Tenancy law: Does the bedroom window have to open?

[emilycl]

My friend is renting a room in a Victorian house with 2 friends and the bedroom window doesn't open. The landlord says that as it is a ground floor room in the inner city it is for their own safety. My friend is worried about fire risk and not being able to escape.

Is there law that says a bedroom window in a rental property has to open?

Stann86 Am I right that they can't be kicked out until 6 months have passed in their contract. That's 5 months away currently.

If its a fixed term contract they have signed then a section 21 can only request them to leave on the last day of their contract.

If the landlord wants to evict before the fixed term period is over, they must use a different route – section 8 notice. Section 8 notice is mostly used when the tenant has broken the terms of the contract – e.g. the tenant is two months in arrears. There are several other uses, however, they all require solid grounds, presented at the court, to receive a possession order, so it much harder to get.

Stann86 Right. So surely they can force the landlord's hand in the time available?!

why bother? Cheap, is it?

but if they do want to stay in what sounds a bit of a shithole - write a letter to the landlord saying that the windows must open and this needs to be remedied with a simple device called a window lock. Give him xx time to sort it and say that if it is not sorted, you'll be off to environmental health. Doing this will mean no section 21 can be valid.

Eviction in Tower Hamlets will take months from a valid section 21 issue. Section 8 is easily circumvented.

read the how to rent guide.

Until the council force the landlord to do anything a poor landlord will do nothing. So no matter how much they complain it may not do anything.

mencken They are stuck there for the next 5 months due to the contract. Thanks for the suggestion!

hope a letter does something - be prepared to follow through with the council although there is unlikely to be any enforcement I'm afraid.