Can I take this NIGHTMARE landlord to court?

You don't get 'compensation' for a business breach of contract either you know. You can only claim for loss or damages. You're asking to have lived rent free for 6 months, at the landlord's expense as 'punishment' for being a shit landlord. In law, that's called unjust enrichment. No judge will grant you that.

I’m not sure why you’re even still posting on a thread you find bikers when you’re so convinced that you have a claim despite advice to the contrary.
Why waste time here? Crack on, file your claim and update us all with how you get on 👍

You’re really not reading the posts. I said SHE said she LOL’d because you responded rudely to her posts.

I didn’t say I thought you responded rudely to her posts. I was clarifying the PP’s post. Nothing more.

I definitely think you were rude in your response to me in claiming the thread is getting even more “bonkers” when I was simply clarifying a PP’s post. She felt you were rude to her, hence the LOL.

She’s agreeing she LOL’d first. She said she did it because you responded rudely to her post.

This is one of these threads where I wonder again why an OP clearly convinced they are as right as right can be has bothered to post on a message board called Am I Being Unreasonable?

The vote is clearly split and even many people who voted YABU (myself included) are sympathetic to your situation and think you’ve had a bad experience but also thinking going after the landlord for compo may be time-consuming, stressful and ultimately fruitless.

I’d stay in the property. Only engage with the agents. Let the section 21 get thrown out of court. Let the LL waste his time and effort. If they are successful with a section 8, don’t leave until you are ready or the bailiffs get involved. The whole process will take until your house is most likely ready. Annoy them more by paying reduced rent, but do pay rent.

’. DS came down one morning with one on his school shirt which was hanging washed and ironed in his wardrobe, cue mass panic and having to rip it off while I was desperately trying to catch the speedy slithering thing. That was the last straw!’

A silverfish is about half an inch long at most, they are not slimy, in fact I think they are rather sweet. If your son is upset by a small legless insect to that extent, I think you have more problems than a dodgy landlord.

’Mass panic’ ! Blimey….

I’d also get yourself set up with somewhere else to live before you kick off too much. What if the next property you see that you want to move into comes from the same agents?

Also be aware estate agents whilst competitors do all chat to each other regularly.

As you’re using “LOL” as a verb, I LOL’d after your rude response to my post.

Absolute bonkers!

I thought as much. None of that is useful to your 'case' btw. Quite the opposite. All it shows is that you willingly entered into a contract with a clearly lazy and dodgy landlord, and then feel like suing him because he turned out to be a lazy and dodgy landlord...

Judges don't like people sniffing around for an easy payday. As far as I can see you walked into this with your eyes wide open. All the red flags were waving and you went ahead anyway. You don't get compensated for that.

You've got no claim for anything breach of contract related, or misrepresentation related for the excessive claim in your OP, because you were in full possession of all material information about a landlord who will skirt the very edges of the law, without breaking it.

'It's so unfair' is not the basis of a legal claim. Most you'd get is 8 weeks rent and pursue the EICR. No compensation, no 'emotional distress', and if you get greedy with your claim all the judge would see is a tangled mess of mutual bickering and fault on both sides, and you risk the whole thing being thrown out with you getting nothing. HTH.

It's hard to give an opinion when nobody uon the thread knows what the state of the house was and how necessary the improvements were. Was the house habitable or not. I think you could claim for the rent while the builders were there if there was a lot of disruption to your daily living.

Was there any offer of reduction of rent or any other accommodation whilst the major work was being carried out, I really cannot see how Landlord could expect a family to continue living there with so many problems. Yes, I would take it to Court for reimbursement of rent, stress etc, detail the number of times you’ve had to be available for work/visits etc.

FWIW I agree with the others that this will cost you more money and stress than you will gain.

However seeing as you have decided to go ahead, I wish you luck and hope you win, because I also agree that situation with landlords taking the piss in this country is a travesty. If you want to take them on at your own expense to set precedents and prove a point re. tenant rights then I applaud you and suggest you also contact the local press if you win.

I mean I do this for a living but I’m not going to bother engage on a thread with someone who responds so rudely to well intended advice. So all the best to you OP.

It would have been different if it the issues had started AFTER we moved in but we have evidence that they were present before.

Can you answer this please? Do you have evidence that there were issues before you started the tenancy?

It may be technically possible but it's a really high bar and won't be awarded unless the situation is pretty extreme. It sounds like you may succeed in arguing the rent should have been reduced for a few months, as you were not getting full benefit from the property. But you won't get as much as you think, especially if you overegg the pudding, judges hate that.

Lol ok.