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?

"This isn't the OP's responsibility to shoulder in any way, shape or form"

Agreed, but neither is it any of her business.

She chose, nicely, to be sympathetic to her landlord when she thought said landlord was financially stretched. She is no longer inclined to make allowances. She therefore has to take action on the landlord's lack of care with respect to the home. Whether or not the landlord actually has spare cash is irrelevant.

Anyway, if the landlord has a bursary (fraudulently or not) then the landlord doesn't have a spare £10k knocking around - it's one or the other.

Private tenants do have rights although they vary depending on where you live in the UK so eg

• the Council's environmental health and noise abatement officers respond to queries from both private and council tenants
• LL registration schemes run by local authorities mean you can complain to them if your LL is breaching conditions
• Tenant deposit schemes means you have recourse if your LL does not put your deposit into a scheme or if your LL tries to keep your deposit
• Gas safety checks and electrical safety checks have to be completed regularly or the tenant can ask a relevant professional to condemn the appliances until the LL does commission a professional to carry out the necessary checks and repairs

Some local authorities also run regular training courses and update sessions for LLs.

OP if you have a written record/letter from the LA when you first contacted them and a paper trail showing the LL has refused to make the repairs then go back to the LA to see if there is anything they are willing to do and contact Shelter for advice.

Asides of the other issues, your solution is to pay for a structural survey on the area of concern in your property, then use it for evidence against firstly the landlord and then the Environmental Health Department and court. It will determine how the damp has occurred, who or what has caused it and likely how long it has lasted and what treatment should be done.

It should cost a few hundred pounds, which I'm sure you will agree is worth it for the sake of your child's health, and you may eventually reclaim it if you succeed in court. Your time would be spent much better doing something like this than pontificating over someone's private life and their children's, which sounds a teeny bit obsessive and stalkerish tbh.

So many people

On this thread are so ignorant of landlord/tenant law!

Tenants have no rights.

You complain, you are given notice to leave.

Do people really not get this?

My DCs are going to be homeless in 12 weeks but yeah sure I have a spare few hundred £££ lying around to throw away on a flat I have no legal right to occupy after September.

It must be nice to live in fairy tale land!

Did you complain to the council as well?

weatherall I know exactly what you mean - I asked the landlord to fix the front door and he left us without a front door for months before giving us notice to quit. -
are you on the council housing list yet?

If you are worried about being kicked out for a complaint, then contacting her DD's school is probably a faster track to that..,

I'm so sorry, I didn't know you had been evicted! I would move out asap then!

I mentioned a structural survey because they are really useful. They can find the true cause of the problem as opposed to say a damp proofing company looking to sell an expensive product. Damp can be caused by so many things and sometimes ones which are quite unexpected or not obvious.

OTOH what did your local authority's Environmental Health Officer say when you called them/got them round?

Contact the school after you leave - how much deposit does she owe you?

The deposit should be in a protected scheme.

The problem for the OP is that the deposit won't be returned immediately and she will need the to pay for a deposit on a new place. It ain't as easy as some on here are making out...

If the OP receives benefits she can apply for a hardship grant to cover the cost of the new deposit until her existing deposit is returned.

I don't think anyone is saying the OP is in an easy position but people are saying there are some steps available to her from contacting her GP for a medical letter to support a claim for alternative housing, to getting her local councilllors onboard, to utilising the council services available for just this type of situation.

If she is resigned to moving then she could use the advice on this thread to see if there are any LL registration schemes in her area to try to ensure her next LL is better.

If you're moving at short notice with no time to try to find a decent property or decent LL then you're likely to go from one bad let to another and sometimes MN perpetuates the myth that all LLs are bastards so it doesn't matter what you do. But, actually, some LLs are good and when you complain about damp or structural problems they actually fix the problems rather than evicting their tenants.

Op, you'd seriously suggest that this girl be pulled from school? That's what you're talking about here.

Poster's are less concerned about school bursaries because they are not public money - how a private institution spends its own money is its own affair.

