Many issues/problems with this tenancy - Advice Needed Please

[Redmax]

We have had many problems with our tenancy which commenced in March 08 including TDS claim which I have already posted in this forum.

We rented a 1930's traditional semi-detached house from a private LL who led us to believe that just a single lady lived in the adjoining property. On moving in we began to experience various noise issues and to cut a long story short we eventually found out that the adjoing semi-detached house was in fact two self-contained flats. We felt the LL had gone to great lengths to avoid telling us this, particulary as we wouldn't have paid that amount of rent had we known the truth. At one point we asked him who the young man was we'd seen next door was and he said he was a lodger, in fact it turned out he was the tenant of the upstairs flat.

When we complained to the LL he basically said there was no difference between a tenant and a lodger and that if we weren't happy we could leave........ but he would keep our £1000 deposit to cover the cost of furniture he had put in the house. Our AST is for a furnished property so obviously we had major concerns and took action by making the TDS claim when we discovered our deposit wasn't protected.

There have many other issues : LL also only had gas safety check done and certificate issued after we made TDS court claim.

LL wanted to continue to come to the property to use the garage to store things (no arrangment regarding this in tenancy agreement) and we have wrote to him telling him we will take further action if he attempts to do so.

From commencement of the tenancy there have been electrical safety issues. LL rented property to us after being unable to sell, he had just finished redeveloping it including complete new electrics, or at least we thought he had ! We agreed for him to come to complete some electrical testing during the first week but it soon became apparent he wasn't sure of what he was doing, it took so long and he was continously on the phone asking someone questions.

After making the TDS claim these requests to continue "electrical testing" continued and we took issue and asked questions in writing to him such as shouldn't this have been done before the house was rented out and had the works been certificated. He didn't anwser our questions and accused us of denying him access. We contacted Building Control at the council who confirmed he had not gone through them for the electrical work and, as he wasn't on the competent persons register to do such work, he should have done. They sent out a buildings inspector who said some of the work he could see looked illegal : electrical sockets directly under washing m/c water outlet, no isolator switches for appliances. He said he would be back to take photos but we never heard from him again. Someone else advised us to contact EHO which we did some weeks ago, he took details and said he would ask the Building Inspector to pass the notes on to him. By beginning of last week we still hadnt heard anything from him either and when we rang him he said the Building Inspector (who coincidentally is also a LL) hadnt passed anything on but he would write to our LL requesting an independent assessment of the electrics at the property.

This morning we've received a letter from the LL saying he wants to come next week to "ascertain the validity of the complaint". We're not sure exactly what the EHO has said to him as he said it wasn't normal practice to copy such letters to us.

Last week the LL also served a Section 21 on us, not that we're bothered we wanted to go at the end of the six months anyway after all this hassle. Although we have no rent arrears, we're aware he can still do this.

We don't really want the LL to come to the property as there is so much animosity between us and the council seem very disinterested in all this and it's extremely difficult to get to speak to anyone there. Also they say they no longer have a Housing Officer who deals with tenancies.

Any advice please would be very welcome.

Thanks.

[MrShed]

Not much to advise on really Redmax to be honest.

The only issue I see here that you havent already dealt with is the visit from the landlord. You CAN refuse him access if you wish, but it would be unreasonable to do so as it is a disrepair issue, and more to the point a disrepair issue that YOU have highlighted. I think it would be a very bad idea to refuse access at this point.

[Redmax]

I take your point Mr Shed but don't we have a right to obtain some proof of the safety/certification of the electrical installations before we allow him to come and further tamper with the electrics, possibly putting us at risk ?

[MrShed]

No - there is no legal requirement to provide electrical certificates of any kind.

[Redmax]

Solution :

Council today confirmed only reason they didnt prosecute LL was because he had owned the property for over a year and they only have a six month window to take action and it would be difficult to prove when the electrical installation was actually done. EHO has now suggested we write to LL and say in view of this we are not comfortable or confident with his electrical capabilities but would be happy for a competent Part P qualified electrician to come to the property by arrangement to remedy any necessary work. We're happy to do this.