Landlord problems. What to do?

[NutterlyUts]

Hey all

Am having a problem with our landlord. Our heating as completely died and we have no hot water either. We rung him at approx 1pm and told him, and he said he was on his way.

He's still not appeared, and is now ignoring phone calls, and we are still without heat or hot water.

Where do we stand on this? Can we demand him to come out, or do we have to just put up with it til he decides to show?

(This is not the first issue.. have been waiting 4+ months for our side gate to be fixed, but that wasn't as serious)

TIA

No advice but you have my sympathy.

Could you threaten to withold the rent until the problem is rectified? Is that possible?

Presumably you have to give him 'adequate time' to get in touch or for him to arrange to have it fixed. After that you should be able to arrange to have the work done yourselves and deduct it from the rent.

OK its probably not 'legal' to do it like that, but I'd phone him, leavea message saying thats what you'll do if he hasn't responded within say 24 hours.

We are going to go down the withhold rent route if he's not appeared by tomorrow. I know he needs time to come and fix it, but its the ignoring of us calling thats making methat he's not going to do anything about it.

Check your contract to see what timescale he has to make - or at least appear for - urgent repairs. I assume there is no letting agent?

It may be 24 hours before he is obliged to arrive, and it sounds like it's been less than that. Make sure of your facts before threatening to withhold rent.

In the practical term, I assume you can manage without hot water for one night, but how are you for heating? Do you have any electric heaters? Does the water tank have an immersion option for heating up if needs be?

Tomorrow it's probably worth getting on to the local landlords' association as well if he still hasn't shown up.

We have no electrical heaters, and the problem with hot water is tomorrow we all need to go to work, and can't really be the great unwashed because of the jobs we all do. There is no imersion either.

Re: contracts - will take a look now

Will def check out local landlords association if there is one.

Do not under any circumstances withhold rent. That automatically puts you in breach of your tenancy agreement and can lead to eviction.

Do you know where your landlord lives? If so, write him a letter setting out the problem, his promise to sort it and his failure to do so. Request that he rectify the matter within 48 hours and make time off the essence. If he fails to do anything, see if you can contact your local authority. They have a tenancy liaison officer (not entirely sure of title) who can serve a notice on the landlord requiring him to sort things.

Message deleted

don't withold any rent!!!!! Its breach of tenancy... this mayhelp alittle

Update.

A housemate spoke to the landlord yesterday who was either coming, or sending someone to take a look today. Its 4.30 and we've seen no-one yet, so its looking like that was utter bull.

Am still looking for my contract re: where we stand but I can't find it at the mo.

I think we are going to ring the landlord again tonight and see what that achieves, then if nessesary, go down the complaints to places route.