Served notice a week after asking for repairs - Private tenant

indierocker85 · 13 July 2018 at 2:34PM

Hi everybody

I am a joint private tenant on a house, who signed a private tenancy agreement for 6 months, back in 2013, since then we have been on a rolling monthly periodic tenancy.

We have had some issues in that, we asked our landladies for some repairs, and are now facing what I deem to be a "revenge eviction".

The below are over a period of 5 years of living here;

We brought up the fact we had mold in our property a couple of years, and we were told to simply "open our windows" (in winter) - I even went so far as to purchase a £150 dehumidifier to stop it. But they didn't give any credit for that.

The house was only 6 years old, and I noticed one of the upvc window frames were bent, thus letting in moisture, and cold air. The landlady claimed these weren't under warranty, and patched it up with some £1.99 foam.

We had a light fitting that was dodgy, in that the light kept flickering repeatedly. We were made to wait 5 days for it to be fixed, and therefore left without a front room light.

Our boiler pressure kept dropping, and we were told to simply "top it up" - I question how safe this is.

I should say I have opted to have repairs done myself, such as replacing a bath panel and a toilet flush valve.

However, very recently (March 2018) we discovered we had a leaking bath mixer tap.....I raised this, and was told they would get it looked at. Now it is leaking 6 - 12 litres a day (I have a bucket under it). We are on a water meter, so therefore, this could get costly. I rang my landladies to ask for this to be fixed, they ignored my calls repeatedly, and texts. I put a letter to them in writing at the end of June, they signed and received it on 4th July 2018.

Today, we have received a letter "Notice 21" a template version downloaded from LawDepot.co.uk basically giving us two months to leave the property. I deem this to be a revenge eviction, and question that the owners / landladies have not honoured their side of the agreement by resolving repairs.

I am going to see a solicitor on Monday, but wondered what the thoughts are of people on here, I can paste the full notice if needs be?

We do have a mortgage in principle, so truthfully maybe this is a kick up the bum to buy. But I am also clueless on the process of buying, as well as the process of getting back our deposit. Any advice welcome.

Smi1er · 13 July 2018 at 2:53PM

Mould within a house is either a serious damp issue, or the result of your lifestyle. Vast majority of the time it's the latter.

Dodgy light fitting? You had to wait 5 days for repair? 5 whole days??

Nowt wrong with topping up boiler pressure, but how often?

parkrunner · 13 July 2018 at 3:04PM

indierocker85 wrote: »

Hi everybody

I am a joint private tenant on a house, who signed a private tenancy agreement for 6 months, back in 2013, since then we have been on a rolling monthly periodic tenancy.

We have had some issues in that, we asked our landladies for some repairs, and are now facing what I deem to be a "revenge eviction".

The below are over a period of 5 years of living here;

We brought up the fact we had mold in our property a couple of years, and we were told to simply "open our windows" (in winter) - I even went so far as to purchase a £150 dehumidifier to stop it. But they didn't give any credit for that.

Why should they?

The house was only 6 years old, and I noticed one of the upvc window frames were bent, thus letting in moisture, and cold air. The landlady claimed these weren't under warranty, and patched it up with some £1.99 foam.

Problem fixed then

We had a light fitting that was dodgy, in that the light kept flickering repeatedly. We were made to wait 5 days for it to be fixed, and therefore left without a front room light.

Five days is not a big deal to get something fixed

Our boiler pressure kept dropping, and we were told to simply "top it up" - I question how safe this is.

Very safe, just google it

I should say I have opted to have repairs done myself, such as replacing a bath panel and a toilet flush valve.

What was wrong with the bath panel?

However, very recently (March 2018) we discovered we had a leaking bath mixer tap.....I raised this, and was told they would get it looked at. Now it is leaking 6 - 12 litres a day (I have a bucket under it). We are on a water meter, so therefore, this could get costly. I rang my landladies to ask for this to be fixed, they ignored my calls repeatedly, and texts. I put a letter to them in writing at the end of June, they signed and received it on 4th July 2018.

Ten minute job to fix the tap, just look on youtube for advice

Today, we have received a letter "Notice 21" a template version downloaded from LawDepot.co.uk basically giving us two months to leave the property. I deem this to be a revenge eviction, and question that the owners / landladies have not honoured their side of the agreement by resolving repairs.

I am going to see a solicitor on Monday, but wondered what the thoughts are of people on here, I can paste the full notice if needs be?

