So fed up of renting/landlord

[User997]

I’m so fed up of my rented house and my landlord. I’ve tried many times to find somewhere else but there is no where else in budget, it’s just me and my young child living here.

There is so many problems with the house and nothing gets done about them. No smoke alarms upstairs and no fire escape in bathroom (window doesn’t work) the fireplace is years old and doesn’t work and it’s a big living room so gets really cold, there’s no radiators on that side.

when I moved in landlord had left kitchen half finished, had it re plastered but not decorated and said would get someone in but never did. There was a leak coming from the bathroom and kitchen the ceiling fell through when the previous tenant was here but he had the ceiling re plastered but didn’t check where the leak was coming through and it’s starting leaking again.

Carpets are worn and ripping. Along other things but it’s definitely not fit for purpose. Also gas and electric certificates are out of date

landlord keeps threatening me with eviction saying I haven’t paid my rent and then magically finding my paid rent. He keeps turning up and looking in the back garden and moving things around, and messaged me saying I need to mow the grass but it wasn’t even done when I first moved in

house was filthy when I moved in but he expects me too have it immaculate. His contractors never turn up to do works and all he does is say it’s not his problem, and that I need to chase them up.

just wanted to get this off my chase as it’s really getting me down and I feel stuck here

That’s shit, what a horrible horrible man.
Can you talk to shelter? A lot of it like the lack of fire alarms and gas certificate is illegal and potentially really dangerous for you.

There are things you can do - look on CAB website about how to complain about your landlord when they don’t do repairs and educate yourself about eviction processes. If there is no current gas safe cert then your landlord will not be able to evict you legally. What does your tenancy agreement say about the grass? Communicate in writing and/or follow up all phone calls with a confirmatory email so there is a paper trail.

and finally get on your council housing register if you are not already as this may increase your choices. Also make sure you are claiming all benefits you are entitled to as again this may mean you get some help paying the rent

Thank you both for replying. I will have a look on those websites

The gas cert expired in October this year so is 2 months out of date and nobodies been in touch about it

Regarding the grass it says it should be kept to the same condition as when I moved in but it was very over grown when I first moved in and was very cluttered, lots of things left in the grass and paving area and old cigarettes thrown everywhere. I do maintain in but my lawn mower broke so it has grown slightly. He’s turned up quite a few times over the last couple of months going in to the back garden

I moved into the house in June last year but the gas cert was not completed until the October

It is also illegal for the property to be rented without an EPC certificate of rating E or above (which will change to C or above in a couple of years), you can check if your house has one here: www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate
... And as of October also illegal to rent out a property without a carbon monoxide alarm.

So you could try to use those things to influence some improvement with help from CAB, but really ruthless awful landlords might revenge evict anyway depends what they think it's less hassle/how committed to being a bastard they are. Private renting in the UK can be so awful. I'm really sorry to great you are expected to live with their terrible property management op.i hope you escape soon.

Facebook has a group called Landlord and tenant advise UK.

It's fantastic and gives plenty of good advice

Your landlord is an unscrupulous disgrace. I have no real advice except what has been detailed above already. I have dealt with a few landlords and unfortunately have only had one that was OK. The rest unfortunately made us feel like they were doing us a favour letting their houses. Good luck.

He’s turned up quite a few times over the last couple of months going in to the back garden

This is also illegal as you are entitled to “quiet enjoyment” of the property ie the landlord can only let themselves in in an emergency, otherwise has to give you 24 hours notice of a visit which you can refuse