Can I take this NIGHTMARE landlord to court?

[DisgracefulBehaviour]

We sold our house last year to release funds as we inherited a house in a different area that we wanted to live in ourselves due to position, large plot etc, as our forever home but the house itself needed fully gutting and we also wanted to add on a self contained annex for our disabled adult son which we needed planning permission for. Our youngest son was also due to start GCSEs so we decided to rent while we completed work on inherited house and he finished school when we will then move up there.

We found a rented property literally a few streets from our old house and stressed that we needed to rent for two years, landlord wanted long term renters so no problem.

Within a short time after moving in it became apparent there was a major issue in the house, house was tenanted previously but letting agents apparently were not aware. After months of toing and froing, landlord had to get builders in and complete costly work which took 8 weeks. We’d been in the property 3 months.

Landlord not happy as said he could not afford to do the work.

We’d requested compensation for the inconvenience as having builders in was a major disruption and we had issues with them leaving mess in the house. I was very upset that we had to leave people we did not know in the property while we were all out.

Landlord said compensation was not justified! Decided not to pursue it as we didn’t want to antagonise the landlord and get kicked out.

A month ago, I contacted environmental health due to a further issue the landlord has refused to deal with. The officer also noticed a major issue that needed immediate rectification so landlord had to do more work.

We have now been served with a Section 21 - no reason given - after 6 months.

I am absolutely furious I have to say. Rent paid on time, house immaculate etc.

We put up with all the work being done as we expected when it was done, we’d be left to it and obviously didn’t want to move again in such a short time considering our timescale. We’d never taken the property if we had known this would happen. It’s a high rent for our area too!

We also never had a copy of the EICR, a serious safety hazard pertaining to that was what was picked up by environmental health, so we are assuming a report was never done.

I have an online court claim prepared to sue the landlord for all 6 months rent in compensation, for stress and breach of quiet enjoyment. I think I have a chance of success.

AIBU?

Basically your costing the landlord money so he's evicting you. You should have kept quiet done yours up then moved into your new home God knows why you keep bothering the landlord

Yes, my landlords try and use a Section 8 ground if they can, most commonly Ground 1. You can use this one to gain possession if you have ever lived at the property or intend to move in to it.

The OP is paying top dollar for 2 years. It’s reasonable to expect the house to be well maintained. If you read all her posts, the faults were known by the landlord prior to the tenancy commencement. She has had to suffer the inconvenience of remediation work whilst living in the property, whereas a reasonable landlord should have made the repairs prior to letting.
Greedy landlord.

Kept quiet about water pouring through the dining room ceiling (literal torrents on two separate occasions), through the light fitting, the dining room ceiling then having a gaping hole in it after it dried and sagging to the point plaster was falling on the floor, a silverfish infestation where they were on beds and clothes?

You are obviously being deliberately obtuse and childishly antagonistic. Hope you enjoyed getting off on that.

Didn’t even expect well maintained tbh. House is dated throughout but liveable with short term.

Just expected not to have water pouring through ceiling (onto PC workstation), ceiling then almost falling down, being left without any working bathrooms, not having the use of one we were paying for the use of for 4 months, being left without a working boiler in freezing temps or having at least 12 contractors constantly in and out including 8 weeks of disruption with builders in while trying to work from home!

It would have been different if it the issues had started AFTER we moved in but we have evidence that they were present before.

It would have been different if it the issues had started AFTER we moved in but we have evidence that they were present before.

What evidence? Proving issues before you signed the tenancy you mean?

Emotional distress isn’t something you can get compensated for in England.

Focus on researching what claims you have for renting a defective property and not benefitting from quiet enjoyment.

I’m sure others will have told you already but just in case.

If you have the time, energy and finances to take him to court then do it.

He's a shonky landlord and hopefully the hassle of court will persuade him to sell up.

Many tenants wouldn't have the freedom of going to court either because of the financial cost or the risk of being blacklisted by other shonky landlords.

Just don't actually expect anything to be paid - my current tenant is owed compensation from her previous landlord, but he's just declared himself bankrupt to avoid paying. He has thankfully sold his rental so no one else's family will be put in danger.

