Landlords Responsibility to Repair And Maintain

Hi, please can I have some advice?
I am a student and moved into a ground floor rented property just over a month ago. When I arrived, the window in my room was slightly cracked at the corner and there were serious condensation and water damage problems. Within a week, the window had cracked the whole way across when I was trying to open the window to get some air into my room. I rang the landlord and spoke to him and he visited the house at the end of the week and said he would get it fixed. It has been a month and he is avoiding my phone calls and sending me occasional texts saying it would be fixed 'next week' or 'in a few days' and I am so frustrated. Also, we have serious damp problems in our kitchen - a metre section of plaster has come off in the top corner and there is mould growing down the back of our cupboards, meaning a lot of food has gone damp and mouldy and has had to be chucked out. There is also mould growing up next to the toilet and a big damp patch appearing over our shower. The house stinks of damp and I have to run a dehumidifier in my room 24/7 as I have had a cough for the entirety of my stay now. I'm at a loss what to do, because technically the landlord said he'd fix my window but I now can't get in touch with him to get it done or inform him about the damp. Help, what do I do?

My Letting Agent has landed me with a tenant who lied about her circumstances and I now have her boyfriend insitu and he has a string of convictions for deception. She is paying the rent but I want them out as they are not the type of tenant I want in my home. The Letting Agency are ignoring me and are being very arrogant. The tenant is now refusing to let my repair man in to carry out repairs on things she says are broken, she says he makes her feel 'uncomfortable' which is ridiculous as I have known him for a long time and believe me from photos this is not a real beauty we are talking about more lipstick, powder and paint. I am on a AST and seem to have no rights at all i.e. she's moved in her boyfriend, she wont allow repairs to be done by my people, the letting agency are managing the house as we specified. Never again will I rent my house out such has been my experience.

Oops should have been ARE NOT managing the house as we specified at the start. Useless bunch.

HI,

I have recently moved into a property, I have been renting it for three months not and it has been flooded by the upstairs neighbours. The water was leaking for three days! the whole property is ruined. It has been leaking through the Main fuse box, lights, electric sockets, all trough the ceiling and all the carpets are wet and everything has been ruined. It happened in new years eve! I was forced to leave the property switch the fuse box and vacate the property and moved to a hotel as it is so dangerous. the ceiling cracked through. I emailed my agency over 10 emails and they did no respond I even called in and the lady was just so calm and told me she will call me back and never did! I am so stressed out the agency is not helping me and asked me to live on the streets until they fix the apartment which will take over 4 weeks! I have paid them 6 months upfront with a 850 deposit! I really do not know where else to go as I am bk in the property and it is very dangerous to live in! please advice me I am so desperate for help. I had to pay 700! from my own pocket to the hotel stay n new years eve! I am an orphan and I have no where to go and the agency refuses to give me the landlord details or help me on anyway!

ALL SHE KEEPS SAYING ITS YOUR FAULT YOU HAVE NO INSURANCE! I ONLY LIVED THERE FOR THREE MONTHS AND WAS STILL SETTLING IN AND IT WAS NOT MY FAULT! I just do not understand why is the agency treating me that way!

Please help me I am living in the dark no electric no heating no hot water and the carpets are all wet and the smell is just unbearable. I ran out of money and nowhere to go

PLEASE HELP ME!!!

I am living in a property with an uninsulated bathroom extension. Naturally, this room suffers with condensation, which occasionally causes discolouration/damp patches on the walls. I am not bothered in the slightest by the damp patches and do not want my landlord to do anything about it. Does my landlord have the right to throw me out of the house for several days while the dampness/condensation issue is fixed? Would he require a court order to gain access, and if so how long can I delay for before I am actually evicted? I have never been in arrears but I think my tenancy may have officially expired. I have severe anxiety and cannot mentally cope with having to stay in a strange place while the bathroom is redone.

Joile, being an orphan doesnt confer additional tenancy rights on you. I would use that "card" when it matters and has clout not when it doesnt.

You need to get the problems documented. Go to the shelter website and follow their proceedure and/or get some Citizens or advice from shelter.

You have plenty of options.

