Landlord and broken kitchen light

[LimaLemur]

Hi all,

I moved into my rented flat around a year ago and my flat mates and I have been having problems with our landlord (who I’ve posted about before on here) as the LL takes a long time to do basic repairs in the flat or refuses to do them.

Since I’ve moved in, the following has happened:

1. Things have broken, which we’ve let the LL know about, and they still haven’t been fixed.

The LL promised verbally (and in the written and signed tenancy agreement) to fix things if they were damaged due to wear and tear, yet hasn’t stuck by this.

For example, a toilet won’t flush in one of the bathrooms; a toilet leaks in the other bathroom; there has been a persistent mouse problem in flat (now hopefully sorted, as no mice for a few months now); and, more seriously, a tube light fell down in the kitchen while my flatmate was cooking (LL came in some time after it happened and said ‘this wasn’t an urgent thing to be repaired(!)’

Either the LL ignores our messages asking about these repairs or she refuses to do the repairs.

When we emailed her to complain about these things, she phoned me at 9pm to say ‘we are not a hotel’ and that I could move out if I didn’t like the flat.

The most recent thing is that the main ceiling light in the kitchen has broken (see photo), It broke a week ago and the LL replied the next day, saying she would get someone to fix it and then said that nobody was available to fix it.

As we then heard nothing from her, I emailed the LL yesterday, asking for an update on this. She replied saying that she is arranging for someone to come next week as most workmen are away due to the holidays.

We emailed her back tonight with this:

‘As the kitchen light doesn’t work at all, we are cooking meals in the dark during the evening.

Our rent payments cover essentials, including adequate and safe lighting, which we have now gone without for over a week.

Due to this, we need somebody to come as urgently as possible. Please can you arrange for someone to come this week?’

Who is being U? Is my message fair?

I rent. We sorted out our own mouse problem with traps and filling in the holes through which they were entering.

Change the tube on the light. Youtube will have details. It's not hard. I've never understood renters who want their hands held over minor issues. One woman that I know told me she'd asked the landlord to change the curtains!

She'd been in that house for 7 years! I said "Get your own bloody curtains!" she was gobsmacked that this was normal behaviour....it's not the LL's job to deal with the little things like lightbulbs and curtains....even leaky taps are easily mended.

LLs are for big problems like broken boilers, smashed windows and doors which won't lock.

I suspect the OP might not be back

I’d expect the LL to fix the toilet but I think the rest is down to the tenant/s.

I have had awful landlords in the past who have taken days/weeks to fix things like a broken oven, broken boiler etc and I had one landlord who refused to sort a major damp issue so I just moved out. Some landlords are awful but this sounds mostly like your responsibility as the tenant.

Lightbulbs are the tenants' responsibility

Have you tried deblocking liquid in the toilet? Or a plunger if you have one? Could be a simple fix. If it's more complicated than that it is the landlord's problem.

The non flushing toilet will depend on what was put down it. I had a tenant who had done humongous dump, and then complained the loo wasn't working. It was a brand new loo, and he was training to be a chartered surveyor. He'd tried to flush using the small flush and not the big one. I declined to pay the call out charge or the bill for that one!

If the OP is,so wet she can't work out she needs to change a lightbulb, perhaps she has been disposing of sanpro down the loo, and hence it won't flush.

I think the fluorescent light might need a need starter motor which costs about £4 from DIY stores. If so, this does come under the responsibility of the landlord.

Not fixing the toilet which doesn't flush or the other toilet that leaks is not acceptable. Can't you report the LL to environmental health department of the council?

Haha woman up and change the lightbulb. Christ.

OP in all honesty you guys are pathetic.

It is your responsibility as tenants to sort that light out.

1. Get on a chair or step ladder turn the tube in the fitting 90 degrees clockwise or anticlockwise.
2. Get off the chair/step ladder and switch the light on. If the light is still not on properly turn the light off.
3. Get on the chair/step ladder and take the tube out. Get off chair/step ladder.
4. Go to a shop that sells the tube with it, ask show them the tube and buy a replacement.

If you are confused by any of my terms go to Youtube and look up how to deal with strip lights/ fluorescent tube lights. If you don't know a shop that sells them locally then use Google to find one.

