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

So you landlord wants to do work to maintain / improve the property that you currently rent from them and you see that as an opportunity to potentially pay less rent.
entitled much !

Sounds like it might be cladding/fire safety related. In which case, I'd rather pay the full amount knowing my safety is being taken seriously rather than go for a discount.

When my flat (rented out) had to have work done (subsidence), there wasn't too much disturbance at all, despite the builders warnings. You might find it's nowhere near as bad as you think.
Couldn't you go to your local library to work?

3 months of scaffolding, dust, noise and disruption is very different to a broken washing machine or an issue that would take a week or 2 max to repair. FFS

I have been a landlord previously and we needed some extensive work doing which required basically half of the garden being unusable for a substantial length of time. I think it was around 8 or 9 weeks in the end. Of course we offered a reduction. We had good tenants and they were understanding of the work needed, but also it disrupted the enjpyment of the home they were renting for that length of time and could not use a large amount of the garden. So under the cirscumstances you have described OP I think it is fair they consider a reduction whilst work is ongoing as it will be a huge disruption for a significant chunk of time.

I also know other people who rent out property and most try and do any substantial work inbetween tenants - unless it is urgently required. And anything which needs urgently doing which will have a significant impact on their tenants living standard will all offer a discount for the inconvenience.

I think OP is very understanding of the situation and the need for work to be done, but it is going to have a huge impact on them for the next 3 months and this should be taken into account.

Writing as a landlord who is participating with 8 other leaseholders of a block of flats in the extensive repairs/modernisation of the roof and exterior of the block, as well as common parts inside the block, I can assure you that the work being done is for the owners' benefits, since the work being done will increase the sale value of each flat by at least £50,000. As I said in an earlier post, as my tenants work from home and the work has been disruptive and noisy, I automatically offered them a reduction in rent for the inconvenience it caused them for a certain period. This was selfishly also because they are good tenants and I wouldn't want to lose them, nor have the hassle of finding new ones, even for a potentially higher rent. I currently have no intention of selling the flat or increasing their rent once the work is done, though it seems from other comments on this thread that this isn't thought to be typical landlords' behaviour.

The works finish in October. Also 11+ starts in October for the other one

Op

It is ALL external

having just had roof and facade work done, I can assure you that internally, it truly isn’t that big a deal

no one came around to access the roof in order to quote?!

I don't get why not? Things like Air Pods mean you can't hear anything and the person at the other end of the call can't hear things in your house, no?

I do think the notice is too short and unreasonable, though.

Luckily it broke when it wasn't cold, but it was a combi boiler so wasn't much that could be done for hot water other than use a kettle.

The heating engineer went out initially within 24 hours and confirmed it wasn't fixable, so needed replacing. Getting a boiler replaced within a week is nothing short of a miracle nowadays. We had to wait a month when our one broke in our own house.

Their boiler was serviced and maintained every year, but just broke down. I'm not sure what more could have been done - put a new boiler in every year, just in case?!

What you are legally required to do as a landlord when a tenant's boiler breaks down, @MooMooSharoo, is make sure the tenants have access to hot water for bathing and washing dishes, and heating (if heating is needed) within 24 hours because it is a health hazard.

If you can't replace the boiler within 24 hours, a kettle is fine for washing up. You would need to pay for alternative accommodation or the use of alternative washing facilities (eg at a gym/pool) if there is no hot water to bathe. It's wise to have an electric shower fitted in rental properties as a back up for this reason. If heating is required, you should provide electric heaters and pay for any extra energy costs.

Personally I’d just be thankful you have a landlord willing to do repairs, and to keep the property nice. I hear of so many people who aren’t this lucky

Remember a landlord can increase the rent too, so if you get on the wrong side of them they may put it up

Beggars belief! Landlords can’t do right for doing wrong. LL is clearly trying to ensure the property is up to standard. Yes it’s not ideal and some more notice would’ve been better but given how hard it is to find reputable tradespeople I wouldn’t hold them to ransom. You could equally have a LL who doesn’t give a shit. What would you rather?

And for what it’s worth if you were my tenant (I am a landlord) and you came to me whinging about me to trying to upkeep my property and ensure YOUR home is safe, secure etc I would be seriously considering if you were the right person to be living in my property

Maybe you should look at the rights of tenants as well.

Doesn't mean you don't tell your tenants. The works seem very intrusive

it sounds like this won’t be a very good environment for learning over the coming three months.

