To think if the landlord can afford private school they can afford to fix the damp in this flat?

[weatherall]

Or maybe they're getting a bursary and not declaring the rental income.

I've just found out that LL's child is being sent to £10k private school next term.

I had previously had a bit of sympathy for her as she bought this flat at top of the market and is most def in negative equity now. Depending on deposit the rent we pay probably isn't much more than her repayment mortgage and la fees.

Structural work needs done eg damp proofing. We have been waiting months and have resigned ourselves to moving as it isn't going to happen. DP has asthma so we can't risk his health from another winter in this damp hole.

But now that her DC is going private I think, well she can afford to get the work done and is just being a s*** landlord.

The other possibility is that she is getting a bursary and possibly not declaring this income.

I assume ainbu to be p ed off.

Wwyd?

Kick up a stink with the la?

Stop paying rent? I'm not going to do this, I think it would be unreasonable.

Report her to the school?

'It will make you come across as jealous and petty. Her dds education is nothing to do with your home and your tenancy.'

'Jealous and petty' or perhaps a tenant who doesn't see why she has to live in a sub standard property while the landlord is quite possibly wealthy enough to send her daughter to a private school?

She does not have to. She can move.

She can move? That's your solution?

What a crap attitude.

In this country landlords can do whatever the fuck they like and tenants have to suck it up. Fantastic.

Get the council in, get made homeless if they deem it's unfit for habitation, which it is for DH at least, then get on the council waiting list.

Never feel sorry for your Landlord. It was her choice to buy that home above its true value.

Kick up holy hell OP, too many people reap the benefits of buy to let properties without wanting to maintain them to an acceptable level.

The very idea that you should just put up with the situation or move is absolutely ridiculous. To make things easy for the landlord? So she can move someone else in to the same sub standard flat?

'In this country landlords can do whatever the fuck they like and tenants have to suck it up. Fantastic.'

no they can't. It is not 1960, it is not Dubai or many other places and you are talking nonsense.

Well, clearly the landlord does not give a shit.
Structural work and damp proofing could be very expensive, lengthy and time consuming work. OP has a choice. She can stay with her asthmatic husband in substandard housing and pay the landlord for the privilege, have environmental health out to review it, or move.

But this is nothing to do with how the landlord educates her child.

If anything, OP has been naive in feeling sorry for her landlord.

No not talking nonsense, talking as someone who's had some very dodgy landlords in the last ten years.

The whole system is weighted against the tenant. Anyone who claims otherwise is talking horse shit.

the landlord will not 'move someone else in' - what do you think, she'll mug someone off the street and force them to sign the tenancy?

I know it is cool on mumsnet to hate landlords (and this one appears to be bad) but what a load of nonsense gets talked.

'Move' is a crap answer.

OP is paying the woman money. The woman has, one way or another, enough money to pay school fees. If the money is coming from a wealthy grandparent, the LL should still have prioritised the damp problem. OP is not unreasonable to be annoyed about the damp in the first place, and the frittering of any spare cash on school fees must be an extra kick in the teeth.

'But this is nothing to do with how the landlord educates her child.'

I disagree. It does concern the OP if the landlord is choosing not to maintain her property to an acceptable level.

this thread is now in the playground, with the old 'why let facts get in the way of a good whine?' The system is NOT biased against tenants. Tenants DO have rights. Rachmann has been dead 60 years.

and yes, we still await confirmation that it really is damp. Maybe it is, maybe it is a crap landlord. But I still don't understand the need to stay in the property if it is really so bad.

bye.

TheOriginal
The OP said in her original post that the rent she pays is probably about the same as the mortgage repayments, and the LL is in negative equity
How have you deduced she is therefore getting a sizeable income from renting it out?

As I said specialsubject I've had more than my fair share of crap landlords. I'm not trying to be 'cool', I'm talking about the facts. If UK tenants had half the rights European tenants have there wouldn't be nearly as many threads complaining about them.

Don't really care if MN hurts landlords feelings.

Be a good landlord, maintain your properties to an acceptable level.

The education of landlords child, and the upkeep of the property has nothing at all to do with each-other.

Do you seriously think the landlord were to maintain her property if she sent her child to state school?

I seriously doubt it.

Report her to environmental health. They will do something as environmental health is a different section of the council to council housing.

If she evicts you then the council will have to rehouse you.

Whatever else she can or can't afford, she is a shit landlord.

I didn't say she was getting a sizeable income, but she is getting rent monthly from OP, is she not? It may be a drop in an ocean, but she should still sort the issues with the house out!

Of course it is related Quint. Ll is saying she can't afford to fix the damp problem. Unless she has a full bursary her daughter's schooling is using up the repair money.

Any landlord who takes money off a tenant knowing that they are living in damp conditions which they do nothing about is an absolute scumbag.

Take photos so she can't dock your deposit and get out of there.

Her child's education isn't really the point...

I think some people have the attitude that being a landlord is just a hobby and they should be held to account for pesky things like damp.

*shouldn't be held to account

So if the rent the LL gets is the same as the mortgage payment going out, where does she get the money from to pay for the repairs?
And don't say 'then she should sell the house' because she is in negative equity so can't!

No, the LL can't force someone to move into the house. She can do a little patch up job and mask the extent of the problem and re-let it to someone else though.

It happens all the time, and to suggest otherwise is deluded special subject.

sparechange, in response to:
plu
Want to jump to any more assumptions? confused

It wasn't an assumption. The other thread states that the tenant has complained about issues including damp, broken TV aerial, etc.

If the LL hasn't addressed the issues, then she is in the wrong, because she is obliged to provide habitable accommodation. That is what she is being paid for and has contracted to do. It doesn't matter if she's in negative equity, as she entered the contract.

If she won't address the issues, her tenants should exercise their contractual right to go elsewhere. Isn't this exactly what various MN LLs always recommend (in the vein of "stop giving money to slumlords")? Why should they be forced to risk their health with damp?

I think that's a fair explanation of my comment: "But it is the LL's fault if she makes the house uninhabitable and forces a move."

Spare change, the point is that OP has reason to believe the LL does have the money for repairs.