landlord responsibility

[SilverSaloon]

hi

after selling my house we are currently renting a place until we find a new property to buy.

when we moved in we noticed 2 things that were not right. the heating is electric storage but are not wired in to the proper economy 7 wiring system, meaning if they are turned on at the heater appliance itself they are on 24 hours a day, whereas they should come on/off with a timer based on the enomomy 7 tariff....

cooker doesnt get hot enough to cook food most of the time, seems an intermittant fault which means sometimes if you compensate for it and turn the heat up higher you end up with burnt food, or if you dont its raw or takes 2 hours to cook oven chips etc!

anyway, 3 months after moving in and bringing these issues to the landlord (via letting agency) attention nothing has been done after several times chasing it up.

any advice on what to do next? is it unreasonable to tell them i will deduct X amount off the rent in a months time if its not fixed by then???? nothings getting done and its a real hassle, mainly the cooker. landlord says it worked as it worked with the previous occupant. cooker is part of the let as it came as furnished.

thanks for any advice

 

[Colin_b]

Don't withhold rent, that will be you breaking the contract, which puts you on weak ground.

Get on to the letting agent, and explain exactly the problems. Duplicate this in writing.

Ask them exactly what they are proposing to do about it.

They should certainly repair/replace the cooker urgently.
The heating is more trickly, unless they have previously agreed to go something.

 

[corned]

Surely the landlord has already broken the contract, by not providing the services he is being paid for?

 

[Sp!ke]

Just guessing that the cooker problem is likely a faulty £5 thermostat.

Economy 7 issue a simple matter of installing a timer (if there isnt one tucked away somewhere already)

Either way the landlord or letting agency should be responsible for sorting these relatively simple issues.

 

[malluboy77]

Put the above in writing with details of any previous correspondence and inconvenience caused...hopefully this should work.

 

[renault12ts]

You will not need any heating for the next 6 months.

 

[WOODYTHEWISE]

He lives in Scotland, our heating was on last night.

 

[Bellow]

PRHP here >> Private Rented Housing Panel - Private Rented Housing Panel
These guys can advise and enforce. Mere mention of them should see your issues promptly resolved.

 

[SilverSaloon]

thanks.

the cooker; yes it may well be a cheap fix, but they havnt bothered themselves to come out to find out, just basically say it used to work so tough. i told them things go wrong (kitchen is late 70s/early 80s so very old too).

they did get an electrition out (as when we moved in there was live wires hanging out the walls!!!!) and he "tested" the oven by putting his hand in it and declared it was hot. errm, yeah 100 degrees is hot but it wont cook food!

the heating; yeah it is a timer that is needed but the electricity board keep coming and then saying they cant do it or never seen wiring like it. to me, its an electrician that is needed not the electricity board themselves.

heating is needed - its cold again now. they have agreed it needs sorting but nothing happens.

i'll take a look at the link posted above; i wanted a decent thing to quote to make it known i'm not going to go away and want it fixed!

 

[Colin_b]

Surely the landlord has already broken the contract, by not providing the services he is being paid for?

Not quite that simple.

Does the contract specifically mention heating on e7, rather than just heating?

The cooker works, though not adequately, and the landlord will simply claim repairs are 'in hand'.

Thus it is arguable that the landlord is not breaking the terms of the contract.

Not paying part of the rent is a definite break of the contract, and puts you at a disadvantage.

Sounds like an amateur landlord

 

[SilverSaloon]

Sounds like an amateur landlord

certainly is! its his first let (choosing to rent it out instead of selling it after inheriting the house). all the stuff/furnishings etc are just what the previous family member had; even down to the smoke filled curtains and table mats that were kindly left (which are now bagged in the attic), we had to paint the whole house, clean carpets etc, but thats another story and our own fault for not seeing it when we viewed, but it was minging. he even left us some old bar of soap in the bathroom thats not forgetting the 1980's sofas we got removed after we told him it was illegal to rent out stuff which doesnt have fire regs!

he even said i could have access to a garage (which was not terms of the contact, but said i could put my classic car in there) as a verbal agreement when we looked at the place, then when we signed the contract and collected the keys - no keys to the garage - and when i asked him about it he denied ever saying it. shows you his type of character.

 

[Colin_b]

certainly is! its his first let (choosing to rent it out instead of selling it after inheriting the house). all the stuff/furnishings etc are just what the previous family member had; even down to the smoke filled curtains and table mats that were kindly left (which are now bagged in the attic), we had to paint the whole house, clean carpets etc, but thats another story and our own fault for not seeing it when we viewed, but it was minging. he even left us some old bar of soap in the bathroom thats not forgetting the 1980's sofas we got removed after we told him it was illegal to rent out stuff which doesnt have fire regs!

he even said i could have access to a garage (which was not terms of the contact, but said i could put my classic car in there) as a verbal agreement when we looked at the place, then when we signed the contract and collected the keys - no keys to the garage - and when i asked him about it he denied ever saying it. shows you his type of character.