Ypur subsequent posts make me lose sympathy for you. You’re making quite tendentious excuses and “what ifs”.

You can manage around exterior building works. It’s surprising how little noise from roof works transmits into a house. Maybe move your WFH space to the ground floor?

Your LL is correcting an error made by a contractor. I’ll bet that if there were repairs that needed doing that you felt affected you, you’d be clamoring for them to be done yesterday.

The owner of the house wants to keep their property in good shape. Why are you complaining about this?

If you don’t like works done, move or buy your own property. Then you might understand why your landlord is actually doing a good thing.

Oh to have a landlord that actually does work on the property, and tells you.

I came home to my rented flat one day years ago to find my staircase had been moved!

The notice period is definitely ridiculous, especially for three months of work. I wonder if your landlord just assumes that everyone's out of the house during the day, but that's no excuse, they definitely should have discussed it with you much earlier.

For your work (maybe this already been suggested) - you could potentially look into co-working spaces. My city has them - you pay a fee to use a desk/office space for a few hours/a day/a week depending on what you need. I'm not sure if they would allow your kids to accompany you though.

Or an alternative would be city/town libraries which will have computers as well as kids areas, and will be free. It's obviously not fair that you should be in this situation at all, but unless your landlord postpones the work (which will probably just create the same problem later in the year), it sounds like you're stuck.

Sorry but this made me laugh 😂🙈

Ugh!! Everyone acting like she should be grateful work is getting done...
It's 3 months of disruption and noise and being surrounded by scaffolding with feck all notice... It's going to make her work and schooling arrangements pretty unmanageable in a long term way...
And she would have chosen to just move out if she'd known... at which point, of course, likely noone else would want to move in....
So yeah, I think rent reduction is certainly in order, or maybe she can be allowed to be immediately released from her contract (even though it will be a pain)...
3 month works don't just get planned overnight and then booked for the next week... And realistically it will probably be even longer.... The LL knew about this and chose not to tell her.

It's going to make her work and schooling arrangements pretty unmanageable in a long term way.

drama llama 😂

it is all external. Having just had the similar to my property - there’s no dust, no builders underfoot and little noise

Unmanageable 😂

I am curious how it would appear that all this work os going ahead but never once did the contractor actually visit the property to assess the roof and do any investigations in order to quote.

Renters should be able to raise issues without fear of being punished via rent hikes.

In additon, the LL wouldn't be able to get new tenants at market price anyway whilst this work is being carried (no one is going to choose to rent a place where they get no natural sunlight and cannot open the windows in the height of summer, if they don't have to)

@Lonelycats I've had a rent reduction when scaffolding was put up all over the building which meant for security reasons we had to lock all the windows at night - this was during one of the heatwaves where the flat was getting to 37 degrees (!) and recommendations were to shut windows in the day and open at night.

The property manager handles all contact with the tenants (and ultimately it's not my property either), so I'm not sure exactly what the conversations were. I know they were offered heaters but declined them.

This website would suggest that a kettle is sufficient for washing purposes.

"Lack of hot water is an emergency regardless of the season. Tenants can use a kettle for boiling water for washing purposes, but that doesn’t mean landlords can hold out on the repairs.

Some repairs might take more than the reasonable time, in which case the landlord needs to provide equipment for heating. If your landlord cannot fix the problem in time and cannot provide any replacement heaters, you should ask for temporary accommodation. You can stay with a B&B or a hotel for a few days, while waiting for the repairs to be done. This should be covered by your landlord, but if it is not, you have a strong claim for compensation with the courts."

Yes, an electric shower might be a good idea in the future, if and when this shower breaks, but hopefully now there's a brand new boiler in place there won't be any issues for a number of years to come.

I'd like to think DH is a good landlord. From our point of view at least, the managing agent seems pretty good too (other than charging DH £100 for a new shower head once!) and these tenants have been great too - they've been there for about 5 years now I think. There were concessions during Covid when they couldn't afford to pay their rent and they have a short 2-month rolling tenancy contract at their request as they're on a social housing waiting list.

I do think OP's landlord should offer some compensation though for the disruption that the works will cause.

No.

They have to get a contractor to attend within 24 hours, not complete the repair within that time.

The landlord can't physically provide hot water but they can heaters via plug in heaters. A kettle boiling hot water isn't hot water for bathing.

It would depend on the needs of the tenants as to when you could decide to decant.

Also compensation should be provided. You wouldn't expect to pay full price at a hotel and not receive a discount, so why is a home any different.