Landlady's demands

[argent]

We are coming to the end of our tenancy agreement with an extremely difficult landlady. We have a few issues that we'd love any advice on...

A few weeks back after some heavy rain the ceiling in one of the bedrooms completely collapsed and water was pouring all through the house. As a result one of us got an electric shock from a light switch and the other light switches in the house were live for a day or two. The landlord gave us advise on how to minimise the shock and told us to use a pencil to turn switches on and off!!

The room has been uninhabitable since and one of us has been living in the small lounge since then but still paying full rent. We now have builders in repairing the roof and other walls in the house. This has meant the tenant that works nights has had very disturbed sleep. Also the furniture from the collapsed room is now in someone elses room while they carry out work on the floor boards.
The landlady has offered nothing in compensation for any of this and seems to regard it as a minor inconvenience for us. By the time we leave it will be ten weeks since the ceiling collapsed.

In the meantime she has stated that before we go we must:

Pay for a professional gardener to do the garden
Pay for professional cleaners to clean the carpets (and we must vacate the house about five days before the end of the tenancy so they can do this)
Have all the curtains dry-cleaned
Pay for someone to clean the windows inside and outside (four-story building)
Pay for the house to be fumigated for ticks and fleas because we have kept guinea-pigs which were agreed in the contract (and which have not had ticks or fleas)
We must also clean all the lightbulbs!!!!!!!!
By the way the contract came with a cleaner who comes once a week to do communal areas.

This all seems entirely unreasonable to us.

We know from the previous tenants that she held back £500 of their deposit for a carpet she didn't replace and for the cost of moving the furniture out of the room and then in again of that bedroom...

One of us had their mother and sister to stay for the weekend just gone and she has also stated that they were not allowed to be here...this seemed to come from the builders who told her that there were people living here who shouldn't be!!!!!

This woman has been at the house more times than we can remember....she was even here the day we moved in, literally as we were humping boxes in she was there talking about the house....at that time she talked to one of us about a timer switch which opened and closed the lounge curtain automatically...that person forgot to tell everyone else immediately and I pulled the curtains shut not knowing and broke it. Apparently they don't make them anymore so it hasn't been replaced...I know she is going to charge us for this, can she?

Also the chairs we were given for the kitchen were extremely rickety...people gingerly sit down on them...during the course of the year here two have collapsed and broken just by being sat on....are we liable for them?

This woman is a nightmare...she's coming round tomorrow and we'd like to know if we have any rights????
All help gratfully recieved.

[Rich44]

First off sorry to hear your problems, I dont have all the answers for you but.

WTF turn the lights on with a bloomin pencil???

Pencils contain graphite which is a form of carbon and conducts electricity using her advice someone could have been killed!!!

Please tell me she told you that in writing?

If the water damage is as bad as you intimate on here the electricity should have been isolated to prevent someone being shocked end of story

The landlord has to allow fair wear and tear on any items in the house that were for your use so if the chairs were rickety when you moved in it sounds as if them falling apart would be fair wear and tear considering their state of repair initially.

The curtain opener you may well be liable for from the sounds of it as from your own admission you broke it - however saying they dont make them anymore isnt true at all there is a booming industry in home automation but theyre not cheap

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As for people coming to stay that to be frank is none of her damn business at all, as long as you pay the rent you can have anyone you like stay with you, you may be obliged to tell the landlord if you have people staying long term but if theyre just visiting for a few weeks then I fail to see why a landlord has any right to that kind of info - invasion of privacy springs to mind.

Cleaning carpets - thats been on my contracts historically ive never done it though
Fleas and ticks - again its on every contract ive had but again ive never done it as I know there were no fleas or ticks (no animals at that time)
Curtains dry cleaned - as above in all my contracts never done seemed ott to me
Cleaning light bulbs - WTF?? sad old moo lol
Garden - my contracts have said garden must be clean and tidy etc never had one say pro gardener reqd

Just before you leave take photos of EVERYTHING showing the place clean and tidy etc for your defence as it sounds like you'll need it

Good luck

[argent]

Thanks for that Rich!

WTF turn the lights on with a bloomin pencil???

Pencils contain graphite which is a form of carbon and conducts electricity using her advice someone could have been killed!!!

Please tell me she told you that in writing?

Sadly not, but we recorded it on a phone!

If the water damage is as bad as you intimate on here the electricity should have been isolated to prevent someone being shocked end of story

This happened as soon as someone realised there was a problem but didn't realise water was coming through the light swtiches...own fault then i guess

The curtain opener you may well be liable for from the sounds of it as from your own admission you broke it - however saying they dont make them anymore isnt true at all there is a booming industry in home automation but theyre not cheap

Yikes!!! That's a lot of money for a small gadget!!! I take it it doesn't matter that it wasn't generally known about...



About the people coming to stay...she has no sense of our privacy...she has also decorated the house whilst we've been here, and on the pretence of coming to look at the painter's work she went into everyone's bedrooms....once she went into a bedroom having been told that someone was in there sleeping!!
The only time we ever siad it wasn't convenient for her to come because no-one was going to be in she accused us of lying...

The contract says we must clean any carpets, bedding and curtains that have bben soiled.....I can see that we may have to do the carpets...but the curtains??!!!
Nothing about windows in the contract....and lightbulbs....isn't that what the cleaner is for!!!

