Landlord Issues Please Help (Advise)

gofel

Hello

Please could someone advise me on a few issuies at hand.
The first one is:

1. In Feb my partner gave birth to my first baby (01/02/200, unfortunately this happens to be the same date I deposit the rent into my landlord (Who is the agent aswell) although the rent is only due on the 3rd of the month, the 1st Feb was also a Friday. I did not manage to deposit the money in his account on the 1st as my partner went into labour @ 5:30am. I spent the whole day Saturday at the hospital and didnt manage (didnt remember) to deposit the rent till Wednesday 6th, the only thing that made me remember that i didnt deposit the money was a missed call (on the 6th) from the landlord's number.I ran quickly into town and deposited the money, called the landlord & apologised as I had alot on my plate.The land lord was fully aware that my partner was pregnant,infact they even knew that she had given birth BECAUSE the phoned her aunty and told her aunty that we do not pay rent and we are late all the time (obviously not true) and discussed my details with my partners aunty (who is not even a garantor or my lease, her home line was what i used when i stayed there), The landlord did not even mention that he had spoken to anyone.I found out when my partners aunty was blabbing my business to everyone in her family and that caused a family arrgument and is part of the reason my partner and I have now split our ways.

Furiously I emailed that landlord, explaining that he knew full-well that my partner was due to give birth, I have never not paid him his rent, I explained that by discolsing my personel details to a third party, he was breaching the "Data Protection Act" of 1998, he replied apologising and accepting that he had unnessarly discolssed my personal details to a third party person.

This incident has played a a big factor into my reaction to my partners family & the break down of our relationship, I have since been diagnosed with depression and I want to know what i do to my landlord legally because it seem unfair that I suffer and he gets away smiling.

2. My second issue is, when we moved into the house just over a year ago, the landlord presented us with a gas certificate for the two gas fires downstairs, this year when he had someone come round to do the inspection, the gas inspector shut them down and put a yellow tag round them, he said the gas fire heater in the dinning room, which we used had no anti-fire back to it (something like that) and he said it is dangerouse, the gas fire heater in the lounge is a fake coal gas heater that has real flames, he shut it down because it did not have ventilation (Or adiquate ventilation) he asked how often we used it and we told him that we have used it nearly everyday since she got pregnant and also once the baby was born we used that to heat room (with the door closed) he was shocked and said that we should not have been exposed to such danger.

I have since found out that the landlord always used cowboy laboures in the past.The inspection was about two months ago and the land lord has not done anything to get them fixed, we have had to use electric heaters now which costs alot more, he has not even mentioned anything about the gas being unsafe. Should we be compensated for using the electric heaters now and how about all the time my partners, her two daughters and I have had bad chests could that not be from sleeping in the living room with the gas fire on and not enough ventilation? How about the effects it may have had on my new born (and yes we have seen the midwife and doctor about his chest and nose after he was born) because he used to have very bad wezzy chest and his nose was always clogged up.
Where do i stand legally against my land lord on both issues, please help

Thank you
Carlos

moneysavinmonkey

ok calm down.

1.
Congratulations on your first baby.
You made a mistake in that you didn't pay the rent in time.
The landlord then telephoned the number that you gave him.
The aunty made an excuse for you and told him you were having a baby
You paid the landlord
You complained to the landlord for telephoning your aunty
Your landlord apologised.

Data protection act covers personal information held on a computer,
I doubt very much this applies. Perhaps the landlord didn't act very professionally but he has apologised. Draw a line under the incident.

Not sure what you mean by aunty blabbing your business - this was either a simple mistake + misunderstanding and not very gossip worthy or there is more to the story. Whilst this may have caused arguments in itself shouldn't have been the cause of your relationship breakdown. Blaming your landlord for the end of your relationship isn't helping you at all. If you get over this belief and examine what really happened then perhaps you will get some insight into what really went wrong and perhaps you can put things right or move on and be happy in your next relationship.

2.
You need to ascertain who carried out the 1st gas safety certificate (were they a registered CORGI professional?). If they have inspected the item properly, they should have picked up on the ventilation faults + condemned the items. The details of who carried out the safety inspection should be on the certificate. IMHO your claim for any health damages suffered by your and your family will be against them and not against your landlord. I suggest you see a solicitor.

