To expect Landlord to compensate me through rewiring?

[tearsandtiaras]

Landlord is trying to raise the rent by £250 a month with 3 weeks warning despite the tenancy saying a 3 month notice period should be given.

I approached the local authority for advice they requested he provide required LL documents including the Electrical Installation / Energy certification . He could not provide as there was none. An electrician came and failed the the EI cert on many points all of which were CO2 and said a whole flat rewiring needs to take place

My questions are:

• can LL legally raise rent when flat has no electrical certificate?
• Do I receive compensation for the flat rewire?

Co2?

Bunch of separate things here

Electrical safety certificate (testing all appliances and mother board, pass or fail)
Energy Performance Certificate (eg how Energy efficient your property is, will be a letter from A to F)

What is C02? If you mean carbon monoxide (eg gas safety certificate) and there are problems there, that is very high risk and you should call the local gas distribution company today to get their gas switched off until fixed. Google gas leak and name of your area to find the right one.

If you are out of a fixed term contact what is normal is that your landlord gives you notice to quit e.g. section 21.

Anyway your best bet is to contact Shelter asap for advice.

@MojoMoon The OP would be left with no heating and hot water. As it would be the OP's fault the landlord would not rush to fix it regardless of their legal duties.

Also am electrician isn't qualified to say a boiler is safe or not, it has to be a Gas Safe certified tradie.

OP go to a DIY store and buy yourself a carbon monoxide alarm. Put it next to your boiler. If it goes off then contact the landlord to get the boiler fixed asap.

This is the link to the regulations that changed in 2020. It is a legal requirement now for a LL to have a EIC.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electrical-safety-standards-in-the-private-rented-sector-guidance-for-landlords-tenants-and-local-authorities/guide-for-landlords-electrical-safety-standards-in-the-private-rented-sector

If there is a clause in the tenancy about rent increases then the LL must stick to that.

https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/rent-increases

I would not expect compensation for rewiring, as it has to be done by law. I work for a LA and no tenant has ever asked for or received compensation for rewiring.

Why would you get compensation if the flat is required?

They were right. The landlord should have an EPC by law to rent out their property. I'm not sure of how that affects the rent increase.

So your landlord needed a complete Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) and an electrical test.

The outcomes will wither be he gets it fixed within 28 days, or the property will be declared inhabitable and you'll have to move out.

As for compensation that is a civil matter, and would require you to take your landlord to court, good luck with that. You would also have to prove that you have suffered.

Once the work is done and he received his certificate there is no reason for him not to raise the rent.

I expect the OP means C2, a classification for items identified in the electrical inspection report which are "potentially dangerous". Anything classified as C1 or C2 means the installation is unsatisfactory and must be put right.

It's worth speaking to Shelter, definitely. There was a case some years ago where a judge found that as the relevant docs (gas safety cert, how to rent booklet etc) weren't given to the tenant before the start of the tenancy, the tenancy wasn't an assured shorthold and the LL couldn't use S21 to evict. In doing that, they had inadvertently created a secure tenancy. However, that may have been overturned since then.

I think compensation for a rewire is unlikely, tbh. Plenty of people have their houses rewired while they're living in them, even though it's pretty messy.

Forget about AIBU, and rent increase, what you need is legal advice. You might a have a much bigger case against your landlord as from the information you provided it looks like he failed within his legal obligations as a landlord.

You could get much bigger compensation from him because of that, and also he might to fob you off by serving a no fault eviction notice.

A few ways to start if you don't have a solicitor:

• try your council or shelter for advice
• try workplace legal advice if that's something your employer provides
• you can post in legal matters on Mumsnet but it's a bit random whether you get valid responses. I recommend Reddit r/LegalAdviceUK, it's much better as moderators filter the non-legal answers and you have some very good solicitors giving free advice there

Bigger picture: the electrics in your home are not safe.

Move house!

He can't serve a valid notice if he hasn't issued the tenant with EPC, gas safety cert, electrical cert, how to rent booklet