to refuse to pay rent until problem sorted?

[alisunshine29]

Rent is due to be transferred today. In the past 7 weeks my toilet has broken and flooded 4 times, leaving me with the cleaning up (couple of hours each time) and massive inconvenience. Landlord has come and rodded drain first 3 times which fixed problem temporarily and finally on 4th time he sent an actual plumber who fixed it (again temporarily) and said it would definitely happen again and that I need a drain survey. This was 2 weeks ago and though he's said he would, landlord hasn't had someone come to survey the drains. He said they'd come Mon/Tues this week but still no sign. When toilet breaks it floods kitchen and hallway and is obviously extremely unhygienic. It also means taps/shower can't be used as it makes toilet flood more. Every time I shower I wonder whether I'll be going down to more flooding. AIBU to say I'm not paying rent until drain survey is done?

YANBU, but from a legal perspective this is where you could unfortunately get penalised as you're still liable to pay :( It really bugs me as you're paying to LIVE there, and that should include having a toilet that works.

It's up to you really what you do. Morally yes you should withhold rent, but legally the landlord has a case against you and they would most likely win :( I am not fully clued up on this though so I could be wrong. You're better off speaking to CAB.

Good luck!

yes, with holding rent gets YOU in trouble. You can contact the landlord and agree that you will get the fix done and deduct the cost from the rent, with the costs agreed. Or you could contact environmental health, or threaten to do so.

not good and landlord needs kick up bum, but two wrongs don't make a right legally.

(the other side of this is when tenants don't pay rent or trash the place, and landlords cannot do anything except go through legal eviction channels. The whole system needs a rethink)

Witholding rent could be potentially dangerous for you without finding out from people in the know first.

I would suggest talking to Shelter... even though they are for homelessness, they do have alot of knowledge in regards to private renting and what is considered to be the minimum living standards.

remember seeing something on their website in regards to disrepair and witholding rent. Its a free service too.

If it breaks it's the toilet, taps, showers that can't be used - makes the house inhabitable - seems daft I still have to pay :(

I know ali, you'd think that if you can't use these basic living requirements in the house you live in, it would be deemed inhabitable and it makes sense that if you can't live there why should you pay? It's madness. You certainly won't be the last tenant to experience this.

I would definitely advise getting proper advice though, as the last thing you want is to be having a law suit against you with your landlord if it came to that. There may be a way for him to be pressured by law to get it sorted once for all, and the fact that you're still paying shows that you're keeping to your contractual agreement and he will look like the bad guy by letting his tenant live without basic living needs in his house.

I thought that, by law, if the house is uninhabitable, then no rent is due? e.g. if it burns down or collapses in an earth quake or gets flooded out.
However, if its uninhabitable, then you should not be living there.

What Catriona said.

I have nowhere else to go. Will speak to the CAB, thank you.

You can either

Pay for the works yourself and withold rent until the sum you have spent is recouped (perfectly legal- retain all receipts as proof), or

Report the problem to the Environmental Health dept of your local authority.

I would go with myrubberduck's first suggestion.

Check your contract for arrangements should the house become uninhabitable. Think my contract says the LL has to pay for alternative accommodation (not that I don't pay rent but pay the alternative: that's more expensive for the tenant, when it's not his/her fault). IIRC, if uninhabitable for over a month, tenant can end lease early. Hope you have all that in your contract!