Can I sensibly sue landlord to do repairs?

[JackWhite]

A friend of mine was renting a flat with his girlfriend in London. This was about 5 years ago.

He told me that they couln't get the landlord round to fix things without having to wait a long time. In particular, there had been something wrong with the boiler (maybe the water temp thermostat) and he and his girlfriend had been trying to get something done for something like 6 to 9 months.

In discussing this with someone recently. they felt that it would have been better in my renting friend (above) had taken take legal action against the landlord. Maybe the rent paid could be scaled back to reflect the loss of amenity or maybe witheld entirely pending the worl being done.

Anyway, I can't see my friend as having been so clueless. And now I wonder if there could have been potential problems which had kept him from pressing harder for the boiler to be fixed.

can someone guess if the

[P.Pilcher]

The standard proceedure is to notify your landlord of the fault in writing and give him a readonable time to carry out the required repair, stating this time in your letter and your intended subsequent actions if the repairs are not carried out. If the landlord fails to respond to this letter appropriately, then the subsequent actions are to obtain three quotations for the necessary work and use the cheapest to get the work done. The cost of this is then deducted from the rent paid, providing the necessary evidence of the payment to the landlord to justify the deduction.

P.P.