacate for a month or so and have the floor can be raised and everything repaired.

the problem is that the contract ends in 2 months and he wants to raise rent by 15% which is too much for me. it means i'll have to leave and possibly have nowhere to return to. also, he refuses to offer any compensation for the 7 months ordeal i had. i tried to reason with him saying that i'll drop the request if he's reasonable on the rent but he doesn't care.

does anyone know what's a reasonable compensation for such disruption? is it based on a standard of some sort?

thank you!

 Is he providing alternative accommodation? 

yes he agreed to that, however by the time the work will likely finish the contract would have run out and i might find myself with nowhere to come back to.

How will the contract have run out? Your right to occupy the property doesn’t end just because the fixed term ends. You either need to serve notice to bring the AST to an end or your landlord would have to serve a valid notice and then go to court to get a possession order. 

thank you. yes, i understand he will have to initiate a legal process to "force" me out, however that is not a situation i would want to find myself in. i have been a good and quiet tenant for 6 years and it's the first time we had an issue to deal with. if he was reasonable with the rent we could carry on the tenancy, and no the 15% is much more than market or within the block we're in.

Well that's up to you, but the normal process after a fixed term is for the tenancy to become rolling, and in the absence of an agreed rent increase now or in the last contract, the rent would just remain as is. If the LL wants to increase the rent, they simply submit a notice and you can challenge if its above market rents. That doesn't have to be a messy legal situation, its perfectly normal and is likely what will be forced on everyone once the rent reforms go in, though of course we can't guarantee what the LL will do / threaten in the meantime. 

theartfullodger

Nothing to stop you suing upstairs and/or landlord.  

Or claiming against your contents insurance (your decision to have taken it out, or not).

If you'd owned the place, what would you have done?

If there was a flat below you and a leak, your responsibility (eg left shower running) what would you have done?

Best regards to all .

eltisley98

theartfullodger said:

Nothing to stop you suing upstairs and/or landlord.  

Or claiming against your contents insurance (your decision to have taken it out, or not).

If you'd owned the place, what would you have done?

If there was a flat below you and a leak, your responsibility (eg left shower running) what would you have done?

Best regards to all .

This is a genuine question. In this case what is the expectation out of the landlord? 

If I were the owner, I would probably have a home emergency cover which covers temporary accommodation. Do renters usually buy home emergency and if not is it the LL's responsibility to find them a temporary accommodation? From the tenant's POV, they've paid a rent to the LL in exchange for an accommodation and if that accommodation is not usable should they expect some compensation from the LL?

Thanks.

E.

user1977

eltisley98 said:

theartfullodger said:

Nothing to stop you suing upstairs and/or landlord.  

Or claiming against your contents insurance (your decision to have taken it out, or not).

If you'd owned the place, what would you have done?

If there was a flat below you and a leak, your responsibility (eg left shower running) what would you have done?

Best regards to all .

Do renters usually buy home emergency and if not is it the LL's responsibility to find them a temporary accommodation?

Yes, landlord should be providing accommodation (at least if they're still collecting rent!). Often it's covered by the landlord's insurance for this sort of thing.