To start withholding rent?

[BeetlebumShesAGun]

We moved in to our house just over a year ago. It was intended to be our family home for at least the next 3 years. I was pregnant with DD, and we rented the house through an agency, and we were under the impression it was "fully managed" by them. It soon turned out that wasn't the case. The landlady came round to meet us, she was very friendly and all was well. It was in our rental agreement that she had access to the garage, and when she came to pick up stuff she often called into the house to However, we soon noticed that the hot water in the shower didn't work. We let the estate agents and landlady know, and she phoned me personally to let me know she would sort it. This was around September last year.

Hi all, thanks for your replies.

The latest is that after I spoke with the agents last Monday, they said they would try to sort it. We still hadn't heard anything today so DP phoned them. They were surprised to hear from us as when they called her last week she told them that a plumber was booked for that Friday. I was in all day on Friday and she didn't call or text to let me know anything so is clearly fobbing off the agents as well.

Am looking up plumbers now to get a quote, then I will send this in an email to her and the agents stating if nothing is fixed in 7 days, we are going to book the plumber and reduce our rent by the amount they cost.

fine - except don't email. Write letters and send by recorded delivery, keeping the receipts.

We don't have her address - I think you have a good point though specialsubject. I will try and get her address from the agents.

There are extremely strict procedures you need to adhere to in order to get essential repairs done and deduct it from the rent. Do anything else and you'll have a Section 21 Notice in the post, and very possibly a Section 8 as well. Have a VERY CLOSE read of the Shelter site for information abut doing this.

An argument could be made that fixing a shower isn't an essential repair if there is another means of bathing, and there is.

To be honest, if the property and your landlady aren't satisfactory you would be best to vote with your feet.

You could decide to have the shower fixed at your own expense but that carries its own risks when meddling with the landlord's fixtures and fittings, but I'm leaning towards voting with your feet.

What do you mean "you don't have her address"? It should be on your tenancy agreement under the bit which states "for the serving of notices".

If you can't get it from the agent you should download the info on the property address on the Land Registry website. It will cost you about three or four quid.

"Am looking up plumbers now to get a quote, then I will send this in an email to her and the agents stating if nothing is fixed in 7 days, we are going to book the plumber and reduce our rent by the amount they cost."

Is this the sort of time-scale which Shelter recommends? I doubt it. As far as I can tell from reading your posts you haven't even requested the shower be attended to IN WRITING yet. That's in writing as in formal communication, a copy of which you will be retaining for future reference. NO text messages, no emails, no personal messages on FaceBook, nothing but a proper grown-up letter through the post. First Class retaining proof-of-posting at the post office.

Thanks.

No we haven't requested it in writing yet, as we had been sorting it with her through phone calls and the agents previously. That is how we have done things in the ten years we have been renting. Until now, where I agree formal communication will be beneficial to is to prove we have been chasing her about it.

I certainly don't give my tennants my home address. They contact me via the agent and if I am away the agent sorts repairs on my behalf.

The agents will however have an address for your landlady so if you email or write to her via them and get them to confirm (in writing) they've passed it on then you'll have your paper trail.

Time to get very businesslike about this OP as your landlady clearly isn't .

Just had a very arsey text message from her "XXX will come on Monday evening to take another look at the shower. Please be available. " XXX is her dodgy handyman mate who freely admitted to me the last time he didn't know what was wrong with it.

FGS.

What a farce! I would still write the formal letter if I were you. And inform the agents that a plumber is. It coming, it is her hopeless handyman who couldn't fix it last time.

Get a letter to her before Mr Hopeless gets to you. She must know he can't fix it or he would have fixed it the last time!

We sent the email and had a response from the agents, nothing from the landlady. She came over last night with the handyman and said the problem was it needed an electric pump to get the water up from the tank to the shower, and that the handyman "hadn't realised one wasn't installed" which is bollocks as he apparently refurbished the whole house including the bathroom .

He is coming at the weekend to fit the pump. I have emailed the agents this so we have it in writing the date she said it would be fixed.

However, she has now decided that the ivy on the back of the house needs cutting back again (every time she comes round she moans about it despite us cutting it back every 2 weeks and having my dad, a professional landscape gardener, round to do it. She told me she will come over personally herself to do it on Wednesday and also to "do the garden as it looks a mess."

I am feeling so stressed out and like I want to move. I feel like she is annoyed we are forcing her to spend money so is now trying to find fault with the property so we get fed up and leave. I know I need to get a backbone and tell her to back off, but DP tells me to just let her get on with it, once she has done the ivy to her own standard she will leave us alone. But I don't think she will.