Tenant suing for condensation problems?

Tenant suing for condensation problems?

10:29 AM, 21st February 2023, About 2 years ago 11

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Hello, I have a tenant who is suing me for damp and mould problems. When the tenant moved into the property it was just renovated with a new carpet and painted throughout. The flat is a two bedroom ground floor. She and her three children ages 12, 14 and 10 months – all boys.

After about 6 months she complained about mould in the front room, when I went to the flat there was mould by the front wall of the living room/kitchen – she was drying clothes on the radiators and didn’t have the windows open.

I explained to her about opening the windows and not to dry clothes on the radiators.

I got some mould spray and cleaned the walls down.

The mould problem continued and then she got a tumble dryer in the living room which was not vented outside. Instead she put the hose out on to the floor causing more mould.

Her husband then moved into the flat making five people living in a two bed flat. Her husband was not on the AST, only herself and three children. She got the flat due to domestic violence from an estate agent who went through the council who approved the flat.

I have kitchen extractor and an EnviroVent fan in the bathroom but still had the mould.

I received a letter from a solicitor just after Christmas looking for compensation, the tenant has now moved out of the flat moving to a three bed flat. She only gave me a week’s notice and still had 4 months remaining on her AST.

I have asked the solicitors for a joint inspection, they said they didn’t need to do this as they already had enough evidence.

The tenant had sent the solicitor photos of the mould but I also sent the solicitor photos of the tumble dryer in the living and the bedroom unvented.

Can anyone advise and recommend a solicitor in the north west London area?

Peter


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Nick Van Hoogstraten

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8:12 AM, 25th February 2023, About 2 years ago

I had this year a year ago. Tenant reported about April. It went back and forth with me telling them to clear it up and my agent handing them a leaflet about mould, condensation and opening windows etc. There were never mould problems with my previous 3 years tenancy with Romanians.

I had an unreportedly broken extractor fan. No fan in a kitchen but a hole for a flue pipe that had been removed and replaced with grilles.. There was another roof leak to the kitchen. I repaired it myself once, and again another leak a year later with a contractor. A further year later when the mould and legal problems kicked off a new roof leak was discovered. I replaced the roof.

Tenant lied and said I the removed a fan. First she got the council involved. Then I got the solicitor letter. It’s a standard shake down letter with them just pasting in a tenant’s statement of repair problems etc. Being from Africa it wasn’t written very well. Children had the obligatory astma too.

I started the repairs schedule right away and my defence letter. I looked up their own proposed expert. A company owned by the solicitor! My colleagues at work told me to get a solicitor. They will keep coming back at you otherwise. You may set a foot wrong.

Cost me £600. Lawyer basically took my draft letter and out on his headed paper. You have to do all the work because you know the timeline of events and all the circumstances to be fair. He also pointed out he would point out to the judge the conflict of interest with their undeclared not impartial expert. I could also prove she lied with roof repair invoices.

We asked for their documents of proof of everything (disclosure). They don’t bother giving you anything. They don’t bother setting out their case. It’s full of lies etc.

Anyway letter was sent off. Never heard back. My lawyer chased. Then weeks later again. Then chases me for more money. His fee has run out. I say we haven’t heard back. He wants more money for him, and for court fees to pay out to force them to give their disclosure!!!!!! I say they should have provided it first off. We chased and NO. This was 18 months ago.

It’s all clear now. Cost me a few thousand to clear the mould. I put a PIV system in the loft for £1k to stop any more mould.

I go round there. They have about 6 people in a 3 bed house. 4 young kids. Washing all the time. Too lazy to put the washing outside or open the windows. I started the S21 process mid last year after I read Gove’s White Paper published in June.

GET THESE PEOPLE OUT OF OUR PROPERTY WHILE YOU STILL CAN. Read the White Paper too. It’s about 80 pages long and easy to read. I only got to about page 40, and that was because of the comedy horror value. It’s highly entertaining. But more importantly, shocking that Tory government or any political party could write something so bias in favour of the tenants. They are going to create an ombudsman. Tenants will be able to go there to resolve it seems landowners will be forced to apologise to the tenant it says. Nothing about tenants apologising to landlords it’s scary to read it.

Property tribes recommend Anthony gold solicitors. My sister said they send one of their own conmen around to survey the property and add any other spurious claims they can.

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