To have not paid rent (yet!)

[FreshFancyFrogglette]

Before we start I am totally aware that officially withholding rent is not encouraged, and/or advised, but listen to the circumstances first please.

5 year tenant with private association rent always paid on time, and in full (apart from when there was a surprise increase of £25 and the email went to my old email so it took a few months to update the standing order form).

Had a problem with my boiler (completely gone). Spoke to association, took a week to get back to me. Took another week to hear from the plumber. Took another week to order parts, and another week to actually install it. Total 1 month no heating or hot water. All this time increase in electric to use halogen heaters and kettles. Still paid rent on time. December. I think new boiler is working, but it turns out they've left the boost on which has been rinsing my electric. Turn it off. Back to no hot water. Christmas/new year period. Cold spell, try to get the storage heaters on. Leave them 48 hrs to be sure (should only take 12hrs but I wanted to be sure). Low and behold no heating. I email landlord, first day back I call them. They say they will call back, and never do, twice. Rent becomes due. I've got it, but I don't pay it. Accounts email me, and I explain. I've got rent here, I want to pay it, but I also want hot water and heating. Bare in mind it's fucking freezing here at the moment. They get the electrician out, he thinks it's a fault with the supplier, ring them, they don't think it is, electrian thinks its meter. (they got electrian out the next working day, compared to when I did pay rent and got fobbed off for 3 weeks!). I'm sat here freezing, too scared to put halogen heater on because I'm skint. My daughters staying elsewhere, it is too cold to have her here atm. Waiting for engineer to come.

My question is should the landlord give me a discount on the rent because I've been 2 months without heating and hot water? If its the meter at fault, whose responsibility is that? I've been very vocal about getting this sorted, and never wanted to withhold rent, but I'm at the end of my tether. I want someone to listen to me. I am waiting for my warm home discount, but at the moment I can't afford to heat the place. We are at the beginning of the month, and my uc is due at the end. Wwyd please?

If I had no hot water and heating and it was a problem with my boiler/ heater I would still have to pay my mortgage, as does your landlord. It’s shit that your landlord didn’t respond straight away but the delays seem to be more due to plumbers/ electricians etc taking time which they do unfortunately.

No, the buck stops with the LL, not plumbers/electricians and 2 months is not a reasonable period of time to be without heating, so I don't blame you for withholding payment. I'm not sure of your rights though.

I would still have to pay my mortgage, as does your landlord.

Spoken like a landlord.

Coriandersucks it isn’t comparable to you as a private owner, landlords have legal responsibilities. zip do you have an electric shower? Has this been working and is your heating working if you use the boost function? If so then you are not classed as having no hot water or heating. Are you with an agency? Which country are you in? These answers will determine your advice, but withholding rent is never an advisable course of action. What you can do (I think) is arrange the repairs yourself and bill the landlord but please get legal advice from CAB or similar first.

I'm with an association. They don't have a mortgage to pay.. I don't have the luxury of owning my own home. I pay for someone/company to own lots of homes, and with that comes their responsibility. I pay rent to insure against these issues. When you own your home you are afforded lcxuries that people in rented accommodation don't have, having someone else take care of repair costs is the advantage of being in rented accommodation (which we pay a heavy price for!). So it's swings and roundabouts on that one.

I don't want a straw man argument/comparrison. I want to know, In the situation I'm in what are my rights? And wwyd?

If this happens again you can contact environmental health at your local council, they can (& will) go over the head of your LL to get things like this fixed if they consider the length of time you've waited unacceptable.

^^ post above aimed at Coriandersucks.

Thanks for replies!

Meter is your responsibility to sort out with the energy company. Good luck with that though because they’re only doing emergencies at the moment.

Boiler and heaters are the LL’s responsibility, obviously. As terrible as it is for you to have been without heat and hot water, you should not withhold rent payments. You will go into arrears regardless of whether you think you’re justified in not paying or not, and rent arrears do not look good on your record.

May I suggest that you contact the energy company to ask them to investigate whether it is a meter issue or not. Also keep the pressure up on your LL. If you get no joy call Shelter. I’m pretty sure you can apply for compensation after an amount of time, or you may be able to go through your council to speed the LL up. They will be able to advise you.

