TDS or County Court

[cmg2000]

Hi,

 

Any help would be appreciated thank you!

 

Story - we moved in to 4 bed house 2 adults and 4 children in July 2007.

 

The Landlord has a history of doing repairs themselves, often to a poor standard and requiring further repair. End of Jan 2010 the silicone kept breaking down in the bathroon which was very basic anyway and by their own admission neede replacing but it was usable.

 

Plumber comes week later to do repair and as he pulls off the remaining silicone a large gap appears and he said that it wasn't worth repairing. The bath was too far away from the wall and it needed replacing ASAP. He does a quote for either repositioning the bath or a new suite and we wait................

 

A few weeks pass of us only being able to bath in 6 inches of water as this is the only bathroon and we ask whats going on. Waiting for a reply say the LA. We wait...............

 

We get wind from a neighbour that financially the Lanlords are not so good financially and so we decide to be patient.

 

A few weeks later we push again and apprently the quote has been lost. They ask the same plumber to come. He was busy and couldn't get to us for 10 days. He does another quote. Inspection comes we ask them to get it sorted. The bathroom is disgusting. We have pics to prove.

 

After I fall out of bath (I have MS and showers are safer, but unusable here) we push hard and lo and behold we get notice to terminate on the 21st May to be out by 31st August.

 

At final check out, despite professionals coming in and receipts held for Oven, house, carpets, hedges and a professional weed killer - we even painted the front bedroom! They want all of our deposit as according to them the clean is not satisfactory. There is one stain on a bedroom carpet, we were 6 people there for 3 yrs!! We've obviously told them where to go and that TDS it is if they don't see sense. Is it worth going to County Court for a claim for costs due to bathroom? Will TDS loof favourably on us as all receipts are present with email correspondance and pics after clean make the place look A1 because it was. At check out, the owners mother even had the cheek to say that they would replace the bathroom now we were out. I believe they want our deposit for the bathroom.

 

What doyou think?

 

Sorry its long.........

 

Thanks

 

CMG2000

[Planner]

TDS for the deposit issue in the first instance.

 

In terms of claiming in County Court for 'Costs', what 'Costs' are you refering to?

 

Did you have any other means of washing i.e. a seperate shower?

[cmg2000]

The compensation would be for not having full use of the bathroom for the last 6 months of the Tenancy. This was the only bathroom and the shower was 'over bath' and so also unusable. We could only bath in 6 inches of water. Has anybody had a successful court claim for unsanitary bathrooms??

 

Also, if we have proof of a professional clean at check out, can the owners just decide it's 'not to their standards' ?

 

Thanks

 

Claire

[MrShed]

In my experience, a claim for compensation due to disrepair AFTER the tenancy has ended will almost always fail.

 

the correct time to do this would have been during the tenancy.

 

As such, I would proceed with TDS.

[xoAmyox]

Hi Mr Shed,

 

I'm not trying to impose in this thread, but can I ask why cases for disrepair pursued after a tenancy has ended have a tendency to fail?

 

Good to see you back btw

Amy

[cmg2000]

I'm sure thats the case but its very unfair and the situation needs to be reviewed. While a tenant you are worried about pushing in case you are given notice which is exactly what happened to us, and a claim after leaving won't work either you say. Why?

 

I've seen numerous references on this site advising not to hold back part of the rent despite the fact you probably should do as the LL may terminate. What justice does a tenant have??

 

The principal part of this to me is huge. My four children lived like this because the LL strung us along and had us believing it would be sorted. Lo and behold, a little pushing from us and we're out!!!

[MrShed]

Oh for goodness sake - just wrote out a massive response, then the forums crash.

 

Look - simple answer is because there are remedies to perform during the tenancy to enforce the resolution of disrepair issues - such as getting the local authority involved, environmental health, or simply getting the work done yourself and deducted from the rent. Or, moving into a hotel and billing the landlord (a more extreme thing methinks).

 

If these were not performed during the tenancy, then I consider it unlikely that a court would uphold any punitive damage portion of a claim - mainly for the reason that the tenant could have, in one way or another, mitigated the issue by fixing it themselves. In particular in a situation such as this, I think a court (as do I, quite frankly) would struggle to understand why a family with four children would allow such a situation to continue for 6 months. If the situation was so bad (which I can quite understand it was) I would have allowed it to last PERHAPS 7 days, as a maximum. If the landlord wanted to evict for resolving the issue, I couldnt care less - why would I want to live in such bad conditions?

 

Clearly, retrospectively, these cannot be performed.

 

As for the other points above:

- Review what exactly? The only possible resolution to this scenario as I see it is to make it harder to evict, but it is this relative "liquid" rental market that allows a high number of properties to be on the market and hence keeping rent down. Swings and roundabouts. Tenants lose some security of tenure, but benefit from lower rents and a greater choice.

- It is a bad idea to withhold rent from a selfish (tenant) perspective for one big reason - it leaves the door wide open to rapid eviction. However, moreover, as the tenant is not a court, it is completely inappropriate for a tenant to withhold anything other than either ACTUAL and DEMONSTRABLE financial loss (e.g. cost of fixing a repair), or a compensation amount mutually agreed with a landlord. This is because the tenant cannot unilaterally decide what amount is appropriate in terms of compensating a NON financial loss.