I have a broken four ring gas hob about which I first notified my landlord nearly a year ago when the first ring packed up. A couple of months ago the second ring stopped working, and I let him know, and asked him to get the hob fixed or replaced. He brought a second hand hob around a couple of weeks ago, and said he'd get a Gas Safe registered person around to fit it within the next 'week or so'. Today he responded to my 'when will this be fixed' email saying it was going to be too expensive to send an engineer, so he'd come and fit it himself. This after saying in a previous email (and I quote): "I have decided against fitting it myself as I feel it would be better to get a gas engineer to fit it. To fit gas appliances you must be Gas Safe registered, and if i made a mistake and there was an explosion, I would be liable and I cannot let that happen."

After trawling the internet for official information on precisely who is qualified to fit gas appliances, I came up with conflicting and rather ambiguous answers. On the one hand, the Gas Safety site seems to say that anyone 'competent' (they then fail to define what they mean by that) can disconnect/ reconnect a self-sealing appliance. On the other hand, they make it fairly clear that landlords are obliged to get any and all gas appliances fitted by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

I know that he is obliged to replace the hob - it is part of the property inventory and it has not been broken through negligence or vandalism. But I'm pretty sure he shouldn't be doing a DIY on it and endangering my and my husband's safety with a potential gas leak or, in the worst case scenario, explosion. Can I insist that he cough up the money to send a properly qualified person to do the installation? How much does it cost anyway? This is an incredibly frustrating situation as we use the hob every day. Advice on how we should proceed with this would be much appreciated.

could any one tell me why is my landlord taking so long to sort problems out with water coming into my flat this has been going on for 3 months now and all they keep saying is that they have some one to look at the problems eg in the roof and the walls

@Kevin,

It's because your landlord doesn't own the roof and exterior walls- assuming this is a normal leasehold flat owned by a different freeholder.

There will be a long slow winded procedure (section 20) that takes considerable time.

Roofers/builders are busy with emergency repairs but once the weather picks up, I'd expect the work to be done then.

If you owned the flat, it is doubtful you could get things done any quicker.

What would be reasonable to expect, would be for your landlord to keep you fully updated on all this, which they obviously aren't doing.

Please don't shoot the messenger! I've been there and understand your frustration.

Hi, we have been renting our house for nearly 3 years. We have no contact details for the landlord, just his name on the contract. All contact is with the agent. When we moved in there was a leak from the bathroom to the kitchen which was fixed but the seals never put back. I didn't moan about it, I didn't want to rock the boat. Since then they have put our rent up twice. The boiler packed up and when British gas came and looked at the boiler and condemned it. When the agents gas safe guy came he said that the boiler was fine and issued a certificate. That was the only gas safety certificate we've had, that was 18 months ago. We have a real problem with damp which is mainly at floor level in the down stairs toilet (rising damp where the damp proof cause has failed). The agents guy came round and said it was our fault as we'd not used the extractor in the kitchen (there's no damp in the kitchen!). Now the fridge freezer has broken (it does say on our contract that we are responsible for appliance failure but we didn't ask for a fridge freezer, it was just there) and when we told them they laughed & said they'd contact the landlord. We have two small children & can afford to move nor do we want to (friends in the area, school etc) but we don't know how to proceed as each year they say the landlord wants to sell by will let us stay if we pay more! Our gas oven is 30 years old, if that failed, which it does regularly is that our responsibility too? They didn't do an inventory when we moved in, does that make a difference?

I moved into my rented house in June 13 I reported damp in my daughters room end of oct 13. The damp was caused by poor ventilation in the attic. The landlord sent a roofer out a couple of weeks later. He told me he told my landlord in April 13 that she needed to put vents in as the ventilation was poor. She didn't which cause me the problems. I'm now on 18 weeks. Finally the vents have been put in the ceilin replaced after a boggy cover up the first time.
I waited another 3 weeks for someone to come and pain but he only pained the Ceilin and wallpaper one wall. The inside of two cubards haven't been touch or the other 3 walls. I've had to go and but pain and do the last of repairs. I'm so tired going through my landlord as it's taking weeks/months. My daughter had to sleep in her brother room which he sleeping my my dinning room. My insurance will not cover my damage stuff because it was a landlord problem that caused it. Now I'm sitting Thounands of pound out if pocket. Landlord gave me one month rent free! Joke!!

i am living in a rented house . there is no agreement made by my house owner regarding living on rent. My problems are as under.1) There is no safety steel grills to windows.Only sliding glass panels are fixed in window openings.This has repeatedly told to my house owner .He is not refusing for the work but also not carrying out the safety work.2) The water taps /cocks of my bath room & wash basin were leaking & are repaired by him and my house owner wants to pay the repair charges.Sir, I am paying the rent as decided by house owner regularly & in time.Please give advise.

