Hi Thanks for the replies, we have sent a letter to the landlord advising him we will take the matter to court should we not hear from him with a reasonable solution in the next 14 days. We don't believe he will reply as he has ignored previous letters. We did get the council involved and they agreed the render is unstable and would continue to fall off. However because it was falling on our roof rather than the footpath to the front they said there was nothing further they could do and informed us it was a civil matter. The insurance we have on the property took a similar approach and said they were not liable and that we should pursue the landlord through the civil court. So this is where we are at present, we now are now waiting for the 14 days to elapse so we can start county court proceedings at the small claims. I don't know how enforceable it is regarding Isle of man residents or even whether we could instruct agents if it came to that, if the case was ruled in our favor then how would we reclaim our losses? Thank you

Hope this is posted in the correct section. We own a property which we rent out, there is a problem with the next door gable end as the rendering has been falling off and has been crashing down onto the kitchen roof of our property causing broken tiles. We have repaired this in the past but the problem has got much worse and now our tenants are suffering with water seepage. We have managed to contact the landlord of the next door property and even though he accepts (on telephone) that it needs addressing he has done nothing but offer excuses as to why he hasn't had it newly rendered. Our insurance say it is a civil matter which is fine, we would take him to court for any more expenses to repair the damage caused. We are good landlords and don't like our tenants having to live in a property that continually needs repairing because of the next door landlords refusal to accept his responsibility to maintain his property even though he has tenants living in it. The problem we think we may have is that he lives in the Isle of man, does anybody know if we can issue a claim in the county court or is there another procedure we must follow, one that hopefully doesn't involve costs that would outweigh the cost of repair? Of course we would expect him to also be liable for the cost of repair to our roof. thank you for reading

I am a landlord, your landlord has no right to enter the property unless it is an emergency and even then what constitutes an emergency is open to debate. He may request to do an inspection to check everything is ok, I do this by letter and confirm by telephoning the tenant to arrange a suitable day/time, i also work so we have to agree on a mutual time. Regarding changing the locks, it should not really be necessary if your landlord respects your privacy and rights I always keep a spare set of keys for each property for a said emergency for example if a neighbour said water was coming under the door from the inside I would class this as an emergency It is good practice to let your landlord be aware if you went away for a week or so too, or let your neighbour have your landlords details if an emergency arises Remember it is in your landlords best interest to have a happy tenant

She sent a text to me as a NTQ, the rubbish issue was brought up by her in that text where she asked me to dispose of it and bill her, this was before I knew there was any rubbish. I only realised she had left initially because her neighbor mentioned that she had been moving furniture out When I went to investigate, the front door was unlocked, I called around for a few days whilst making enquiries and the door was left unlocked for over a week I know the law about entering so I never went over the threshold even though I could see the house was void of furniture through the windows My partner is an ARLA qualified member so we are aware of the tenants rights regarding the damage issue raised in the last post, yes there is/was damage 2 holes in the walls to name but one issue which had to be repaired and redecorated of course fortunately I am capable of doing these things The thing is I have had to work 2 weeks on bringing the house back up to standard for occupancy again I am not pursuing costs for these issues as I would redecorate between tenancies as a matter of course anyway however it did cost more in time than it usually would I believe all tenants are not alike and I have some very good tenants who would vouch for my care of the homes they live in, unfortunately this leaves me open to abuse by some

Hi I had a tenant who just upped and left without notice owing £800.00 rent I found her new address through asking around and also her new mobile number She said she would drop off the keys with a letter explaining she was vacating This she did also stating that she would pay for the removal of the accumulated rubbish She also said she would pay installments for the owed rent I agreed, however no back rent has been forthcoming so I wrote to her 2 weeks ago to which she didn't bother responding, I phoned and got the answerphone everytime. I have now decided that my best course would probably be to take her to the County Court for rent arrears and clearance costs I have prepared a letter to her which will be posted explaining I have already written to her and this is now a letter before action giving her 14 days to respond I am however not sure what to put on the N1 claim form when that point is reached any advice about wording would be appreciated ie Accordingly the claiment claims etc.... Obviously I can't give out too much information in this thread Thank you

Should we contact trading standards or ombudsman first before stating we are prepared to take them to court? Not being an expert in this sort of thing we are not sure about what action to take Thanks

Received an email today explaining how our £784.19 insurance payment is broke down and how the refund is worked out Does anyone have any knowledge to inform us if this is correct? The charges are calculated as follows: Your insurance ran with us from 15/10/2011 - 28/11/2011 (should be 25/11/11) As any month or part month is taken into consideration, this period is considered to be 2 months on cover. After 2 months on cover, your insurers retain 40% of your entire annual premium. Your premium to your insurers was £502.44. £502.44 – 40% = £301.46. We also have a standard administration charge of £25 for cancellations. £301.46 - £25 = £276.46. All that you have been charged for is the time that you had on cover, plus our standard £25 cancellation fee. Premium due to insurers: £502.44 Arrangement fee: £147.80 Breakdown cover: £49.95 Excess protection: £40.00 Legal cover: £24.00 Personal Accident: £20.00 Total: £784.19

