Landlord issues
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Hi Everyone, I just wondered what your take is on something that's happening with our Letting Agency/Landlord at the moment.
We have lived in our flat since June 2009 and we have never missed a payment and generally keep the flat in a good state (better than when we moved in).
When we first moved in we actually thought we had signed for a different flat, we went to look around the one upstairs which was an attic flat, on the day we moved in we realised we'd actually signed for the first floor flat, never having stepped in it before. I was devastated at the time because it was an attic flat that we wanted. They offered to let us move into a different place for the same rent but the ones we looked at were the dregs that noone else wanted so we ended up moving in to the one we'd actually signed for and we've made it our own. So they aren't the most reliable of agencies.
But we now want to move totally away from where we live to a different town altogether, so we've let the agency know that we'll be moving on 1st July next year when our contract is up. It's early but they wanted us to make the decision in November (which itsn't odd here).
Anyway, a few weeks ago they out of nowhere put our deposit back into our joint account. It was really strange. Apparently it would cost them too much to keep it or something?
But now in the cold weather it seems our pipes have frozen somewhere along the way so we're really struggling with washing up and cleaning, having to do it in the bathroom which is just ridiculous and a two person job! But the heating doesn't really work in the flat (so we don't use it, and we don't have heating in the kitchen anyway) so it's so cold in everywhere except the living room (where we have an electric heater) that's probably why they've frozen.
But last night I put a load of washing on without realising the pipes for that were frozen and it flooded the kitchen, (and the incident included the girl downstairs shouting at me because it leaked into her flat) I tried to ring the emergency letting agency number about 27 times, noone answered. I had to mop the flooding up (obviously I turned the washing machine off first of all) and ruin 5 huge towels in the process. Today I've emailed asking them to send someone to look at the washing machine and pipes, no reply, I followed it up at lunchtime with a phone call, noone answered. I've emailed again with a read receipt on, nothing.
What do we do? Should we ring a plumber and get them to invoice our letting agents (noting that we've had our deposit so what can they do about it), would a plumber even come out to frozen pipes? Could a plumber do anything or essentially do we just have to wash stuff at the laundrette (or take washing to do at my Mum's on Christmas Day)? What should we do about not being able to get through to the landlord? I think we both just want to move asap and would quite happily just move now if we could.
Our sink leaked before a few months ago and took about 5 call outs from the letting agents to fix it (because they sent some teenage bloke with a screwdriver rather than send a qualified plumber).
Thanks for letting me rant, this Letting Agency have been the worst ever I've lived with and we just wish it was July so we can move!
We have lived in our flat since June 2009 and we have never missed a payment and generally keep the flat in a good state (better than when we moved in).
When we first moved in we actually thought we had signed for a different flat, we went to look around the one upstairs which was an attic flat, on the day we moved in we realised we'd actually signed for the first floor flat, never having stepped in it before. I was devastated at the time because it was an attic flat that we wanted. They offered to let us move into a different place for the same rent but the ones we looked at were the dregs that noone else wanted so we ended up moving in to the one we'd actually signed for and we've made it our own. So they aren't the most reliable of agencies.
But we now want to move totally away from where we live to a different town altogether, so we've let the agency know that we'll be moving on 1st July next year when our contract is up. It's early but they wanted us to make the decision in November (which itsn't odd here).
Anyway, a few weeks ago they out of nowhere put our deposit back into our joint account. It was really strange. Apparently it would cost them too much to keep it or something?
But now in the cold weather it seems our pipes have frozen somewhere along the way so we're really struggling with washing up and cleaning, having to do it in the bathroom which is just ridiculous and a two person job! But the heating doesn't really work in the flat (so we don't use it, and we don't have heating in the kitchen anyway) so it's so cold in everywhere except the living room (where we have an electric heater) that's probably why they've frozen.
But last night I put a load of washing on without realising the pipes for that were frozen and it flooded the kitchen, (and the incident included the girl downstairs shouting at me because it leaked into her flat) I tried to ring the emergency letting agency number about 27 times, noone answered. I had to mop the flooding up (obviously I turned the washing machine off first of all) and ruin 5 huge towels in the process. Today I've emailed asking them to send someone to look at the washing machine and pipes, no reply, I followed it up at lunchtime with a phone call, noone answered. I've emailed again with a read receipt on, nothing.
What do we do? Should we ring a plumber and get them to invoice our letting agents (noting that we've had our deposit so what can they do about it), would a plumber even come out to frozen pipes? Could a plumber do anything or essentially do we just have to wash stuff at the laundrette (or take washing to do at my Mum's on Christmas Day)? What should we do about not being able to get through to the landlord? I think we both just want to move asap and would quite happily just move now if we could.
Our sink leaked before a few months ago and took about 5 call outs from the letting agents to fix it (because they sent some teenage bloke with a screwdriver rather than send a qualified plumber).
Thanks for letting me rant, this Letting Agency have been the worst ever I've lived with and we just wish it was July so we can move!
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Comments
But it's only been a couple of hours from what I can see since the OP has reported the issue to them. It's not really giving them much of a chance to sort it out, assuming they are doing so and the OP's report's have fallen on deaf ears.
We're both working today but my boyfriend doesn't start until 1pm tomorrow so he is planning to go in to the office if we don't hear back today.
Well originally we didn't just renage on the contract because they had our deposit but they don't now so a little bit of me is like "after Christmas, lets just go" I am planning to get the contract out this afternoon.
