New tenant complains that his property has no heating with issues with the shower and drains

This is a question to the blog clinic from Christopher who is a tenant in England.

I moved into a 2 bed flat rented through an agency a month ago. It took 6 days to get hot water and a five minute shower leaves the bath half full as the drains don’t empty as they should. The bath has a crack in the bottom. There has been no heating at all to date.

I have reported all the faults and sent emails. Is there anything more I can do, or should I just suck it up and wait?

Answer

This sort of thing is why the government is providing, in the Renters Rights Bill, for:

• The abolition of fixed terms so tenants who rent properties which turn out to be substandard, can leave after giving two months’ notice, and
• A landlord redress scheme where tenants can complain to an Ombudsman who has the power to deal with tenant complaints and make legally binding orders e.g. for compensation.

There are currently letting agent redress schemes, but it is not actually the letting agents who are liable for the poor condition of the property, it is the landlord. So they may not be much help.

At the moment, technically, tenants have rights, but these can only really be enforced through the courts. Most tenants will not want to do this being unfamiliar with court procedure.  Plus the landlord may respond by moving to evict the tenant under the no-fault section 21 procedure.

Once the Renters Rights Bill has been made law though, section 21 will be abolished, so landlords will no longer be able to do this.

It may be best, therefore, to wait until the Renters Rights Bill is made law and then, once the landlord redress scheme has been set up (which hopefully will not take too long), submit your complaint.

On a more practical note, I understand that there are liquids you can buy which will unblock drains, which may at least resolve the drain problem.