AIBU to expect landlady to pay costs?

[redbunnyfruitcake]

We (Me, DP and DD - 2.5) rent a 2 bed house and have lived here for 3 years. It's a lovely house and we pay a large amount of rent for it but since we have been here we have had the following issues:

1. Kitchen wall replaced.
2. Various plumbing problems involving ripping up floorboards and cutting holes in walls.
3. An immersion heater replaced.
4. The front garden wall replaced.

And now they need us to move out of our bedroom to put a damp course in the walls which will take 5-6 days and considerable disruption. They are always very good at doing the work I just wish there wasn't so much of it. The odd washer replacing I could deal with but this feels like one thing after another.

I'm not just having a moan (well I am a bit because I hate hassle) but aibu to expect either some kind of rent reduction/compensation or the cost of a hotel for those nights?

yanbu you should not be paying rent for those nights when you can not have use of the property surely? i dont know what your rights are legally but it does not sound fair if she doesnt give any rent reduction so yanbu. does it need doing asap or is it something that could be done at any time to coincide with you being away if you are going away at any point? once we had a landlady that needed to do quite a bit of work but she got it done while we went on holiday so it was no disruption to us

surely you would rather a home that was fit to live in, if it was your own home you would have to put up with it.

I think YABU re expecting a hotel to be offered

I think your landlady is taking good care of your property which will be good for you in the long term

But yes it is a bit of a pain

Is it only the bedroom you are asked to being moved out of for a few days while essential repairs are done?

If it is 2 bed, then sharing or sleeping downstairs for a few days is hardly a hardship.

If you owned the house, would you decamp to a hotel, or would you sleep in the other room, or put the mattress downstairs for the duration?

YABU

Why is she doing the damp course now? Is she being pro-active about it, or is there a specific reason at needs doing atm?

Look at the shelter website or alternatively post on MSE under housing as I'm fairly sure (60%) that you should be accomodated whilst the home you are renting is uninhabitable. Depends whether or not you want your contract renewing though unfortunately...

And YANBU

I think you're unreasonable to expect a hotel to be paid for, as the house is still liveable for the duration of the work - but you should expect a rent reduction, as you're not getting the full benefit of what you're paying for.

I'm a landlady, and I would do something tbh. So I would prob reduce the rent pro rata or something...not sure what the regs are but I would feel it right to do something even if the regs don't say so.

If it is only one bedroom that is inhabitable then there is no need to move out while the work is done. Bathroom or kitchen yes, as they are a necessity, but anyone can sleep in their lounge for a few days.

YABVU to think you should get a hotel for those nights. If my tenants asked for that I would decide not to renew their contract based on that alone.

I think it is reasonable to ask for a rent reduction, but personally, I wouldn't have asked for one when I was a tenant and work was being done. Partly because i would rather work was done, and my ll wasnt put off having things done while i was living there because they didnt want to lose money.

If you lived in your own house you would have to live with the inconvenience and pay for the privelidge, so I would just get on with it. Renting means you don't have to worry abot paying for these things, but it doesn't mean they don't need to be done.

Forgot to say, if it were me, I'd divide the rent paid by the number of rooms in the house, then you know what the bedroom is 'worth', so to speak and can work out what you've lost money-wise depending on how long the room is out of use. It might turn out not to be very much at all.

YABU. We live in a lovely rented house too. It would be much more lovely if the LL did more repairs. He bodges, he doesn't repair.

Completely out of interest, I just did the calculation based on my own house and my bedroom is 'worth' £2.60 per day. I wouldn't ask for a rent reduction based on that amount, I'd just leave it.

Goodness, I've been in my house for 9 years and can't get the landlady to do anything! Be grateful she's repairing the property.

I think some reduction in rent would be fair in the circs.

You might also find, if you start making a fuss about rent reductions when there really isnt a need, that your landlady isnt quite to so keen to do any non-essential repairs or improvements in the future too.

It sounds like you have a reasonably good landlord, so I wouldnt want to rock the boat too much, as they are hard to find these days.

I would certainly be if my tenants asked me for a hotel even though they could sleep in the other room. I don't think the 'worth' of a room would be much, but I would want to do something. Circumstances forced me to put the flat on the market for a few months last year and I reduced the rent for that period to cover inconvenience of agents coming round etc, so I would certainly do the same in this instance. However they are perfect tenants and well worth looking after...are you?

Yes you should absolutely expect a rent reduction, and if you don't mind moving you should ask for a lot - full rent window for the 5 days + hotel. Certainly you may have a landlord like IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll who'll cut off their own face (losing a tennant of 3 years in an unhappy out will guarantee a considerable void - "Oh the landlord, she's kicking us out 'cos we complained after this list of problems with the property" - as well as the actual cost of finding the new tennants.

Of course you need to trade that against the hassle of moving if you have to, but the property doesn't sound great (immersion heater?, sounds expensive option for a rental!) so unless you live in a place with a huge deficit of 2 beds to rent I'd go fort it.

I may have exaggerated slightly, but I would be very shocked at a tennant with a a two bedroomed house expecting me to pay for a hotel because I was trying to improve their property. Getting rid of them would probably have been my initial reaction until I had calmed down.

But a full rent window for five days plus a hotel??

They wouldnt have a hope in hell of getting that unless they provided me with a winning lottery ticket. Many very good landlords simply wouldn't be able to afford it even if they went bonkers and wanted to.

It is an inconvenience to move, as I well know at the moment! So if the OP has been in her (well maintained, byt the sounds of things) home for 3 years she probably doesn't want the hassle of moving. As such making reasonable demands of her (conscientious sounding) landlady sounds like the more sensible option.

I think the point for me is that this is NOT my property and any improvements are for the benefit of the home owner who will continue to own the home when I am gone.

The house was renovated before we moved in and many of the jobs that have been done while we have lived here could have been done before we moved in.

The problem with the bedroom could not have been foreseen and I understand that asking for a hotel is unreasonable but renting a property is a business transaction and I don't expect to pay for something I cannot use. I wouldn't mind but I have to move everything out of the room and the 2nd bedroom is the only place to put anything.

While I know this isn't going to change my life significantly whatever way it turns out i just thought it useful to garner some opinions.

What I have learnt is that it seems that landlords hold a considerable amount of power over tenants despite this being a business arrangement.