Leak in the house, agency needs permission from landlord...

fiveub

fiveub

fiveub

OcUK Staff
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We have a few problems in our house, which has been going on for 4 years, not moved out due to being cheap, and the problems were not too much of a bother in order to move!

However, we have a bit more of a problem now which is an issue. The shower downstairs seems to be leaking, to the point of having 1cm of water covering the whole bathroom floor, and running into the kitchen...

Landlord did a house inspection yesterday, said they would sort it yesterday, we heard nothing back from them, which is no surprise. - Today we called up, and they said they cannot do anything about the leak until they hear from the landlord.

We have had roof leaks upstairs, and in the bathroom downstairs too, which has been on-going since 4 years ago, and the girl who did the house inspection was shocked that it was still not fixed from 4 years ago when she did the inspection. We now have mould up the walls in the bathroom, and a leaking shower which is quite a concern as it has gotten worse and the landlord/estate agent is not doing anything about it.

I would like to just move out, but the house is fine, and I have been happy where I am, just a bit annoyed that there has been no maintenance done to the house at all to fix these problems.

Surely the rent I have paid every month for 4 years should have some maintenance costs involved so they should fix the problem?
 
Yes they should and to be honest you've been a bit silly to put up with it for 4 years.
Keep on at them till it's fixed.
 
yes. they should be getting it fixed in a timely manor, specially things to do with damp as it can be a health risk too.

id call them up again, saying you want to escalate the situation as your not happy, you have paid rent, which will have a premium attached to it for the up keep of the house.

if they still do nothing, talk to citizens advice!

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/engla...home_e/getting_repairs_done_while_renting.htm
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/engla...x_housing/faq_housing_home_i_rent_is_damp.htm
 
I feel your pain mate. Have you tried to ring the landlord today? If your like me and don't want to be seen as one of them tenants that pester you just have to bare with it. Remember its in his own interest to get this sorted before it gets worse.

The paranoid part of me would think its something bigger than what it actually is - with him holding off all the time, although it could be that hes busy/lazy or just forgot (if hes like my landlord and has more than 10 apartments etc).

Could be worse I had a massive mould problem in my old rented house. Every 3ish weeks the landlord would just come wipe it off with some funky smelling wetwipes and say its fine. We had to have the windows open even through winter because he wouldn't pay for the windows to be re-done with ventilation. We paid nearly £550 a month and he still insisted the wetwipes would stop the mould. The idiot. Oh and he was the GFs brother..

So yeah just keep ringing but tell him you've been patient enough. Surely he has landlord insurance anyway.
 
Thing is, we have chased them up so many times, nothing has happened.

For 4 years, it has just been the mould growing, with some roof leaks which is to do with the rain slowly getting in. The water doesn't actually leak through, just making the walls damp.

However the shower issue which has just occurred, is more serious, and is actually a leak which is drenching the floor! But I couldn't believe they said we need to wait for a landlord to get back to them, which for 4 years it seems like the landlord never got back to them about the damp!

Quite frustrating... If the house is on fire, would we have to wait for the landlord to give permission to put the fire out? :p

Just seems like they do not want to spend any money on the property to keep it maintained and in good condition.
 
escalate it further then buddy, call the agency again, saying the landlord refuses to acknowledge the problem and see if they can contact him on your behalf, might be worth a try?
 
What you do next partly depends on the type of tenancy you have and the level of difficulty for the LL to evict you if you become too much of a pain.

Your best bet is to get in touch with your local council Environmental Health Department. Untreated mould and, particularly, a leaking shower are clearly health hazards and it is within the remit of EH to force the LL to complete corrective works.

The other alternative would be to arrange for the works to be completed yourself and then retain a portion of your rent to cover the cost. The difficulty with this is that you would need to follow a fairly strict procedure to ensure that the LL cannot subsequently sue you to recoup the costs retained.
 
From my experience with letting, hit them hard and fast, don't take any **** and go in all guns blazing, otherwise they'll think you're a push over. (Might be a bit late after 4 years!).

Ring them every hour, on the hour - if something isn't being done within 24 hours, get onto the council and environmental health. Make sure the LA and LL know you are doing this.

When we had a problem with our gas safety cert. and our hob was condemned for 2 weeks (2 days after we moved in - you'd think they'd make sure something like that was working for new tenants!) we got onto gas safe, council letting standards dept. and environmental health, and surprise surprise, we had a new hob and gas inspection the next day.
 
5UB you know hwo to play the game, you're a CS guru.

Ring them up, demand the land lord do something about this right away, else you'll be reporting them both to the environment agency as leaking ceiling and moldy walls are dangerous to your and your house mates health.

Give them a time frame to get this done by before you take it to the next step. Light a fire underneath them.

Or move out, 4 years of that would have been nearly 4 years too much for me.
 
5UB said:
Could he just not kick us out though? - I guess we have plenty of legs to stand on, as he can't?
Click to expand...

If you are not within a fixed term, you can be evicted for no reason with a Section 21 notice. Assuming this is served correctly, a court would award possession and almost certainly costs.

Is your deposit protected? Were you give the prescribed information at the start of the tenancy (this is a big wodge of bumph, not a single info sheet)?

You have an idiot for a landlord who would rather let his property rot than spend money on repairs. You also need to understand that an agent can do nothing without say-so from the landlord. Sometimes, there are spending limits in place so that agents can do minor stuff but it is normal for the landlord to have to give permission before anything gets looked at.
 
They are part of the DPS, so I guess it is? We are on a roll over contract with the agency.

I do find it strange that maintenance is not in his best interest.

We have sent them another email, to get back in contact with us within 24 hours, and that we will contact the council's environmental health department. - Will see what comes from that. We are contacting them via phone today too, to push them.
 
I think you'd probably find that if you just got a plumber in yourself to fix it and deducted the cost from the next rent payment you'd be ok down the line, with the Deposit dispute process or whatever. But you could end up souring things with the landlord and give yourselves more trouble than you started with. It's a risk you might need to take, for your own health! I hate renting for this reason. I think you are lawfully entitled to safe and secure housing through your contract, so there's no way something like this would pass for "safe".
 
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