Do not stop paying rent though. It looks very bad on you and two wrongs don’t make a right, and you know as well as I do that things tenants do wrong are looked upon far more harshly than the murder LLs routinely get away with.

@pelosi

I would still have to pay my mortgage, as does your landlord.

Spoken like a landlord.

Haha exactly!

Contact your MP

Thank you dancingwithwillard. I've got storage heaters, the boost function has no effect on them. I've got economy 7 heating. Which means it should heat the water tank, and storage blocks, over nights.. But as this isn't working, I can only get any water by leaving the boost on (cost £2 an hour) for at least 2 hrs first. So hot water Yes technically it is available (at extortionate rates, and with preplanning). But as for heating, no central heating whatsoever, boost or not.

You need need to pay your rent however you can make a complaint and ask for compensation.

@FreshFancyFrogglette

I'm with an association. They don't have a mortgage to pay.. I don't have the luxury of owning my own home. I pay for someone/company to own lots of homes, and with that comes their responsibility. I pay rent to insure against these issues. When you own your home you are afforded lcxuries that people in rented accommodation don't have, having someone else take care of repair costs is the advantage of being in rented accommodation (which we pay a heavy price for!). So it's swings and roundabouts on that one.

I don't want a straw man argument/comparrison. I want to know, In the situation I'm in what are my rights? And wwyd?

You have the right to be evicted for nonpayment of rent in accordance with the law.

You can't do it. The issues with heating are irrelevant legally and refusing to pay the rent is in breach of your contract.

Also do Green Doctor operate in your area?
My LA use them and they are wonderful at helping to reduce heating costs and such.

The law isn’t on your side here - you don’t have the legal right to withhold rent and your landlord could start possession proceedings. Likewise, the Landlord and Tenant Act states that landlords must carry out repairs in a “reasonable time” - and in mid-winter during a pandemic, an interpretation of reasonable time for getting a heating engineer to attend is going to be more generous than usual.

Obviously you’re annoyed and frustrated. The landlord isn’t refusing to carry out repairs, they’re struggling to get engineers to attend and the engineers which do attend have made errors. You’ll catch more flies with honey than water - setting out your reasoning for thinking they should give you a rent discount and reinforcing that you’ve been very patient.

To be clear the reason I'm with holding rent is partially so they listen to me, and partially because I can't afford to heat it this way anymore. I'm completely skint from the excess electric payment on my prepaid meter. Once that cuts out I only get friendly at night.. I'm scared I'll have no money for electric at all.

I'd ask citizens advice for help they're answering queries by email/phone

Id call Shelter and talk to them about it. No heating and hot water in the middle of winter would make me question if it was fir for habitation. If judged not, then no you do not have to pay rent until it is. But give them a call, they have a hotline and can give you proper advise possibly even speak on your behalf.

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

It's not a case of I can run up a bill and deal with it later.. Once I'm out of money I have no way of topping up the meter so I won't even have lighting except between the hours of 8pm and 8am.

Morally I can see where you are coming from but unless your contract allows for you to withhold rent in things aren’t fixed then I think let’s you have to pay

Pay your rent.

The law does not cover you for withholding rent for repairs not being done.

The most youi can do, besides cry, unfortuntaley, is a long drawn out process of using rent to pay for the repair yourself - again not recemmended

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/repairs-in-rented-housing/repairs-what-are-your-options-if-you-are-a-social-housing-tenant/withholding-rent-because-repairs-havent-been-done/#:~:text=You%20don't%20have%20the,you%20at%20risk%20of%20eviction.

But yes, contact your local MP, Environmentla Health Dept and anyone else you can think of. And keep at the HA!

Good luck getting it sorted!

Get your MP involved and if that doesn't resolve matters you can then get your case referred to the housing ombudsman.

But please pay your rent. Being evicted would be worse than having no heating.

If you withhold rent it puts you at risk of eviction.

Make a nuisance of your self and contact them every single day asking when this will be sorted. In the meantime can you negotiate a rent reduction whilst this is going on, so whilst you aren't and should not pay full, you are at least paying a small tribute amount to show goodwill and good intention?

OK I think I have to pay my rent. That leaves me very little for the rest of the month. I think once I've paid it I'll have to go and stay with someone until it gets fixed because I honestly can't afford any more electric at this rate. Very little point paying rent if I can't afford to stay here.