Frustrating, that. If you are renting out a house, someone is going to live there and make it home. If you make it like that, tenants stay, pay the rent and are satisfied. Good business all round.

I'll bet he doesn't even realise the rent is taxable

Take lots of photos of the place, particularly the grotty bits and contents. The landlord sounds the sort that will take the piss with deposits!

 

[martin_a]

www.landlordzone.co.uk

you'll get loads of help on there.

I believe you can do the repair then withold that cost from the rent.

m.

 

[developer]

Ok, here's how it is.

If you've tried to get the landlord/agent to fix things with no joy then you can escalate.

Here's the Birmingham model.

Down here we have the Private Tenancy Team, who work for Birmingham City Council.
Their role is to mediate between private landlords and the tenant, however, in practice they err on the side of the tenant, protecting them from dodgy landlords.

Post 8 sounds like the equivalent in your area but you should check.

They will ask you to notify the landlord in writing of your concerns and after a short period of no response they should get involved in your behalf. I say should, because they will make a judgement on the seriousness of your case vs their workload.
There are various things they can do, upto and including getting the work done themselves and billing the landlord/applying to the courts for enforcement (for more serious issues).

In the 1st instance you should have a telephone chat with an officer, who will advise.
Neither problem is major, though I'd be very annoyed with both - the storage heater powered by peak electricity is just dumb and I doubt your contract is that specific. Landlords are being encouraged to provide "affordable warmth" and peak powered s/h's don't fit the bill.
If you attempt to fix the cooker yourself, he'll cry foul if it goes wrong.

Under no circumstances should you withhold the rent, as detailed by others.

A point to note, however, is that once you involve the Private Tenancy Team you are likely to fall out with the landlord and there may be consequences, primarily that he may not renew your tenancy.

Remember though, he has to serve you the correct notice at the correct time and he can only end the tenancy after a court order (nb, that's the English process, I'm not clued up about Scottish law - you should check).

There's lots of decent accommodation around - you don't have to put up with a poor landlord.

 

[A210AMG]

Last line does it for me.

Move out somewhere else. Why put up and pay for something you are not getting anywhere with.

There must be pleanty of houses to rent in the area?

 

[corned]

certainly is! its his first let (choosing to rent it out instead of selling it after inheriting the house). all the stuff/furnishings etc are just what the previous family member had; even down to the smoke filled curtains and table mats that were kindly left (which are now bagged in the attic), we had to paint the whole house, clean carpets etc, but thats another story and our own fault for not seeing it when we viewed, but it was minging. he even left us some old bar of soap in the bathroom thats not forgetting the 1980's sofas we got removed after we told him it was illegal to rent out stuff which doesnt have fire regs!

he even said i could have access to a garage (which was not terms of the contact, but said i could put my classic car in there) as a verbal agreement when we looked at the place, then when we signed the contract and collected the keys - no keys to the garage - and when i asked him about it he denied ever saying it. shows you his type of character.

This makes me wonder why you moved in there in the first place? Are there no other options in the area?

Or is it perhaps a case of you have got what you paid for...?

 

[developer]

This makes me wonder why you moved in there in the first place? Are there no other options in the area?

Or is it perhaps a case of you have got what you paid for...?

Garaging perhaps, though still no excuse for the problems.

 

[SilverSaloon]

thanks - i emailed the letting agency yesterday but will chase that up again if i dont hear anything today.

we moved there as (a) it is a nice house overall, or appeared to be when we looked around. its all been painted now so its no longer grotty... (b) it has a storage basement. this is ideal as we moved from a huge house to this small bungalow so have a huge amount of stuff to store, so saves storage fees, and has driveaway parking for my 4 cars. (c) nice area close to kids school etc. the house itself is perfect for us at the moment. it came furnished, which we didnt really want, but its OK, especially now as we got rid of the 80s sofas so have ours back in now.

we are looking for a specific property to buy, with land, and therefore this may time some time, so I can see us being there for around 2 years in reality. we are in a 6 months contract at the moment. landlord appears to want us to stay as long as possible, but that is only going to happen if he fixes the issues. turning every heater in every room off/on in the evening/night is a pain and what happens when we go away on holiday? we either have to leave them on all the time, or have them off all the time, in which case it will be cold when we return. i've offered cheap solutions for the guy by telling him i can just put plugs on the heaters and put them via timer switches and that would be good enough for me, but he doesnt want this. but he is faffing around getting an alternative done. actually, i tell a lie; he said "yes you can do this" and then a few days later said he had changed his mind.

the cooker - we got an identical fitting one from a friend - that we said we would get fitted and put his in the storage and then when we leave, swap them back around. but he wont allow this, saying it works.

we got a cooker thermostat yesterday and it shows the cooker is at around 120 degrees when at an indicated 230 on the dial.

 

[developer]

at the moment. landlord appears to want us to stay as long as possible,

Some people are very short sighted .

If it's suitable, buy it from him .

 

[Sp!ke]

we got a cooker thermostat yesterday and it shows the cooker is at around 120 degrees when at an indicated 230 on the dial.

Sounds like a health health hazzard then?