Hi! I'm on section 8 or HUD here in Missouri and I have an issue with my refrigerator. ..... The door to my fridge will not shut unless forced, I confronted my landlord about the situation and he only replied back with " a refrigerator costs 200$ or more and unless you want me to raise your rent an extra 50$ all I can do is put a latch on the door to keep your refrigerator closed!" is that legal? can he do that with me on HUD?

@Jessica,

If you broke the fridge door, get it repaired yourself (less than $50).
If not, and you really want to push it;

http://ago.mo.gov/publications/landlordtenant.pdf

Under very limited circumstances, the tenant may make repairs and deduct the cost from rent if the tenant:
● Has lived on the property for at least six months.
● Has paid all rent owed.
● Is not in violation of the lease.
● Has notified the landlord of the problem and has allowed at least 14 days for the landlord to respond.
● Has, at the landlord’s request, received verification from city inspectors that the problem violates city code. If the landlord still does not fix the code violation within 14 days of receiving the city’s notice, then the tenant can proceed with the repairs. The amount of the repair must be verified by receipts. In most cases, the cost of repair must be less than $300 or one-half month’s rent (whichever is greater), and can be done once a year.

Hi sorry if this is the wrong place to ask a question but can't seem to find anywhere else.

My sister has just phoned me in tears as all her stuff in the flat she rents is absolutely wet through and a lot of it ruined, she is even having time off work as her clothes are wet through and she has no electric or gas as they have been cut off due to this problem, the landlord decided to get the roof retiled but while there was no work being done they didn't cover the roof which obviously has let the water in. What I need to know is who is responsible cos the landlord is saying she should have content insurance which she doesn't , but surely that ain't right as it's not her fault but obviously is someone's fault. Thx for any reply me in advance..

Hi I'm in the UK by the way just read a couple of posts tht are from u.s

hi there i was just wondering if my landlord has a right in not repairing my boiler.
I have had no hot water and heating for nearly 2 months now. I am in rent areas but he is currently receiving housing benefits i have also asked for his bank details so i can start paying so much every time i get paid towards my rent arrears. He is refusing to speak to me or repair the boiler at the begining of january 2015 he did have a boiler man come and look at the boiler which the boiler man explained to me that the boiler needed two parts or a new boiler he said he would speak to the landlord and see what he wanted to do so he could order which ever was decided that was the last contact i had regarding this. i have rang but he hung up on me 3 times and i have wrote him a letter but had no response. has he a right to do this

I am privately renting a house. My landlord isnt allowed to touch gas but for the last two weeks my boiler has been losing pressure due to a water leak from my bedroom. My Its meant that I have woken on occasion to no hot water or heating or come home from work to the same. The landlord keeps coming to repressurise the boiler but it's a temporary fix. Its broken again tonight. He has again been round to carry out the temporary repair and again plans to come round tomorrow to sort the leak he didn't fix properly last time. Only now I have no water from my hot water taps no heating and he thinks it is OK to leave the repair until tomorrow afternoon. I am now growing tired of the inconvenience and lack of a permanent nrepair. It's a weekend and I am to have to put up with this. Can I complain and ask for a discount on my rent for the inconvenience

I rent & my hotwater heater went out how many days does my landlord have to get this fixed?

@nick. Cant you repressurise the boiler ? I would consider topping the boiler up like this part of a tenants responsibilities.

You wont get anywhere fast complaining about a landlord trying to fix the problem. No judge is going to beat him up about his efforts so far and it is you that appear unreasonable.

You can always ask for a discount but you might piss off your landlord. is it worth it ?

@erica it should be done in a few days but unless your LL drags their feet for several weeks not much you can do about it.

@boo Make sure you have written a letter to your LL re boiler. You will then have upto 6 years to take him to court (even after surrendering your Ten agreement) to take them to court for a reduction in rent. I suspect hed have to refund nearly 75% rent paid for the time without heating.

