Unusable garage in rented property

[the_lone_wolf]

northwest monkey said:

OP - I'm a landlord, and personally I say good for you. The jobs you list are pretty simple ones to be honest and are purely down to laziness & lack of maintenance. Hope you get yourselves sorted

Thanks... We will get sorted, we'll be glad to put the whole episode behind us and move on with our lives overseas in the near future

I have a lot of sympathy with landlords where the tenants are bad, but in this case the landlord has made her bed by refusing to maintain the property via simple measures and ensure she was following the law regarding the deposit, and the rental market can do without bad landlords and tenants

[the_lone_wolf]

Du1point8 said:

Are you not instantly in breach of contract for doing that? The first rule was always keep your nose clean and carry on paying no matter the situation and deal with it later.

Technically yes, however if you're doing it as I did, as a complete last resort because you'd been trying for months to get a response from an agent or landlord, and you made clear that you had no intention to permanently withhold it, I very much doubt any court would truly want to make your life harder for it and would be more interested in the reason you were withholding it in the first place...

[the_lone_wolf]

thelawnet1 said:

Yes and no. Yes, it's breach of contract, but they can't just evict you for that, not without going through a process anyway. Generally the best way for a landlord to evict you is at the end of the lease; eviction for non-payment of rent is a hassle and typically not worth the bother.

Just to add to this, there's new legislation that was brought in for tenancies that began after around March this year that if a tenant reports a maintenance issue with the property and the landlord or agent doesn't respond substantially within two weeks then for a period of six months the landlord cannot issue a s.21 notice!! Not sure of the ins and outs as our tenancy is unaffected, but someone is knowledgeable I'm sure

More reminders from Parliment that landlords aren't on a free ride and must actively look after their investment...