tenants' rights

[WillowMother]

My dad is renting a house & one of the windows in the bedroom needs replacing but the landlord won't pay for anything. There is also damp in the house & again the landlord just ignores the situation. My dad is feeling very down & is freezing at night & his health is starting to suffer. Is there anywhere online I can get details of tenants' rights? My dad is going to approach the landlord & I want to give him some legal paperwork to help his case. Many thanks

I imagine the contract will outline the landlord's responsibilities so you should start by looking at that. I don't know anywhere online but you can speak to Shelter or the CAB once you have read through that and pulled out the relevant clauses.

Ultimately your father may be better off moving if his landlord does not want to maintain the property to a reasonable standard.

My dad can not face the prospect of moving, he is feeling stressed just thinking about it. But if we can not get anywhere with the landlord I think it will be the only way forward. He has been talking about going to see the CAB for weeks but I think he is just stuck in a rut & can't be bothered doing anything, including socialising. I live 3 hours away so feel a it helpless but will do whatever I can to help.
Thanks!

Every local authority has a unit to deal with tenant rights. They are usually very hot on poor housing conditions in private rented accoodation and have powers to force landlords to do repairs.

We contacted our local authority once when a landlord was reluctant to sort out a damp problem. The landlord did the work promptly once the local authority got involved.

Its the law and it is the local authority's job to see it is enforced.

Its a free service so no need to pay lawyers.