Landlord refused to fix boiler, now we have high bills - can we withhold rent?

[Sarahjsxx]

Hello,
I'll try keep this short! Our landlord has a history of refusing to repair things, we had to get environmental health to assist previously
At the end of November we went away for the weekend, we came back and all the heating was on full blast and wouldn't turn off, we told them straught away. Over the next month we had electrician and plumber turning up anytime of the day unannounced to 'repair it' and eventually they declared they couldn't repair it and the plumber stopped replying to our messages
We have received the last few months bills which have been a lot higher than usual (as expected) we raised with the landlord, they ignored. We move out in 30 days, our last rent due to be paid today. My husband emailed the landlord a few days ago to say we will not be paying the rent until they address the bills (letting agent won't get involved)
They have emailed back today saying we will get into rent arrears and will affect our credit rating and we must pay immediately
Can anyone advise what happens here? This isn't our fault regarding the heating issue and they've known about it for over 3 months

Has it cost you over £80 extra as that is the cost of making a small claim. He doesn’t respond to the claim, it goes in your favour, job done. He’d struggle to provide evidence for his own case.

Either way it’s some admin to teach the cheap arse landlord a lesson.

Yes, it has cost over £80, around £500. Anyway, we will be letting all the future prospective tenants know how awful the landlord is when they start viewings this weeek :)

When you moved in did you pay a months rent upfront? If so you dont need to pay for this month

Personally I would hold back the rent. I would write a bullet pointed email & back it up with evidence including screenshots of avoidant & useless plumber. Sounds like a shit letting agency too they should be managing that appropriately

What??
rent is paid in advance, not arrears. They have to pay all the months' rent including the last one.

If they do that they risk being taken to small claims and getting a CCJ which will fuck their credit rating for 6 years. Not worth it for £500.

You could ring Shelter for advice. There’s also a lot of stuff about tenancy rights on the Gov.uk website.

Don’t stop paying your rent because you will get a Section 8 served against yous for non payment. That can get very messy and will probably end up in court. That’s when you might get a CCJ (aka Mcol) against you which will affect yr credit rating. This could stop you getting things like phone contracts and any other kinds of credit. It can really mess yr life up.

Your LL might serve a Section 21 to get the place back. He might then get the heating sorted out whilst it’s empty? New boilers can be about £3+grand.

If your contract is still running as a “periodic” tenancy you’ll need to sign a relinquishment document, return the keys, have a final inventory taken and clean the place up according to contract before any deposit gets returned to you. If you leave the place dirty, he will use deposit to get it cleaned.

I doubt the court will make any award to you for heating bills in excess of the usual. Your court fees could be excessive to even try and wipe out any gain.

A plumber in not a heating engineer. You need to learn the difference. Some are both but I’d say that’s unusual. Sounds like he should have sent a certified heating engineer with whom you could have had a proper conversation and asked a lot of questions. Everyday’s a school day.

As others have said, you could have learned how to turn off the boiler completely at the main (think about it …. boilers have to have an off/on switch) & used other forms of heating when you knew it was running up big bills? You could have learned more about radiator valves and how heating systems work maybe? A tenant should always know how to turn off water at the main stop cock in the house and out in the pavement, how to isolate the power supply and how to work the boiler. Mr Google is always available to learn about things like that.

The bricks & mortar are the landlord’s but it’s your home whilst you’re living there. Treat it like your own and learn about how it all works.

If you bad mouth the LL during viewings, he probably won’t give you a good reference when you need one for your next landlord so you’ll struggle to find somewhere. Be careful because he might find out!

They’re two sides to every story. Good luck with moving on from this one.

Wondering if can try and make a claim on the deposit scheme regarding this-

The deposit scheme is designed to protect your deposit, so you get it back. It isn't a claim thing. Also you may well have lost the deposit by threatening to withhold rent becsue nothing surer than a pissed off landlord for 'finding' things wrong after you leave.

I doubt he’d serve a section 21 on tenants that are moving out in under a month.

yes the Op should probably have turned the boiler off at the switch but the landlord should have replaced it 2 months ago once it became clear the people he sent to fix it couldn’t repair it.

So the boiler got fixed in the end?

I would think it would depebd on how reasonable it was. Maybe up to 4 weels checking and trying to fix boiler. But after a time the LL shpuld have replaced it!

Replying to NormaSnorks. I have been a mortgage paying owner for 40 years and have been a tenant in the same property for nearly ten years. I look after the property because I like my landlord and he likes my tenant behaviour. The point is that a lot of tenants are forced to move around a lot and therefore probably let some things slip. Any repairs we can do in our rental, my landlord is happy for us to do because we have seen ten years worth of useless tradesmen/chancers and we know we can do a better job. My friend who also rents, has moved into at least three properties over the years, decorated them so nicely that she has been evicted so the owner can sell the property now that it looks so nice.

My ex landlord refused to replace the boiler despite being told by the gas guy that it needed replacing. One morning I turned it on and a few flames shot out of it. I turned the gas off and evacuated my house and called the emergency people and they sent a notice to the letting agents. Mate just say a few flames shot out of it. Turn the gas off and leave and call national grid. Landlord will HAVE to do something.

Hi there

That sounds like a very frustrating situation for you OP. Might be too late now but as rent is not a credit agreement, it won't affect your credit rating unless the landlord pursues you through the county court for rent arrears and secures a County Court judgement. Even then, so long as the CCJ is paid within 28/30 days, it won't affect your credit rating.

Citizens Advice have a pretty good page on making a small claim which may he helpful for pursuing your landlord for increased heating costs.

Hope that helps and hope it gets resolved!

I do think you could have done something to turn the heating down yourself rather than leave it blasting and running up your bill (mind you, 50 quid would be a bargain to me - when my boiler was replaced and it sprung a leak I didn't find for a week, I burned through 250l of oil!)

Having said that, if the landlord's being a jerk, and still hasn't fixed it, I'd do my best to make sure it was turned on after they'd taken the move-out meter reading so he got a taste of the high bills himself.

I don’t understand what you’re suggesting here. A claim on the deposit scheme? The deposit scheme is your money that the landlord has put into the deposit scheme and will pay back to you once you move out, assuming everything is in order. You can’t claim back more money than you’ve already put in and should be getting back anyway. The person “claiming” anything here would be the landlord, where he could withhold some/all of your deposit to cover cost of any repairs etc that you’ve left him with that are more than normal wear & tear

No you can’t withhold rent but you can report them to environmental health… I had to do this when my old landlord refused to fix my boiler and left me with no hot water or heating for 6 months. He soon got it fixed.

Wait… did you leave it on and then came back and it had switched itself on? I’m confused how the heating had come on full blast whilst you were away?
did you attempt to fix this yourself such as switching it off manually or turning down the radiators? I feel like if you just left it running you may be in the wrong here