To think this is unacceptable? Landlord

[Flat642]

I rent a flat and I've been here for 5 years. I can't afford to move otherwise I would.

Whenever anything needs tending to my landlord kicks the can down the road. He has two 'handymen' he uses for everything from electrics to plumbing and if they're not available then nothing gets done.

When the lock broke on my front door he was happy to leave the flat unsecured for 24+ hours because he didn't want to pay out for a locksmith. I'm in a rough part of London on a busy road and have children. After a night of no sleep I went on YouTube and learned how to change a lock and did it myself.

The internal bedroom door lock jammed too and my kids couldn't go to bed. He suggested we all sleep in the living room and he'd see if one of his handymen could come out 'at some point'. My then partner had to damage the door to get access to the room in the end.

I've been without an oven for up to 2 weeks when the built in one broke down as he wanted his handymen to condemn it twice over before he considered replacing.

Problems with the electricity - he'll suggest everything other than calling an electrician.

Now my boiler isn't working. No hot water. As per usual I've got to wait for one of the handymen to become available whenever that is.

I feel like saying to him "I pay you £1000pcm just do your job and call in a flipping tradesman"

AIBU?

I forgot to add and its relevant, the two handymen he uses are his friends so of course he gets a huge 'mates rate'

Most councils have a private rented housing team. This team is usually the first point of contact if you want to complain about serious problems with your landlord.

No guarantee a tradesman would get there any sooner.
I was quoted by a retailer 18 MONTH wait on new appliances.

But he does get things fixed mostly? That would be quite a quick time to get an actual tradesman to fix those things in my own house, and realistically I'd be waiting more than a month right now as they've all got far too much work and can't be bothered with small jobs. Some of them are also seriously unreliable so I can see why your landlord would rather use trusted tradesmen he has.

I suspect if he uses his mates that may well be quicker than you'd get if you were calling in tradesmen. There can be a huge waiting list depending on area.
Over the last couple of years for me the wait has been:
Fencer-3 months
Roofer-6 weeks
Window (well they had to make the window first, which delayed it) 10 weeks
Plumber- 3 weeks...

Last time my boiler went it took: British gas came out immediately (2 hours) to check the gas supply.
They have to do that first because they didn't know if there was an issue with the gas. However they can't do anything other than put tape saying "condemned" round the boiler. They were pretty apologetic, but that didn't get me hot water.
The boiler repair chap wasn't too bad in coming. Was around 5 days. I phoned round lots of places and that was the quickest of the couple of dozen places I phoned. I suspect he may well have slipped me in too, as he came about 6pm. We then had about another 10 days wait for parts.

There's a shortage of parts, appliances and people to do the job currently.

He can’t get his mates to fox a boiler unless they are a registered gas engineer. It is illegal

YANBU.

People comparing it to getting tradespeople in to their own houses are making the wrong comparison - part of what you pay for when you rent is the security of knowing problems will be dealt with in a timely manner. You certainly shouldn't be left with no lock on the door overnight!

You could talk to Shelter about it, or even raise a complaint, but sadly, my long experience of renting is that people like this will simply issue you notice to leave and will get the next mug in. Are his handymen even qualified to do what they're meant to be doing? One of my LLs had a bloke who constantly came round to 'mend' the permanently on-the-blink boiler, and we found out later he wasn't in any way qualified and should never have been allowed to touch it.

I own my place and have no limit on money to spend fixing things.

Last time my boiler broke down I was without (gas-fired) heating and hot water for two weeks. (I bought an electric heater, and a cheap extra kettle to help with boiling water for the bath.)

When I tried to replace my built-in oven, Curries refused to install the new one because they said the circuit breaker had an insufficient rating. I lived with the new oven on my living room floor for a week until I could get an electrician to come and upgrade the circuit-breaker.

I have managed to get a Locksmith to my house within an hour or two of being locked out though.

People comparing it to getting tradespeople in to their own houses are making the wrong comparison - part of what you pay for when you rent is the security of knowing problems will be dealt with in a timely manner.

The point we're making is that timely does not mean faster than a home-owner can do it, and sometimes that's several times as long as anyone wants to wait.

£1k pcm is not nearly enough. If you aren’t happy, move. And that’s not a dig at you, but the short true answer to your question.

The point we're making is that timely does not mean faster than a home-owner can do it, and sometimes that's several times as long as anyone wants to wait.

Actually, it often does. I own my own home, and I would accept that I wouldn't pay for an emergency locksmith. But my landlord should.

Partly, this is because the LL has signed a contract which includes responsibility for maintaining things in decent condition, and partly because the tenant is paying for them to step in and sort things out if something goes wrong.

Likewise, there's nothing to stop me as a homeowner leaving a broken shower flooding my house - but my LL really would need to sort an emergency plumber.

I can’t agree with that, the reason landlords use ‘trusted tradespeople’ is especially relevant currently because trying to get a tradesperson is often very difficult and if you have an ongoing relationship with a few it is in their interest not to let you down. Of course as a tenant you should be able to expect your landlord to respond promptly to any issues but we’re not able to perform miracles I’m afraid. I know there are some appalling landlords out there and they make me very cross, I am in favour of a landlords register for this reason.

