Hey guys
This will be a long post, but its important that I get everything in so you know exactly whats going on
Ok so it started off July 2005, we moved into a 6 bedroom property. Student house, sharing with six lads. I was the first to move in as I decided that I would stay in Swansea over the summer. Anyway when I moved in I noticed a lot of problems with the house that were worth mentioning to get them fixed.
These included:
- A rotting shower ceiling (literally collpasing in)
- None of the ovens worked
- No tap heads in one of the bathrooms (had to use a plier to turn them)
- No toilet seats on either toilets
- Two of the beds were broken
So anyway these were fixed very slowly, I think it was about September that all of them were fixed, EXCEPT the shower ceiling (more on that later). We started to think that maybe this company we were letting through was a bit dodgy, or the landlord. Anyway, in November of that year, we were still complaining about the shower ceiling as every now and then the light fitting in there would get damp and cut off power to the house. Still not fixed. It turns out while the letting company werent great, they were really held back by our landlord, who wanted nothing to do with the house really and just never got in contact or returned calls.
Also in December, we reported that we didnt have any form of heating and our house gets really cold as its never in the sun. We had to wait until early Febuary for him to buy us some crappy oil heaters that dont do anything
Forwarding on to November 2006, after many more problems with our landlord. We finally hear hes fixing the shower ceiling, this is more than a year on. He's told it needs a complete re-felting as its a flat roof, but he doesnt want to spend the money so has a patch job done. This fixes the problem, but 2 weeks later we discover something else. The patch job has oushed the problem to my room (sharing the same flat roof).
My ceiling becomes soaked after a couple of days and starts dripping in places. The lower parts of the walls become damp, I only noticed the walls once my bedding became really damp.
Anyway I straight away report this, and tell them it needs to be fixed. They tell me they have to speak to our landlord before they can do the work. Nothing happens after a week, and the roof starts to swell in the middle where the water is building up and becoming heavy on the roof, cracks have appeared everywhere and when it rains water pours through these.
I take some photos and show them to the letting agency and ask them to forward them to our landlord. Another week later, we hear back that he wants to get some quotes done to see the expense. At this point I tell them that I will be going home on the 18th December and I want the problem sorted by then cause if my roof collapses or gets worse while I'm gone then I wont know for a couple of weeks. They assure me it will.
Come the 18th nothings happened but I have to go home. I come back early as to make sure my roof and belongings are ok. The roofs still there but my rooms soaked, mould everywhere. I go into the letting agency and find that the landlord hasnt got in contact since before I left and hasnt had a quote. This sort of activity went on for a couple of weeks.
So in the end midway through January, I went to Citizens advice and asked them about it, they told me to ring Environmental Health which I did. They said they would be round 25th January.
Our landlord leaves the country in the meantime meaning no work and no quotes have been done, and the weight on my roof is getting bigger. We agree the best course of action would be to withhold rent, so to show him he cant get away with it. So we all suspend our standing orders.
Environmental health come round and see the house. Basically they say its likely to be condemned and its not in a fit state for people to live in. SHe then tells us that our landlord doesnt even have a landlords license and forged paperwork to get involved with the letting agency. Also the layout of the house, a license is needed for people to live in it. Again, no license for this either. She says we are more than in the right not paying rent as he isnt a licensed landlord to receive rent in the first place. The letting agency agree and say we dont have to pay rent for all the trouble we have had and until its all fixed. This is probably because they know we can get them in trouble for them taking him on without any checking into if he has a license or not
Forward to this week, and still no work being done. Snow started wednesday and straight away with the extra weight on the roof it made some wierd noises and plaster started to come down. And the water coming through got a lot worse.
It leaked onto the oil heater at this point which knackered that, so my room was -4 with no heating. Next morning I went into the letting agency, demanding action be taken. They agree, and say I HAVE to move out. Fair enough I suppose, but the best bit, they say I have til 5pm to be out of the house and into the new one woth all my stuff.
I asked as none of us had a car if a removals service will be paid for, a firm no was given but they offered me the service of one of their maintenance vans, which was 3/4 full and they also said i could only use it for one trip so take the most important stuff only and to get the rest of my stuff into a taxi, which I'd have to pay for.
They then tell me I'd have to pay £130 for the rent of the new place for the 2 weeks I'll be there while the work on my roof is hopefully carried out (it wont be), even though its not my fault I have to move. Even though they previously told me I dont have to pay rent because of our landlord problems
I end up renting a van which cost me £80 overall. Once I move into the house, I find out that it a) has no form of heating b) no hot water c) a damp patch on the wall. And its gonna take a week to get the gas supply back to the house because of paperwork that needs to be done.
So I'm sat in this crapped out house, all alone away from my friends, in the freezing cold. I tell them that I'm taking the cost of the van out of what they want for the rent as it was their fault for giving me less than 24 hours notice to move out. They arent having this and demand the money
Basically, what would you guys do in a situation like this? Am i right taking the van money out of the rent they expect? Should they have another penny off me?
I'm out of ideas, I've tried Citizens advice but they just suggest Environmental Health again, but they have said they are on it already.
I know I cant ask for legal advice, I'm just asking for advice from people who might have been in similar situations or known someone etc.
