Renting? Scaffolding? No one told me?

[Snowtimex7]

Hiya. Honestly more of a rant that an opinion as there’s literally nothing I can do.

In January I moved into a ground floor flat with my Partner and Baby. The flats are concrete and in a quiet area one of the reasons we chose here as it so quiet. You never hear the neighbours or anything. We rent. A year tenancy

Last night I was on fb and saw someone posted a picture of the flat block in my towns group, someone commented shame the view will be ruined by scaffolding. I messaged her. This Monday coming scaffolding is going up for a minimum of 19 weeks to change the balconies.

So my landlord told me a quiet area no disruptions and now I have five months of building works and unable to use my kitchen window or my child’s bedroom window and door to the balcony? In hot months? I was not informed and if was informed in January probably would have not moved in. I love the flat but I’m here alone with a baby in the day. And it gets incredibly hot in the sun and now I can’t open anything north side, can’t have my daughter in the room so nap time will be elsewhere and just the fact I wasn’t told? I’m actually really angry about it. He must have known as this person said she was informed months ago and has to pay a fee for the refurb.

He knows we have a baby, he knows I’m home alone, he knows we wanted a peaceful quiet area? We pay a lot in rent and haven’t asked a single thing upon moving in. Touched up faults ourselves and got it cleaned as clearly they didn’t. We have letting agents who never contacted us either?

Am I wrong to be angry? Is this normal?

How long have you lived there OP? If you really don’t want it and you’ve been there less than 60 days you can unwind the tenancy. Obviously you’ll have to find somewhere else to live.

I’d call Shelter and ask them for advice.

Perfectly normal I'm afraid - landlords don't see it as relevant information to give to their tenants. I had a similar thing happen to me, you don't get told it's going to happen, you just get home one day and find the scaffolding is up.

It's no better if you are a leaseholder either - now I own, I don't get told when scaffolding is going to be put up. If I bought to let, I wouldn't be able to give my tenant warning simply because I wouldn't know myself.

The only way to protect yourself from this sort of thing is to be an owner of the freehold.

Unfortunately it’s perfectly normal and allowed. However best thing to do is probably throw an almighty stink with the landlord to get either a big reduction or have him allow you to break the lease.

Unfortunately he’s legally fine, but I would feel the exact same, it’s BS

Thank you for all your comments.

Sorry to hear those who have been stuck in a similar situation.

I’ve looked at local properties but there is literally nothing available right now so breaking lease isn’t an option and also don’t want to cause a massive disruption we get told to leave but just don’t see how it’s right?

@Whatisthisfuckery lived here for two months in three days.

We don’t want to move as the market around here is dire. There is nothing available

If you don't want to even move what's the problem?

@FireflyRainbow I would move but there’s literally nothing available. So seeing if it can be broken later if something comes up or rent reduction or if it’s even legal to do major works without informing the tenant and saying it’s a calm area when it won’t be

Building work is a pain but it's a totally normal, reasonable thing that happens. I agree that you should have been told (maybe the agents 'forgot') but I agree with a pp that you are catastrophising and making a massive fuss!

This sounds like maintenance work, and something the landlord does not have a say over, if it's being done to the block. You will likely have a better outside area once it's completed. Think of it as a short term pain for a long term gain. Honestly, it sounds like you are catastrophising over nothing. All properties require maintenance periodically.

We live in a ground floor apartment and our landlord has yet to tell us when anything is happening. The works just happen.

I've lived in similar conditions and really , it wasn't half as bad as you imagine. The men are there to do their job, they won't be wandering in and out of anybody's flats. And if you are on the ground floor they probably won't be around much anyway. It won't be "like a building site", they'll do one flat at a time and then move on.

Maintenance works like this tend to happen every 5-10 years. I used to own a flat in London that I rented it out and I used to always tell my tenants about any upcoming maintenance works that I knew about. However, sometimes they were delayed for up to 2 years and sometimes they would eg find something wrong with the roof and then fix it within a few months because they had to with a huge scaffold. I think the wir Dion here is whether the landlord intentionally misled you or not. If this is a 1 in a 10 year thing and it was scheduled for nowish he should have told you.

