To ask for a reduction in rent?

[Lonelycats]

Landlord just told us that a three months long extensive refurbishment project is starting NEXT WEEK! Scaffolds, windows covered up, extensive work on our roof. Landlord says to expect ‘some dust’ and also says the works are noisy by nature.

I know that the landlord is not required to compensate us is in any way, but is it worth asking?

• With such short notice we were never given an opportunity to plan around these works, or move out.
• I work from home (I know it’s not their problem as the house was not advertised as office space, but these are my circumstances)
• we have only planned two weeks holiday as one of my children is doing exam revision this year so we are going to be here for the next five weeks…! Studying and working. Other children are in day camps in and off to allow for some peace and quiet at home. I’d lose all my money for these activities if we were to try and go somewhere else for the summer
• I can’t bear the thought of not being able to open any windows on a hot day

We have a good landlord, it’s a professional landlord with a large portfolio. They have mostly responded very quickly to the rare issue. That’s why I was a bit surprised that they wouldn’t give us a bit more notice, it would have helped us so much to be able to plan ahead with regards to our work and study arrangements

Thanks so much for the hands on advice, will do!

That was for you @Stratocumulus

Landlords can't win, here is one keeping a property in good repair and they're getting blasted. From what you've said it also sounds like it's repairs to previous work, so again not something they're choosing to do but something to make sure the fabric of the building is in good condition. It also sounds (unless I'm mistaken) that the work is all outside, so not impacting the inside of your property?

It's not easy to get a tradesperson to give an exact date when they'll start, a week is more than standard. I'm a homeowner and just had work done on my house and my (great) builders only gave me a weeks notice of an exact date, that's how the trades work.

Have you asked them if they can move the works back to give you more chance to prepare?

I expect the lack of notice is more likely to be driven by the contractors than the landlord.

We ( freeholders) were supposed to have some work done in April, it was put off for various reason until they rang up yesterday and said they could start today! Men and materials are in short supply. They are outside making a racket now, even though it’s my birthday.

I don’t suppose the landlord wants water pouring in this winter. I don’t suppose you do either.

presumably if you have a mortgage you know when and what works are happening?

In other countries there would be a legally mandated notice period for this and also an automatic rent reduction for not having full use of what you pay for.

You should be able to find the certificate. I would assume thia work might be to get it to C if it isn't yet.

But as you mention it's liated, it can be a remedy work dictated by council, since you said the one before made some mistakes.

Annoying though, but I wouldn't ask for discount. I would though ask for updates on work and headphones with noise cancelling microphone thing

They’re hardly getting blasted?

And about the exact start date: maybe that was decided with very little notice but not the fact that these works were being planned, and the extent of the planned works would also have been known to the landlord.

Headphones won’t help with work calls.

They make onea where microphone cancels surrounding noise. Used in callcentres and auch. Can be hooked to phone afaik as well as pc.

Anyways the reason for asking was to sense check my thoughts, so thank you to everyone who took the time to reply, it helps greatly as I understand my position much better having read what you all wrote.

I think at the very minimum we will ask for a schedule of the works so we know when the noise will be at peak levels and how long each stage of the works is expected to take. They also said October was an estimated finish date… I fear it may overrun

Use headphones with a build in microphone for Zoom calls. Most decent ones are noise-cancelling, so you clients won't hear a thing.

I have mixed feelings on this. DH has a property he rents out and I was wondering what he would do in this situation if the house needed some major repairs.

I would like to think he would offer them some sort of credit against the rent for the inconvenience caused. That said, when the boiler broke, he had it replaced as soon as possible, but the tenants were still inconvenienced for a week or so. No credit was given then, as, ultimately, it's just one of those things that could happen when you either rent or own.

I think the time factor is what is making the biggest difference to me though in this scenario. If you're going to have noisy, dirty, disruptive works to your home for 3 months, that's a very different thing compared to a week without hot water.

I think you need to clarify whether they will be expecting to use your power and water supplies though. If they are, you definitely should be getting reimbursed for any extra costs incurred.

Also I think you can raise concerns over noise, heat, dust and schedule with your landlord, but asking for a reduction in rent seems like chancing your arm a little.

As a landlord, I always give a rent reduction for an agreed period when I know there are scheduled works which are likely to upset the routine of tenants, particularly as the current ones work from home. Unfortunately, we have had works needing to be done on the block for a decade or so and although they have finally been planned for since 2020, the owners of flats in the block often only get notified by the property managers the evening before the work is due to start, so it's obviously hard to give tenants advance warning in that case.

Do you like the house, OP? Do you like the area? Would you like to stay there? You've said the landlord is professional and is clearly prepared to spend money on keeping the property in good order which would seem to be bode well.

If it's yes to those questions, I'd count my chickens. You've talked about works to the facade and having to live with scaffolding and noise — presumably at the front of the house. So how about moving the room in which you work to the back of the house, temporarily? There'll be residual noise but probably not so bad and you can have a window open.

Do you have friends/ family/ neighbours in the area who might be able to offer a quiet spare bedroom in which you could work temporarily? Could your DD go and study with a friend? Or in the library (lots of kids studying at my main library). There will be lots of days when there's no one working on the house. It doesn't take three months of continual work to sort out exterior issues. There'll be wet days and weeks when no one's around.

Have a cup of tea, calm down and try not to catastrophise. Worse things happen at sea.

You left your tenants without hot water and heating for a week? Unfortunately you can't compare it as "one of those things" to be compared to an owner-occupier and you should have provided some monetary compensation.

You left your tenants without hot water and heating for a week? Unfortunately you can't compare it as "one of those things" to be compared to an owner-occupier and you should have provided some monetary compensation.

I went three weeks this winter without heating and hot water. I own my own home and I simply couldn't get an engineer out before that. I rang everyone available in the area. British Gas came out to have a look but couldn't do the work for weeks.

Do you really imagine that home-owners have some magic number they dial and hey presto, a new boiler in 24 hours? Reality check required.

Poor you, sitting in your home, with your mortgage, on your asset.

Grateful you don't know anything about housing law.

Erm no pay your rent he's improving his house which is a good landlord and your going to benefit

It’s all of the house on all three sides unfortunately .

It's not benefiting her. It's outside the property.

I agree with you.

No person viewing this property with a view to renting it would take it on if they knew about a forthcoming quarter of the year being so disrupted 😱

I'm a Landlord and I would absolutely discount the rent under these circumstances. My tenants are paying for a service and part of that service is 'quiet enjoyment'. Perhaps I wouldn't if it was a week or two (I sent a hamper to my tenants as a thank you for being so tolerant when I had to have a roof repaired that took 5 days), but 3 MONTHS? That's awful. So disruptive and intrusive.

If I were you I wold find a (reasonable) quote for local office space and ask for the LL to cover/contribute. Hopefully you can get a space with two desks so your revising child can go with you. There is a balance to be struck here, but this is absolutely not reasonable through school holidays/exam periods.

Just my opinion, and definitely get advice from Shelter on this. x

As far as I know this is something you can negotiate on but may not be required for the landlord to offer.

I lived in a houseshare where the landlord took the kitchen out of use for six weeks to re-do, as well as building an understair wet room (all with the plan of renting it at higher cost) Builders given keys, in and out all day, no supervision. No locks on our bedroom doors (not to accuse builders of anything but we had no way of vetting them, or managing privacy)

All the LL was required to compensate us was £10 a day to 'cover' the cost of eating out.
When the work was complete he served us all with s21 notices, increased the rent per room as well as converting the living room into a bedroom to increase the overall rent. I had to argue even to get him to replace my hoover that the builders had killed by using it to hoover up brick dust.

Renting sucks.