Landlady Endangering Lives

[winkyridg]

My sister lives in a private rented house,the hot water and heating broke down last year in October , it took , said , landlady until just before xmas to get the heating sorted , a new boiler had to be fitted , once the plumbers had finished she then discovered there was no cold water coming out of the tap in the bath , luckily for some unknown reason the hot water for the bath is only lukewarm ( we have no idea why as the hot water in the sink in the same room is quite hot ) so this is not so much a problem which is good really as she is still waiting for the plumber to rectify it , she has really bad damp in the bathroom and main bedroom, she has been waiting for nearly a year for a gas and electric safety certificate , and just last week when she finally had an electrician round discovered that 95% of plug sockets and light switches had not been earthed , the house looks like it may have been rewired at some point in the past ,but the live and neutral cables were connected and the earth cables had been cut back and not connected ,the earths that were connected had no sheath on them , the shear devastation at this particular discovery no words can describe , the drain blocked last week the same cowboys that have done some of the work in the house came out to unblock it and have done something wrong as now when my sister empties her bath the downstairs loo bubbles one can only assume there may be some sort of airlock , my sister has been in touch with her local council and they are willing to help her out of the situation and are currently starting court procedings against the landlady as this is one of many house she owns , she has offered no apology she just asks for rent all the time , is there any thing my sister can do to get some form of compensation for the way she has been forced to live , which has also made her ill at times ? any help would be greatly appreciated , thanks in advance

[ChuckFickens]

I should imagine that the fact it costs at least £1500 to move into another rented house! (OK some of that is offset by returned deposit on the first place, but you still have to be able to put up a lot of money before the deposit is returned)

[tamborine]

omg.....the responsibility of l'lords....thankless task!

Why dont the council re-house your sis & save her living in such conditions?

[winkyridg]

Chuckfickens seems to be the only unsarcastic person here who understands the situation , tamborine , the council are trying to re house her and are also taking criminal proceedings against the landlady for not fulfilling her OBLIGATIONS , as a landlady , i fail to understand why sarcasm is a way of life on this site , if you do not wish to answer constructively then dont waste my time with youyr silly little remarks .

[shirlthegirl_1]

o my god there are some nasty people on this site ,why dont they just go away and let the people who are with brains answere peoples problems yes you Zacsmaster

[tamborine]

winkyridg...I rent out a property - empty at present as it has been almost demolished by tenants. They pulled off the CH rads & pipes; chipped off the wooden w'dow sills and painted gory colors & foul words all over. Door handles wrenched off, pet sh1t & ruined carpets....& more. Garden trashed & furniture. Costing me more to put rights than I received in rent. I can't sell as property has slumped. Never minds the bills for tenants pouring in.

[winkyridg]

Tamborine - I understand you being upset and angry by how your house was left . But this question was about My Family !! and my Sister has looked after the house she is renting and to discover faulty wiring after asking for elec safety certificates for a year is beyond comprehension , this landlady has put the lives of my Sister and her Three Children at risk . The Electrician also said he was surprised that a major accident hadn't happened .

[tamborine]

why couldn't she have had it done herself.....if the work wasn't repaired she could have left the property.

The council cannot demand how private properties are maintained but they can re-house your sis.

[winkyridg]

My Sister cannot afford to rent privately . otherwise she would have moved out sooner . The council environmental health can demand that the house is safe for all tenants and their families . It is the landlady's responsibility as part of the tenancy to make sure the gas and elec appliances are safe to use .

[shirlthegirl_1]

I can really sympathise with your sister and it sounds like she is a 1 parent family i think you will find if she left the property the local council would rehouse her as she has kids i wish her all the luck in the world hope she soon gets sorted

[winkyridg]

My Siter cannot afford to move to another rented house at present as regards monies to be paid upfront ******

[winkyridg]

Thank you Shirlthegirl_1. The council are trying their best to get her a house.

[shirlthegirl_1]

could she get a letter from her gp to say how this is affecting her health for her to take to local council ,every little thing helps

[ChuckFickens]

I am really glad I don't rent a house from Tambo!

[KARL]

Just to put one matter straight, whatever you have been told the absence of earthing does not in itself invite an accident, but if one happens (due to the connection of a faulty electrical item, abuse of sockets, etc.) then the absence of an earth connection removes a fail-safe feature - but earthing is not meant to be constantly required for electrical items to function correctly and safely. Two pin plugged items don't even connect to earth and many items with a three pin plug have a "false" earth pin that has no connection built in, all quite legal and accepted. If an accident is assumed to be inevitable then that is based on an assumption that the place is heaving with unsafe equipment and reckless people. That said, earthing is definitely supposed to be in place for three pin sockets in the UK to be as intended (abroad two pin earthed perform precisely the same function). A landlord's gas safety certificate is a legal requirement and the tenant is supposed to be able to see it on demand - it is to be renewed annually. I am unclear as to how the local council can take out proceedings against a landlord unless it is because the rent agreement somehow involves the council (say, some sort of benefit connection) but then I am not knowledgeable about legal aspects in this area - perhaps the council is empowered to act like a policing authority when they disapprove of some operator. But your sister has always had the choice to leave, although any affordable alternative may have been even less palatable. I understand there are bodies that try to mediate between tenant and landlord to sort out grievances, perhaps that is an option, check with Citizens Advice or Consumer Direct. If your sister wants to stay where she is then it is not in her interest to be wildly confrontational and risk being expelled - her landlord is likely to have the right to put her out with at most two months' notice and get court assistance to forcibly remove her if necessary.

[winkyridg]

Karl,
It is a requirement that

In 1962, electrical codes changed, requiring all 120-volt circuits to be grounded; in 1999, codes changed again, requiring all 240-volt circuits to be grounded. Grounding simply means that all metal portions of a circuit come in contact with the ground, which renders their voltage 0. This prevents electric shock or fire in the event the electrical system malfunctions.and i would not want to be on the receiving end of an ungrounded metal plug It is also a requirement to have a safety certificate for tenants to see . The Environmental health will be taking the landlady to court for failing to bring the house up to a safe standard , forignoring all notifications just on this property but up to thirty other properties in her posession . This particular person has been fined heavil;y several times for failing to keep her properties safe , resulting in a roof falling in .

[winkyridg]

Zacsmaster , finances are quite hard to come by when you are unemployed ,if she could have she would have got out long ago especially knowing what she knows about the landlady now , if she knew then what she knows now she would never have moved in in the first place .Everyone is entitled to their opinion , its just that some seem to be very sarcastic , and i'm not tar ing you with that brush zacsmaster , thanks for your input .

[buildersmate]

There's plenty of 'stuff' on this subject - some more useful than others - but no-one seems to have answered your question, which was about compensation.
I'm afraid the straight answer to that is 'no' - one would have to sue the landlord for breach of contract - it that she has failed to provide the standard of accommodation promised.
Others have given you advice about trying to get out quick - and using the local council to assist is a good idea. Also the council will deal with the issue of an alleged unsafe rented property.
The only other way to try and get money back is by denying the rent in the first place on the grounds that the accommodation is not acceptable - until it is sorted.

[proudmary]

Hi there, I'm not sure about compensation but your sister could go down the homeless route via her local council. If environmental health have said it is unreasonable to reside in the property then the council have a duty to rehouse under the homeless Act as long as she is a priority need, it's worth an ask xx