Hi,
Looking for some urgent advice.
We've been renting this property for 18 months. Our current tenancy started June 2013 and was for 12 months. We rent through an estate agent. The owner of the property only wanted to do a 6 month term but we needed more stability than that. We offered to replace the toilet and sink if she made it to 12 months (the bath was damaged when we move in and she replaced it with a different colour one so we thought it would give us another 6 months stability so would repay that by replacing them items for the owner). When we signed the new contract in June 2013 we signed a document to say that if we didn't replace these items then the landlord reserved the right to end after 6 months if she so wanted to.
Well , we have had lots of things going wrong in the house, kids bedroom windows stuck and wont open (a fire risk for sure), garage roof leaking and soaking our contents, heating not working, when she had the bath fitted it was not sealed properly and now looks black and leaks. We notified the estate agent in mid November 2013 about it and now over 10wks later, still no repairs. I put it in writing to them approx 14 days ago that if they weren't done in 14 days we would get them done and deduct it from the rent. We had a phone call yesterday off a plumber (the same plumber who is a family friend, who fitted the bath , who is very slap dash and leaves the mess for us to clean up) saying that he can either come today at approx 7-8pm or its going to be at least 2wks. We said that 7-8pm is not suitable as we have young children , 2 of which would be in bed at 7pm).
We have spoken to the estate agent today and advised him that we are fed up of being messed about and by Monday we are doing the above. Also we have advised that we are NOT replacing the items in the bathroom as we are more than happy for her to terminate now and if she doesn't , come June we are looking for a different house anyway. He mentioned that she may try to withhold the deposit that's with the DPS. I advised that this is not fair as the document we signed mentioned nothing of the deposit , and only mentioned that if the bathroom wasn't sorted, that she reserves the right to terminate after 6 months.
Can somebody please help and tell me if we are within our rights to get the stuff done on Monday and deduct from the rent. Also , is there any chance that she will be able to convince the DPS to retain our deposit?
Matt
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Legal matters
Private Tenancy...Urgent Help Needed Please!
onlyhereonce · 24/01/2014 19:09
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