lauralillee
26-11-2005, 19:42 PM
I live in an ast with two other girls and we've had an ongoing saga of problems with our landlord. We're all young, late teens, and this is our first rental so we're on a steep learning curve.
Our landlord is a private landlord and this is the first time he's rented a property. Over the last year we've had a series of problems which have now come to a head. These include:
- entering the house and our rooms without permission or notice - sometimes he's just come in when we're out, other times he'll phone and say I'm coming round at such and such a time whether you're there or not. (we thought he was meant to give 24 hrs notice preferably in writing?)
-failing to fix problems in a reasonable time - our shower broke and we went for a period of two + months without it working properly, despite us having informed him.
Basically we've put up with these problems as we're all easygoing, busy and didn't know better. Then earlier this year the landlord decided that he was going to redo the kitchen and make the downstairs loo into a shower room. We were perfectly happy with things as they were but saw no problem with him carrying out work. He told us that when the builders were in we'd receive half rent - which we thought was fair enough.
Needless to say the building work was a nightmare....we continued to live in the flat with builders coming and going and at various stages no kitchen and no bathroom. Obviously the flat was in a state of chaos for several weeks. Eventually things slowed down with the builders coming every once in a while to finish things off, but for over six weeks we didn't have a working downstairs toilet. Furthermore we then found out that the builders had discovered asbestos cement...which was left hanging around in the house. (NB the landlord didn't tell us we only found out it was asbestos via the landlords several weeks later and then had to really pressure the landlord to dispose of it) We were also concerned by the fact that the landlord gave keys to the builders and the builders were not supervised...as three young women we were worried about the possible security implications. Nevertheless we put up with things. Then a couple of weeks ago the landlord sent us each a letter telling us we'd get 14 days at half rent. Now the work was ongoing for over 6 weeks, yes the builder's weren't in every day but the house was still a tip. Furthermore there are still fixtures and fittings in the new shower room and kitchen which have been put up.
Obviously we were upset by this letter and so we wrote to him outlining the fact that building work was ongoing for 6 weeks.
We have since received a very aggressive letter which says we were only offered recompense for the individual days the builders were there...of which we have no record as we are out of the house between 8 and 6, which the landlord says was 14 days. He's also said we're lucky to have had the improvements carried out without an automatic rent hike (he implies this may soon happen).
There's a further complication as two of our rents expired last month. Now the landlord had not prior to our letter about the building work brought up the matter of the contract being renewed (our rent is by standing order so he's continued to receive it) but now he's pointed out that we don't technically have any rights. - we're were under the impression that once he accepts our rent, even though the initial contract has expired, he is essentially renewing the contract.
I know this is a lot to go through but we'd really appreciate some advice, we don't know where we stand, can't afford lawyers and our landlord keep phoning us and hammering on our door. He even reduced one of the girls to tears as he told her off and said zsshe was lucky to live in his house when she complained about him going into her room without telling her.
What can we do?
Our landlord is a private landlord and this is the first time he's rented a property. Over the last year we've had a series of problems which have now come to a head. These include:
- entering the house and our rooms without permission or notice - sometimes he's just come in when we're out, other times he'll phone and say I'm coming round at such and such a time whether you're there or not. (we thought he was meant to give 24 hrs notice preferably in writing?)
-failing to fix problems in a reasonable time - our shower broke and we went for a period of two + months without it working properly, despite us having informed him.
Basically we've put up with these problems as we're all easygoing, busy and didn't know better. Then earlier this year the landlord decided that he was going to redo the kitchen and make the downstairs loo into a shower room. We were perfectly happy with things as they were but saw no problem with him carrying out work. He told us that when the builders were in we'd receive half rent - which we thought was fair enough.
Needless to say the building work was a nightmare....we continued to live in the flat with builders coming and going and at various stages no kitchen and no bathroom. Obviously the flat was in a state of chaos for several weeks. Eventually things slowed down with the builders coming every once in a while to finish things off, but for over six weeks we didn't have a working downstairs toilet. Furthermore we then found out that the builders had discovered asbestos cement...which was left hanging around in the house. (NB the landlord didn't tell us we only found out it was asbestos via the landlords several weeks later and then had to really pressure the landlord to dispose of it) We were also concerned by the fact that the landlord gave keys to the builders and the builders were not supervised...as three young women we were worried about the possible security implications. Nevertheless we put up with things. Then a couple of weeks ago the landlord sent us each a letter telling us we'd get 14 days at half rent. Now the work was ongoing for over 6 weeks, yes the builder's weren't in every day but the house was still a tip. Furthermore there are still fixtures and fittings in the new shower room and kitchen which have been put up.
Obviously we were upset by this letter and so we wrote to him outlining the fact that building work was ongoing for 6 weeks.
We have since received a very aggressive letter which says we were only offered recompense for the individual days the builders were there...of which we have no record as we are out of the house between 8 and 6, which the landlord says was 14 days. He's also said we're lucky to have had the improvements carried out without an automatic rent hike (he implies this may soon happen).
There's a further complication as two of our rents expired last month. Now the landlord had not prior to our letter about the building work brought up the matter of the contract being renewed (our rent is by standing order so he's continued to receive it) but now he's pointed out that we don't technically have any rights. - we're were under the impression that once he accepts our rent, even though the initial contract has expired, he is essentially renewing the contract.
I know this is a lot to go through but we'd really appreciate some advice, we don't know where we stand, can't afford lawyers and our landlord keep phoning us and hammering on our door. He even reduced one of the girls to tears as he told her off and said zsshe was lucky to live in his house when she complained about him going into her room without telling her.
What can we do?