geordie
01-04-2009, 09:55 AM
Hi,
We've recently signed an assured shorthold tenancy agreement for 6 months and moved in a couple of weeks ago.
We've had problems since day one with the property. We agreed that the property would be cleaned before moving in and the gardens which are extremely overgrown/ litter etc be cut back and tidied. The day we moved things like the fridge, oven, cupboards had previous tenants property in and required a thorough cleaning. The gardens havent been touched even though we've had weeks of dry weather with only the odd shower. We've discovered the shower upstairs drips water into the room below and the front door has a gaping hole in the bottom letting out the heat and creating drafts through the house.
These problems arent huge and shouldnt take much to fix but we've called the landlord on both contact numbers, leaving messages on answer machines several times and written a recorded post letter and so far not had any response, its obvious he is ignoring us as we know hes been in touch with the letting agents to talk about what he legally has to do.
So we're coming up to our second months rent and wondering if we should withhold the rent until he at least has the decency to contact us. Obviously we're worried that if this is how hes tackling simple fix problems, what happens later if the boiler stops working or something else...
We are prepared to leave and move somewhere else if these things arent sorted.
So the question i have is, what options do we have? Is it reasonable to think he should be returning or answering calls within 2 weeks for repairs? What would happen if we decided to send him a letter saying as we've had no response we're leaving.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
We've recently signed an assured shorthold tenancy agreement for 6 months and moved in a couple of weeks ago.
We've had problems since day one with the property. We agreed that the property would be cleaned before moving in and the gardens which are extremely overgrown/ litter etc be cut back and tidied. The day we moved things like the fridge, oven, cupboards had previous tenants property in and required a thorough cleaning. The gardens havent been touched even though we've had weeks of dry weather with only the odd shower. We've discovered the shower upstairs drips water into the room below and the front door has a gaping hole in the bottom letting out the heat and creating drafts through the house.
These problems arent huge and shouldnt take much to fix but we've called the landlord on both contact numbers, leaving messages on answer machines several times and written a recorded post letter and so far not had any response, its obvious he is ignoring us as we know hes been in touch with the letting agents to talk about what he legally has to do.
So we're coming up to our second months rent and wondering if we should withhold the rent until he at least has the decency to contact us. Obviously we're worried that if this is how hes tackling simple fix problems, what happens later if the boiler stops working or something else...
We are prepared to leave and move somewhere else if these things arent sorted.
So the question i have is, what options do we have? Is it reasonable to think he should be returning or answering calls within 2 weeks for repairs? What would happen if we decided to send him a letter saying as we've had no response we're leaving.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!