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Hi guys - I am actually not new here, but my old user name etc. just seemed to disappear!
Anyway. Hope this isn't too long or complicated. Sorry for going on & on, but it is very important to me to know where I stand.
We have been privately renting a house (me, wife, kids) for over 20 years, paying every month without fail. There was no tenancy agreement & the "landlord" said "treat the house as your own". The entire house has the wood laminate flooring througout.
The landlord is foreign & has been sent to prison a couple of time for a stolen car ring he was involved in, so we used to get visits from the police asking where he was (I have no idea where he lives).
The mortgage of the house is apparently in his sister's name, not his.
Whenever something went wrong with the house, I usually got someone to fix it & paid for it.
He has never been involved with checking everything is okay, and never visits.
We have, for several years, had issues with the boiler. The landlord did start the British Gas Home Care thing, but when the boiler went wrong again a few years ago, I phoned them up to get an engineer out. The landlord had stopped paying for the Home Care, so I started it myself. Every winter, the boiler used to stop working for a few days, no hot water, no central heating, so I got British Gas to come out & repair it. Over & over again (£60 excess each time).
The spare room toilet started leaking into the garage roof, causing the plasterboard ceiling to bend. I paid to get that fixed.
The shower stopped working - I paid for a new shower & paid for a plumber to fix it in.
The small bathroom hot tap stayed on pouring out hot water into the sink, so I got an emergency plumber to fix that, paying him.
The wiring behind the washing machine is held together but plastic tape & is just lying on the floor.
The pipe from the washing machine to the back garden drain occasionally gets frozen in subzero temperatures, causing the "overflow" pipe to leak into the house by the wiring cross the floor.
3 of the 5 radiators on our ground floor do not work, so we had to buy a few oil filled radiators to get some warmth downstairs.
No carbon monoxide detectors anywhere in the house.
The en-suite bathroom in the spare room bath does not run. We paid for a plumber to fix it and paid for that. It does not run again any more.
When the extension was done on our house, the entire front & back gardens were piled up with rubble & waster material. It took all of it to the tip. It took ages for the grass to grow back.
The middle bedroom's window hinges failed, so I paid for a person to sort them out. A lot of the other window locks/handles are really difficult to close/open and you have to use quite a lot of force to close/open them.
No electrical inspections have been done in the 20 years we have been here.
The downstairs toilet, middle bathroom & top bathroom all have draughts coming through from the outside.
We have paid for 2 entire lengths of side fencing & posts due to wind.
My elderly mum was at the top of the house, and was walking downstairs. The hand rail was obviously not secured properly, and it gave way. She fell down the stairs, hurting her back. I did not put the hand rail (heavy wood) back on.
My wife has tripped on the flooring edge from the spare room to the stairs, hurting her knee & ankle a couple of times.
The smoke alarms that were installed never worked properly & went off at all times of night & day. I disconnected them.
Some of the electrical sockets on the wall were just handing on by wires, not attached properly. One or two are still like that.
Okay - sorry about all of the above (there is more but I thought I'd just point out what came to my mind).
After the last boiler failure in November, I did not pay the rent for that month, thinking that this should have been sorted out years ago, but wasn't.
A couple of weeks ago, a note was put through the door saying that the landlord was going to retire & wanted him to be the "agent". He is constantly phoning my wife (who I told to ignore the calls) leaving messages saying (not written) that he is giving us 2 months notice to leave.
We are currently looking around to rent a place with a "proper" landlord. What should I do, what can I do, what shouldn't I do?
Any advice will be gratefully received. Thank you so much for sticking through this war & peace type topic!
Ian
Anyway. Hope this isn't too long or complicated. Sorry for going on & on, but it is very important to me to know where I stand.
We have been privately renting a house (me, wife, kids) for over 20 years, paying every month without fail. There was no tenancy agreement & the "landlord" said "treat the house as your own". The entire house has the wood laminate flooring througout.
The landlord is foreign & has been sent to prison a couple of time for a stolen car ring he was involved in, so we used to get visits from the police asking where he was (I have no idea where he lives).
The mortgage of the house is apparently in his sister's name, not his.
Whenever something went wrong with the house, I usually got someone to fix it & paid for it.
He has never been involved with checking everything is okay, and never visits.
We have, for several years, had issues with the boiler. The landlord did start the British Gas Home Care thing, but when the boiler went wrong again a few years ago, I phoned them up to get an engineer out. The landlord had stopped paying for the Home Care, so I started it myself. Every winter, the boiler used to stop working for a few days, no hot water, no central heating, so I got British Gas to come out & repair it. Over & over again (£60 excess each time).
The spare room toilet started leaking into the garage roof, causing the plasterboard ceiling to bend. I paid to get that fixed.
The shower stopped working - I paid for a new shower & paid for a plumber to fix it in.
The small bathroom hot tap stayed on pouring out hot water into the sink, so I got an emergency plumber to fix that, paying him.
The wiring behind the washing machine is held together but plastic tape & is just lying on the floor.
The pipe from the washing machine to the back garden drain occasionally gets frozen in subzero temperatures, causing the "overflow" pipe to leak into the house by the wiring cross the floor.
3 of the 5 radiators on our ground floor do not work, so we had to buy a few oil filled radiators to get some warmth downstairs.
No carbon monoxide detectors anywhere in the house.
The en-suite bathroom in the spare room bath does not run. We paid for a plumber to fix it and paid for that. It does not run again any more.
When the extension was done on our house, the entire front & back gardens were piled up with rubble & waster material. It took all of it to the tip. It took ages for the grass to grow back.
The middle bedroom's window hinges failed, so I paid for a person to sort them out. A lot of the other window locks/handles are really difficult to close/open and you have to use quite a lot of force to close/open them.
No electrical inspections have been done in the 20 years we have been here.
The downstairs toilet, middle bathroom & top bathroom all have draughts coming through from the outside.
We have paid for 2 entire lengths of side fencing & posts due to wind.
My elderly mum was at the top of the house, and was walking downstairs. The hand rail was obviously not secured properly, and it gave way. She fell down the stairs, hurting her back. I did not put the hand rail (heavy wood) back on.
My wife has tripped on the flooring edge from the spare room to the stairs, hurting her knee & ankle a couple of times.
The smoke alarms that were installed never worked properly & went off at all times of night & day. I disconnected them.
Some of the electrical sockets on the wall were just handing on by wires, not attached properly. One or two are still like that.
Okay - sorry about all of the above (there is more but I thought I'd just point out what came to my mind).
After the last boiler failure in November, I did not pay the rent for that month, thinking that this should have been sorted out years ago, but wasn't.
A couple of weeks ago, a note was put through the door saying that the landlord was going to retire & wanted him to be the "agent". He is constantly phoning my wife (who I told to ignore the calls) leaving messages saying (not written) that he is giving us 2 months notice to leave.
We are currently looking around to rent a place with a "proper" landlord. What should I do, what can I do, what shouldn't I do?
Any advice will be gratefully received. Thank you so much for sticking through this war & peace type topic!
Ian
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