A & A Group Ltd. Just had an automated reply which states they will reply in due course I could ring them (again) if I wish Sigh

We have since got new insurance however our problem now is how do we challenge the excessive charging The refund will take 30 days for them to process which we feel is too long I changed my insurance company a few weeks ago when I changed my car as it was a better deal even with the charges and received my refund within 3 days and very small usage charges were applied This company, don't know if I can name them take a different approach when it comes to refunding money

My partner took out comprehensive insurance, she paid for in full for a year via the telephone on 17th October 2011 which was also the start date. The insurance company then wrote to her and informed her that she will not be covered after 25th November 2011 and advised her to get cover elsewhere, it appears an endorsement which was disclosed verbally was not considered until after. Today 2/12/11 she telephoned the company and asked when she would receive her refund and for the amount value to be returned. The insurance cost initially was £784 and the refund she would be eligable for would be £376 that means the month insurance she enjoyed has cost her £408 Does this seem correct? it seems awfully excessive to us and how do we go about challenging this? The operator on the telephone was very curt when asked for a breakdown, when it was suggested we take it up with trading standards the operator said "go ahead then if you want" he also said we would have to wait 30 days for a refund from today.

I am a landlord, I had a property fully refurbished in 2008 which included a new boiler. The boiler make chosen was a Ferolli because they had a reasonable rating and had a 5 year warranty Soon after installation the boiler stopped working and the Ferolli engineer came out to repair it, this has happened about 5 times since. About 12 months ago I spoke with Ferolli and they said verbally that the boiler will be replaced if it goes again which it did 5 weeks ago this time they replaced the circuit board and said as I not shown them the log book they would charge me a callout and repair fee. I have never seen this log book nor have Ferolli requested to see one prior to this The boiler has broke down yet again and now Ferolli say they will not repair it at all, the man I spoke with who said the boiler would be changed has since been moved to another department and they refuse me to speak to him. I have an annual gas check on the boiler as is required by law and this is up to date Who have I recourse with, Ferolli or the company who refurbished the property which included installing the boiler? The refurbishment was carried out because initially there was a fire at the property, I have contacted the insurance company who certified the work but they say it is nothing to do with them and refuse to discuss it with me Everybody is blaming everybody else which doesn't help me, I gave my tenant 2 weeks free rent because she had to wait 2 weeks for the last engineer to replace the circuit board and now it has broke again.

Thanks for the replies Shall I just refuse to pay the charge and wait to see if they take it further? Obviously if they do take this further I will have to be prepared for court action, judging by the performance of the person I spoke to today it seems likely they will take this further. I have never witnessed anyone flare up the way she did when I challenged her over the charge At one point I calmly asked her why was she arguing with me and she snapped back "I'm not arguing" I said "yes you are, you are not letting me finish...." "No I'm not" she said - enough said there! people eh!

It is accepted that this gate is used by both companies being the only access to the parking and delivery yard. I will need to check the lease however, prior to the electronic gate being installed we had a padlock and chain with both companies holding keys the arrangement being last out locked up. When the lease was drawn up there was no electronic gate in place No callout fee was ever mentioned I have since received a key fob about two days after the incident

I have an unusual situation I hope somebody can help me with. I was working a bit later than usual at work, my car was parked in the car park we share with our neighbours (an enclosed yard) who also happen to be our landlords. Two months ago our landlords for security reasons had an electronic gate installed at the entrance and handed out remote key fobs to the users myself incuded, they also gave out the key combination for a wall mounted keypad as a secondary measure. Within the week the key fob stopped operating and was returned to the landlords until the gate remote sensor was mended. I was still able to open and close the gates for access using the mounted keypad. Then two weeks ago my neighbour/landlord popped his head in my office and said he was leaving and had I got a key, I said I don't have a key, however I can let myself out using the keypad as I know the combination. When I left work I keyed in the access code but it wouldn't operate the gates, I tried several combinations but to no avail. I telephoned our neighbours head office who fortunately were working late and managed to get them to contact an employee who had a working key fob, she seemed sympathetic and joked about it. Eventually after waiting for an hour somebody came and let me out. Today I have received an invoice for £75.00 Emergency Callout Fee from the landlords. I challenged them nicely stating that it was not my fault that their gate was faulty to which I was subjected to verbal abuse and told they will take us to court if we don't pay up. She also added anything else I need to say then say it to our solicitors then put the phone down on me. Am I really at fault here? and if not how do I challenge them?

Thanks for the reply Bernie My son is looking for the notice at present, he has put it in a safe place he says?? He does however recollect that they got the wrong colour of car on the notice, I don't see if this would have any bearing on things as it is only a minor error. What do you think?