Hello, I am a tenent of a housing association in Scotland. Soappreciate if this is just for english law. I needed the outside of my house powerwashed due to faultt guttering making a mess of my white wall. a third party was hired by the Housing, he attached his pressure washer to the downstairs tyoilet which drained my feeder tank in my loft. once he had finished the tank refilled at such a rate that nit knocked the ballcock clean off and water then poured through my roof causing substantial damage to the celings and upstairs carpets, and subequently my ceilings downstairs. I dont have contents insurance but this was down to the contractors negligence. I stayed in a hotel for one night as my house was soaking and had to keep my gas boiler on full and my hot water turned on to heat the tank in the loft up. What is my Housing association liable for? me staying at hotel? the fuel required to dry out the property? time off to let contactors in / no shows

My flat is all electric and over the 6 yrs I have lived here the boiler has not worked for over 16 weeks - that is hot water and central heating. This is worse when it is in winter. However this time the boiler could not be repaired and I was without hot water for 3 weeks, could not use washer as it took direct from hot water feed. Finally a new boiler installed but not finished as needs hooking up for central heating too. I have never had any recompense for this. Is there a limit to how long one can be left without hot water and heating please?

Hazel. If you don't mind leaving your current place then ask for a reduction. As I see it you just got a new boiler but no central heating in summer - no big deal.

The time to strike is when you have the cards and you wont convince a judge you are due much from a 6 year period in which you could have left or complained earlier.

Personally I would use the issue to buy some goodwill with the landlord. Bring it up when there is any talk of rent increases or if you are going to be late with rent etc or want some redecoration, new carpet..

Essentially a LL has to do what is reasonable and it isnt unreasonable for it to take some weeks to have new boiler fitted.

You might ask for a small reduction in rent but as I say above you have to balance this.

If you are otherwise happy dont rock the boat.

My sons landlord will not fix his boiler stating that its not used enough ' he's sent a letter to them my son and his friend that lives with him stating that he may sell the flat and wants them out in February , or they can buy the property , or may have to put the rent up. He hasn't stated what he wants to do. I think Im right saying that the landlord is responsible to fix the boiler that gives hot water and heating . Iv advised him that he should go to the Citizens advice. Any advice would be helpful. Thier not that confident on what to do.

My landlord gave me 60 days notice to vacate after one of his agents damaged my property while showing the house. Furthermore the landlord did not inform me the house was being shown. Now the landlord said he was sorry for the damage and stated I can stay, however won't sign an addendum for this agreement. He only stated I have his word.
Should I be worried?

Hi,

I was without heating & hot water for 15 days due to boiler faulty. The agency informed me: "Unfortunately we cannot reduce your rent because of this, your rent is due in full as per your contractual obligation."

Eventualy boiler has been replaced after 15 days, but due to this inconvenience do I am entitled for rent reduction according to law?

Thank you for any reply.

@Houk,
No.

I have problems with rising damp , no oven working since day one , the toilet waist coming up in the yard also when the drains block it comes up from the drain and bath and toilet over flows.

I have ask her to mend oven she kept saying she was missing me i never go out, only to work every day back at 6.30.
the funniest tale of all her Husband was a sparky, maybe he was capable of repair, she said she had a new oven to put in,what cheek.
this house has serous problems, the main public drains are a disaster.

I would not recommend even buying this house, I have only rented in between buying property.

this should not be allowed,what action can I take against my land lady , 94. Whalley Rd, Read Burnley.its a no no please I dont want anyone else to suffer.

@clementine

1. Document the rising damp with photos and make sure you have copies of emails/letters sent to the landlord in relation to this damp and your other repair issues.

2. Follow the property disrepair protocol here
http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/protocol/prot_hou

3. you can contact your local council environmental health re drains and the damp - preusmably it is affecting neighbours too.

Hi my mum is incontinent and disabled I have just rang the council to report the pump on her walk on shower as it has stopped working, they told me it would be a week before they can send someone out, and then she would have to wait for the part to come in, as she is incontinent she needs to get at least 2 showers a day is there anything I can do to get this fixed quicker,

