Private rent

[Ducky1900]

We private rent, we've been here 3 years.
Everytime we have a problem, the landlord sends his mate, that does half a job.
We go through an estate agent, but he still likes to 'manage' the property himself.
Well what's the point in the estate agent then.

Example, we've always had problems with the smell of sewage coming from the bathroom, emailed estate agent yesterday, the reply was a plumber is coming tomorrow.
'plumber' turns up this morning, (I know full well he isn't a certified plumber, he's a friend of the landlord that's a handyman at best)
All he has done this morning is literally look at the shower, look in the bathroom, look at the drain (look as in with his eyes, no tools), and has said well it shouldn't be this and it shouldn't be that.

AIBU to expect a proper certified tradesman, rather than an old bloke who does bits and bobs and can never find anything wrong?

Yanbu to expect that any work is carried out properly, and if it isn’t and the problem still exists, then you’ll need to keep on at them.

The point of your LL using an estate agent is to make sure everything is done legally, to find tenants and to collect tenants rent, they don’t always arrange the trades that are needed, and they always charge so much extra unnecessarily through EAs that it makes sense for the LL to get a cheaper assessment of any problems. He is obliged to fix problems safely, he isn’t obliged to send someone that meets your expected level of qualification.

what you not unreasonable to expect is a habitable property where everything works properly. The reason for the agent is tenant find and rent collection, many decent landlords arrange fixes themselves because agent tradies are often hugely overpriced and not necessarily more competent.

how are the legals as per your how to guide? Is the place cheap given it sounds a bit of a dump?

you can involve the council under the homes fit for habitation standard.

sorry: 'as per your how to RENT guide'.

So if we're expected to be good tenants. Which we are. And pay our rent every month on time, isn't he expected to provide decent qualified tradesmen?
When we rented before with another company, they had their own plumbers and electricians that they sent, landlords weren't allowed to just sent whoever they wanted round.

We pay 750 for a 2 bed in the south east...
Cheaper than most. Rents round here, but still that doesn't give excuse for the place to be a dump.

The kitchen is 40 years old and falling apart, it's got the cheapest office pile carpet in all rooms, that's now fraying round the edges, and has no underlay.
The paint is chipping and peeling off the walls in the bathroom.
Mould in bathroom, we've been provided with dehumidifiers that you put a block in... Does nothing.
The flat roof to the bathroom, when it was inspected was shown to be coming away, LL got 'roofer' out and told us nothing was wrong with the roof...
It just seems to me that he gets his friends to come. Round and they tell us what LL wants us to be told. So he doesn't have to do any work.

no, it isn't an excuse for the place to be a dump. Was it a dump when you moved in? (sounds like it)

you can involve the council and enforce. Or you can move to a decent place. The latter will work better. Even in the holy city of London there's almost no enforcement against crap landlords, councils have no money.

as usual no answer re legals, but do make sure the next place meets them.

I live in a leasehold flat where the other flat and the freehold is owned by a local estate agent. It's just the same. No work done to the communal area and the other flat has been left to rot. It's not fair all round.