My feeling is to wait until after my boyfriend can get in tomorrow, and then just ring someone and get them to invoice the letting agents.
Thanks guys, I'm glad it's not just me over reacting about this but it's the last straw for me when they don't answer the emergency telephone.
Also, I'm still waiting for the outside light I got bored of asking, and it took almost 4 months to get a working smoke alarm off them when ours broke. :rolleyes:
Ah right, i thought it had been days!
No it was last night the washing machine decided to spew up all the water, but for us it's months of beating our heads against the wall for various (reasonable) requests but I am giving them til lunch time tommorrow because it's unfair to expect us to go all Christmas with no clean clothes!
Invoicing them isn't really a good idea when you haven't really tried to make contact with them in the first place regarding this particular issue.
Sending an email in the morning, I would have phoned them first thing as soon as the office opened. Again phoning at lunch time isn't the best of times, assuming they may be out for lunch.
Just keep ringing the office today, assuming someone is there you will eventually got to report it to someone.
If you keep having problems with them maybe seeing where you stand legally should be a good idea.
I'm at work, so there's a limit to how much I can call.
I've tried at least 6 calls to the emergency number at the time last night, the report via the online thing (that's what we're supposed to do), 2 emails and probably about 7 calls to the landline (from 12ish I've tried every 20 minutes or so excluding the time I was on my driving lesson). But, apparently the follow up email I sent has been delivered but not sure if it's been read yet so I may get somewhere soon.
The thing is yes on this occassion there's been limited contact from my behalf so far, but it constantly takes months of contacting them to get anything done. It gets a bit much after a while, especially when I consider flooding the flat (and the downstairs flat) an emergency. I don't want to have no way to wash stuff (and clothes still trapped in the washing machine) over Christmas.
When you explain it like that, then it does sound bad.
You say you are dealing with an agency, do you have any way of contacting the landlord directly? He/she may have no idea about how bad this agency is, I mean they are paying them money to look after the property for them.
Still no response...
No we've no way of getting hold of the landlord, I only know his name nothing else. The thing is, it's a lovely flat!! There's just too many little things getting too much for us now, it's like the flat's falling apart!
I suggest you get you pipes fixed ASAP as it can cause long term damage to the flat and your neighbour's too.
Hope you get you pipes sorted and when you move you actually deal with proper landlords.
I do appreciate that for the plumber but at the end of the day I can't afford to pay a plumber and we'd never get it back from the landlord/Agency! Ever!!
Maintenance is contractually their responsibility, they should be sorting it out, surely?
pay the plumber and deduct that from your rent
they have given you your deposit back, so you are in the clear really they have no financial hold over you
I have had similar problems with LAs over the years,one company were awful I had to withold my rent for a week to get my annual gas check done which is a legal requirement
its shocking how some of these companies behave
infact your current LA sound a lot like mine, Im in yorkshire too, hmmm its not a company name that is 3 letters long is it?:D
it happened to me once
This, if you dont hear anything for 48 hours then get the plumber out and next months rent will be minus this fee along with the receipt for works done.
This seems a really good idea! The plumber doesn't lose out and you get the work done.
I've asked my boyfriend to break into the washing machine to rescue our clothes this morning. He is going to do that before he goes to work. It's not such a big deal as there's nothing of real value clotheswise in there, just a couple of work trousers and bits and bobs. It doesn't look like there's much water in the drum when we have looked through with a torch (most of it was on our kitchen floor!!)
Anyway, bit of an update, looks like they have shut up shop for Christmas (shutters are down etc..) and we've absolutely no chance of getting hold of them.
My boyfriend's investigations suggest that the pipes are not frozen in our flat and he thinks it's probably at the back of the house which we have no access to so there isn't much we can do without the letting agency giving a plumber access to the other flats (the basement flat with the access is empty at the moment so we can't knock on our neighbours house, the letting agents would need to provide a key)
So we're going to break into the washing machine and get the clothes out, do a spot of handwashing this evening, take stuff to my Mum's on Christmas Day and do some washing.
We would have called out a plumber with the suggestion of withholding cost of rent, but we pay by cheque (what a dodgy place this is!!!) rather than any other payment, so we wouldn't really be able to do that. And anyway without the access above I think they'd struggle to do anything anyway.
We are going to keep trying the letting agents and presumably they will come back at some point, possibly even next week. And we will be able to sort it at that point hopefully. I'd like to sort it now because I'm conscious of the problems that burst pipes can cause but in a selfish way, it's not our house and we're moving out in 6 months (and the way we feel now, we're going when we can)!! I know that's a terrible thing to say and we're normally so committed to our flat and being good neighbours but we're not really sure what else we can do.
Anyway, thanks everyone for (as always!) being very helpful. I'll hopefully be able to update you when they bother to come back after Christmas..
Well ours has 6 letters but I know exactly what you mean when they sound the same. There seems to be a load of companies that are just useless and allowed to get away with it because generally where I live is studenty so the poplulation is transient. I'm actually thinking of contacting my local Councillor or MP to raise the issues, I think there needs to be more control over them!
My boyfriend has rescued our clothes now with just a bit of water which was easily cleaned up apparently. I think most of the water had drained out during the flooding. I think the problem is that the incoming water is fine, the outgoing water is bloked so when the washing machine tried to pump out the water it couldn't so it forced it's way out of our sink plug hole and then on our floor! So most of it was on the floor rather than in the machine!