Want to break contract because cheapskate landlord won't put in central heating

[Charli Downing]

I've had Environmental Health at my property today because my landlord only supplied me useless, inefficient electric radiators. EH told me they are actually illegal. I've been at the property for over a year and complained many times about the heating system. My contract lasts another two years, with no break clause. My estate agent is no help at all, does anyone know if him not supplying a legal heating system consitutes him breaching the tenancy agreement? It has the clause about the landlord/tenant act 1985 re heating but im not sure if I can leave the property on these grounds.

I have a two year old son and I dont think the property can be classed as inhabitable if it doesnt have adequate heating.

Any help would be very gratefully received.

Thanks

 

[Susie]

I would think that the Citizen's Advice Bureau would be your best bet for advice or, maybe a consultation with a solicitor - many will give the first hour free but check first.

 

[turnpin]

Sound advice here... hope it works out for original poster good luck and let us know how you get onregards turnpin

 

[black 31]

where do you live charli ???are you not on an assured shorthold tenency agreement under part 1 f the housing act 1988 which was ammended again under part 3 of the housing act 1996 what is th etitle at the top of ten aggreement?

 

[Charli Downing]

where do you live charli ???are you not on an assured shorthold tenency agreement under part 1 f the housing act 1988 which was ammended again under part 3 of the housing act 1996 what is th etitle at the top of ten aggreement?

I live in Kingston (upon thames) near SW London. I have an assured shorthold tenancy, but, to be honest, I'm not really sure what that means!

 

[black 31]

dont worry you are only tied for 6mths i am a landlord and although i try to get people tied in for as long as i can on paper by law they can leave after 6 mths with an assured shorthold tennancy if they want with no repercussions , i agree with above posts about cab and half hour free with solicitor as they would take it on for you but might be worth looking at any info you can from residential landlords association rla to ease your mind but you have a lot more rights than you will be lead to belive by dodgy landlords was just wondering where you were but wrong end of country for any of my vacant propertys.you dont need to even give a reason why you want to leave after a period of 6 months has elapsed

 

[Charli Downing]

that is such great news, thank you so much, you've really reassured me. ive got an appointment with the CAB tomorrow morning.

thank you everyone for your help, i really do appreciate it. i will sleep a lot better tonight! thanks xx

 

[black 31]

i always let my propertys myself as unfortunatly the letting agents are only looking after one person and thats number one its not in thier interest to help you out of the property but dont despair you will be ok ,would be interested to find out how you get on good luck

 

[Avatar]

I though environmental health could write to your landlord and threaten legal action if he does not sort the heating system out - ask and see what action they can take.

Next time dont rent a house with inadaquate heating though!

 

[stevetheplumber]

why did you rent a property with poor heating personally i have no sympathy tennants often take the cheapest most run down property at low rent then withhold rent by arguing that the property is sub standard no one forced you to take out the tennancy if you dont understand the tennacy agreement why did you sign it.time for legal advice is before you sign

 

[Charli Downing]

why did you rent a property with poor heating personally i have no sympathy tennants often take the cheapest most run down property at low rent then withhold rent by arguing that the property is sub standard no one forced you to take out the tennancy if you dont understand the tennacy agreement why did you sign it.time for legal advice is before you sign

I didn't know the heating system was so inefficient until I tried using it. I've had electric radiators at properties before, which were never a problem.

Your condescending tone is bizarre, you are jumping to assumptions, getting on your high horse, for no apparent reason. The rent is not cheap!!

I haven't withheld any rent, so again, you are just making it up as you go along.

I don't know what made you so rude and presumptive, but I'd appreciate if you didn't make assumptions about someone you have never met. You could have asked the questions first, before jumping down my throat on behalf of every landlord in the country.

 

[Bitethebullet]

why did you rent a property with poor heating personally i have no sympathy tennants often take the cheapest most run down property at low rent then withhold rent by arguing that the property is sub standard no one forced you to take out the tennancy if you dont understand the tennacy agreement why did you sign it.time for legal advice is before you sign

Clearly this is utter nonsense. One does not get the opportunity to "try" the heating before one moves into rented property. Furthermore, heating coukd be fine and then fail or be problematic long after moving in - when the heating went faulty is irrelevant and does not alter the legal responsibility of the landlord to i) supply adequate heating and ii) make good any heating fault and iii) ensure a rented property is habitable as mandated by the relevant statutory duties enshrined within law.

