Help! renters and landlords advice please!

[AiD1]

Evening PHer's,

Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated and seen as i have seen many posts from renters and rentee's somebody should be able to help or offer some advice!

Anyway, what has happened is the floor of my girlfriends bathroom flat has leaked through and soaked the bathroom of the flat below! (due to broken seals)

The flat is owned by my gf's (flat)mates mum who, when they first moved tryed to seal the shower herself but obviously failed! Now she is trying to blame the tenants for this! Is she not the one responcible as she knew of and tryed to fix the problem?

P.s the tenants have signed no contract, no inventory, etc. They just pay rent but the landlord still took a deposit

Thankyou for your help in advance!

[spaximus]

No contract so no way she can enforce the cost of repair to the tenant. Unless the tenant has a contract which states they are responsible for all repairs, it is the landlords responsibility. The repair to the plumbing will be the landlords the repair to the damage should be covered by insurance assuming they have been told it is a rental poperty.

[alfaman]

the damage is the landlords responsiblity - they are responsible for repairs and maintenance - only way tenant would have to pay (perhaps) is if they stupidly flooded the bathroom via an overflowing bath or similar ( but landlords house insurance would cover that anyway ......)

[AiD1]

Thanks for the quick reply and telling me exactly what i want to hear!

The thing is, the landlord really doesn't have a clue what they are doing, i think they saw this as a quick easy way to make a nice profit! There has been no contracts at all signed or even drawn up!

So now that the landlord is responsible for the repair, are they required to get it done asap or within a certain time? The water has now been cut from the flat until somebody is sent out for another look tonight.

Edited to add that they never flooded the bath or anything, the people from below came up this morning before anyone had even stepped into the bathroom!

>> Edited by AiD1 on Thursday 20th January 18:12

>> Edited by AiD1 on Thursday 20th January 18:50

[singlecoil]

AiD1 said:

So now that the landlord is responsible for the repair, are they required to get it done asap or within a certain time? The water has now been cut from the flat until somebody is sent out for another look tonight.

Yes, they are required to do it quickly. Sounds like the tenants need to get to a citizens' advice bureau quickly, maybe even a solicitor, or at least threaten the landlord with one.

[Plotloss]

Its an issue for the flat below to work out with the owners of the flat in question.

Without a contract the tenants are in no way liable.

If the landlady doesnt know what she is doing she should get in someone who does. An agent is well worth the £50 or so a month that they cost...

[lanciachris]

I would imagine theres still something in the contract about advising of a problem. If they didnt do that there might be issues..

[AiD1]

Thats the thing though, there is no contract! The landlord is my gf's flatmates mother which creates a tension amongst the flat with issue's like this as you would imagine. Thanks for your replies they have been very useful and have reiterated what i have found out from this website.

No contract means that the landlord is responsible for these repairs just like a written agreement for anyone wondering.

Thanks again!