advice please

fedupnow

OK

A group of students renting a house from a very successful landlord. By successful, I mean he owns lots of properties (about 200 I think) and lets most of them to students, so I think we can safely assume he knows the business very well.

The house in question is being 'updated' which is good for the group of students as they will have an extra bathroom - currently 5 of them are sharing 1 - and they will also have a larger kitchen and living space. All very nice, workmen in and out have not proved too much of a disruption and students are happy to tolerate no kitchen for a short time etc.

However, one of the plumbers have told them that there was some sort of broken valve on the boiler and the heating has been turning itself on and off at will. They have now received the gas bill and it is far more than any of them have expected or can really afford.

A) Have they any right to approach the landlord to ask if he be willing to pay a proportion of said bill as it is his boiler that was faulty?

They hope to rent this house next year and so do not want to fall out with the Landlord for being awkward tenants - he owns a LOT and has some clout in the area.

C) How should this be approached - preferably as informally as possible?

Thanks in advance for any advice offered

PasturesNew

fedupnow wrote: »

A group of students renting a house from a very successful landlord. By successful, I mean he owns lots of properties (about 200 I think) and lets most of them to students, so I think we can safely assume he knows the business very well.

Or is hocked up to his eyeballs.

fedupnow wrote: »

The house in question is being 'updated' which is good for the group of students as they will have an extra bathroom - currently 5 of them are sharing 1 - and they will also have a larger kitchen and living space.

This is illegal. So he doesn't know what he's doing. The house is a House of Multiple Occupancy (HMO) and it is the LAW that he should have a license. In some areas a license even has to be applied for/granted; some areas just say "yes" but some say "no" if the area or property is inappropriate.

Without a license he can't rent the house like that.

To get a license he'd need to comply with very strict rules. One loo between five is NOT acceptable. In a minute, I will go find out that rule and edit this post.

fedupnow wrote: »

All very nice, workmen in and out have not proved too much of a disruption and students are happy to tolerate no kitchen for a short time etc.

No, no, no, no, no. Unacceptable. You can't live on a building site. You can't live without a kitchen.
No, no, no, no, no.

fedupnow wrote: »

However, one of the plumbers have told them that there was some sort of broken valve on the boiler and the heating has been turning itself on and off at will. They have now received the gas bill and it is far more than any of them have expected or can really afford.

A) Have they any right to approach the landlord to ask if he be willing to pay a proportion of said bill as it is his boiler that was faulty?

They hope to rent this house next year and so do not want to fall out with the Landlord for being awkward tenants - he owns a LOT and has some clout in the area.

C) How should this be approached - preferably as informally as possible?

Thanks in advance for any advice offered

I think you have the landlord over a barrel to be honest. Keep reading the answers you get here .... but your landlord seems out of order legally (unless you can post evidence that your first posting was a bit misleading)

A] No idea. It might be his boiler, but it is a householder responsibility to spot that things aren't quite right I'd suspect. His liability might only be from any time the problem was identified.
B] If he is operating illegally he won't be able to rent any houses out until he brings them up to the minimum standards
C] Stop !!!!!footing around. The guy's a chancer and a crook

Now, I will admit that anything I said above, I might be proven wrong at any stage as this thread develops. But those were my first thoughts... anyway. Off to find out how many loos you should have.

As each Council applies slightly different rules re licensing, where is your local Council?

EDIT
----

On first pass it looks like one bathroom for five people IS acceptable. Which I find peculiar.
So, I am probably wrong on a few details above.

Keeping the thread as I originally wrote it though. I'm not afraid of admitting when I am wrong, ill-informed or wrongly-informed.

It is a HMO though. Read here for the easy basics:
England: http://england.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-6319.cfm
Northern Ireland: http://northernireland.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-3811.cfm
Scotland: http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-2750.cfmo th

clutton_2

pastures - i think you have jumped to a LOT of conclusions here !!!!!

re gas bill- how much is it ? fuel costs have soared in the last year

re bringing a property up to standard - a LL has a duty to comply with the law - and there has to be a bit of cooperation between LL and tenants to do this - even if it does cause inconvenience - lets hear the whole story shall we ?

PasturesNew

clutton wrote: »

pastures - i think you have jumped to a LOT of conclusions here !!!!!

re gas bill- how much is it ? fuel costs have soared in the last year

Yes I did didn't I.
However, I will submit in my defence that I did declare that and didn't try to cover my tracks by amending my posting.

*grins*

Let me off?

It WAS early ... I read stuff in there that wasn't there; I spouted off without research.

Guilty as charged.

I consider myself spanked. And I'd like to thank you for that, especially this early on a Saturday

clutton wrote: »

re bringing a property up to standard - a LL has a duty to comply with the law - and there has to be a bit of cooperation between LL and tenants to do this - even if it does cause inconvenience - lets hear the whole story shall we ?

My mind immediately went to my mate, who rented in a shared house and the LL started digging out the basement of the house to create a new flat... open one door and there was a 10' drop. I had visions of a right mess going on.

clutton_2

""I consider myself spanked. And I'd like to thank you for that, especially this early on a Saturday ""

lol !!!!!!