Sigh.
I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place - rocking the boat or letting sleeping dogs lie.
A bit of background - our landlady is really difficult to contact - she screens all calls to her home phone, yet doesn't allow us or the letting agency any other form of contact. I've ceased contacting her directly and have decided to make any contact via the agency so that they can keep a record of everything.
But they are reduced to leaving voicemail messages or sending letters. This means that the landlady gets back to us in her own free time.
This would be fine if we weren't in the middle of discussion our tenancy renewal, our roof wasn't leaking, and she hadn't just left the agency a message saying she wants to increase our rent due to her personal circumstances.
Our roof has been sporadically leaky for months. Our bathtub's side panel (while not structurally important) is cracked to the point of falling down, toes get stubbed, it's a nuisance. The roof being leaky means that any contents insurance policies are voided. Both of these things are the duty of the landlord to keep in good repair, by the Landlord and Tenant act 1985.
The roof repairs have been delayed as her insurers say it isn't storm damage, so they won't pay for repairs. Fair enough - it just appears to be a shoddy roof with bad lining, and water that gets between the roof tiles just comes down into the ceiling leaving brown patches and the odd drip. Last I heard, she was appealing the insurer's decision. That was at least a month - maybe two - ago. It's likely to be a big job and I can see why she's delaying, but she has a responsibility.
Basically, we should be sending a big angry letter saying we refuse to renew until the odd jobs are carried out, and work has begun (or at least been booked to begin at some date in the near future) on the roof. She is in breach of contract, and we have rights.
HOWEVER she could just choose not to renew us. It's not like she'd be chucking us out - we are indeed coming to the end of a 12-month tenancy. This is legal, I think, so we could argue our way out of our home if we're not careful. We don't want to move, not just yet, we've just got settled.
Someday soon (when she deems to ring in) we'll find out what amount she wants to raise our rent by. Thing is, esp with current rent declines, we're paying a little over market rate for that kind of place in our area already. To make any difference to her 'personal circumstances' she'd need to hike it up a fair bit I guess, which would put it rather out of line. The letting agency say they'll advise her on what market rate is and not let her go past it, but we'll see if they actually grow the balls to do so.
I'm SO angry. Because of her laziness, I am close to talking my way out of my home. We're only likely to live there together (myself and my house mate) for another year or less before going our separate ways, so moving to yet another home is just added stress and complication.
It all depends on the amount she comes back with.
Her fannying about is decreasing the amount of time we have should we suddenly find ourselves out on our ear (12 months ends 18th March).
Finding myself ever inclined to take up another 6-month tenancy whatever the rent, and then be OUTTA THERE in September.
She's on the wrong, and we have more rights, but... nnnghh.
I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place - rocking the boat or letting sleeping dogs lie.
A bit of background - our landlady is really difficult to contact - she screens all calls to her home phone, yet doesn't allow us or the letting agency any other form of contact. I've ceased contacting her directly and have decided to make any contact via the agency so that they can keep a record of everything.
But they are reduced to leaving voicemail messages or sending letters. This means that the landlady gets back to us in her own free time.
This would be fine if we weren't in the middle of discussion our tenancy renewal, our roof wasn't leaking, and she hadn't just left the agency a message saying she wants to increase our rent due to her personal circumstances.
Our roof has been sporadically leaky for months. Our bathtub's side panel (while not structurally important) is cracked to the point of falling down, toes get stubbed, it's a nuisance. The roof being leaky means that any contents insurance policies are voided. Both of these things are the duty of the landlord to keep in good repair, by the Landlord and Tenant act 1985.
The roof repairs have been delayed as her insurers say it isn't storm damage, so they won't pay for repairs. Fair enough - it just appears to be a shoddy roof with bad lining, and water that gets between the roof tiles just comes down into the ceiling leaving brown patches and the odd drip. Last I heard, she was appealing the insurer's decision. That was at least a month - maybe two - ago. It's likely to be a big job and I can see why she's delaying, but she has a responsibility.
Basically, we should be sending a big angry letter saying we refuse to renew until the odd jobs are carried out, and work has begun (or at least been booked to begin at some date in the near future) on the roof. She is in breach of contract, and we have rights.
HOWEVER she could just choose not to renew us. It's not like she'd be chucking us out - we are indeed coming to the end of a 12-month tenancy. This is legal, I think, so we could argue our way out of our home if we're not careful. We don't want to move, not just yet, we've just got settled.
Someday soon (when she deems to ring in) we'll find out what amount she wants to raise our rent by. Thing is, esp with current rent declines, we're paying a little over market rate for that kind of place in our area already. To make any difference to her 'personal circumstances' she'd need to hike it up a fair bit I guess, which would put it rather out of line. The letting agency say they'll advise her on what market rate is and not let her go past it, but we'll see if they actually grow the balls to do so.
I'm SO angry. Because of her laziness, I am close to talking my way out of my home. We're only likely to live there together (myself and my house mate) for another year or less before going our separate ways, so moving to yet another home is just added stress and complication.
It all depends on the amount she comes back with.
Her fannying about is decreasing the amount of time we have should we suddenly find ourselves out on our ear (12 months ends 18th March).
Finding myself ever inclined to take up another 6-month tenancy whatever the rent, and then be OUTTA THERE in September.
She's on the wrong, and we have more rights, but... nnnghh.