I hope you and your family are ok now health-wise + good luck.

clutton_2

find a new place to move to and move on with your life - fretting about "compo" which you will never get will eat up your mind, your brain and your time and will only make you more bitter - spend your time on trying to patch up your relationship with your partner so that your child has two parents instead of running after foolish compensation schemes......

moneysavinmonkey

clutton wrote: »

find a new place to move to and move on with your life - fretting about "compo" which you will never get will eat up your mind, your brain and your time and will only make you more bitter - spend your time on trying to patch up your relationship with your partner so that your child has two parents instead of running after foolish compensation schemes......

agreed - somethings are more important than moneysaving.

tbs624

moneysavinmonkey wrote: »

.......Data protection act covers personal information held on a computer.........

This needs clarification: the DPA covers manual records too, so would cover personal data held in written form including notes on your tenancy payment records and personal information. It's not clear how Aunty's number was known to the LL, but if the OP gave that number to the LL as a contact then he could accept the LLs apology for this occasion and confirm in writing that anything to do with his tenancy is to be kept confidential and discussed directly with him in future.

moneysavinmonkey wrote: »

IMHO your claim for any health damages suffered by your and your family will be against them and not against your landlord.

Nope- the LL has a legal duty of care to the Tenant. If there have been/are problems with gas safety you should always report the LL to the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) and to the Private Tenancies Officer at the local council. Fire Officers also like to know about LLs like these because there is obviously a linked fire risk. LLs who fail to comply with the law can be prosecuted and fined several thousand pounds and no tenant should let such LLs get away with shoddy behaviour on something quite so basic for a safe property rental.

moneysavinmonkey

tbs624 wrote: »

Nope- the LL has a legal duty of care to the Tenant. If there have been/are problems with gas safety you should always report the LL to the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) and to the Private Tenancies Officer at the local council. Fire Officers also like to know about LLs like these because there is obviously a linked fire risk. LLs who fail to comply with the law can be prosecuted and fined several thousand pounds and no tenant should let such LLs get away with shoddy behaviour on something quite so basic for a safe property rental.

The LL did arrange for the annual gas safety check - unless it can be proved they were aware the safety certificates were 'fudged' then haven't they fulfilled their responsibility?? Presumably the tenant did not report any problems with the fire or health issues to the landlord so how could they know there was a problem? Having said that no harm in reporting the Landlord- leave it to HSE/fire officer etc to investigate = one less thing to worry about!

tbs624

Moneysaving monkey -if you look back at the OP's message you'll see that the "gas inspector" failed two of the fires. If this is the case it would say so on the Gas Safety record, a copy of which is received by the LL.He therefore knew, or ought to have known, that there were issues with gas safety. Gas Safety, or the lack thereof, is the LLs responsibility.

The tenant has a contract with the LL, but the LL has the contract with the gas safety people.................

Debt_Free_Chick

I agree. The rent/disclosure issue is over and done with and there's nothing to be gained here.

Re the heating - remember you are saving on gas, so any "compensation" would be for the difference between what you would have spent on gas and what you've actually spent on electric. Very difficult to quantify and probably not worth pursuing.

I guess your tenancy pre-dates the Tenant's Deposit Protection Scheme? If so, it might be just as well to focus on that and not pursue the LL unnecessarily - or at least, don't pursue him where there's very little, if anything, to gain.

moneysavinmonkey

tbs624.. perhaps I have a different understanding of what has happened...

- tenant moves in & is provided with a gas safety certificate - which does not show any problems with the gas appliances
(this is what i have referred to as the 1st gas safety certificate)
- landlord sends round inspector to do 2nd gas safety certificate the next year
- 2nd inspector condems fires and shuts them off.
- landlord provides tenant with replacement electric heaters.

From the details given there is nothing to suggest that the landlord knew about the problems prior to the 2nd gas inspection. Have I missed something?

However it is a valid point that the 1st inspector was employed by the landlord so perhaps legally (if not morally) then it is right to pursue the landlord who can in turn pursue the 1st safety inspector.

clutton_2

pursue him for what ????

Gorgeous_George

Your problem is NOT your landlord.

You have a baby with someone and the relationship ends over trivia.

You have been diagnosed with depression.

Sort the real problems and the other issue will seem rather petty.

GG