It says we must pay for any damage to the property caused by the guinea pigs...nothing about fumigating...surely she can't demand this when she agreed to have the guinea-pigs and we have stuck to her requirement on where we are allowed to keep them (i.e. on hard floor, no carpets)

We have tried to maintain the garden which is all it says in the contract...we have already paid for someone to do it earlier in the year, it was never very tidy...we have now spent a lot of time sorting it out and it looks better than it has ever done but we know she will complain because no doubt we will have removed some plants that we think are weeds and they won't be...she is NEVER happy...but she can't demand we pay for a pro can she...

As for the room....surely the lose of someone's bedrrom means she must pay back that rent for the time that person has not been able to inhabit that room...and the rest of us have lost a communal area....the contract says she must if there is damage from fire or anything else which she can claim insurance for...i.e. flood damage in this case. We know she is insured and is claiming.

[WendyN]

Well, to start off with I would strongly recommend talking to the Housing Standards people at your local council. They can arrange for someone to visit you and decide whether or not the property is habitable or not. If it isn't habitable, she can't really charge you rent on it - I don't think - can anyone else confirm this?

When we had problems with damp in our old flat, we didn't do this and wished we had! External advice & confirmation of the problem might come in handy later on, if you decide to take things further.

Bear in mind, however, that this is fighting talk, so your landlady won't be at all happy with you! Make sure that you have given her adequate chance to sort it out herself before you take this step, as it's a last resort!

[argent]

Thanks Wendy,

The builders have been repairing the room for the past 3 weeks but we took loads of pictures at the time of the damage to the room. At the time the agancy that half looks after the property came and said it was uninhabitable. The next day when they were phoned they said they had been instructed that the landlady would deal with everything and they were no longer to be involved.

The emergency buiilder who first came round said it was unsafe to be in the room because the rest of the ceiling was not safe, also other parts of the house where there had been a water build up...for example the loft hatch which we walk under was not safe, one of the celings about the stairs...

The room was totally trashed....about a six foot square area of the ceiling collapsed onto the bed...it was not remotely inhabitable. She knows we have pictures...the builders are still here as I write this and apparently they will be doing a ceiling in the room next door as well so that person will have to move somewhere as well eventually...

The most the landlady has said is that she is sorry for the inconvenience but she has always played it like it was absolutely nothing major at all.

[argent]

Oh, also...

Regarding the rent and it being uninhabitable...does that apply only to the person who's room was destroyed, or to all of us?

We pay £2000 a month for this house...it's a lot of money...

[WendyN]

I think it will depend on how bad the situation is. The person from the council will decide whether there is a health risk from living in that environment; i.e. that living with damp / leaks has been hazardous to health.

I would recommend that you talk to someone at your local council for more advice - confirm it all in writing as well, so that you have it on record.

Our council website says:

Rented Homes in Disrepair
Rented Homes in Disrepair

People who rent a home are not usually responsible for its structural condition and general repairs, unless this is specified in the lease. There are certain standards that a rented home must reach.
If you are a tenant and you believe your home is in disrepair, you should first write to your landlord to ask them to assess the problem and take action to rectify any defects.
If your landlord refuses to fix a defect within a reasonable time period, despite being asked in writing, you should contact us and an officer will arrange to inspect the property. The officer will inform the landlord about defects they found during their inspection and ask them to carry out any necessary works within a certain timescale. If the landlord fails to do this then we can serve a notice requiring repairs to be carried out within a specified timescale. If the landlord does not comply with the notice then the Council may carry out the works and recover costs from the landlord.

[blacksheep1979]

First off I would write to her asking her for all the rent back for the person whose room was uninhabitble and half for everyone else (she won't do it but you have to open discourse sometime), be nice about it point out that that room was uninhabitable and that the rest of the house was disrupted by builders.

Now whilst the builders were in did you by any chance notice your electricity bills go up? Claim for that as well from her.

If she has been coming round unnanounced you should point this out also and tell her that she legally has to give you 24hrs notice and that it has to be at a convenient time.

She won't give you anything back (knowing landlords) so then issue her with a letter before action stateing all the reasons - house in disrepair, disturbance by builders, extra electricity costs, harassment by her.

Finally take the old witch to court - you will really not make her day with that one.

As to seeing your deposit, alot of landlords see it as a kind of bonus and come up with the most rediculous reasons (friends got charged £150 8 years ago by a university for keys being cut - no locks changed just everyday keys) if again you take her to court and prove you left the property in a decent state then she won't stand a chance (also for future ref - take pics when you move into a property and make sure they're dated - send them to yourself in a sealed envelope).

If she claims the property is not returned in a fit state, then if the cleaner was part of the rent then claim money back from her as the cleaner wasn't doing their job properly.

If you stay calm and play this right you will get money back and your deposit whilst really winding the old bat up.

Few other points - how many of you were living there and did you check that the property had a gas safety certificate?

[cheddar]

LOL! Never mind!

[blacksheep1979]

I meant to show the state of the property when moving in as I have had landlords say oh that wasn't broken etc etc

[meagain]

Maybe I'm talking gonads again, but surely some of those could be classed as renovations, which under the Housing Act are to be completed entirely at the landlord's expense under all circumstances (no increase to rent, no deduction from deposit, etc.)?