The joys of a private tenancy
Mar. 17th, 2009 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rawneeBeing a tenant myself, I found this article interesting. I know it's an old one but the issue was raised again on the news a week or so back. Thankfully we aren't at risk of it happening to us as our landlord doesn't have a mortgage on the property but our previous landlord did, along with huge debts and a business that had to go into voluntary liquidation. Having listened to my father in law complaining about tenant's rights and how he can't do this or do that I have realised in the past that this is incorrect. Tenants don't have as many rights as landlords do.
We were given notice to quit on our last property because we had fallen into arrears that we were finding impossible to claw back after my husband had his accident. I went to a lettings agent to ask about the probability of getting a rental home that would allow dogs to be told that, in my circumstances I would find it difficult to get a home at all! I asked him what he meant but got no reply and later on that day, a hand delivered notice to quit was psoted through the door. Very unprofessional to say the least, so I called at the office and asked what it was all about. I knew the lettings manager there and explained that it was very poor of the business owner to do that and that, in all honesty, I was shocked that I could be blacklisted before I even started applying when the property we had been living in had had no maintenance done to it since we'd moved in 9 years previously. I told the agent about the state of the house and said it was unfair that I could be labelled like that but people couldn't be warned about what a bad landlord I had.
Anyway, I went to the local council for advice from them. The house was riddled with damp, the landlord told me to put a plant in front of it to draw the moisture out; the electrics were dodgy and the gas fire had been checked twice in 9 years. We had to get British Gas out to take a look at it as there was something wrong and he immediately disconnected it and put a huge red warning sticker on it. The landlord came round, had a look at it and did nothing but serve us with the eviction notice THREE months later and still no heating.
We managed to find the house we are now currently living in but came across this delight when we moved a bookcase. It stank! Environmental health were called in and we were told it was no surprise we had so many health issues. Husband had got a weird looking rash from the mould and damp and I suffered with asthma. A report was put together to send to the landlord and we were told that, if they were going to continue to chase us for the arrears, we could counter claim for the state of the house.
Thankfully, we found somewhere warm and dry and a landlord who will actually fix things if there's anything wrong with the house and always makes sure everything is OK.
We were given notice to quit on our last property because we had fallen into arrears that we were finding impossible to claw back after my husband had his accident. I went to a lettings agent to ask about the probability of getting a rental home that would allow dogs to be told that, in my circumstances I would find it difficult to get a home at all! I asked him what he meant but got no reply and later on that day, a hand delivered notice to quit was psoted through the door. Very unprofessional to say the least, so I called at the office and asked what it was all about. I knew the lettings manager there and explained that it was very poor of the business owner to do that and that, in all honesty, I was shocked that I could be blacklisted before I even started applying when the property we had been living in had had no maintenance done to it since we'd moved in 9 years previously. I told the agent about the state of the house and said it was unfair that I could be labelled like that but people couldn't be warned about what a bad landlord I had.
Anyway, I went to the local council for advice from them. The house was riddled with damp, the landlord told me to put a plant in front of it to draw the moisture out; the electrics were dodgy and the gas fire had been checked twice in 9 years. We had to get British Gas out to take a look at it as there was something wrong and he immediately disconnected it and put a huge red warning sticker on it. The landlord came round, had a look at it and did nothing but serve us with the eviction notice THREE months later and still no heating.
We managed to find the house we are now currently living in but came across this delight when we moved a bookcase. It stank! Environmental health were called in and we were told it was no surprise we had so many health issues. Husband had got a weird looking rash from the mould and damp and I suffered with asthma. A report was put together to send to the landlord and we were told that, if they were going to continue to chase us for the arrears, we could counter claim for the state of the house.
Thankfully, we found somewhere warm and dry and a landlord who will actually fix things if there's anything wrong with the house and always makes sure everything is OK.