As tenants it is your responsibility to:

1. Deal with pests such as mice, ants and beetles in the first incidence by ensuring their are no food sources for them e.g. cleaning up for yourself, blocking their methods of entry and trapping them. Then only after you have done that do you call in the landlord.
2. Deal with dripping taps by changing the washers. If necessary you have to pay for a plumber to change them.
3. Not blocking drains and dealing with them if they do block including paying for a plumber to unblock them if necessary
4. Change light bulbs and tubes

(There are probably more things that are your responsibility but I can't think of them at the moment. )

Fluorescent tube/starter can both be replaced by tenant. Toilet, it depends what's wrong If the handle has become disconnected or broken the plastic bar or metal hook is easy to swap and costs about £1. Consumables are down to the tenant. Unless it is the fitting or wiring that has broken you should try to resolve yourselves.

Great. Yet another tenant who genuinely thinks LLs are responsible for mice, even though they have no control over how you keep your kitchen and bins, blocked toilets, even though they have no control over what you throw down them, mould and condensation even though they have no control on how/when/if you ventilate the house, and that old chestnut, blown lightbulbs. 🤦🏻‍♀️😤

And people wonder why they get given notice when they ‘haven’t done anything wrong’. 🙄🤔

Honestly, grow up. Take some responsibility for SOMETHING. Your LL is right, it’s NOT a hotel.

Toilet: Landlord issue if it is leaking. Not flushing is often taken on by a Landlord the first time and then, if tenant misuse is the reason, it remains the tenant's issue. You could contact your local council and complain about the leaking toilet

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/what_to_do_if_your_landlord_wont_do_repairs

Other breakages, would depend on what broke and how.

Mice are usually the tenants problem IF they started after the tenancy. Many landlords will deal with one infestation then it's down to the tenant - other issues not intervening!

The light! Chances are it is the little starter motor and/or the bulb. Just use Youtube and some common sense and fix it. Lights are the tenants responsibility! Emailig and compaining about cooking in the dark is just ridiculous! Adequate and safe lighting has been provided. As is the nature of the beast it now needs you, the tenant, to ascertain whether the issue is one of normal use, i.e the bulb has gone, and to replace it, or is actually a fault, the fitting is broken, which is the landlords issue!

Wow OP. Just change the lightbulb. How old are you? Mice can happen anywhere, just lay some traps like the rest of us do.

The leaking toilet the ll should attend to but it doesnt sound urgent, unfortunately if you've been fussing about changing a lightbulb the ll may think you're a bit OTT and not take you very seriously.

Imagine the email OP now has to send to the LL
"Please ignore my stroppy email, I've changed the lightbulb myself - will be in touch when we run out of toilet paper or need help rebooting the WiFi or other such emergencies"

I'm a tenant and would never consider asking LL to change a bulb, the toilet situation yes but a bulb that cost a few quid and takes 2 seconds to change, no.

My tenant texted last week to say there is something wrong with the oven and she thinks it needs a 'professional clean'. There must have been more of a pause than she was expecting before I replied as she then texted 'but I suppose I could do that myself'. Bless her, she's been in the place six years and only just thought about it...

@trixiefranklin hahaha! I would love to see a copy of that email!

You sound very entitled. Even if some of those repairs are genuine ans should be arranged by the LL, your expectation of timeliness is unreasonable.

Are you aware that even home owners have to accept to wait for non urgent repairs because trade people are quite hard to get at short notice especially for small jobs. It xanve a real headache to get someone to fix small things which is why most people do it themselves.

Your LL said someone would come next week and that's totally reasonable. Are you that hard done by to use a cheap lamp in the meantime? Assuming there's no window as of course otherwise there's light from 6am to 8pm.

I've been charged by my management company because the tenant said the oven didn't work. When their appliance engineer attended, they'd just accidentally set the timer and couldn't make the oven do anything until it was cancelled. It never occurred to the tenant or the agent to go through any sort of troubleshooting or to actually LOOK AT THE BLOODY INSTRUCTIONS before picking up the phone and assuming I'd pay.

It was 50 quid call out and the tenant had to pay it because I wouldn't. I think that will be the last time they do something like that without thinking it though. But I had to really push to get to the bottom of that - I think they all assumed I'd just pay up, no questions asked.

I think the fluorescent light might need a need starter motor which costs about £4 from DIY stores. If so, this does come under the responsibility of the landlord.

We rent abroad and have changed starter motors where necessary. I wouldn't pay for it for a tenant.

Ellenborough I had the same, paid the charge, and informed the letting agent that if I could read the bloody instructions that are on a metal plate affixed to the inside of the range door, then so could the tenants. It's lazy.