(Likewise, as a home owner I'm free to choose to try to keep a failing boiler going forever, even if it means going without heating/hot water for ages. It's my funeral. A LL is not entitled to deprive a tenant of heating/hot water just because they prefer to save money by dicking around making inadequate fixes. It sounds as if this is what is happening.)

I agree with this, especially where the lock is concerned, it's not the same thing, as the homeowner you're the one put out or taking the risk if you don't want to/can't get someone in for an emergency repair and you live with the concequences, if you're renting a property out, you're not the one living with the inconvenience or risk - your tenant is - the tenant that is paying for that service from the LL.
I can understand waiting because tradesmen are busy, that's part of life, and comes to homeowners and renters alike, but when it comes to something like not being able to lock a door or another emergency, then the LL should be able and willing to get someone out in an emergency to rectify asap and not expect the tenant to suck up any risk or inconvenience because sometimes homeowners have to wait.

Would people put up with it from a hotel or a holiday rental? If your door didn't lock on your hotel room or holiday let would you be looking for a resolution from the hotel/owner or thinking you had to suck it up because they don't want to pay for a locksmith and their handyman can't be contacted? Because essentially in both situations you're paying to rent a space for a period of time and have those issues sorted out by the person who owns the property.
And in the case of no heating/hot water/jammed door denying access to a room you've paid for, I bet most people would be wanting money off, not thinking oh well, such is life, homeowners can't get people so it's fair enough.

The handyman is abroad for atleast the next week, I've been speaking to him via text and he's done some guess work as to what the problem is and concluded that the boiler needs a specific part which he'll have to order and won't arrive for atleast the next 5 days. This is without him actually looking at it in person.

So we're without hot water for atleast another week.

I cant help but feel that it isn't good enough, I've got 3 children here. Is there really nothing else that can be done sooner or is this the shit reality when a boiler breaks down?

But you're not without hot water, because you have electricity and can boil water and do you have an electric shower or not? 2 weeks without a cooker isn't that bad - thats just a normal delivery time for getting a slot for a new cooker delivered for anyone now.

This is what life is like for most people now. I've been trying to get a builder for 18 months to finish my kitchen after the original one decided he and his team would rather work on new build housing estates. I can't get one. Theres just too much demand. I've got a second hand electric cooker and even when I finish my house, it will have a better second hand electric cooker because I prefer to save money.

Most boilers are manufacture in Italy or other countries now, not the UK and so getting parts is a nightmare. The handyman is probably familiar with your boiler and knows which part is needing replaced so whats the point in him wasting more time to make another appointment to come round and see it if he can just order the part? And if he doesn't do any repairs which involve the gas connection, then he doesn't need to be gas safe registered. But perhaps he is?

Why are so many things breaking in your house? It sounds like your 1k per month rent is less than your monthly repair/replacement costs! The solution is of course for your landlord to ask you to leave and then he can do up the house to a better standard and then charge £1500-£1800 for the same property.

There must be something else you can rent if its that bad.

I think it’s more the fact that he seems happier to get Laurel and Hardy out than actual qualified people. I’m sure she’d rather wait to have people who know what they’re doing than have those losers poking around and not actually doing anything.

YANBU. And I am a landlord. As a landlord you just have to suck it up and get important things fixed quickly.

All these things can be fixed immediately, you just have to pay more.

Do you have an EPC? And a gas safety certificate? Is the electrical safety certificate within the last 5 years?

The lock was unreasonable.

The rest, I'd say isn't that big of a deal. Landlords don't have access to a special group of tradespeople that can come faster than for Joe public. Even with a letting agent with in-house workman it can be days or weeks depending on the specific issue.

Then there's waiting for parts- covid, Brexit, Ukraine conflict means parts are in short supply. Particularly for boilers.

The tradesman doing work on the boiler needs to be gas Safe registered- is he?

That's entirely dependent on where in the country you are and what the issue is.

My tenants boiler broke. Had an engineer out same day - small part broken, 3 MONTH wait on the part. Ended up getting a new boiler for them (original was 3 years old and annually serviced), but that still took 2 weeks and I rang every engineer I could find details of and offered additional money. Getting the boiler was a big issue, getting someone registered with time to fix it also a huge issue!

@gothereagain, there's a massive difference between what the OP describes and someone who tries to mend a broken boiler, finds it can't be done and orders a new one, ending up with a two week wait. What you're describing is you being a good landlord. What the OP is describing is repeatedly being fobbed off with handymen instead of qualified people, and long waits that happen because equipment isn't properly repaired, or because the landlord won't admit it's beyond fixing.

Go on to the Shelter website. They will tenants rights have info on there.

But by the way www.ao.com do next day delivery and they fit the new oven and take old one away.

No gas safety certificate as there's no gas, everything is powered by electricity.

Why are so many things breaking in your house? It sounds like your 1k per month rent is less than your monthly repair/replacement costs! The solution is of course for your landlord to ask you to leave and then he can do up the house to a better standard and then charge £1500-£1800 for the same property.

I've had nothing but problems for years. The whole place needs knocking down and rebuilding. I've had endless problems with the electricity, plumbing, damp, issues with the windows and doors, bedroom flooding when there was heavy rain. Whenever one thing gets sorted something else goes wrong.

I like how your purposed 'solution' is for the landlord to make me and my children homeless so he can earn more money. That's very Tory of you.