Renting nightmare

[rimarj]

Hello,

Hopefully someone can provide some solid advice!

 

We agreed and signed for a property after viewing on the agreement from the management agent that various jobs would be completed prior to our official move in date.

Upon picking up the keys we went to check the property again to ensure these had been done - none of the jobs had been other than cutting the grass.

 

Upon further examination it also turned out that:

- There were no electrics

- There was no hot water

- No heating

- No smoke alarms

- No CO2 alarms

- Property not cleaned as agreed (to the point there are dead insects lying around and there was remains of food in cupboards)

- Some furniture has been left over when renting on unfurnished basis

- One rear external door to the property does not lock and therefore we cannot appropriately secure the property

- Some rooms have curtain rails, others do not and are just full of holes

- There are patches of paint worn off (after agreeing someone would repaint)

 

We have two very young children (1 and a half and almost 3) with us and we were subsequently unable to move into the property on the agreed date due to the issues.

 

We contacted the letting agent and were told the landlord was arranging the electrics to be sorted and the boiler - no one showed up to perform the work until 4 days later, meaning we could finally move in on the 5th day after our tenancy start date. There was not and still has not been any mentioned of any other works other than the CO2 and smoke alarms have now been fitted.

 

As things like CO2 alarms and smoke alarms are a legal requirement for landlords to provide, would this mean there is a breach of contract or just that the landlord was breaking the law without initially putting them in?

 

We paid for a van on the initial move in date for a for the weekend - as we were physically unable to move into the property due to the issues stated, are we within our rights to claim this cost back?

 

As the property was not cleaned as agreed, we paid to have a cleaner come round. Can this cost be claimed back?

 

Are we within our rights to claim for the days of rent paid where the property was uninhabitable due to these issues?

 

It's been such a stressful situation and we are VERY lucky that we had a little bit of overlap in our current tenancy otherwise we would have been homeless or extremely cold for almost a week!

[sgtbush]

In answer to all your questions is yes you can.

Seek legal advice

[rimarj]

Thanks. Will it work out expensive to do this?

I've never had to officially seek legal advice for anything..

 

Do you think it's first worth putting all these in an official letter including a full breakdown of costs, sending to tracked to the management company for the attention of the landlord? Or just post to the landlord directly?

[martin2006]

Hi Rimarj,

While i am no expert in this area i can offer the following:

 

Small claims court should be your last resort and not the first step. In any case you would have to issue the landlord with a request fir the amount you intend to claim followed by a letter before action and then issue a claim form to comply with pre action protocol, the courts do not like when people just jump straight into claiming without first trying some sort of resolution process.

 

Next you must consider this, is your tenancy between you and the landlord or the agent?

You will no doubt be on a short term agreement if maybe 6 or 12 months. If you were to issue a claim then your landlord is highly unlikely to agree to let you stay beyond this and you and your 2 very young children will soon be house hunting again with agency fees and deposits to find etc and also possibly an ongoing court case, so think hard about the bigger picture.

 

Push the agent for organising the works to be done as quickly as possible and hooefully all of the firmer will not be necessary, you should even be able to negotiate the first few days rent as a discount of next months rent.

 

Tread carefully and dont just jump in two feet first!!

[45002]

Hello,

Hopefully someone can provide some solid advice!

 

See post #7 [/url]

 

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=73230848

[rimarj]

Hi Martin,

 

This is a battle im also fighting. I think my main concern was only to find out if they were in breach of contract - would this give me more reasonable grounds to just recover the initial costs incurred e.g. van rental, cleaning and days of rent missed, as you are exactly right regarding the upheaval after just finishing one big move.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

Relating to the contract, i just looked and it is between us and the landlord - but is being managed by a letting agency. Apparently the request was they deal with all communications and act as the middle men..

[rimarj]

See post #7 [/url]

 

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=73230848

 

Yep i realise.

Also trying to get a varied view of opinions / best options.

 

"Being taken for a ride" doesn't really help in this already stressful time.

Thanks for the input.