The tenant informed us of a crack in an internal double-glazed windowpane, shortly before the end of the tenancy. We got a window surveyor in who commented "thermal fracture - often people have candles in the window". We had the window replaced (just over £100) and proposed to the tenant to deduct this sum from the deposit. Tenant did not agree and argued on the basis of strong winds, installation fault etc, and referred the case to the Deposit Scheme for ADR. We based our case on the fact that in the absence of proof (as to what had caused the crack) by either party, the liability for the cost of repair fell to the tenant as the damage had occurred during their occupancy and it was the tenant's responsibility to keep the interior in good repair and made good any damage... (Ts&Cs of tenancy agreement). The adjudicator has now ruled that even if thermal stress had been the likely cause, the landlord had to prove that it was as a result of a negligence or misuse (...) by the tenant and in the absence of such proof, the tenant had not breached the
tenancy agreement, and the sum in dispute was awarded to the tenant.
My question is, does anyone have a similar experience? The tenant have not provided any evidence to "prove" that they did NOT do something wrong. We would have thought in this case maybe a split of the cost would be appropriate. Do we have a chance if we object with the adjudicator's decision? We now have 9 days to consider and are, frankly, exasperated by the whole process, but would very much welcome comments on the subject!
Secondly, the tenant's evidence was submitted 17 days after the expiry of their deadline. If we contested the validity of the submission on the basis of being out of time, might the adjudicator's decision have been different?
Many thanks.

OOPS - object to, not with

I moved into my flat last April 2015 and was told they would get the hot water fixed and believe it or not still waiting, I keep asking and nothing has been done

Where do I go now

This is an unusual situation. I have ecomeny 7 in the flat I rent. However the water is not connected to it so I pay peak rates. The storage heaters are dangerous you cannot control ye temperature and the one in my living room is very big so hard to find cover for it. I have a one year old too. The one in her room barley heats up. She gets a lot of damp from floor in there.
The landlord has neglected to help me and my bills are 200 a month for electric and I can't cope. I can't afford to keep up with it or afford to move house as now being a mother and working part time. If I go through housing they will make me go through the homeless way to get somewhere which will be far from where I want to be living. How do I deal with this?

My son's girlfriend rents privately and has had no washer for over 5 weeks now I and her friend have been doing her washing she was told a part was needed and was told it was on ordered but now has discovered it hasn't been ordered her landlord is away in Australia on holiday and is being no help at all the tenant has been so frustrated at getting anywhere with the landlord that she has now been out and bought a washing machine even though it's an expense she could do without where does she stand on this could she send the bill to the landlord P!ease help

Help needed plz i have live in a private rented house for 3 years in the 3 years o have been evictied twice landlord dont do any repairs couple of weeks ago british gas came out and turned all my lights off and the landlord gave us some lamp which i plugged into my sons room it burst causing cuts to my sons arm and hand i phone the landlord for him to give me abuse over the phone i have been to my council and they are trying to find us somewhere to live do i still pay my rent ???

I rent a property from estate agents. Got no landlords details. I live with my 2 sons both under 3 years. My gas fire as stopped working. I rented the house with a fire. The landlird as told the estate agents that he I doing nothing until he installs a new boiler in 2 months tine. This I costing me a fortune having t have the heating on all the time.vcan someone please help me. Is ge obliged to give me or mend the fire as I rented it with a fire

My husband and I have rented for around 15 years. I think we are good tenants - never once late with rent and always leave the property better than found. Our 3 longest term landlords I would still class as friends, still send birthday gifts to kids of landlord from 8 years ago - still chat most weeks with landlady from 2 years ago. When things need doing, we always do what we can ourselves - and lend a hand to reduce landlords costs if possible.

I think our present landlord takes advantage of our nature - we will move out as soon as we can find somewhere else- but every one advises me to pay less rent, ignoring the legality of this, I'm unhappy as I feel the corner stone of our agreement is to pay rent, and paying any less seems wrong - however, we are not rich, and now trying to get the deposit together to move....

Our landlord asked for 3 months deposit and a guarantor - not unreasonable, we moved from abroad and had no jobs at the time. For the first 4 months - no problem, but I told the landlord I thought the boiler had a problem as it was summer I wasn't using it much, and all the water facutes leaked a little ( we tried changing washers, and ended up reducing flow below what we wanted and turning off at mains every time we went out and at night as not only do we pay for water but the damp is impossible to clear).

