Here is a question to the blog clinic from Laura who is a tenant
I rent from a private landlord. I’ve lived here for 5 years and the whole time the heating and hot water system hasn’t been working properly.
I have either had everything running so my house is like a sauna (even in the summer) but the shower water is still luke warm or I have nothing on so not even hot water in the taps. My energy bills are sky high.
I have emailed my landlord about this issue numerous times over the past 5 years. He either ignores the emails, sends one of his unqualified mates round to take a look at it and fob me off or he just drops in (without giving prior notice) to “fix” the problem.
I last emailed my landlord about this in May and since he didn’t reply I arranged for a fully qualified plumber and electrician to come round and sort out the problem once and for all.
The bill came to £997 so I paid it and emailed my landlord the invoice telling him I would deduct it from the rent. He is now threatening legal action and says the rent is still due.
We had a tenancy agreement when I first moved in but that expired in 2010 and another has not been drawn up since.
What do I do?
Answer
On the tenancy issue, you will have a periodic tenancy which will have started the day after the fixed term of your intiail tenancy ended.
You can read about periodic tenancies here.
The problem with the repairs claim
As regards the repairs, tenants are entitled to deduct this sort of thing from the rent, but unfortunately you have not followed the proper procedure.
This is to get three estimates first, send them to the landlord and then if he does not do the work, get it done yourself using the cheapest estimate. It is explained in more detail here.
One of the problems with this situation is that as a periodic tenant you have very little security of tenure. So if your landlord decides to get rid of you, he can do so quite easily using section 21. I assume that you do not want to move, or you would not have got the repair work done.
If you want to be aggressive about it you can say to the landlord that if he brings proceedings against you for unpaid rent, you will counterclaim for damages for his breach of his statutory repairing obligations. You could add a claim for harassment for entering the property without giving you proper notice too.
However as you did not follow the proper procedure before getting the repair work done, I cannot guarantee that the Judge would find that you are entitled to the £997. It is a shame that you did not do a bit more research before you got the work done.
Saving it up until later
As your landlord can threaten to evict you under section 21, you may want to ‘save up’ any action (for example deductions from the rent) until you decide to leave – at which time a threat to evict will not be a problem for you.
If you do this, note that if there is any dispute over deductions from your deposit, you should ask for this to go to Court rather than adjudication, as the adjudicators are not authorised to consider deductions of this kind, and will find for the landlord on the basis of the unpaid rent.
Alternatively, you could withhold sufficient to offset against the deposit too (you are not supposed to do this, but there is not a lot your landlord can do about it if you do).
There is a ‘horror story’ on my Landlord Law site here, by the way, which perhaps you should read.
I would also calculate the excess cost of bills too and lump that in there.
Firstly can you prove the issue was disrepair not a design problem? (Unless you can prove that the heated worked correctly at some point, I don’t see how a case for disrepair can be made.)
£997 sounds a lot more then I would expect to fit a fault on a thermostat therefore I am expecting a design problem.
Be very careful, as if I got a reference for you laying out the facts like you have done so, I would decide not to rent to you, you can assume that any reference from your landlords would be even more off putting. A lot of other landlords would take the same view as me.
I view any tenant that tries to make a repair claim ageist a landlord for a none emergency repair outside of the fixed term as being a trouble maker. Ben will not agree with me on this, but he is no longer a landlord, so will not be judging you on your reference.
I agree with you Tessa, and normally on the correct procedure. But if this tenant can prove that she had been raising issues for years, and did not just rush off and do the repairs after giving the Landlord only a few days to sort it out.
And while I agree on the perfect way to handle it if the tenant can show that the £997 was a reasonable figure and would have stood up against two other quotes (as opposed to standing out) I think the tenant may have a stronger case.
Other thing to do by sound of this Landlord is check Tenancy deposit Protection. That could be worth a lot more than £997 to her.
“I view any tenant that tries to make a repair claim against a landlord for a non emergency repair outside of the fixed term as being a trouble maker. ”
Why’s that then Ian? Just cos you can?
a) Because the tenant could have chosen just to move as the can give 1 months notice.
b) Because I don’t wish to rent to anyone that is unable to move if they are unhappy, I don’t want tenants that are trapped or feel that they are trapped.
c) Because I have no way to know what the truth is, but they are enough tenants out there with 100% good references, so why take the risk?
d) Because if the repair is not required by the local housing standards officers, then I know the tenant is just making a fuss about not much. And not being an emergency I would expect the tenant to call in housing standards, if they can’t sort it out with the landlord directly, rather than taking the law into their own hands.
@ Ian
I’d like to say your post surprises, even shocks me, but after dealing for almost 15 years with agernts and about 10 years directly with Landlords on training courses, it doesn’t.
Read the item again Ian – systems not working for 5 years and repeated reports of the problems to the Landlord which have been ignored. And letting himself in unnanounced?
Maybe you should reconsider whose actions are at fault here Ian and who should be on the naughty step!!
The tenant CHOSE not to leave, it is no different to me CHOOSING to go on holiday to a hotel that I have had problems with in the past.
The standards of service from landlords and the state of properties will only improve when the poor landlords find that all their tenants are leaving.
“It is no different to me CHOOSING to go on holiday to a hotel that I have had problems with in the past.”
Oh dear. Of course, you know very well that it is. But like so many landlords, you seem to care not for what home really means. And when so many landlords can happily ignore their repairs – the market is one very poor and dodgy one.
When landlords lack so much empathy and responsibility they will reap what they sow.
Why should a tenant CHOOSE to leave when a Landlord has a SAtatutory repairing obligation – not to mention by the sound of this case, safety.
Almost sounds like a retaliatory eviction doesn’t it Ian, but Landlord off the hook because the tenant gives notice instead of him?
Ian I’m sorry but I agree with I/O and Just saying on this one.
You cannot by any stretching of credibility equate choice in rental accommodation with whether or not to shop in Lidl’s or Waitrose.
Tenants at the moment, in the way the law is designed simply do not have any influence or consumer clout. It’s a seller’s market. Tenants cannot demand better standards by voting with their feet, because of the new army of 20-30 somethings excluded from buying, as evidenced by Generation Rent.
There is always someone else a landlord can sell to.
Choice doesnt come into it. You take what you can get. If rents come down the tenants will be able to make landlords dance to their tune but that isnt the climate. Tenants are merely hostage to fortune…but remember Animal Farm…the pendulum always swings.
I am not not, and never have been an advocate of imbalanced rights either way. What I would like to see is a system that honours the rights, responsibilities, liabilities and interests of both parties.
Under the old 77 Rent Act the landlord was vilified. Under the 88 Act the tenant is vilified.
Ghandi once said he was not interested in winners and losers because all that system did was create feelings of grandeur in the victors and feelings of revenge in the losers.
I get that and am not interested in these polarities.
Landlords have a moral responsibility in providing homes for people to live in. Tenants similarly have a moral responsibility to understand that their fortunes are mutually dependant on the financial health of their housing provider.
The problem with this random, market force driven system is that that everyone is angry at everyone else.
One of the tenets of international socialism is that housing, a basic need should not be left to market forces. I am not a socialist but I do hold that to be simple common sense