Problems with rented flat

[Nexus]

See a solicitor.

Best advice right there and probably really the only decent course of action when you've got a dodgy landlord.

A good friend of mine back when I was at Uni was in a pretty rotten situation with a landlord. He was in a bad way as it was, as his Father had just died, but the place he moved into had no working cooker/oven, all the chairs in the house which had been included as part of the rent before they moved in had been removed, the water didn't work in the bathroom sinks, the boiler was broken, so they had no hot water and there were numerous other things wrong with the place.

They first went to the landlord about it and he did nothing. So then they said they wouldn't pay rent that month if he didn't fix the problems still. At that point, he then threatened to take legal action if they didn't pay their rent. I guess there are also a lot of Landlords who think students are easy pickings, though I guess things have changed a bit in the last few years to help protect tenants a bit better.

Anyways, my friend, who was pretty sick of it, went to a Solicitor who drew up an Ultimatum and to cut to the chase, the landlord was forced to fix the problems straight away, give back three months rent and pay them £400 each in compensation. So it worked out quite well and gave the landlord a firm kick up the arse.

 

[Morba]

I'm assuming you've never had to eat out every night/claim expenses when say working away from home - eating out can easily come to more than £200 in a month in a UK city and tbh... it sounds like this dodgy landlord has simply given them £200 as a one off payment. As a single person I probably spend at least £200 a month on food from the supermarket.

Yes, lots of times. I've been working away for the last month funnily enough.
If you are insistant on eating lots of food at expensive places then £200 a month would not be enough, but if you are sensible then it is easily achievable.
Just because you are forced to eat out, doesnt mean you have to have drinks and extras above what you would normally have!
Its not like you would be eating a hot meal off the hob every night or having 3 courses!

What you spend on food a month from supermarket means nothing here tbh.

Anyway, pointless argument as it seems it was £200 total, which for 10 weeks is terrible!

 

[meghatronic]

A key part of any rental agreement is that the property is habitable. It could be argued that without a way to cook food, the property is uninhabitable. Therefore any rental agreement, under law, would be cancelled.

I don't think that is the case in the UK. Habitable means a roof, walls, flooring (weatherproofing) and access to water, electricity, sewage, gas/a heat source etc. Note a landlord doesn't even need to provide these, just access to them.

 

[Edward78]

I don't mean to be funny but with ur name I would have expected that you were expert on all the housing solutions. So you would have sorted out your wife problem in a day.

I would suggest looking for a temporary cheaper flat somewhere else within the city or close to your wife place if it is possible since your wife would only be working for 7 more weeks in birmingham.

There is a med. drama show here in the US called House, the name prob. came from that.

 

[Dr House]

This makes no sense at all but then Paras threads rareley do

Does everything she eats require a hob or something? Surely the oven etc still works?

Lol thanks . Yes the oven works but to be honest there is not that much vegi food that you can cook in the over.

I don't understand why you are hyping this up as so bad? frustrating maybe.. Especially with an oven and microwave.. i cant think of all that many things it would really completely stop.

He has already given £200, that's plenty really. You could buy a single electric hob to temporarily use and a microwave and then still have £120 change to pay for some of the take aways!

Not ideal but at least he isnt completely ignoring her.

Its just a royal pain because she works really Unsociable hours and we pay quite a lot of rent so we expect everything to be working. Admittedly he has now started to try and get things sorted but it took weeks before he even sent someone to have a look.

 

[Rich_L]

Unfortunately with disputes like this IME you need to be 110%, recordable and verifiably on the case from day 1 - the flat still classes as habitable as a microwave is I believe considered sufficient to comply with the regulations.

That said, in your contract I suspect there is something along the lines of the landlord having a duty to keep the fixtures in good condition etc - however you cannot legally withold rent. You can repair it yourself and deduct that cost against rent, but you have to be squeaky clean in terms of giving the landlord sufficient notice of your intent to repair it, the estimated cost and suchlike before doing it.

The above involves informing your landlord in writing that the fault exists, pestering your landlord consistently in writing that the fault still exists etc etc, if there's no written evidence of correspondence between the tenant and landlord regarding the problem then you don't have much to stand on.

Given the length of time left in the property and the shaky standing of any legal claim, your best bet by far is just to try and negotiate discounted rent for the remaining period of the tenancy, hopefully if your landlord is decent then you should be able to agree this.

 

[Dr House]

Unfortunately with disputes like this IME you need to be 110%, recordable and verifiably on the case from day 1 - the flat still classes as habitable as a microwave is I believe considered sufficient to comply with the regulations.

That said, in your contract I suspect there is something along the lines of the landlord having a duty to keep the fixtures in good condition etc - however you cannot legally withold rent. You can repair it yourself and deduct that cost against rent, but you have to be squeaky clean in terms of giving the landlord sufficient notice of your intent to repair it, the estimated cost and suchlike before doing it.

The above involves informing your landlord in writing that the fault exists, pestering your landlord consistently in writing that the fault still exists etc etc, if there's no written evidence of correspondence between the tenant and landlord regarding the problem then you don't have much to stand on.

Given the length of time left in the property and the shaky standing of any legal claim, your best bet by far is just to try and negotiate discounted rent for the remaining period of the tenancy, hopefully if your landlord is decent then you should be able to agree this.

Good advice. Thanks

 

[Dr House]

Just a quick update.

I checked with my wife. Both the oven and Hob still do not work and she is moving out in 2 weeks anyway.

Oh and the flat did not come with a microwave.

 

[Dr House]

Another update.

I started legal proceedings against the landlord, he agreed to give us back 825 GBP I could not be bothered to fight anymore so I just took it and we are done with the flat.