The price paid by the tenant is irrelevant and has no bearing whatsoever on the legal duty owed by landlords to their tenants. The rental contract has an implied term that the property is fit for purpose, in this instance, habitable. The tenant can assert that they entered the contract under misrepresentation of such and that the contract is now in breach.

You also have not considered that if the rental commenced in summer, a tenant would have no idea if heating was adequate or not, not this has any legal bearing but you should consider such a basic premise before jumping to utterly erroneous and ill-founded conclusions.

I have rented property up to and above £1000 per month, which I am sure you will agree is not cheap, nor were the properties "run down" and have had issues including heating, so again
the relationship between cost and faults that you make, is tenuous.

Your assertions are without basis and are completely illogical, demonstrating the mindset of a narrow-minded and unintelligent character. If you came to my property, rented or not, or into my employ, with such an attitude, I would remove you swiftly.

For the avoidance of doubt, I am legally qualified and tenants are perfectly entitled to withhold rent or indeed rescind (end) their tenancy, if the property is uninhabitable or contract breached (within the statutory definitions governing such).

Kindly engage your brain before letting gusts of hot air fly out next time.

 

[stevetheplumber]

i work in a lot of flats with no central heating and a thousand pounds a month would get you a rabbit hutch in london i dont think ive ever met anyone who thought electric heating was any good when we install heating in a place that previously had electric heating we cant give the old heaters away even if there almost brand new developers fit the cheapest form of heating which as a capitol outlay is electric anyone who buys the flats to rent out dont care either anyone who buys them to live in usually has gas installed after the first winter
om only stating what i see im not a landlord and wouldnt want to be after the tennants ive seen
maybe my view is colored by the sad state of the london housing market which is a battle ground between landords and tennents both of which want to spend as little as possible
the real parasites are actually the letting agents who will tell tennabts anything to get their deposits

 

[Bitethebullet]

i work in a lot of flats with no central heating and a thousand pounds a month would get you a rabbit hutch in london i dont think ive ever met anyone who thought electric heating was any good when we install heating in a place that previously had electric heating we cant give the old heaters away even if there almost brand new developers fit the cheapest form of heating which as a capitol outlay is electric anyone who buys the flats to rent out dont care either anyone who buys them to live in usually has gas installed after the first winter
om only stating what i see im not a landlord and wouldnt want to be after the tennants ive seen
maybe my view is colored by the sad state of the london housing market
which is a battle ground between landords and tennents both of which want to spend as little as possible
the real parasites are actually the letting agents who will tell tennabts anything to get their deposits

Again, it depends where you go, I rented a lovely period house in Richmond for a grand a month not long ago, that same amount has got me a six bedroom property with land elsewhere, horses for courses. The bottom line is if someone decides they want to use property to make income, they cannot sidestep their duty to the tenant and regardless of what state the heating was in when they bought, they are lawfully required to get it fit for purpose, whatever the cost.

Either swallow the cost and do the job safely and properly, or do not buy property to rent, end of story, you can't have your cake and eat it.

The law is not weighted equally for tenants, just the same as divorce laws are not weighted equally for men.

Original poster has legitimate grounds for complaint and your attack on him was unwarranted. Cut this cake any way you like but that's the legal position, plain and simple.

 

[gasmarc]

That is total rubbish what you have been told about the 3 year contract ,you can leave whenever you want , the estate agents are wrong and dont give a stuff about you , A bit of advice dont bother paying your rent for a few months and then move

 

[black 31]

i dont think its fair to say that cant find anyone who has agood word to say about electric heating chances are the dont know how to use it properlywhat sort of electric heaters do you have are they esr storage radiators the ones with the iron impregnated bricks in if so you will need to turn the output down to minimum on each one before you go to bed or before 12 o clock when heating begins whichever comes first as any inputed heat will be released straight away and not stored for the next day turn fully down last thing then open slowly during next day to release it will take a few days to try to find out which setting to set output to make heat last all day would leave input on max as will cut out when max storage temerature i reached how did you get on with cab charli i think your experiance is tainted steve as i am a landlord and treat people as i would expect to be treated myself not all landlords are how you percieve them to be i have tennants that have been in property for over 10 yrs and hav eone that says the only reason i will leave is in abox. i find the best way is to be reasonable and you end up with much less down time due to empty property recommendations from freinds and no agents bills who do only care about themselfs sadly

 

[Gray0689]

why did you rent a property with poor heating personally i have no sympathy tennants often take the cheapest most run down property at low rent then withhold rent by arguing that the property is sub standard no one forced you to take out the tennancy if you dont understand the tennacy agreement why did you sign it.time for legal advice is before you sign

That's very harsh when you don't even know the facts on this subject
You should be saying sorry

 

[Charli Downing]

Thank you to the people who see that I'm not trying to fleece anyone! I just want the best for my son.