We have huge windows and get super hot, I can recommend thermal blinds, really help. Adopt a follow the sun to close/open them. Blinds247 or similar.

In the heat of summer you won’t want to open windows in the heat of the day, if it’s hotter outside than inside keep them closed, open them in the evening/night. When the workers aren’t there.

You don’t want to move, what were you planning on doing to keep place cool in summer? you can’t stop the work, how about using the work to ask for aircon?

We are currently privately renting a house having outgrown the last one but not finding anywhere to buy before Covid came. When we viewed it the letting agent told us that the semi-derilict house next door had been given permission to use the driveway and one wall for scaffolding that would be up for several weeks and would obscure light in one room downstairs and one room upstairs.

When we took the lease on the landlord himself rang to check we knew this and were OK with it.

The scaffolding has up been up a couple of weeks now. The landlord has bought us a takeaway to thank us for being accommodating and the builder (who contracted out the scaffolding) has bought us a bottle of wine and chocolates to say thanks for letting him use the property for access. The landlord has given us a rent reduction of 10 per cent because one of the rooms with obscured light really impacts on us.

The landlord is being so reasonable he is clearly aware that we are not going to benefit from this work at all; he is because the property next door won't look like an eyesore anymore.

I'm giving you this as an example of how someone should be treating you.

@Flittingaboutagain he sounds like a really good landlord! You got lucky. Don’t move!

It’s just the not telling us. Also informed from another tenant if we leave anything on the front balcony they have the right to throw it away as everyone has had notice... well we didn’t. Thankfully we don’t keep anything out there.

feel like we should have been told something

@Keratinsmooth we did look into this. But our windows are double the length of standard curtains and are floor to ceiling. If we do only stay a year that’s a lot of money for blinds we can’t do anything with. We have use of the back patio and there is always a breeze at the front as it’s on a moving lake. Therefore that’s why I wanted to keep those windows open. We have many fans and looking into getting use of a portable aircon! If we do stay longer I’ll definitely look into the blinds. Thanks!

@Musicaldilemma from what I’ve found out they were scheduled for last year but Covid put it on hold. So therefore it should be this year... he should have told us

@starrynight21 that’s good! The thing I’m worried about is the noise. Everything here is concrete and the balconies are metal. Then the garages which all 50 doors are being changed is behind my small patio. Think it’s going to be quite loud

Until the scaffolding goes up, you won't know how this will affect use of windows. This has never been an issue when we've had scaffolding up.

@Viviennemary

I'd be furious too. I don't know where you stand legally. I'd be tempted to move out and pay one months rent and let him sue you for the rest. Or ask to be rehoused by him as your place is uninhabitable.

And get a CCJ. Really? And the place is not uninhabitable - no authority would deem it so.

I’d be furious and upset.

The reason people are happy to put up with building work and consider it reasonable is because as property owners they get the long term benefit. You as a renter just get the disruption and quite likely a rent increase once the improvements are complete.

If you’ve been told to keep your windows shut it’s pretty clear the work they’re going to do is noisy, dusty and dirty and if they’re placing scaffolding on your balcony then you can presumably no longer access it.

Only the most patient of people would be ok with forming out a premium for a flat with a balcony only to be told they couldn’t use it for most of the year.

Think about what you want: to terminate the agreement and live elsewhere (there will be somewhere even if further out/more expensive/less desirable - you need to figure out priorities) OR a discount in rent. Consider what would be reasonable and make the suggestion.

Also talk to shelter.

So speak the the landlord and see what they say

Keep the curtains closed to keep the sun out, it will make the rooms cooler, and open the windows on the other side of the flat

If you don’t want to do that they move. We are coming up to spring and summer when you can go outside anyway