Can I claim money from my landlady?

Hi Rachael

This situation is clearly out of control.

What do you really want?

You haven't said how far into arrears you've become or whether you were in arrears before the problems started. Please confirm.

46 days without hot water or heating is inexcusable and you may be able to claim compensation so the answer to your question is, maybe.

On the other hand, your landlord also has some very potent weapons to fight back with. She can evict you and make your family homeless, counter-claim against you for unpaid rent and possibly other things too, register debts, gets bailiffs to seize your belongings to repay debts, claim against anybody who has guaranteed your rent and give a bad reference to other landlords.

From what you have said I suspect she has already commenced this process and the letter you're about to receive will be notice of eviction.

You must do everything to stop this whilst you still have an opportunity to do so.

If you don't, the only winners will be lawyers, assuming you both decide to them involved. What you both need to do is consider what you really want. If you go to war with each other, the winner will be the one who loses most. Neither of you will be better off though, in fact you will both be much worse off.

I suggest you ask your landlady to read this discussion thread and then for you both to meet with an open mind. Try to resolve your differences.

I am happy to mediate between you and your landlord via this discussion thread if you think that might help.
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PS - I also recommend you to read this discussion thread >>> http://goo.gl/EtKktp
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Hi Rachael

On the heating issue, 46 days is an excessive amount of time to deal with the issue and it should have been resolved sooner. You may be entitled to some compensation for it, but that really depends on what your landlady tried to do to help in the situation. It sounds like she did attempt to help you by calling someone out, and these things do take time to resolve if it's complicated, which heating can be.
HOWEVER, this is no excuse to withhold rent, and the landlady could easily counter claim against you, and if it is more than 2 months issue a section 8 notice.
Cookers are not a legal requirement for a landlord to provide, so she has every right to refuse to fix this.
I'm not quite sure what your final issue is here. You have told your landlady she can come round to the property on Friday, but she said she would write to you? Are you worried she will let herself in anyway? Why would she do that? And if she does come round and find you have a dog, which by the sounds of it isn't allowed in your tenancy agreement, the dog won't have to do very much in order for the landlady to take action. If pets are not allowed in your agreement, you are in breach of your agreement, and would almost certainly be evicted as a result. As for your dog's wellbeing, I don't think the dog would be put down unless there was another lawful reason for this to be the case.

I can see why your l/lady is reluctant if your're in arrears as repairs to boilers can be very expensive. Going for compensation is adding insult to injury, just pay your rent!

Reply to the comment left by "Anthony Endsor" at "17/12/2014 - 15:32":

Sorry, I don't understand your comment regarding the cooker.

Surely the point is that any appliances provided with the property are the Landlord's responsibilty to maintain unless the agreement states otherwise..

Reply to the comment left by "Adrian Jones" at "17/12/2014 - 15:57":

I agree
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Hi Rachael.

If you think there is a possibility that your landlord might enter the property (legally or legally) and might suffer harm from your dogs, then wouldn't you want to make the landlord aware of that possibility? Not doing so might be considered negligent.

Reply to the comment left by "Adrian Jones" at "17/12/2014 - 15:57":

I disagree.

If the agreement is silent on the matter, then the landlord doesn't have a legal obligation to repair.

Please read the many arguments on other landlord and legal sites before disputing.

Reply to the comment left by "Monty Bodkin" at "17/12/2014 - 17:02":

If a landlord isn't willing to keep in good working order an applicance that he/she provides I don't think he/she should provide it in the first place.

Not completing repairs (caused through not fault of the tenant) doesn't benefit either party.

E.g. Cooker is broke and tenant can either a) pay to repair (the landlord's) cooker or b) buy him/herself a new cooker that they can call their own.

The result of this example would probably result in either a) a patch up repair job to landlord's cooker or b) the cooker being thrown out as it's broken or sit still broken ready for the landlord to eventually repair it for the next tenant - or throw it out himself of course.

My stance, and I guess the stance of most reasonable landlords and tenants would be - don't supply white goods if your not going to take responsibility for keeping them in good working order.

Reply to the comment left by "Paul Franklin" at "17/12/2014 - 17:37":

I agree.
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