Any estate agents/landlords around?? Advice needed

[Pandoraphile]

We currently rent a property. They plan to develop the site at some future point and this dwelling will be demolished so they don't care about it at ALL.

The house has not been well maintained and almost every week something fundamental breaks - radiators, locks on doors, door handles falling off, ditto with towel rails, etc. Every time we report an issue we're told that they will have to speak to the LL to authorise repairs. This usually takes a couple of days before they come back to us and then a further delay until a mutually convenient time can be arranged. Tonight the oven has broken. Something that we will really struggle without and quite frankly we're paying over the odds for the property as it is - it bloody well needs to be in working order! Yes, I know the price is irrelevant here.

Anyway, today again, no they can't do anything until they've spoken to the LL. For big repairs I can see why they would need to do that, but for basic items like an oven, surely they have the ability to authorise those??? Otherwise, what's the bloody point of them?!?

AIBU?? I'd be very grateful for some guidance on this because I genuinely don't know.

TIA

I'd buy one and then deduct it from your rent. You can't live without an oven indefinitely - did they give you a timeframe for a reply?

A decent agent has an agreement with the landlord to do emergency repairs up to a certain value.

I suspect you have neither a decent agent nor a decent landlord. You state you are paying over the odds for a dump. The only way to stop crap landlords is to take your business elsewhere.

It’s only broken tonight so they haven’t had a chAnce to get it fixed yet. Put your request in writing requesting a quick resolution. Don’t follow any advice to withhold rent or deduct any amounts for it, that won’t end well for you.
What’s the earliest you can end this tenancy I’d be out of there soon as possible.

As specialsubject says, vote with your money and go elsewhere.

You have a shit landlord and shit agent, but landlords are pretty much allowed to do this sort of thing.

While you could buy an oven yourself and deduct the cost from your rent, you would probably be in breach of your tenancy agreement, which will almost certainly give your landlord all the power in matters like this.

The key is usually what is "reasonable" - a couple of weeks without an oven wouldn't usually be seen as a breach of your rights, if you have an alternative cooking method available (eg you could get a microwave, a £30 "toaster oven"). The matter of what is "reasonable" would ultimately be a decision for the courts, but this would probably cost more than just buying yourself a new oven and swallowing the loss.

Ok, thanks, that's pretty much what I thought :(

We won't be withholding rent or buying and then charging the LL. I'm just so frustrated to have that attitude to cope with! The only thing that I can think to do is just constantly hassle the letting agents until we get a decent response.

How long are you talking? If my oven broke in my home or would take me a few days to sort a new one. I'd probably want to check it wasn't repairable and then order one to be delivered if not.

You could get in touch with environmental health. If the landlord is delinquent on the legals, you can get those enforced. There are laws even if the mn guardian-swallowers don't want to hear it.

Much easier to move, though.

We are lanlords as we are living overseas at present and renting our home, our agents can spend up to 150 pounds on things that need doing without our authorisation but anything over that they would get us to confirm first. Things like replacing white goods the agents usually give us a couple of costed options and we pick one, it doesn't take us longer than a day to reply but we are on a different time zone. Emergency issues would be dealt with by agents straight away. It could well take a few days to have the oven checked, pick a new one and get it delivered.

My managing agents have authority from me to carry out any repairs as and when needed. For large ticket items they’d check with me first though - for example the windows needed repairing and I had a better tradesperson than their usual people. For something like an oven (which I’d consider a big ticket item) the agents would send someone round to check if it was repairable, and if not give me a couple of suggested replacements. I’d check prices myself, and then authorise replacement. Would aim to turn around my approval within a day.

also report the issues to the council (even tho it is a private let) as this will protect you if they want to evict you if they haven't sorted theissue. Also put all complaints in writing - either letter or email so there is a paper trail of the complaints and the length of time the issues are sorted.

The LL and the agents have a duty of care and should sort out any maintenance issues within a reasonable time.

If you go on the shelter website it explains there how to get this addressed properly.

We had amazing landlords and no agent and when our oven broke it took a week to replace just because of logistics.

The were on another country and they had to size up ovens (weird space to fit it in), buy, arrange delivery and a man to install and change various pipes.

These things happen and I'd be allowing a week before getting shirty because of the above. I'd expect a reasonable time to be two weeks.

If you have other cooking methods such as a hob or microwave you can cope easily.