To be annoyed at this!

[Nando95]

Hi all, Myself my husband and my son rent a 3 bedroomed house in a very nice area of Shropshire. The cul-de-sac we live in is lovely, well maintained, safe and friendly and we also live fairly near the town centre and all the amenities.
However the house itself leaves a lot to be desired- it is extremely dated and shabby and the bathroom and kitchen is in a bad way- For example the bathroom still has a avocado bathroom suite in it it has chipped old fashioned tiles, a old threadbare carpet and the toliet has a wooden spoon like flush which is like something from the dark ages!!
The kitchen has badly made- home made cupboards which never shut properley and peeling wall-paper that wouldnt look out of place in the 70's- It is extremly shabby- The rest of the house could do with modernisation and a good lick of paint also.
We have put up with these issues and have made some small improvements to the house ourselves eg putting new taps in, giving my sons room a lick of paint etc just to improve it. We have put up with it because for where we live the rent is reasonably low(the estate agent told us that the lowish rent reflected the current state of the house) and this was a sacrifice we were willing to make.

Our landlady also complains about every little repair she has to make even though we had no hot water or proper heating for months and as she lives in Spain she never visits to check whether the house is in a good state of repair

Today we had a letter saying the rent was going up to bring it in line with other houses of this size in the area- I am fuming as the house in the current condition does not warrent the price being asked and I want to ask the landlady to modernise the bathroom and kitchen at least if she expects us to pay more rent- However I am well aware that these would be things that would cost a lot of money to put right (eg- a complete overhaul of the kitchen and bathroom) and I cant see her willing to do them, do I have any right to quibble this change in rent or accept that it is inflation even though I doubt she would have other tenants willing to pay rent in the houses current state???
Should I just cut my losses and move?? x x x

YANBU make it clear that you want the major things updated, explain what the estate agent said to you about the price being relevant to the state of repair and say you'll pay once the work has been done.

I'd say you can always ask, but I know how fickle landlords/ladies can be, if she's not been happy to do small repairs, I doubt very much that she'll be willing to do any larger ones. Might be a cut your losses job and you won't have to put up with living with any alterations if you do!

Thanks Back-again the only thing is I think that if she does the repairs she will want full wack for the house and this could be up to a £100 more a month. I am not willing to pay any more for the house in the current state but doubt I could afford it if it was pristine!!!

You've nothing to lose: tell her that if she's charging more like the other houses then you may as well move to a nicer one.

You could ask the estate agent for a copy of the inventory which was/should have been made prior to you moving into the house. This will list any items, permanent fixtures & fittings, plumbing, electrical and structural faults which needed repairing/replaced. All those things should have been replaced or repaired before you moved in.

If they were classed as being in reasonable working order, then replacing tiles, bathroom suite, kitchen cupboards could probably be seen as cosmetic and therefore up to you.

FWIW, I would be annoyed too if I was in your situation.

Good luck

Do an internet search of locally available properties and collect interior pics of what they look like and then take pics of what your home looks like.

Present her with a proposal to increase the rent, but on the condition that the kitchen and bathrooms are renovated to the standard of other properties available for rent.

Go and speak to other local agents and get their opinion on rental levels for the condition of property you live in vs the other homes on the market. Speak to as many as you can to get as broad a comment as possible. Then go back to your own agent and try to get them to approach her sensibly and try to mediate this.

My guess is, she wants the money, (times are hard in spain, the Euro is down) but she won't want to fork out for bringing it up to standard.