Landlord Responsibility

[parapaul]

Asking on behalf of the ex-wife, who I actually feel quite sorry for at the moment.

She's recently moved into a rented house, let by a big estate agent chain. The kitchen was completely refurbed before she moved in, with new cupboards and worktops.

Last night she was getting something out of one of the wall units when it fell off the wall, hitting her in the face and landing on top of her as she fell. She was taken to A&E, had her neck x-rayed due to the pain she had, and a decent sized cut to her top lip had to be glued to close it.

Her face is a real mess now, bruised and swollen, and she's got what is probably worse whiplash than many people have after a car accident. Definitely having to take the next couple of days off work, possibly more depending how things shape up.

Short of going straight to a Claims Direct type of company, what's her best course of action? Should she approach the letting agent? The landlord directly? Citizens Advice? And what should she expect?

Any suggestions gratefully received

[dudleybloke]

take pictures of everything.
her injuries, the damage, the mounting points (from several angles using a ruler as a scale including depth of hole ect.), the fittings/screws (again with a ruler as a scale.
hopefully this will show why it happened and also be invaluable in any legal action. make sure the time and date are correct on the camera too.

[PAULJ5555]

So this is a where theres blame, theres a claim thread.

Question you may need to know the awnser to.

Was the cupboard fitted correctly, eg. manufactures instuctions.

Was the wife misusing the cupboard, eg overloading it, swinging from it and can she "prove" this.

[Hobo]

1st port of call should be letting agent

[V8 Vum]

PAULJ5555 said:

So this is a where theres blame, theres a claim thread.

Question you may need to know the awnser to.

Was the cupboard fitted correctly, eg. manufactures instuctions.

Was the wife misusing the cupboard, eg overloading it, swinging from it and can she "prove" this.

Poppycock! Not relevant at all!
There is no need for the claimant to 'Prove' anything ... but that the event happened itself! If the landlord wishes, he can challenge, but it is up to him to 'prove' cause/unreasonable treatment of the items leading to the event!

[Hooli]

V8 Vum said:

PAULJ5555 said:

So this is a where theres blame, theres a claim thread.

Question you may need to know the awnser to.

Was the cupboard fitted correctly, eg. manufactures instuctions.

Was the wife misusing the cupboard, eg overloading it, swinging from it and can she "prove" this.

Poppycock! Not relevant at all!
There is no need for the claimant to 'Prove' anything ... but that the event happened itself! If the landlord wishes, he can challenge, but it is up to him to 'prove' cause/unreasonable treatment of the items leading to the event!

I'd expect to see evidence of why the cupboard fell down on which to base the complaint. It has to really be either, poorly fitted, poorly fitted fittings or massively overloaded.

O/T - My Missus got cupboards fitted in the garage just before I met her, the 'professional' was too stupid to attach them properly to the brackets so they'd have fallen off as soon as anything was put in them. It could have been something similar.

[jas xjr]

I fitted some units to a wall I thought was solid , it was not . A few weeks later it fell off , narrowly missing the tenant. Broke into many pieces but the doors were fine. Spent a whole morning putting it back together. Had to make a wall bracket as the dumb tenant had thrown it away.
Hope the landlord is insured , this is going to be costly

[V8 Vum]

Hooli said:

I'd expect to see evidence of why the cupboard fell down on which to base the complaint. It has to really be either, poorly fitted, poorly fitted fittings or massively overloaded.

O/T - My Missus got cupboards fitted in the garage just before I met her, the 'professional' was too stupid to attach them properly to the brackets so they'd have fallen off as soon as anything was put in them. It could have been something similar.

Pure speculation! The fact that the cupboard fell down is evidence enough - The units were fitted by an 'agent' of the Landlord, no matter who or how fitted, and then made available to the Tenant for reasonable use, therefore liaibility is with the Landlord.

The OP ex-wife should make a claim, and then if the landlord will not accept the claim then it is up to the Landlord to prove that the unit was being used inappropriately - and that would normally be a pretty difficult thing to do!

[Hooli]

V8 Vum said:

Hooli said:

I'd expect to see evidence of why the cupboard fell down on which to base the complaint. It has to really be either, poorly fitted, poorly fitted fittings or massively overloaded.

O/T - My Missus got cupboards fitted in the garage just before I met her, the 'professional' was too stupid to attach them properly to the brackets so they'd have fallen off as soon as anything was put in them. It could have been something similar.

Pure speculation! The fact that the cupboard fell down is evidence enough - The units were fitted by an 'agent' of the Landlord, no matter who or how fitted, and then made available to the Tenant for reasonable use, therefore liaibility is with the Landlord.

The OP ex-wife should make a claim, and then if the landlord will not accept the claim then it is up to the Landlord to prove that the unit was being used inappropriately - and that would normally be a pretty difficult thing to do!

I'm not saying it isn't the Landlord's problem, just that giving the LL more info of why they fell down could make it easier to get them fixed as he'll be sending the right people out to fix it.

[Wings]

V8 Vum said:

Pure speculation! The fact that the cupboard fell down is evidence enough - The units were fitted by an 'agent' of the Landlord, no matter who or how fitted, and then made available to the Tenant for reasonable use, therefore liaibility is with the Landlord.

The OP ex-wife should make a claim, and then if the landlord will not accept the claim then it is up to the Landlord to prove that the unit was being used inappropriately - and that would normally be a pretty difficult thing to do!

Agree, whether an agent is employed or not, the liability rests always with the landlord. If I were in a similar position to the OP, and more importantly his ex wife, then I would first obtain an independent report from a reputable person/company, on why the cabinet came adrift from the wall, I would retain evidence, then I would contact the letting agent seeking details of the landlord’s insurers etc. etc.