Actually you are wrong and yes I have.

Lol ok.

It may be technically possible but it's a really high bar and won't be awarded unless the situation is pretty extreme. It sounds like you may succeed in arguing the rent should have been reduced for a few months, as you were not getting full benefit from the property. But you won't get as much as you think, especially if you overegg the pudding, judges hate that.

Can you link to where what you’ve come onto this thread to claim is proven so I can LOL………….

It would have been different if it the issues had started AFTER we moved in but we have evidence that they were present before.

Can you answer this please? Do you have evidence that there were issues before you started the tenancy?

I mean I do this for a living but I’m not going to bother engage on a thread with someone who responds so rudely to well intended advice. So all the best to you OP.

Yes, we have written evidence the landlord had quotes to replace both bathrooms 6 months before we moved in but chose not to proceed, also that a the dining room ceiling had been patched up due to a leak a day before we moved in. Also that previous tenants had replaced the bath themselves without permission but neither the landlord nor the letting agent had bothered to check it had been fitted properly via a qualified plumber, namely the waste pipe, hence torrents of water coming through the ceiling when we used it, TWICE.

FWIW I agree with the others that this will cost you more money and stress than you will gain.

However seeing as you have decided to go ahead, I wish you luck and hope you win, because I also agree that situation with landlords taking the piss in this country is a travesty. If you want to take them on at your own expense to set precedents and prove a point re. tenant rights then I applaud you and suggest you also contact the local press if you win.

How dare you accuse ME of being rude when you LOLed first. You did not give any well intended advice, you LOLed.

Bonkers!

Was there any offer of reduction of rent or any other accommodation whilst the major work was being carried out, I really cannot see how Landlord could expect a family to continue living there with so many problems. Yes, I would take it to Court for reimbursement of rent, stress etc, detail the number of times you’ve had to be available for work/visits etc.

It's hard to give an opinion when nobody uon the thread knows what the state of the house was and how necessary the improvements were. Was the house habitable or not. I think you could claim for the rent while the builders were there if there was a lot of disruption to your daily living.

I thought as much. None of that is useful to your 'case' btw. Quite the opposite. All it shows is that you willingly entered into a contract with a clearly lazy and dodgy landlord, and then feel like suing him because he turned out to be a lazy and dodgy landlord...

Judges don't like people sniffing around for an easy payday. As far as I can see you walked into this with your eyes wide open. All the red flags were waving and you went ahead anyway. You don't get compensated for that.

You've got no claim for anything breach of contract related, or misrepresentation related for the excessive claim in your OP, because you were in full possession of all material information about a landlord who will skirt the very edges of the law, without breaking it.

'It's so unfair' is not the basis of a legal claim. Most you'd get is 8 weeks rent and pursue the EICR. No compensation, no 'emotional distress', and if you get greedy with your claim all the judge would see is a tangled mess of mutual bickering and fault on both sides, and you risk the whole thing being thrown out with you getting nothing. HTH.

As you’re using “LOL” as a verb, I LOL’d after your rude response to my post.

Absolute bonkers!

I’d also get yourself set up with somewhere else to live before you kick off too much. What if the next property you see that you want to move into comes from the same agents?

Also be aware estate agents whilst competitors do all chat to each other regularly.

’. DS came down one morning with one on his school shirt which was hanging washed and ironed in his wardrobe, cue mass panic and having to rip it off while I was desperately trying to catch the speedy slithering thing. That was the last straw!’

A silverfish is about half an inch long at most, they are not slimy, in fact I think they are rather sweet. If your son is upset by a small legless insect to that extent, I think you have more problems than a dodgy landlord.

’Mass panic’ ! Blimey….

What the actual hell?

How did you get from my post that we knew all this BEFORE we signed the tenancy agreement and moved in? We obviously didn’t or we wouldn’t have btw.

Posters on this thread are wilfully misconstruing and twisting what I post.

I wonder why?

No you said it first. In response to me stating your claim was incorrect.

Now claiming you didn’t.

As I said, bonkers AND childish/immature.