Around the start of November, it got cold. I called the landlord as the gas radiators worked for about 2 hours then shut down. He came the next day to look. Over the next 2 weeks, I called him most days - hot water shorted out the electric - the boiler leaked, then spued out water. He came out a few times and messed with the boiler, we kept asking if an expert would be a good idea. Eventually I had no hot water or heating and he stopped taking my calls. It was -8 outside I sent texts and emails - but payed the rent in full. I took around 4 days off work when he said he would come but didn't show. I was washing in the local swimming pool, using a lundret and very unhappy. He came one day and said he needed a new part which would take 10 days, this was after a month of problems - his son in law dropped of fan heaters. 10 days later, he said he would come around. He didn't - said he was busy. My husband had taken the day off work. By now we were seriously out of pocket and had lost lots of pay for no reason. I started to get angry. They then said they would give us £10a day for the time we had heaters - ignoring the previous 3 weeks no heating or water. And would come next day - both me and my husband were in fairly new jobs and had taken too much time off so I asked him to come really early or really late. We got home to find him in our home, he said he had found a key. In the end he bought a new boiler which is not compatible with system. For the last 2 weeks we have had luckwarm heating (massive improvement over frozzen) he said he would be back.... He had said the electric allowance would be straight with us.

Our rent is now due. We are looking hard to move out, but I think a guy like this will not refund our deposit quickly, I'd like to at least knock of the rent what he promised to pay. My husband doesn't want to pay rent at all.

I want to be a good tenant, what should I do?

I just wanted to know where my daughter stands . she is renting a flat with 2 young kids and last year the fitted cooker the door smashed . the kitchen door opens right in front of the cooker and when she had the window open it blew right into the oven door and smashed the outer glass . so now she has to use a knife because no handle and its just the inner glass left which get very hot . the cooker is built into the work top so she reported it last year to the landlord and they told her she has to pay to fix it £200 she has not got that kind of money with 2 young kids they could get burnt . I just wanted to know if she has to pay or the landlord has to . its gone on far to long and in all the flats the kitchen door opens right on to the oven . what can she do . from barrow-in-furness . thanks

Hi,
I have recently moved to a property that is completely unfurnished. I have a free standing gas cooker that I cannot connect because the gas cooker fitting at source is not a bayonet self sealing fitting. The landlord tells me that changing this fitting is my cost. Is this really true?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

my dad had no gas and electric for 6 years his landlord made his live a living hell he did not do any repairs but my dad stilled paid his rent the landlord did not put it back on until 1 year ago but stil and got the rent of the social can I claim the money back and my dad died 3 weeks ago plz help

i'm a tenant My council came and did there annual gas service safety check
new pump was ordered by engineer but it was deemed safe a certificate passed to use

within 2 days of annual gas service 3 of my family complained of sore throats first we thoughts virus throat infection etc now not so sure, on 2nd day my partner came down stairs said she could smell gas- I also could once she had mentioned it we opened windows doors etc and phoned Transco with 30 minutes there engineer came out and condemned boiler as unsafe with explosive ignition and leaking gas - he capped the meter off and told us to call our landlord " the council" they eventually came out same evening after repeated phone call and no call back as promised

the council engineer said pressure was dropping on his meter and there definitely was a leak in system he got his screw driver out turned a valve or screw re checked system thoroughly and said it's holding pressure now and deemed it safe to use after checking co levels etc

What I want to know is how can the first council engineer sleep at night leaving us with a gas leak and marking certificate as pass - have we got a valid case to sue the individual or council as he's there employee ?

People do make mistakes sometimes: it's human nature. If you report the engineer to Gas Safe, they'll be in a better position to assess whether this is a one-off. If they feel the engineer's work is not up to standard, they can make him undergo further training and/or revoke his licence.

As for suing, you'd have to prove that the Council or the engineer was negligent and that you suffered a material loss as a result. Other than being without gas for half a day and having to make a few phone calls, it didn't really cost you anything. You can't sue for what might have happened.

Iv lived in my house for about 6 years, I'm always having to chase the landlord to do repairs, the latest is I have mould everywhere,I have two toilets one doesn't work and one has been leaking to the point I put towel behind and it's soaking by afternoon, my main problem being that 6 weeks ago I contacted the landlord to tell him of my kitchen sink being blocked and water won't go down,he sent his plumber out who told me I needed a new sink and it's took me 6 weeks, 6 cancellations and Continuous nagging, and still nothing done,I'm fed up of emptying water into the garden just to wash dishes, where do I stand with my rights as a tenant, and also I have misplaced my tenancy agreement so worried about that.