I know there are 'bad tenants', but, I am not one of them. I am not just trying to make problems as stevetheplumber assumes. As if I would move here knowing there was problems with the heating when I had a one year old son. I can't believe someone would insinuate that a parent would knowingly chose to move to a substandard property. I can't imagine anyone doing that with a baby.

I'm so glad there are still nice people (like the majority of the responses I've had) in the world.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to answer my post, I really appreciate it. ***

 

[Charli Downing]

To stevetheplumber:

You never asked how much I pay, and for the record, I pay £1300, which is actually above the standard amount for 2 bedroom properties in this area.

Can I just ask; why did you take it upon yourself to speak to me in that way? What exactly did I say that wound you up so much? I can't see your reasoning, so please enlighten me, as I really don't know why you were so rude to me.

 

[black 31]

are your heaters storage heaters charli

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

this threads getting out of hand and off track, arguing not helping anyone in particular the op who is just asking for advice,opinions be what they may they are just opinions,charli hope your original question has been answered,the rest of you behave this forums for advice not abuse,we cant see every ones circumstances ,and should not jump to conclusions based on our general experiences of landlords/tenants

 

[Charli Downing]

are your heaters storage heaters charli

No, they would be allowed, I've just got electric radiators/heaters x

 

[black 31]

oh ok hope you get some satisfaction soon and dont be walked on shame on your land lord if its a bad as you say esp where children are involved did you get ant sense out of cab

 

[Charli Downing]

oh ok hope you get some satisfaction soon and dont be walked on shame on your land lord if its a bad as you say esp where children are involved did you get ant sense out of cab

They just said that I can claim back part of the rent by going through small claims court. I'm a law student but I have far better things to be doing with my time, I just want to get out of here. To be honest, they weren't really sure what I should do! They just advised me to try to line up another tenant like my landlord has asked, but I don't think anyone will want to move in as I can't lie to people about the place, I don't want someone else to be stuck like I am. They just said that would be the best way out of the contract, as if they sued me for breach of contract I could put in a counterclaim for unfair terms in a contract (as i would have sorted out the new tenant, therefore costing the landlord/agent no money whatsoever).

EH are going to try to get force my landlord into putting in central heating, but they've dealt with him many times before (and hes also been taken to court by tenants and lost before) so they're hoping he will just pull his finger out and get the work done for once!

 

[stevetheplumber]

They just said that I can claim back part of the rent by going through small claims court. I'm a law student but I have far better things to be doing with my time, I just want to get out of here. To be honest, they weren't really sure what I should do! They just advised me to try to line up another tenant like my landlord has asked, but I don't think anyone will want to move in as I can't lie to people about the place, I don't want someone else to be stuck like I am. They just said that would be the best way out of the contract, as if they sued me for breach of contract I could put in a counterclaim for unfair terms in a contract (as i would have sorted out the new tenant, therefore costing the landlord/agent no money whatsoever).

EH are going to try to get force my landlord into putting in central heating, but they've dealt with him many times before (and hes also been taken to court by tenants and lost before) so they're hoping he will just pull his finger out and get the work done for once!

im sorry if i offended you but i stand by my question of why you would move into this flat youve already said that the heating is by means of electric and now you clarified that its not even the slightly cheaper to run storage fixed type
there fore i must assume its portable heaters that plug in to a socket if this is the case id say by todays standard that is pretty sub standard
if ive assumed wrong about the heater i apologise maybe you could be clearer in there description

im still unclear about your right to central heating as a law student perhaps you could point me in the direction of the legslation that a rental property should always have central heating it would be a usefull marketing tool

personally i belive all houses should have heating but then to misquote the girl in the profumo affair "i would wouldnt i"