retired_putpo

Right, basically the missus just moved into a place with her two friends and already things are starting to take a turn for the worse.

Before the moved in the place was rented by students who pretty much trashed the place. So before they got things signed they spoke to the landlord and asked what would be happening.

He claimed the place would be fully cleaned and any things that were broken would be fixed.

This included a wonky toilet seat and in two of the rooms windows in serious need of repair. Both have the ropes snapped, and in my girlfriends all the plaster surrounding it was falling off the wall and the window itself has sticky tape holding certain parts together.

With these issues raised he agreed to fix them before they moved in and so they got him to sign an agreement saying as such.

Fast-forward to the moving date and the place has been cleaned but everything else hasn't been done. He claims the builders were hard to get hold of during this period and will get them to do it at some point, however it is a four-hour job and can only done during working hours during the weekday. This means one of the tenants will have to take half a day off work to be there while it's done.

Annoyed that all this hasn't been done, my girlfriend has now told him the rent will not be paid until the promised work is done, he's turned around and threatened throwing all of them out.

So basically yes he's being an arse, but what is everyone's legal right? And why did I have to write so much?

Any advice would be welcome.

retired_nauticaperson

Check her contract. I've had them before where you can't withold rent or you get chucked out.

And ffs, get her to go through an estate agents next time.

retired_jjjvassnc

Surely him signing an agreement that it would be completed means he hasn't got a leg to stand on?

alidog

I'm going back 10 years to when I was a student but we lived in a bit of a dump run by a millionaire slum landlord in Durham. The 3 jags on his drive should have been a warning to us.

Our roof started leaking when it rained and he kept putting off fixing it even though it was ****ing in everywhere. So we went to the student accomodation people (Can't remember their exact title now) and told them. They told us to get 2 seperate quotes from seperate builders to do the job, forward them to the landlord with a written letter saying either he fixed the roof himself within 14 days or we'd go ahead with the cheapest quote and deduct it from his rent.

We hand delivered the letter and he had a man round the next day.

Of course this was a while back and I don't know if we had legal grounds to do what we did, but it worked.

retired_navy0614

Depends if there were any conditions on the contract/agreement tbh, otherwise they'd have to take him to court for breach of that "contract."

retired_txanya

Take the half day off work and let him get it sorted?

It's annoying but could easily have been worse from a private landlord, no?

Geoff

no it doesn't.
it means the landlord takes the time off to ensure it gets done as it's HIS property, contractually obligated to make the property liveable.

retired_kellynew1212

Read the contract over.. and if he doesn't go by the contract get legal advice.

mattsaunders

yeah agree with that. screw taking a day off work.

the landlord is obliged to manage the tenancy, either himself or through an estate agent... that includes making himself available to let tradesmen in and out or leaving a set of keys somewhere (ie. with an estate agent) where they can be collected.

retired_bouka12

we're having problems with our old shitty landlord right now. He's trying to claim that we owe him £1600 cos of damages


the list of things we damaged include a toaster, a toaster that we bought and paid for. Never trust them.

it's all going to court now.