Please help
This will be a long post, but its important that I get everything in so you know exactly whats going on
Ok so it started off July 2005, we moved into a 6 bedroom property. Student house, sharing with six lads. I was the first to move in as I decided that I would stay in Swansea over the summer. Anyway when I moved in I noticed a lot of problems with the house that were worth mentioning to get them fixed.
These included:
- A rotting shower ceiling (literally collpasing in)
- None of the ovens worked
- No tap heads in one of the bathrooms (had to use a plier to turn them)
- No toilet seats on either toilets
- Two of the beds were broken
So anyway these were fixed very slowly, I think it was about September that all of them were fixed, EXCEPT the shower ceiling (more on that later). We started to think that maybe this company we were letting through was a bit dodgy, or the landlord. Anyway, in November of that year, we were still complaining about the shower ceiling as every now and then the light fitting in there would get damp and cut off power to the house. Still not fixed. It turns out while the letting company werent great, they were really held back by our landlord, who wanted nothing to do with the house really and just never got in contact or returned calls.
Also in December, we reported that we didnt have any form of heating and our house gets really cold as its never in the sun. We had to wait until early Febuary for him to buy us some crappy oil heaters that dont do anything
Forwarding on to November 2006, after many more problems with our landlord. We finally hear hes fixing the shower ceiling, this is more than a year on. He's told it needs a complete re-felting as its a flat roof, but he doesnt want to spend the money so has a patch job done. This fixes the problem, but 2 weeks later we discover something else. The patch job has oushed the problem to my room (sharing the same flat roof).
My ceiling becomes soaked after a couple of days and starts dripping in places. The lower parts of the walls become damp, I only noticed the walls once my bedding became really damp.
Anyway I straight away report this, and tell them it needs to be fixed. They tell me they have to speak to our landlord before they can do the work. Nothing happens after a week, and the roof starts to swell in the middle where the water is building up and becoming heavy on the roof, cracks have appeared everywhere and when it rains water pours through these.
I take some photos and show them to the letting agency and ask them to forward them to our landlord. Another week later, we hear back that he wants to get some quotes done to see the expense. At this point I tell them that I will be going home on the 18th December and I want the problem sorted by then cause if my roof collapses or gets worse while I'm gone then I wont know for a couple of weeks. They assure me it will.
Come the 18th nothings happened but I have to go home. I come back early as to make sure my roof and belongings are ok. The roofs still there but my rooms soaked, mould everywhere. I go into the letting agency and find that the landlord hasnt got in contact since before I left and hasnt had a quote. This sort of activity went on for a couple of weeks.
So in the end midway through January, I went to Citizens advice and asked them about it, they told me to ring Environmental Health which I did. They said they would be round 25th January.
Our landlord leaves the country in the meantime meaning no work and no quotes have been done, and the weight on my roof is getting bigger. We agree the best course of action would be to withhold rent, so to show him he cant get away with it. So we all suspend our standing orders.
Environmental health come round and see the house. Basically they say its likely to be condemned and its not in a fit state for people to live in. SHe then tells us that our landlord doesnt even have a landlords license and forged paperwork to get involved with the letting agency. Also the layout of the house, a license is needed for people to live in it. Again, no license for this either. She says we are more than in the right not paying rent as he isnt a licensed landlord to receive rent in the first place. The letting agency agree and say we dont have to pay rent for all the trouble we have had and until its all fixed. This is probably because they know we can get them in trouble for them taking him on without any checking into if he has a license or not
Forward to this week, and still no work being done. Snow started wednesday and straight away with the extra weight on the roof it made some wierd noises and plaster started to come down. And the water coming through got a lot worse.
It leaked onto the oil heater at this point which knackered that, so my room was -4 with no heating. Next morning I went into the letting agency, demanding action be taken. They agree, and say I HAVE to move out. Fair enough I suppose, but the best bit, they say I have til 5pm to be out of the house and into the new one woth all my stuff.
I asked as none of us had a car if a removals service will be paid for, a firm no was given but they offered me the service of one of their maintenance vans, which was 3/4 full and they also said i could only use it for one trip so take the most important stuff only and to get the rest of my stuff into a taxi, which I'd have to pay for.
They then tell me I'd have to pay £130 for the rent of the new place for the 2 weeks I'll be there while the work on my roof is hopefully carried out (it wont be), even though its not my fault I have to move. Even though they previously told me I dont have to pay rent because of our landlord problems
I end up renting a van which cost me £80 overall. Once I move into the house, I find out that it a) has no form of heating b) no hot water c) a damp patch on the wall. And its gonna take a week to get the gas supply back to the house because of paperwork that needs to be done.
So I'm sat in this crapped out house, all alone away from my friends, in the freezing cold. I tell them that I'm taking the cost of the van out of what they want for the rent as it was their fault for giving me less than 24 hours notice to move out. They arent having this and demand the money
Basically, what would you guys do in a situation like this? Am i right taking the van money out of the rent they expect? Should they have another penny off me?
I'm out of ideas, I've tried Citizens advice but they just suggest Environmental Health again, but they have said they are on it already.
I know I cant ask for legal advice, I'm just asking for advice from people who might have been in similar situations or known someone etc.
Please help
- they're all claiming council houses here, renting them out and cashing in on them. 
but yeah probably was a little too angry when I wrote it