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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that there must be some landlords who will actually do repairs

33 replies

Kaloki · 09/07/2010 13:58

I've had enough of landlords not doing repairs to rented properties.

Some of you may remember my past landlords, but just in case..

Flat 1 - roof and skylight leaked for 4 months and we had to get environmental health involved before anything would be done about it.

Flat 2 - no heating, no electricity. We had to go to a solicitor to get out of our contract as they wouldn't do anything.

Now our current flat, we had a gas leak the other week from next to our meter. So we called out Transco, who discovered that because of the way the meter was fitted you couldn't actually get to the valve to turn off the gas. Turns out they'd notified the landlord a few times before to get it fixed and nothing had been done. So this time they decided to come round and move it/fix it for us and charged the landlord. The landlord then complained that he didn't want to get them to do it (too late) and that he had a part ready to be fitted and was waiting for someone to come round and fit it for us but that they were too ill to do so at the time.

Few problems with that.
One - the part he wanted fitted was not suitable.
Two - the person fitting it is actually a family friend of DP's and wasn't ill, instead they hadn't been told about it.
Three - they aren't corgi registered and wouldn't have been able to fit it anyway.

Now we've been told that all the other repairs around the flat (some of which we told them about the day we moved in) will not be done and that we should pay to fix them ourselves. (This includes a broken boiler and the fact that they've never fitted a smoke alarm)

So AIBU in thinking that maybe one day we will find a landlord who will actually do repairs? Am I just wildly imaginative?

OP posts:
ShinyAndNew · 09/07/2010 14:00

I've never met one yet. I've a few rented houses. Ime, there are far more lazy landlords than there are decent ones. Most of them nowadays are just regular people who fancied being a LL during the property boom, but don't really have a clue.

Could you rent via an agency? They seem to be much better at getting LLs to do things.

Original poster
Kaloki · 09/07/2010 14:02

That's the problem Shiny, all of our properties are via agencies.

Our current agency wont do anything to push him as they are worried that he'll take his business elsewhere.

OP posts:
Original poster
Kaloki · 09/07/2010 14:03

In fact, yesterday they said "would you like us to get you out of your contract so you could move somewhre else?"

Yeah.. thanks.. will you pay for removals and find us a place we can afford too? I'm refusing to hold my breath on that one..

OP posts:
Rhian82 · 09/07/2010 14:04

Our landlord is brilliant - if there's a problem he'll come round straight away, and you'll have a professional sorting it if needed within a day or so. So they do exist!

We're about to leave him to rent off a friend - risks I know but the property's in great shape.

Iklboo · 09/07/2010 14:06

Ours is brilliant. The shower broke the day before Good Friday so we were expecting someone Tuesday after Easter Monday at the earliest. He got someone round on the Saturday after apologising that he couldn't find anyone to come out on the Friday

ShinyAndNew · 09/07/2010 14:07

Go to your local council and ask to see your housing advisor. They will be more than happy to 'push him' and the agency for you. And add him to their LL blacklist.

When you move ask the council and they should have a list of approved LLs. That's how my council works anyway.

Original poster
Kaloki · 09/07/2010 14:09

Ooh that's interesting Shiny! THankyou for that

Rhian and Ikboo that's a relief to know there are good ones out there. It's really tiring going from one bad situation to another. Hopefully one day we'll get lucky

OP posts:
MrsC2010 · 09/07/2010 14:23

I do. Only had 2 to do since renting my flat out nearly 2 yrs ago, 1 repair done in 24 hrs and one within 4 hrs.

scaryteacher · 09/07/2010 14:34

I do as well; or my Letting Agent organises it, and we get them done asa humanly p.

Colliecross · 09/07/2010 14:38

My last landlord used a lousy agency.
The glass in the back door was broken by the previous tenant on leaving.
After 10 weeks of pleading with them over my security (single at the time, mad ex threatening me, neighbours all away etc) I had to get the local police involved to tell them to do it right away.
It then only took another 4 days including the excuse 'we can't get a pane of glass cut.'
Yes they can, 2 places in the town do it to my certain knowledge.

