Hi all,
Me and my gf have been renting in our current flat for 2 yrs 3 months (our first), moving out at the end of August. The place has always had damp problems with significant mold in the bathroom and on the lounge walls, getting worse with time. During our tenancy we've also had a number of leaks through our ceiling in various places, one of which came through the kitchen light blowing the bulb and glass went everywhere.
I've always maintained a decent relationship with our landlord, and he's never been reluctant to get things sorted ASAP. He gave us £50 when we first moved in as the floor in the hall was up due to a leak and the place was a tip as the handyman had been in. He has also bought a new keyboard for me as another leak ruined the one I had at the time. That has been the extent of any 'compensation' so far. A couple of weeks ago I explained to him that we needed an additional week in the flat at the end of our tenancy as we couldn't move into our new place until 31st of Aug. He came back to me and said it was fine, and because of all the issues we've had (and never complained about beyond when the keyboard was broke) he'd give us the extra week free of charge. All good to this point.
However, about a week ago I noticed that the floor in the lounge was rucking up (its wooden panels, about a foot square) and mentioned it to him. He said if it wasn't a major problem then not to worry about it as we'd be gone soon. On Sunday water started coming up through the floor, just dampness at first but then a few small puddles. He asked me to have a look so I tore up some of the flooring, cut through the underlay and was greeted by about 5mm water covering everything underneath. Turns out there was a pipe (mains) that had a small puncture from before we moved in that had probably been leaking the whole time, and in the last couple of weeks had given way and started pumping water under the floor of the entire flat.
Workmen in yesterday had to rip up the whole of the floor in the flat, fix the leak and will need to get in to re-floor tomorrow/over the weekend when everything dries out. The underlay had started to rot in places and the flat stinks of ammonia so he had to put us up in a B&B last night, and may have to tonight as well if its still smelling bad.
I called him yesterday once I got back in to talk about the situation and brought up the fact that I thought the place wasn't livable for at least one night, wasn't what we're paying (around £950 a month) for, and that I felt we should discuss some kind of financial compensation. Not unreasonable I thought but he reacted as if I'd asked to have a go on his wife. Said that he didn't feel it was a major disruption and he didn't legally have to give us anything unless we had suffered a loss of possessions or income. Basically, I felt that I was just being honest and fair with him, not naming specific figures but approaching the subject sensibly, and he acted like a complete tool.
Going to catch up on Sunday with him and talk about it again as he wasn't willing to talk any more until the work was complete on the flat, but I wanted to get other peoples opinions on what you recon of the situation.
Am I being unreasonable?
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Comments
You both sound reasonable people.
I would suggest a softly softly approach.
2. Is your landlord paying for your B&B accommodation and any moving costs to and from it?
If it's No to the first question and Yes to the second then he is probably fulfilling the terms of his side of the contract. If next time you rent through an agency you can almost certainly guarantee a service on the landlord's part that fulfills their obligations rather than going through the landlord direct.
One more thing, don't get drawn into this 'He's a nice bloke' bollocks. If something of yours got damaged because of negligence on his part he is liable. End of.
As I know only too well renting can sometimes be double per month what you'd pay for a mortgage at the same property but then when renting you have the safety net of the landlord having to weigh out on these things
However, if some 'personal' effects have been damaged then he is clearly liable.....and I'm sure he realises that.
At the end of the day, you are only entitled to whatever is stated in your tenancy agreement. If that's not clear and you insist on compensation I guess you'll have to let the courts decide.
He's paying for the B&B, shit-hole that it was, and its just round the corner so no real costs involved. Had to eat out last night as we couldn't be in the flat but its by the by.
Not really interested in going through the courts as it wouldn't be a big claim and a hell of a pain in the ass if it turns into time consuming business.
As you say Saga, would be a shame to sour the relationship but I didn't go in thinking I was being unreasonable and wanting to squeeze every penny I could. Made that clear in the conversation too so hopefully he just needs to think on it for a bit and realize that a gesture is all that's needed.
Just been updated that they cant fit the floor till Saturday, so that's nearly a week with either a wet floor or no floor...
Mould on the walls! That's a heath hazard, don't know how the bloke ever got away with renting the place. My tenant complained to the agent because the blinds blew around when she opened the windows and the gap on one of the kitchen cabinet doors was 2mm at the top and 4mm at the bottom!
He may have cut corners and is now having to stump up some considreable funds.
Is "life too short" to get involved in all the hassle if you are moving on anyway?
My daughter and partner had a similar thing with mould and damp in their flat but by this stage they were on a months notice either way. The landlord offered to pay for bed and breakfast but they decided to take a long weekend while he did the work.
The cheeky git then tried to dock £100 from their £500 deposit when they left! They reminded him that they'd saved him the expense of bed and breakfast and they met in the middle at £50.
They could possibly have argued it further but frankly they were in their new home and didn't consider it worth the hassle.
Landlords will always try to screw their tenants for the deposit almost on principle and sometimes it is worth letting them have £50 so they think they've "won" in order to get the rest of your money back promptly.
Me and my girlfriend have just moved into a house and were in a maisonette where we had a bit of mould. The landlords were our friends so we thought to ourselves we don't really want to annoy them. Since then we have learned from that and realise we paid a lot of our hard earned on the place so don't think of friendships etc and try and get your moneys worth mate. Your not being unreasonable at all.
I'm in the 'life's too short' camp Len when it comes to going legal here, but I think it will always be worth having the conversation.
There is no way I'm losing any of that deposit though, if he tries to take that then I'll put the effort in on small claims.
Have you gone through an agency or are you dealing with the landlord directly.
1) What type of agreement do you have?
2) Is it clear who is responsible for repairs?
3) Is the mould due to water ingress which hasn't been recified?
4) Was the leak below the floor known to the landlord?
5) Why have you put up with this whilst continuing to pay an extortionate amount of money in rent? £950 per month will get you just under a £200k mortgage at current interest rates (without checking)
The bastards have us by the balls
Just had a quick look £180k mortgage on £200k property. £934 a month over 25 years repayment. Still less than Addicted was paying in rent.
leak in the kitchen during winter, the pipe burst after it froze and warmed up during the day. bloody disaster. always thought my landlord was pretty safe but he went mental blaming me and my flat mate, saying we should of left the heating on every day even when we weren’t there. had little money so couldn’t afford to keep the heating on all the time. we rang our estate agent who had little advise apart from hang in there, as the landlord was not culpable and we might be.
A big row then occurred. name calling and everything. it got to the point of him threatening to chuck us out and could of even got physical. i remained calm which eventually passed on to him, though my flat mate and her parents were ready to go for him. he calmed down himself.
he wouldn’t even get a professional in, he fixed the leak and the floor himself.
our place also suffered with damp. and we had a leak before from the bathroom, that time it was no way our fault. so we had a fair bit to deal with.
at the end of our tenancy he took of £100 of the deposit but left it at that. i could of complained but at that time i couldn’t be bothered with the hassle.
hope you can sort out your problem. i suggest stay calm and give it time. landlords seem to have a fair bit of power with things like this. hope you work it out. i had an unreasonable landlord who was rude and obnoxious, yours sounds a bit better.