dale5134
10-03-2010, 12:49 PM
Hi all
Need to get this off my chest because our situation is getting worse and worse and need some advice.We moved into a semi detached 3/4 bedroom victorian house in may 09,nice house just right for our family,all good,a good letting agent and landlord seemed ok.
Now next door to our property is a small industrial estate which is owned by the landlord,now this is the start od our problems he kept coming around uninvited and with no warnings this was mentioned to the letting agent and after numerous phone calls and faxes (he's varily old and getting hold of him is a nightmare) he did eventually stop.
The first problem that arouse was the front door the lock latch broke and the only way the door would stay shut was by locking it,first of all he sent a lacky round who works at the industrial estate for him who makes concrete blocks to fix it,now he wasnt interested and after getting the wrong bits the door still now hasn't been fixed after 7 months and still waiting.
The next problem is the rats in the garage,just after 1 month of moving in they started appearing along with a wasps nest in the eaves of the back porch,i called pest control and paided them after being old on bad advice form the letting agent that the £140 i paid would be reimbursed to this date it hasn't.
After mentioning the rats to the landlord he said he has had problems with them before so admitting to us they are a problem,now in the last 3 months we have had the council pest control out 4 times under a council paid for scheme and they have even given up.They have eaten most of the belongings we have in the garage (the garage was part of the rent deal for storage or car parking as part of the rent) haedphones,sleeping bags books etc all ruined.
On enquiry to the landlord through the letting agent of a reimbursment for our goods lost the answer was a resonding NO,we still have the rats in there and have the council enviromental health coming out next week so hopefully something will get resolved (i live in hope).
Next the oven,when we came to the property the oven seal was broken and the top of the oven would not close properly,consquently costing us more money to cook things because of the longer times to cook food,this was replaced but the door still didnt close properly the landlords solution "prop a broom under the door".
The oven has now had a 2nd seal and the oven tech who came over told us it was a very old oven 13-18 years old and they had a heavy door problem that had a hinge recall done which this one has and its still knackered so we are witing to see if we get a new oven,fat bloody chance because the landlord told us the oven was 3 years old when we moved in (as you can gather by now he's full of crap).
Now the last problem,the shower went bang just before christmas and tripped the electrics in the house,we called transco out thinking is was the boiler that went bang but it was the shower,we have had no shower in the property since then (we have a working bath) but with 2 adults and 4 children the cost of our water bill has soared (water meter).
We have presented the landlord with a bill to prove the consumption of water has gone up by £25 a month but got told that he will not compensate us for our increase in water,as far as i'm concerned our increase in water consumption is down to him because he won't repair the shower.
As thames water told us its 30 litres for a 5 min shower and 80 litres for a bath and considering the bath is our only option it take einstein to work out the increase and sharing baths in this day and age is not a good thing anyway.
So the letting agent had a meeting with the landlord a week last friday and he said things would be done but we have been told this before and we are still in a month period of waiting for the door to be fixed so i dont hold out much hope, i have looked into with holding the rent but i'm quite scared at the prospect of doing that and i wont put my families housing at risk if he turns nasty and kicks us out.
REALLY at the end of my tether and any acvice would be gratefully recieved
Need to get this off my chest because our situation is getting worse and worse and need some advice.We moved into a semi detached 3/4 bedroom victorian house in may 09,nice house just right for our family,all good,a good letting agent and landlord seemed ok.
Now next door to our property is a small industrial estate which is owned by the landlord,now this is the start od our problems he kept coming around uninvited and with no warnings this was mentioned to the letting agent and after numerous phone calls and faxes (he's varily old and getting hold of him is a nightmare) he did eventually stop.
The first problem that arouse was the front door the lock latch broke and the only way the door would stay shut was by locking it,first of all he sent a lacky round who works at the industrial estate for him who makes concrete blocks to fix it,now he wasnt interested and after getting the wrong bits the door still now hasn't been fixed after 7 months and still waiting.
The next problem is the rats in the garage,just after 1 month of moving in they started appearing along with a wasps nest in the eaves of the back porch,i called pest control and paided them after being old on bad advice form the letting agent that the £140 i paid would be reimbursed to this date it hasn't.
After mentioning the rats to the landlord he said he has had problems with them before so admitting to us they are a problem,now in the last 3 months we have had the council pest control out 4 times under a council paid for scheme and they have even given up.They have eaten most of the belongings we have in the garage (the garage was part of the rent deal for storage or car parking as part of the rent) haedphones,sleeping bags books etc all ruined.
On enquiry to the landlord through the letting agent of a reimbursment for our goods lost the answer was a resonding NO,we still have the rats in there and have the council enviromental health coming out next week so hopefully something will get resolved (i live in hope).
Next the oven,when we came to the property the oven seal was broken and the top of the oven would not close properly,consquently costing us more money to cook things because of the longer times to cook food,this was replaced but the door still didnt close properly the landlords solution "prop a broom under the door".
The oven has now had a 2nd seal and the oven tech who came over told us it was a very old oven 13-18 years old and they had a heavy door problem that had a hinge recall done which this one has and its still knackered so we are witing to see if we get a new oven,fat bloody chance because the landlord told us the oven was 3 years old when we moved in (as you can gather by now he's full of crap).
Now the last problem,the shower went bang just before christmas and tripped the electrics in the house,we called transco out thinking is was the boiler that went bang but it was the shower,we have had no shower in the property since then (we have a working bath) but with 2 adults and 4 children the cost of our water bill has soared (water meter).
We have presented the landlord with a bill to prove the consumption of water has gone up by £25 a month but got told that he will not compensate us for our increase in water,as far as i'm concerned our increase in water consumption is down to him because he won't repair the shower.
As thames water told us its 30 litres for a 5 min shower and 80 litres for a bath and considering the bath is our only option it take einstein to work out the increase and sharing baths in this day and age is not a good thing anyway.
So the letting agent had a meeting with the landlord a week last friday and he said things would be done but we have been told this before and we are still in a month period of waiting for the door to be fixed so i dont hold out much hope, i have looked into with holding the rent but i'm quite scared at the prospect of doing that and i wont put my families housing at risk if he turns nasty and kicks us out.
REALLY at the end of my tether and any acvice would be gratefully recieved