to withhold rent?

[lilacmoon78]

I rent a 2 bed flat with my partner - we sleep in separate bedrooms for personal reasons. The heating in the largest bedroom broke around a month ago and we reported it on PropertyFile (the app our lettings agency asked us to use to report maintenance issues) on 5th November. We have not been offered alternate heating or anything like that.
The lettings agency sent 2 separate maintenance men round (each a week apart) who both just looked at the radiator, said "yes it doesn't work" and left.
We called the lettings agency last week to ask what was going on and the woman on the phone said we should have been offered alternate heating - we still haven't been offered this.

We were then told they would send someone to replace it this morning but no one showed up - on messaging the maintenance man to ask where he was he said "Hi
I sent a message yesterday
Iv literally just seen it didn’t send
So sorry

We had expected the heater be here by now
But it’s been delayed
Should have it for Monday" (6th dec)

My partner works from home and has been unable to work at his desk or use his room at all for the last month as it is so cold in there (it has snowed heavily here recently) We have shared a bed every night - obviously not too bad as we are partners but there is a reason we rented a more expensive 2 bed flat instead of saving money and getting a 1 bed.

Our rent is due on the 14th of each month. We paid November's rent in full, but coming up to December's rent we feel resentful paying the full £1,100 in rent when we haven't had the use of one of the bedrooms for an entire month now.

Do we have any legal rights to withhold any of this rent?

No

It is never legal to withhold rent

It's a bad idea legally to withhold rent even if that seems terribly unfair.

You should pay your rent but then instruct a solicitor to write to your landlord telling them to fix the heating immediately and pay damages for the amount of time you have spent without it.

is there anything at all we can do about this?

we are getting increasingly frustrated

thanks @MojoMoon, would it be expensive to ask a solicitor to do this?

I'm surprised by the replies here but I'm in Ireland not the UK and haven't rented in years. However when I had a situation identical to yours it dragged on and on until eventually I refused to pay the rent. I shared with two ladies who were angry with me but as I said to them, their bedrooms were toasty while I could see my breath in mine and this problem had been going on for a year (obviously it wasn't cold all year).

However it seems not to be the done thing now according to the replies.

Get a oil filled radiator off FB for cheap to heat the room for now so it can be used. Don't withhold rent, this will put you in a precarious legal position.

Personally I might withhold rent in that situation and have done so in the past to get the landlord’s attention. It depends on the balance of power between you and the landlord though. 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/

Is it legal? Full answer above but in short, usually no but yes if you withhold rent to pay for the repairs yourself and follow procedure.

Mumsnet is not the best place for advice on this. Mumsnet is great at surveying public opinion for for legal advice I can think of few worse places to ask

I would definitely withhold.

OP in general landlords / managing agents are lazy because it simply isn’t their problem. Make it their problem. Be a pain. Phone twice a day, and bombard them with furious emails and threats of legal action. Withhold rent / invoice them for your wasted time in dealing with useless workmen. Make it easier to do the repair than to deal with you.

If you withhold rent they can slap an eviction/end of tenancy on you as quick as they like, and are more likely to do so if it's managed by an agency. They'd be able to show that they've tried to do something and that you are breaking the terms.
Have you put anything in writing to the agency? CAB may be able to help with a template letter.
But no, don't withhold any payment as that just puts you in the wrong. Sad but true.

if you withhold rent be prepared to be served notice
pester the landlord and buy your own heater to tide you over

You can’t withhold rent, you are risking court action. I would buy your oil filled radiator and send them the invoice, lots of people will tell you to withhold but they don’t have to live with the consequences.

Do not withold rent.

You can order a cheap heater from Argos or similar.

Withholding rent is a stupid idea. Ask your letting agent if there's anything the landlord can do as you've been without that radiator for so long.

Don't withhold rent, fucking up your credit report will have much more serious long term consequences than buying and running some electric heaters.

The short answer is no, there's nothing you can do other than give notice to leave. If you are contractually unable to give notice, the fact that it's so cold and they've not fixed things would go in your favour when it goes to court. It doesn't guarantee you'd win so there could still be serious consequences on your credit file but it would tip the balance more in your favour.