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Estate agents and landlords giving no quarter...

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  • Estate agents and landlords giving no quarter...

    Hello! Thought I might put the feelers out here and see if anyone has been in/witnessed a similar situation in the past and could offer some advice.

    Me and my wife started a tenancy back in September 2015. When we went for the viewing if was determined the garden (one of the main draws of the property) would be renovated as it was in a pretty severe state of disrepair - with rotten decking, a collapsing brickwork "water feature", dirty pond and overgrown greenery - either before we moved in, or very shortly after.

    It was on this good faith we signed the tenancy agreement on the 17th September, again being told (to us as well my wife's parents - our guarantors) that the garden will be ready for the last spell of half decent weather . We we're then delayed moving in for 4 days as they couldn't arrange a cleaner to prepare the property and since then the delays have just become more numerous and frustrating.

    When the weather turned cold we found it impossible to spend any time on the ground floor as, no matter how high or how long we had the heating on, it was just too cold to bear. When we raised this concern during our first inspection in December, along with a reminder that the garden was still in an unusable and unsafe condition, we we're essentially dismissed with "well, underfloor heating isn't really all that effective anyway". Fast forward to February and still unable to use the garden and ground floor and we decide to send a letter direct to the landlord (and the lettings agents) raising these concerns, along with the revelation that all the hardwired fire alarms are out of their service life (expired 2013) or completely broken. We received the token apologetic response from the agency (nothing from the landlord), as well as confirmation that a gas engineer is being arranged to look at the heating situation and the landlord is looking at getting quotes for the garden works. It turned out the pump that supplies the water flow to the underfloor heating (the only source on the ground floor) had in fact failed and in the words of the engineer himself was "too bloody hot to even touch".... Considering the lack of working fire alarms this was obviously not great news to us.

    The pump was eventually replaced at the end of February, by which point the worst of the cold weather had passed anyways, but the garden and fire alarms had still not been touched. Repeated reminders we're sent, both in-between all this and after, only to be met with typical "sorry, we are awaiting confirmation from the landlord" or "The landlord are waiting for another quote" responses (seriously, we have a pile of emails an inch thick of this).

    This saga continued all the way through to the spring, not at all contributing to the stress we we're already facing considering we got married on the 2nd April. Throughout all this we continued to pay the full amount of rent every month, though never had full use of the property, so we took a slightly harder stance and demanded a date for garden work to commence and some form of compensation. This was flatly refused at first, but eventually the landlord agreed a £300 "good will gesture", promised the garden would be ready for the summer and would look into getting the fire alarms replaced.

    After another delay in getting an acceptable quote the gardeners did eventually turn up. They made a start by clearing as much as they could in one morning, left the garden looking like a building site, and a pile of rotten decking in one of our car parking spaces and subsequently disappeared for over a week. Yet more emails we're sent, yet more apologies were made, and yet again we were left with a garden we couldn't use. The gardeners turned up for round 2 shortly after, cleared most of the rubbish into a skip (that they parked in that parking space they took up previously), broke a plug into one of the kitchen sockets, made a start on the patio then left... For another 2 weeks (leaving the skip, of course). During this time the contractor arranged by the landlord to remedy the fire alarm situation cancelled DURING their arranged time-slot 3 times (twice of which someone had to take time off work to cover).

    For us this was pretty much all we could stand, especially considering we were still paying the full rental amount, so 3 weeks ago we offered the landlord a quick and easy solution to simply end the tenancy early (considering we pay a month in advance it would be at 10 months, rather than 12). The agency passed this onto landlord, but not before reminding us of our "contractual obligations" (seemingly forgetting their own...) and suggesting they had full right to decline our request.

    After having to send more emails to chase up a response they eventually came back with conditions they would be happy with - continue to pay rent up till new tenants are found, allow them access for viewings etc, all of which we were happy to do. What we did not agree with was the condition that WE pay all fee's for the relisting of the property and associated costs. Considering how patient we had been for the past 9 months, and this was something they would surely have to do in a months time anyway, this seemed like a colossal insult. We offered a reply agreeing to all terms bar that one and was again insulted to receive a very short, very disingenuous reply stating only "the landlord does not agree with your terms and as such the date for the end of your tenancy remains 16th September 2016", with the added gem of "We will contact you nearer the time regarding inventory check" - insinuating no further communication will be taking place until then?? Considering the gardeners have not shown up since we put this motion into action, and the fire alarms are still not working, we can only assume they also intend no further work will take place until then too??

    Now the question is, do we flat out refuse to continue to pay, wait for them to take us to court and counter-claim (on safety grounds)? Or do we contact environmental health and the housing ombudsman and give them as much trouble as they have given us?

    Thanks in advance!
    Tags: None

  • #2
    Re: Estate agents and landlords giving no quarter...