*Op, you'd seriously suggest that this girl be pulled from school? That's what you're talking about here.

Poster's are less concerned about school bursaries because they are not public money - how a private institution spends its own money is its own affair.*

The girl hasn't gone to the school yet, so there wouldn't be any back-and-forth.

The private institution can indeed spend its money in the way it sees fit, but the rules on bursaries must be transparent. I must admit there is a problem here, though, as it doesn't seem clear whether the LL's DD will be a fee-payer or a bursaried pupil.

OP seems convinced that her LL is committing bursary fraud as she has a "second home"

She hasn't commented on whether or not she knows the landlord's name is on the deeds of any other house, or whether the school in question actually looks on buy to lets as second homes, or as sources of income (which by the OP's own statements, this rental isn't for the LL as rent barely covers mortgage).

Well, yes, none of that is clear from the OP. However, (1) the rules should be freely available for anyone to check, as otherwise no-one eould know who was eligible, but (2) that might not be relevant anyway, since the LL's daughter might be having her fees paid, either by her mother (LL) or a relative.

I just thought it might be helpful to analyse how the OP might want to go about finding things out, and the limitations of what that could tell her.

How did you find out about LLC getting a bursary ?

It would seem a bit odd of her to tell you if it was fraudulent.

Oh, I misunderstood!

AKey, OP has no idea.

^Op, you'd seriously suggest that this girl be pulled from school? That's what you're talking about here.

Poster's are less concerned about school bursaries because they are not public money - how a private institution spends its own money is its own affair.^

And perhaps the OP has alienated other posters regarding the maybeunlikely bursary fraud because of the sheer spite thats very obvious in her posts.

There are ways to go about getting her very real housing problems sorted but the way she has spoken of wanting to involve the school in her OP isn't one of them.

I am of course, in no way advocating this, but the ONLY way I persuaded bad landlords to do essential repairs was to either threaten to or actually withhold rent.
There was a Radio 4 programme about this the other day and Shelter were commenting that the fines for landlords who rip off their tenants are laughably low. Personally, I believe that the landlord who refuses to fix a damp problem, thereby endangering the health of their tenants should be facing a prison sentence. A section of MN is down on tenants because these are people's homes, people's lives, and it is deeply unfair that they can be messed about with in this way. I lived in a serious of homes owned by bad landlords and I am so deeply grateful that DP and I were able to get onto the property ladder before we had DC, because I could not have gone through the anxiety and the insecurity had I had a family.

However, OP, YABU. The child's education is a side issue, although I completely understand how galling it is. And you sound as if you need to get over the fact that she is a 'Polish migrant worker'.

The problem for the OP is that the deposit won't be returned immediately and she will need the to pay for a deposit on a new place. It ain't as easy as some on here are making out...

At last, somebody speaking some sense!

I'm willing to get the OP hasn't gone through the process to get the damp seen to and has let things be and just verbally complained at best and not followed up from there. No paper trail etc. my advice, educate yourself on what steps you need to take and ensure that you have proof.

And perhaps the OP has alienated other posters regarding the maybeunlikely bursary fraud because of the sheer spite thats very obvious in her posts.

GrannyOnTheSchoolRun, wouldn't you be gutted if you had been living in uncomfortable and unhealthy circumstances, then discovered that your LL might have been able to fix things all along, but simply had refused to? The idea of bursary fraud has been a horrible distraction, but given that the LL has cheated her legal responsibilities in other ways, it's not totally unreasonable to imagine that she would cheat on this.

I think it's pretty normal and human to feel angry, betrayed, and, yes, jealous and vengeful, in such circumstances, but it isn't actually spite. Spite is unmotivated, and her emotions are pretty well-founded.

Also, realistically if she is committing fraud you may be somewhat disappointed by how the school might handle that news.

It may well be the case that if LLC is excellent and LL's "face fits", the school will be more than happy to turn a blind eye to "irregularities" and be oblivious to the notion that another academically good or very good child genuinely deserving of the place is being deprived.

But go ahead, email the school. I have a popcorn surplus.