We do have a mortgage in principle, so truthfully maybe this is a kick up the bum to buy. But I am also clueless on the process of buying, as well as the process of getting back our deposit. Any advice welcome.

Apart from the light fitting these are all things I'd fix myself. If you're unhappy with the landladies then move, I'd imagine revenge evictions are pretty hard to prove. Also read this,

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

If you receive a section 21 notice after you complain

A court will refuse to order your eviction if all of these apply:

you complained to your landlord or letting agent in writing before you received a section 21 notice
you complained to the local council because your landlord didn't take steps to fix the problem
the council sent your landlord a notice telling them to make improvements or saying it will do emergency work

Cakeguts · 13 July 2018 at 3:07PM

You say the house is only 6 years old? Modern houses are very well insulated and the only way they are going to get mould in them is if the person living there dries washing on the radiators, has a dryer that is not vented to the outside, does a lot of cooking without opening windows or using and extractor fan or has baths and showers without using the extractor fan or opening windows. Anything that makes steam that can't get out of the house will cause mould if you don't ventilate enough. Old houses with walls that are not insulated but have had central heating installed are the one where you get bad mould problems. New houses that have mould in them means that the mould is caused by how the tenant is living in them. Yes you have to open the windows in winter if you are creating moisture in steam that can't get out.

Repairs to dodgy light fittings are done by electricians. Electrician have to work to earn a living they don't sit at home on the end of a phone waiting for someone to call them out to mend a light fitting. They also don't break appointments to mend other people's dodgy light fittings to put yours in. The better the electrician the more work they have. The more work they have the longer it will be before they can fit you in. You aren't special you don't get the electrician to stop doing someone else's job to do your's first.

Draft excluders are nearly all made from foam. It isn't the cost of the foam that is important it is whether that particular foam stops the draft. You didn't say it didn't work so if it worked it was what needed for the job regardless of what it cost.

Bath panels don't just break. The panel on my bath here has been on it for all of the 29 years I have lived here for so I have no idea how a bath panel got broken in a 6 year old house.

The information on topping up the pressure on the boiler was correct and it doesn't need a plumber. What is more important is that you have had a gas safety check done on the boiler every year. Has your landlady done that?

So actually there are two plumbing repairs that the landlady should have organised. The toilet and the leaking tap.

The deposit should be protected in a scheme is it?

There are books available to help people understand about house buying.

Pixie5740 · 13 July 2018 at 3:15PM

You're still supposed to open the windows to air the place over winter. I live in North East Scotland and I open my windows daily, even throughout winter. Also topping up the boiler is something that the occupants of the property should be able to do themselves just like you would change a light bulb yourself.

You're only protected from revenge evictions if your tenancy started after 1st October 2015. From what you describe you haven't signed a new agreement since 2013 so the protection from revenge evictions unfortunately doesn't apply to you. However there are plenty of other things that can make a Section 21 invalid.

https://markprichard.co.uk/documents/s21-validity-checker

Read G_M's Guide to Ending/Renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

ognum · 13 July 2018 at 3:54PM

I had a flat that my daughter lived in for four years without any mould issues.

My tenant reported mould, she clearly did not ventilate the property and refused to do so. When she moved out the next tenant had no mould issues.

Mould is frequently about lifestyle, open some windows, don!!!8217;t dry clothes or linens inside.

anselld · 13 July 2018 at 5:23PM

indierocker85 wrote: »

I deem this to be a revenge eviction

You can deem it whatever you like, but you are only legally protected from revenge eviction if the L has failed to carry out repairs under an enforcement notice from the Council.

FBaby · 13 July 2018 at 5:45PM

I would be constantly anxious with a tenant who deemed having to wait 5 days for a light fitting to be changed to be unreasonable.

AdrianC · 13 July 2018 at 6:42PM

Given that you think the landlord is so monumentally unreasonable, and the house had so many unresolved issues, I'd have thought that moving would be what you'd want.

indierocker85 · 13 July 2018 at 8:19PM

This forum used to be frequented by people with courtesy and respect.....

Some of you have made me feel about an inch tall......Thanks a lot

G_M · 13 July 2018 at 8:32PM

Sometimes we could be gentler, true.

But essentially, most of the regular more experienced posters here, myself included, try to be balanced.

If a tenant has a genuine grievance against a landlord, we go to great lengths to clarify that tenant's rights, quote relevant laws, and suggest practical courses of action.

Conversely where the apparent grievance has a less than sound basis, we say so, often to the disappointment of the original poster.

In this thread you've had both!

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Served notice a week after asking for repairs - Private tenant

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