    You seem to have the Landlord from Hell.

    Is the property 'managed' by the agent or do they simply handle the rent collection and pass on messages from you about problems to the Landlord? If it's 'managed' then you may have a complaint against the agent which you can take to The Property Ombudsman which has a Code of Practice on how they're supposed to perform.

    You're leaving anyway so you've no need to walk on eggshells in an effort to maintain goodwill - because there isn't any. If you were staying then you might want to fake co-operation, but in this situation there's no need.

    Faulty fire alarms are a health and safety issue. Contact your Local Authority Environmental team. Let them make your Landlord's life miserable since they've made yours miserable.

    You say you took the property on the understanding that the garden would be fixed up. That could/should have been written into the letting agreement as a condition. If it wasn't then there may be some difficulty in proving that was agreed if you went down the court route. I'm also not sure how you would quantify the claim for your loss of enjoyment.

    Check the tenancy agreement to see what it says about you (as tenant) maintaining the garden. An AST typically says you must leave it in the same condition as you found it, so that'll be easy!

    Have you paid a deposit and was it registered in a Government backed scheme?

    Assuming you paid a deposit of one month's rent (did you?) I'd be inclined not to pay the last month. The LL would struggle to take you to court since they may be holding the equivalent of a month's rent as the deposit so they've not made a loss (if you follow me).

    Check the terms of your AST since some say the deposit cannot be used for rent only to offset dilapidations/breakages.

    You will be provoking a dispute at the end of tenancy stage when the deposit would be under discussion. Maybe that's a good time to have a tit-for-tat balance sheet drawn up.

    Congratulations on your recent marriage

    Di
    Last edited by Diana M; 12th July 2016, 21:18:PM. Reason: typo

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Estate agents and landlords giving no quarter...

      Hi Di,

      Cheers for the response. Yes I believe the property is managed by the agency (they have regularly referred to the landlord as "our client"), which is partly why this has all dragged on so long - we didn't want to assume the worst in someone and direct blame straight to the landlord, we thought the agency instead was just taking their time to pass on our concerns and get stuff in action, but speaking to the gardeners one of the rare times they were here revealed that the landlords were just as bad - they had to email, call and leave several voicemail's before getting an answer over paving slab choice.

      The fire safety regulation is certainly pretty black and white - why they want risk us taking it to the environmental agency, and them getting a hefty fine, rather than come to an amicable agreement is one of the biggest question marks for us.

      There isn't any written agreement or proof prior to us signing the tenancy agreement as per the garden, but as I say we have a small mountain of emails from them apologising and accepting responsibility regarding the condition and lack of use. It got so bad a few months ago with the fence being loose that our neighbour (a gardener/landscaper) literally resorted to replacing a fence post on our side because the noise it was making whenever the wind kicked up! The inventory itself even makes mention of the garden being overgrown and the decking being "slippery" and "discoloured". The same inventory that has all the fire alarms listed as "untested" or "dismantled". They even made a point of saying the inventory was done before the property was cleaned, so we "wouldn't have to worry about cleaning up much before you leave"...

      We indeed did pay 1 months rent upfront as the deposit, through the DPS, we haven't left a mark on the place so we're not too concerned about that (luckily, it's going in the honeymoon pot!).

      It's just so bizarre, it's almost like they wan't to push us as far as they can, make us want to leave, then pull any trick they can to delay it and keep us. It's got to the point that we feel like prisoners almost.

      And cheers! Just a shame we've had to deal with this around it!

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Estate agents and landlords giving no quarter...

        Have you checked if your deposit has been protected and has all the prescribed information been sent to you?

        You can do that here: http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_ad...eposit_schemes

        Di

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Estate agents and landlords giving no quarter...

          Regarding quantifying for loss of amenity or enjoyment (poking my nose in here:behindsofa could it not be done by comparing the rental costs of a similar properties with and without a garden? The difference would equate to the value of the loss of amenity.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Estate agents and landlords giving no quarter...

            Just to update this for anyone else in the future who ends up in a similarly unfortunate position!

            Funny what a quick call to the local environmental health department and the TPO (property Ombudsman) can do - We had a surprising email from the letting agent yesterday, with no explanation as to why the change of stance, saying the landlord has agreed to release us from our tenancy this month, as we originally requested, with no extra requirements, clauses or charges.

            Either they know we can end up costing them a hell of a lot more money and time, or they've been told the place isn't even suitable to be let considering the fire alarm issues?

            Anyways, victory!

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Estate agents and landlords giving no quarter...

              Result!

              That's what we like to hear on this forum

              Enjoy your new home and make sure that you get any conditions you agree with the letting agent put in writing - preferably included in the tenancy agreement.

              Di

              Comment

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