Badly maintained rental property, what are my rights?

[creaturcomforts]

Hi all um just looking for general advice and opinions as a renter it's hard to know where I stand. I rent a small edwardian house with me and dd, rent is comparable to other 2 beds in area with a garden, and parking and larger I'm general. Me and dd moved here from a larger rent as landlord wanted to sell and have always done my best to keep the house maintained.

This house is f energy efficiency, no glazing, poorly fitted doors, and it feels as cold inside as out. It has storage heaters that are temperamental and the electric only system is constantly cutting out or tripping. Electricians from the rental agency have deemed it all ok but still problems.

The house is listed but I still think they should improve things, its freezing and even with the storage heaters loses heat in winter constantly.

I'm a single parent and struggling to repay my electricity which, as a renter for the last 12 years, has never been so high and now have turned off the heating for the last 3 months because of the Bill's, me and dd are always cold in the house.

The estate agents are due to come to inspect as they had to stop due to covid but I'm struggling each day to remove the black mold that is there due to single insulation with slide windows and worried what they will say!!

It's not a cheap rent that I pay and I feel I have no rights, most of my wages goes onto rent and I'm angry that there is no insulation but do I have any rights?

Just move to a newer build it will be so much cheaper

How do you dry your washing?
You are not using the Eco 7 properly and seem confused at how it works. If you Google it, there a lot of information about how to use it.
You will have mould if the property is not being heated properly.

Contact Environmental Health at your local authority and ask them to come out to check the property is compliant. Ultimately you may need to chalk this up to experience and move on.

Yes its frustrating, as a tenant whose landlord had to sell the property, there was not much choice of rental houses in our price range and we literally only had this rental available.

We moved here and then separated, so I have no option to move to another rental as they base it on two salaries and I don't make the criteria.

I work full time and claim and can just cover rent and bills so they decided to let me and dd stay after I informed them i would be a sole tenant but on my wage and alone I wouldn't be able to rent anywhere else so I'm stuck with the bills and rent.

I'll look into environmental health thanks all as I think its unfair, yes I knew the house wasn't insulated and an old house, but very few given the choice would take it on and maintain it! I didn't have a choice as we had to move quickly but I feel the letting agent and landlord could do more and they are getting a high rent without changing anything, I think as I cant move I will try to see what my rights might be

I went for the cheaper overall rate as the storage heaters provided by the landlord are old and so inefficient and I am trying to use timer sockets to only heat the room me and dd are in, when we are in. Storage heaters are on for 6 hours over night so I timed a plug in oil heater for just an hour in the morning and evening as I cant afford anymore, still repaying the electric I've used and if I use any more am worried as they have mentioned a pay as you go meter

The house is cold most of the time even when I use storage heaters as you can feel the cold coming in, no insulation and an old draughty house, the storage heaters are temperamental as well and I've monitored them being on.. the heaters are on for most of the night even on economy 7 it was so expensive as you heat the house and all the heat escapes as in insulation.

Just resigned now to it being cold, but would like to know if theres anything I can do, i rented before with storage heaters and yes it was electric only and more expensive than gas and electric but was no way as cold as this

All electric heaters have the same efficiency (100%) regardless of age. The storage heaters are supposed to charge over night with input up and output down. You then turn output up for the evening when you need it. By no means perfect but they should hold the heat.

Again, are you sure the meter readings were the right way round?

Doesn't change the overall nature of the place, bad. There is a rental shortage outside London, caused by many factors. You've nothing to lose by speaking to the council.

Thanks murblurb, have wondered that too with the readings, but have checked and its my fault for keeping all storage heaters on, there is one in kitchen, landing, 2 beds and bathroom, that's it.. I had to heat the house more due to covid as my dd was not as school and I didn't want her to be cold, now she is back at school and I'm out to work during the day I've not used plug in heaters except at the weekend when we are at home for the day. In January we had a massive bill when I had all the storage heaters on as it was cold and we were both at home but I really was surprised at the 500 bill! Just me and dd, 13, no big TVs, dishwasher or anything else and I cried when they told me how much I owed!

I'm not eligible for council housing as I am paying my rent and Bill's, despite that I'm struggling with everything else, grateful for a roof over our heads, with every penny going to electric and rent I'm sure as hell going to try and see if the landlord should do something, very doubtful but I'll try and find out. I doubt they would be able to rent it out as it was in the market for a while..

Ask your energy provider to go on the warm home scheme. It's a one off grant paid against your energy bill.

Most of the energy providers have hardship schemes where they will give you a grant. So do the water companies. Applying is something a debt counsellor could help you with.

What job do you do?

I'm still not sure about those storage heaters- if wired correctly they can only be powered during cheap hours. If you like, please say how many you have, their wattage and your unit rates and I'll try the sums.

Are you certain you're not eligible for council housing OP? You sound in a similar situation to my DD, she's a single mum and working (though she works p/t)

She'd previously had a council flat then gave it up to move into private housing. After a year she was struggling to pay her bills (though was up to date with everything, just didn't have much left) She applied for council housing and although she was put in a low band she was quite lucky to get a house within about 4 months. No harm trying.

OP confirmed she is not on economy 7, so hardly the landlord's fault that she is failing to use the heating system properly. She doesn't understand how it works and that is the main problem. There are plenty of tutorials online explaining it. But if you're not on eco 7 tariff it's going to be very expensive.

I think you should forget relying on your LL to make improvements to the property - they might not have the will or the money.

An energy rating of E is not that hard to achieve - but still can result in an unpleasantly cold house.

Try and see if you can rent a small more modern place with double glazing etc.

I would hate to be cold all the time - it's not good for your or your DD health to live with cold and or mould.

At present shit landlords are looking at 2 years + to get rid of tenants so time for tenants to start lashing back. Dont remove the mould for the inspection - thats the LLs responsibility. And there are laws now against so called "revenge" evictions because tenants complain about poor maintenance. Plenty of advice on Consumer Action Group and other websites.

Can you move? We're in a council rented house and it's freezing also, heating broken and they don't fix it. If I was you I'd look into moving and tell the landlord why. You might find they'll fix it as they won't want the hassle of finding a new tenant