A few general questions concerning my niece who is stuck in an awful situation with the landlord. The house has been inspected by the Environmental Health Officer and also the HMO Licensing people and they have just served the landlord with about 3 pages of improvements that need to be done along with the timeframes that they must be done within. They are also issuing the landlord with a 6K fine for running an unlicensed HMO. The council has opened a housing case for my niece based on harassment by landlord, her MH issues and that she is stuck in the contract having paid rent up front.
The work is going to be very extensive - damp treatments throughout house, electricals, redecorating etc. The girls all have only a bedroom each and a shared kitchen with no other common areas. They have all changed their locks on advice of the council due to landlord harassment etc. My niece downgraded from a flat to this place as she is studying for a Masters and needed to save money so she has all of her stuff in boxes.
In the meantime and as I have absolutely no experience with this, could I pick the brains of those who know better for the answers to a few questions please?
- Do the tenants have to give the landlord their new keys?
- If there is massive disruption and/or toxic fumes, can the landlord be made to pay for them to stay somewhere else whilst the work is carried out?
- The list of improvements is really extensive and is mostly about big jobs that will require damp treatments into the foundations/walls, old plaster being removed and replaced, floorboards up for central heating that does not work, redecorating etc so the sheer amount of traffic by workmen/fumes/disruption is going to be major and these people will need room to work. Can the girls get their belongings stored and paid for by the landlord? They don't trust the landlord not to 'revenge' destroy their belongings.
- Further to the above my niece has PTSD from being attacked and can't cope well with strange men so can that be used to add weight?
- Is there a chance that a rent reduction can be negotiated (legally) to pay for the above. Are the tenants entitled to a reduction as the disrepair/delapidation is due to the landlord solely?
- I would feel better if any of this was done officially under the auspices of the council so the landlord is too frightened to do anything bad to them or their stuff, are councils able to do this?
If anyone has been through this or knows how to deal with this, please could you weigh in and let us know? Thanks ever so much