DD landlord not keeping house in order.

[43ontherocksporfavor]

DD rents in a house share in south London and pays a lot(£1k pm for a small room in an unfinished house) and yet her bedroom window has a large gap and in this sub zero weather, is very cold and damp. Landlord refuses to let her get a quote, agree work and send invoice but is dragging his heels in sorting it himself. I feel sick at tbe rent she is paying pa and her 3 friends, while he swans about in his Range Rover ignoring his responsibilities. Can anyone help? Is there anything we can do?

Does she have a contract with him? Legally I'm sure he has to keep the house in a decent state, if he isn't small claims court I guess is the way to go?

Might be worth a call to Shelter to see what her rights are here.

You should also be able to contact the environmental health department at the local council for help. They must take action if they think the problems could harm residents or cause a nuisance to others. See https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/repairs

Thanks. Yea she has a contract. He knows he should but just takes ages , doesn’t reply to calls or texts and meanwhile she is freezing and paying off his mortgage.
She has said she’ll get repair or window replacement done and invoice him but he says no he won’t pay if she does that.

Thanks @Flubadubba I’ve forwarded that to DD.

Get her to phone environmental health at the council.

Sounds like a typical bastard London landlord!

There is a specific law that he might be falling foul of - the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/homes-fitness-for-human-habitation-act-2018/guide-for-tenants-homes-fitness-for-human-habitation-act-2018

A strongly worded letter to him, drawing it to his attention, could perhaps help.

Thanks so much. I’ve sent these links to DD.

@43ontherocksporfavor you might also want to send her this:

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs

And there is a sample letter she can send here: https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/repairs_letter_templates_for_private_renters

See also:
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housingadvice/repairs/landlordandtenantresponsibilitiesforrepairs

First link should be
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housingadvice/repairs/repairslettertemplatesforprivaterenters

Amazing! 🙏🏻

Can she stuff socks in the gap, put card board over it and then the window cling film stuff that you get from Homebase, and use a hairdryer to shrink it to fit. Not as good as new window that fits, but better than nothing, and makes a really big difference

brings back memories of being a student many years ago.

Yes it’s currently socked and bubble wrapped! She’s had 3 years at uni putting up with this kind of thing but the rent wasn’t quite so eye watering!

She should get a window winterising kit from Amazon
And she should move. Even when he gets the window fixed, he won’t become a good landlord

Agreed @Dotcheck

She should look for new accommodation. Get a new LL.

This reminds me of being a student many years ago! One of the houses we rented in second year we ended up taking the LL to court as the house was so awful, the heating didn’t work etc.

We won our case but still nothing got done so in the end we ended up having to find another house and put it down to experience. An expensive mistake to trust the LL that he would fix problems we saw when viewing it (& many we didn’t )🙁

Long term she needs to move out and get a new landlord. The same thing will happen every time a repair is needed. As others have said, speak to Shelter and contact the Council Environmental Health.

Also some London councils require landlords to be registered and have a letting licence in place. Might be worth checking if the landlord has failed to do that because he could be fined heavily by the council...

Take photos in case

This is absolutely disgusting especially for the price. I hate landlords! Hope she gets it sorted.