Tenant's Rights
Discussion
Some background. I have been renting a house for close to 4 years now, it's a nice house and the rent is the best part of £3500 per month.
In late October I was away and my daughter called on the Saturday to say there was crack in the lounge room ceiling and water was dripping through. I told her to turn off the water and I arranged the emergency plumber. Later that evening she called to say it was bowing and overnight the ceiling partially collapsed leaving a hole of around a metre square. The emergency plumber isolated the leak on the Sunday and came back on Monday to repair the problem which was a feed pipe to the cistern in an ensuite. On Tuesday the builder came to quote for repairs.
It seems that a combination of the original builders sweeping all their rubbish into the ceiling and the ceiling originally being artexed meant there was alot of water soaked up before it appeared below. It was a huge mess. We are lucky enough to have a study so we moved the TV and some furniture in there.
Fast forward a week, I call the managing agent to find out when the builders are going to start and he said the Landlord has decided to put in an insurance claim. Another week passes and the insurers want a report from the plumber which I have and send over. Another week passes and the insurance company wants photos of the damage which I send over straight away. Another week and the insurance company say it has to be escalated. Eventually a Loss Adjuster is appointed, has a look and approves straight away saying he doesn't know why he is involved.
Six weeks to get an approval to get the work done. But now the builder has filled his diary and can't start until sometime in February. As this is 3.5 months since the damage I have asked for a rent reduction. The insurers say no as 6 weeks is a reasonable time to approve the repair and they will only pay a rent reduction if the house is uninhabitable.
I decided this is unfair and withheld my December rent. The managing agents said I have to pay (which I do) and it is just tough.
I have to pay the full rent despite not having full use of what I am renting.
Finally, to my question, do I have any rights at all to a rent reduction or do I just have to suck it up?
In late October I was away and my daughter called on the Saturday to say there was crack in the lounge room ceiling and water was dripping through. I told her to turn off the water and I arranged the emergency plumber. Later that evening she called to say it was bowing and overnight the ceiling partially collapsed leaving a hole of around a metre square. The emergency plumber isolated the leak on the Sunday and came back on Monday to repair the problem which was a feed pipe to the cistern in an ensuite. On Tuesday the builder came to quote for repairs.
It seems that a combination of the original builders sweeping all their rubbish into the ceiling and the ceiling originally being artexed meant there was alot of water soaked up before it appeared below. It was a huge mess. We are lucky enough to have a study so we moved the TV and some furniture in there.
Fast forward a week, I call the managing agent to find out when the builders are going to start and he said the Landlord has decided to put in an insurance claim. Another week passes and the insurers want a report from the plumber which I have and send over. Another week passes and the insurance company wants photos of the damage which I send over straight away. Another week and the insurance company say it has to be escalated. Eventually a Loss Adjuster is appointed, has a look and approves straight away saying he doesn't know why he is involved.
Six weeks to get an approval to get the work done. But now the builder has filled his diary and can't start until sometime in February. As this is 3.5 months since the damage I have asked for a rent reduction. The insurers say no as 6 weeks is a reasonable time to approve the repair and they will only pay a rent reduction if the house is uninhabitable.
I decided this is unfair and withheld my December rent. The managing agents said I have to pay (which I do) and it is just tough.
I have to pay the full rent despite not having full use of what I am renting.
Finally, to my question, do I have any rights at all to a rent reduction or do I just have to suck it up?
mehmehmeh said:
Dicky Knee said:
I decided this is unfair and withheld my December rent. The managing agents said I have to pay (which I do) and it is just tough.
I have to pay the full rent despite not having full use of what I am renting.
Finally, to my question, do I have any rights at all to a rent reduction or do I just have to suck it up?
This isn't how law works. You pay it, then you go to small claims court.I have to pay the full rent despite not having full use of what I am renting.
Finally, to my question, do I have any rights at all to a rent reduction or do I just have to suck it up?
In Australia if I had done this as a landlord I would have been in front of the Rent Tribunal weeks ago, ordered to fix it immediately and the tenants would have been awarded a rent reduction until it was fixed. I thought it may be something similar in the UK.
I mistakenly thought that if I paid rent on the whole house there would be some sort of obligation to fix things quickly when they go wrong but that doesn't seem to be the case.
keirik said:
why cant you use the room? its only a hole in the ceiling not the floor.
sounds reasonable that the landlord wants the insurance company to deal with it,
as for withholding the rent, you pay to rent a house not to use specific rooms.
A big hole (as the plumber pulled down a chunk more looking for the leak) with a toilet and shower above it but technically it is usable.sounds reasonable that the landlord wants the insurance company to deal with it,
as for withholding the rent, you pay to rent a house not to use specific rooms.
Entirely reasonable to use insurance but 6 weeks to approve a claim for a couple of thousand?
rgf100 said:
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repa...
You might get something, but you need to pay rent, ask for some of it back, and if you don’t get it be prepared to go the small claims route.
Thanks. That is exactly what I needed to know.You might get something, but you need to pay rent, ask for some of it back, and if you don’t get it be prepared to go the small claims route.
Black_S3 said:
2Btoo said:
A useful rule of thumb is to ask what you would do if you owned the house. Would you have claimed on your insurance? I suspect you would. Would you have managed to make things go any quicker? Probably not. Would you have stopped living in the house as it was genuinely uninhabitable or would you have put a brave face on the hole in the lounge ceiling in order to save money?
Agree with this.I think the OP is lucky they're not looking at him for discovering a leaking coming through a ceiling on a Saturday and doing nothing about it until the Sunday. He will have been shown where the stop cock is and should have the common sense to use it.
Edited by Black_S3 on Saturday 19th January 22:07
For clarity, I was overseas, my daughter called when she saw the water dripping and the water to the whole house was off within 60 seconds. The plumber just isolated the toilet so we could have water in the rest of the house for cooking, toilet flushing washing etc.
BobSaunders said:
Gary C said:
Why rent at £3.5K PCM
Could get a £700K mortgage for that !
Some people are on secondments, which roll on occasion, and are paid by an organisation. Not everyone wants to live here, or have a permanent residence, per popular belief.Could get a £700K mortgage for that !
I know of several C-Suite in our organisation who have apartments on different sides of the planet paid for by the organisation. It works for them, and works for the company allowing them to do what they do.
I have done the 'dead money' calculation which is roughly:
Buy a place for £1m with a £700k mortgage
Stamp Duty: £75k (I have to pay a higher rate as I have a house in Sydney)
Moving costs and legals £5k
Say 3 years interest at 2% £42k
Against 3 years renting £106k
So break even just under 3 years.
The 2 big unknowns are any capital gain or loss and how long we will be in the UK. To make it work there has to be a capital gain.
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