BextheBambi · 09/07/2010 14:44

yep landlords can be pretty annoying at repairs.
My previous landlord ignored our pleas to do something about the smell coming from the flat below, eventually someone had to break in turned out the tenant had died in there; he did nothing about the cockroaches that infested our flat because of the flat below; i had so many sleepless nights because my bed wasnt put together properly and kept falling through.
In the end my parents and my then BF,now partner, said enough was enough and now we have the best landlord.

he helped up build a scaletrix course round the whole house.

curableromantic · 09/07/2010 14:46

I treat my tenants very well - I've replaced everything that needs it immediately with good quality new stuff (I'm very jealous of their lovely retro fridge with wine cooler every time the open tin of beans falls on my foot out of ours) , had a combi boiler installed because they wanted to have longer showers and they have a handyman number they call if anything goes on the blink. Unfortunately they have now come to see me as a mother figure - they other day I had a call from one of them in tears because a dog barking had kept her awake and the other one gave me a list of light bulbs that needed replacing in her room, bless her...

Colliecross · 09/07/2010 14:49

curableromantic I wish you were my landlord. Sometimes the lid doesn't close completely on my kitchen bin.

curableromantic · 09/07/2010 15:20

oh Collie if you were mine I'd buy you one of those new ones you just wave at nonchalantly and it opens

UndertheBoredWalk · 09/07/2010 15:23

My landlord is fab, he runs a building company and manages some rentals aswell, so if anything goes wrong he just finds the right tradesman from his company and sends them straight round, usually within 1/2hr!

I've never rented through an agency in over 10yrs renting and I've so far never had a bad landlord. All the horror stories I've heard are from people with agencies tbh.

LittleMissHissyFit · 09/07/2010 15:24

Hold on, isn't it the LAW to have a smoke alarm? Isn't a gas leak clearly invalidating the LL gas safety certificate?

Get yourself down to the CAB pronto and tell them what's going on, I can't think it's permissible for your LL to take money from you and leave you in a potentially dangerous property?

trixie123 · 09/07/2010 15:27

we are landlords for just one flat via an agency and do our best to sort out problems but sometimes the agency holds things up by not acting on our instructions or sending emails to DPs work address when he has told them he is away and must be phoned, things like that. One of those perennial problems. Also we have occasionally refused to do things when it is simply a matter of the tenants preference for something rather than something actually being broken. One of the downsides of renting is that you can't have everything just the way you'd like it. We do generally try our best though - I try to imagine how I'd feel if I was tenant

LittleMissHissyFit · 09/07/2010 15:27

My ex LL was - actually still IS the LLFH, am fighting her for my deposit. She was private, no self respecting agency would represent a scumbag like her.

My new LL is wonderful.

I only have to give my bin a meaningful look, and it opens....

curableromantic · 09/07/2010 15:33

All the spoiling pays off though - my tenants are in their third year, have never missed a payment and are not planning to move which is a massive saving in letting fees (about 2k every time), hassle and risk of new tenants not paying etc.

I try to remember this every time I have to deal with one of their dramas...

dilemma456 · 09/07/2010 15:57

Message withdrawn

QueenofDreams · 09/07/2010 16:05

Oh you don't want to get me started on nightmare landlords. We even ended up with the police involved at one point (although that was because of the agent trying to force his way into the flat and DP lost his rag)
Thankfully now we seem to have a decent landlord - we had the electrics in the kitchen blow due to a leaking pipe, and he came round and fixed it, even though his daughter's wedding was starting the next day (they're Indian so the wedding is a very big thing) He lives next door to us

NadiaWadia · 09/07/2010 16:12

dilemma - what on earth did you do when your LL turned up demanding a bed for the night - (thought I had heard it all!)

NeedToSleepZZZ · 09/07/2010 16:13

Never rent with a letting agent, they are atrocious. In my last flat the boiler caught fire twice and they wouldn't replace it. There was a serious problem with damp/water in the hallway that meant I lived for 6 months with towels and bowls on the floor to collect the drips. I stayed for 2 years and had my rent reduced for 6 months after I went into the agency at their busiest time on a Saturday and burst into tears and demanded something was done before the ceiling fell in.

My new flat is with a private landlord and he's wonderful and in return I've decorated the whole place and re-done the garden.

Original poster
Kaloki · 09/07/2010 16:23

littlemisshissyfit None of my landlords so far have let a little thing like the law stand in their way

So far the MNer LL's sound like angels! Any of you have anywhere to rent right now? lol

needtosleep We were going to redecorate this place (walls are a bit patchy right now), but are now very glad we haven't. That's the thing we are punctual at paying and we want to make improvements out of our own pocket, so aren't bad tenants at all. All we ask is that dangerous things get fixed. Apparently we are asking too much.

This thread has reassured me though, seems they aren't all bad, we've just been unlucky. Let's hope our luck changes.

OP posts:
dilemma456 · 09/07/2010 17:32

Message withdrawn

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