Hi,
Please advise:
My Landlord decided that the house my partner and I rented from them needed a new bathroom as there were some issues with leaking from underneath the bath and through the ceiling into and through the downstairs wall. The bathroom fitter employed by the landlord brought in his own sub- contractor to do the plastering element of the re-fit. When the work had finished, whilst cleaning up dust upstairs I noticed my set of decorating ladders were missing. I knew they were there a few days before the work complete day before as I took some curtains down and used them to do so. I searched every room, the loft and the shed but they were gone. I notified my landlord who called the contractor to ask where they were and he said he would ask the guy who he brought in to plaster the bathroom which he then rang back stating that the plasterer had said he hadn't taken them. A few days later, I was in the front garden when something shiny caught my eye and hidden between the garden wall and some fir trees, I discovered a set of flimsy well worn broken ladders had been left there. They were badly damaged and absolutely caked in plaster. I informed my landlord who advised me to speak to the guy she employed as the bathroom fitter direct. I felt this was their responsibility to do this as they had employed the person who brought another 2 people(subcontractors) into our home and one of them were guilty of steeling my very expensive set of extendable safety decorators ladders. As we were left without any ladders but moved in 4 months prior as owners of some, who's responsibility is it to replace them or refund the money for the cost to replace them?

Also, should we have been offered any goodwill discount in our rent that month for having no heating or toilet / washing facilities fir 3 days having to travel a 16 mile to and from journey to shower each day we were without these essential facilities?

If the house we rent had no main ariel on the roof and the previous cable & wireless company who supplied the property had fitted their boxes internally and externally and capped or cut any other providers connection leads that previously supplied the phone, Internet & TV service to the property so essentially they tried to ensure whoever lived here used them as a provider. We chose not to and have discovered we can only access 5 mainstream channels and no freeview channels. We have also had to acquire a box used by the old provider in order to be able to get any channels whatsoever! So it our responsibility to pay for an ariel so we can have access freeview channels again and not have to use the previous provider. We were already locked Ito a 18 month internet contract which we had to bring with us from the previous place we lived so we can't change even if we wanted to but we do want freeview back. Do we have to shell out or should there have been an ariel already fitted when we moved in to give us the option? I asked the landlord, they told me they have no clue about TV's and connectors!!!!! Wanted some advice before calling him that it's reasonable to do so?

@Drakie,

1. Stolen ladders- If you are really that bothered, call the police. Not your landlords problem.
2. Inconvenience for 3 days- It is not a hotel. No goodwill/discount on rent entitlement whatsoever.
3. TV connection- Not your landlords problem.

That's life, shit happens, wipe your own arse.

Hi I rent a property with 2 wall mounted gas heaters, one of which was disconnected due to a gas leak, they offered me a portable panel heater while they the landlords concider their options of repair or replacing heater.
Its been 5 months and the final decision they made was just to drop off the portable panel heater which i said i wasnt interested in and not fix/replace the wall mounted gas heater.
Do i have any rights to decline and demand the wall mounted gas heater be fixed or replaced and deny their offer of portable panel heater or should i just let it go, its winter and the one heater doesnt heat the whole house sufficiently?

I have been living in a continuing shorthold lease property for 8 years through a letting agency. Last February the night storage heating radiator in the lounge which is open plan with the kitchenwas deemed unfit for use.
The landlord provided me with a cheap Glen convetor heater which is currently costing around £8.75 a day for 8 hours a day having it set on 28c and brings the room up to a maximum of 21c. Once turned off within an hour it drops to 18c.
They have refused to replace the night storeage heater sujesting I find a cheaper electricity provider naturally I am not an idiot and found the cheapest available. Currently it is costing me around £140 a month more than when the night storeage was working being a pensioner this is something I can ill afford. Therefore can anyone provide some advise. Many thanks

Hi,

We are trying to establish whether an improvement order could be issued for a small sag in some floorboards, the dip is 1/4" under carpet and I suspect it relates to works carried out before our ownership where the central heating system was installed (they probably cut the board off-centre from the joist and its dropped)

We ask because rather than the tenant raising this with us, they have stated their physiotherapist has claimed it is unsafe for them based on their disability (we have not had confirmation of any disability or what that disability may be - and the tenant is not forthcoming!) and said physiotherapist is allegedly writing to the council about it.

Our feeling is that the tenant is intentionally attempting to put measures in place to block a section 21 - otherwise why wouldn't they just approach us directly first and tell us about the problem?

Everything that I've read so far indicates that Improvement Orders are for more serious concerns than this, given the depth of the dip I hardly think that the council should be able to issue an improvement notice - there are paving slabs and pot holes country-wide which are more dangerous than this extremely small dip - but does her disability move the goal posts potentially?

TIA!
D