Landlord has left us without a washing machine for over three weeks, can we claim compensation?

[Olbag]

Myself and three other students currently occupy a privately rented property in Southwark, London. The flat is pretty run down and we seem to have been stuck with a landlord who doesn't want to shell out any money despite the fact that we are paying £145 a week each!

 

As soon as we moved in we noticed the washing machine door was bent and didn't catch properly, so we immediately informed the lettings agency who informed the landlord on or behalf that it was damaged, however he declined to have it looked at or repaired. After one initial breakdown that I managed to repair it packed up for good 02/10/15, so I immediately got onto the lettings agency again who informed the landlord that day that the washing machine had totally broken and there was nothing we could do about it.

 

 

A couple of days later, instead of taking our word for it he sent a repairman round who took one look at it and said it was beyond repair and would have to be replaced, which was communicated to the lettings agency that day. After several more days we had heard nothing more on the situation and with mounting piles of washing I again contacted the lettings agency who said that the landlord was ordering the white goods (the engineer also recommended replacing the freezer) that evening - 12/10/15.

 

 

After hearing no word from the company for three or four days I emailed them again, to which they replied that they would chase up the landlord. Now finally after weeks of pestering the landlord has finally ordered the goods to be delivered this Sunday (25/10/15).

 

 

We have gone over three weeks without a washing machine simply because the landlord was too lazy to sort out a replacement despite being given several reminders, and we have had to pick up the cost of that. The house was furnished with white goods as part of our tenancy agreement and it is the landlord's responsibility for their maintenance, would we be entitled to ask for compensation? As essentially the landlord has failed to provide a service that we have been paying a huge amount of money for.

 

All help would be appreciated,

 

Cheers!

Edited October 21, 2015 by citizenB

[obiter dictum]

Was the flat let as "Furnished" in the tenancy agreement??

 

Sorry i should read your post better

[Olbag]

Sorry its very wordy, just trying to explain as best I could. Yes it was rented as furnished

[obiter dictum]

Yes three weeks without the machine is not on but not unreasonable as the time span is not excessive to replace to warrant any sort of redress

 

You could ask him to make a donation say to the phone bill or sky for the cost of using the launderette as a good will gesture

[SabreSheep]

Yes three weeks without the machine is not on but not unreasonable as the time span is not excessive to replace to warrant any sort of redress

 

You could ask him to make a donation say to the phone bill or sky for the cost of using the launderette as a good will gesture

 

 

I suspect you would also be issued with a section 21 very quickly......

[obiter dictum]

I suspect you would also be issued with a section 21 very quickly......

 

Yep my thinking exactly

[Olbag]

I suspect you would also be issued with a section 21 very quickly......

 

Would be interesting to see how that stood up in court though. Hardly appropriate to attempt to evict someone for complaining about the pathetic excuse of a landlord we have.

[obiter dictum]

No need for court

 

Just the required 2 months notice to vacate with an assued tenancy is all that is required for a lanlord to get back his property

 

It allows a tenant to be evicted from the property without the landlord having to give a reason for doing so.

[SabreSheep]

In this case OD is correct.

 

A Section 21 binds the judges hands as long as notice is properly issued and enforced.

 

I only mentioned this to you in order to be pragmatic. Is what the LL doing fair, nope

[mariner51]

3 students wanting to do their own laundry? There's a novelty!