What are a private landlords legal obligations towards a tenant?
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Hester W asked:
I currently rent a house from a private landlord, who has this lady to manage all the tenancy agreement, rent and keys etc. I have never seen the landlord. When I viewed the house before renting it, the girl living there at the time told me that the windows had a lot of condensation and that the cooker got very hot and was dangerous when kids were around. Not long after moving in, I asked the lady who manages it about the cooker, she said she would mention it to the landlord. Nothing ever happened and that was 9 months ago. I have asked numerous times since and nothing has happened. I have had to have the firemen out a few times, as there is water that leaks through the bathroom floor into the kitchen ceiling and drips down through thr kitchen light fitting. This is almost unavoidable due to the way the bath and shower are fitted, the only way I have found to avoid it is by putting towels along the side of the bath on the floor, they get sopping wet and I have to wash loads of towels all the time. The front door lock is broken, has been for about 3 weeks and I have told them, the landlord sent out his contractor and he had a look at that, the shower, the oven and the heating (which is also crap, old and broken). The oven is dangerous. It gets so hot to touch when the grill is o that you cant touch the buttons, and its starting to turn the laminated wood cupboards next to it brown and burn them…the laminate is peeling off. The lock still isnt fixed. The heating is old, if I leave it on for 5-6 hours the house isn’t warm upstairs at all…it takes the chill off slightly. Downstairs is red hot though. Also, the timer is broken so you have to go down the cellar to switch on the heating and the water comes out of the hot taps upstairs yellow sometimes…looks like pee. There is damp all through the house upstairs and when I have painted it has ruined my decorating (even after layers and layers of damp paint grrrrrrrrr) and the window seals do not even meet in the corners, there is about a 1-2 cm gap on almost all of them. There is condensation that builds up inbetween the two panes of double glazing and it also builds up on the inside, loads, and runs down all over the windowsill, and makes gross mould grow on the black sealing strip. Oh, and the lights blow out and trip out the system all the time. The last time, I took out the bulb and it had blown thr glass from the metal bayonet cap, it was all black and sooty! Also the light for my tortoise’s tank blew, and that one is plugged into a socket…not even on the main lighting circuit. I pay £600 a month for this house. Help lol. Its close to my sons school, I dont wanna move……nothing has been done despite me ringing the lady over and over. When my 6 month tenancy from april - nov ran out, she didnt even bring the tenancy for me to sign until last week! (23rd nov) I didnt dare ask about the stuff that needs fixing during the time I had no tenancy, as I thought they might just be able to throw me out….theres a lot of expensive work needs doing. When I rang her, she said she was ill, and then more recently, she said her dad had died and failed to keep to what she said about bringing the tenancy, my mum had to go fetch it from her. It also took her six months to bring round the landlords bank details, when I had asked for them from the start so I could set up a standing order.
Lean
I currently rent a house from a private landlord, who has this lady to manage all the tenancy agreement, rent and keys etc. I have never seen the landlord. When I viewed the house before renting it, the girl living there at the time told me that the windows had a lot of condensation and that the cooker got very hot and was dangerous when kids were around. Not long after moving in, I asked the lady who manages it about the cooker, she said she would mention it to the landlord. Nothing ever happened and that was 9 months ago. I have asked numerous times since and nothing has happened. I have had to have the firemen out a few times, as there is water that leaks through the bathroom floor into the kitchen ceiling and drips down through thr kitchen light fitting. This is almost unavoidable due to the way the bath and shower are fitted, the only way I have found to avoid it is by putting towels along the side of the bath on the floor, they get sopping wet and I have to wash loads of towels all the time. The front door lock is broken, has been for about 3 weeks and I have told them, the landlord sent out his contractor and he had a look at that, the shower, the oven and the heating (which is also crap, old and broken). The oven is dangerous. It gets so hot to touch when the grill is o that you cant touch the buttons, and its starting to turn the laminated wood cupboards next to it brown and burn them…the laminate is peeling off. The lock still isnt fixed. The heating is old, if I leave it on for 5-6 hours the house isn’t warm upstairs at all…it takes the chill off slightly. Downstairs is red hot though. Also, the timer is broken so you have to go down the cellar to switch on the heating and the water comes out of the hot taps upstairs yellow sometimes…looks like pee. There is damp all through the house upstairs and when I have painted it has ruined my decorating (even after layers and layers of damp paint grrrrrrrrr) and the window seals do not even meet in the corners, there is about a 1-2 cm gap on almost all of them. There is condensation that builds up inbetween the two panes of double glazing and it also builds up on the inside, loads, and runs down all over the windowsill, and makes gross mould grow on the black sealing strip. Oh, and the lights blow out and trip out the system all the time. The last time, I took out the bulb and it had blown thr glass from the metal bayonet cap, it was all black and sooty! Also the light for my tortoise’s tank blew, and that one is plugged into a socket…not even on the main lighting circuit. I pay £600 a month for this house. Help lol. Its close to my sons school, I dont wanna move……nothing has been done despite me ringing the lady over and over. When my 6 month tenancy from april - nov ran out, she didnt even bring the tenancy for me to sign until last week! (23rd nov) I didnt dare ask about the stuff that needs fixing during the time I had no tenancy, as I thought they might just be able to throw me out….theres a lot of expensive work needs doing. When I rang her, she said she was ill, and then more recently, she said her dad had died and failed to keep to what she said about bringing the tenancy, my mum had to go fetch it from her. It also took her six months to bring round the landlords bank details, when I had asked for them from the start so I could set up a standing order.
Lean