Flooded Flat

patrickolee

Hi, A friend of mine had her rented flat flooded over the weekend from the rain. They are in a top floor flat and the rain came in from a little lake in on an ajoining flat roof. They mopped up three bucket fulls of water, but the whole place got wrecked. Now it stinks, three days later, so shes arrived at my house for a place to kip! She's told the estate agents who are renting it out to her, but they just sent a fella over to have a look. He says the carpet will have to be replaced and the floor will have to be left to dry out for a week. No mention of putting them up elsewhere in the meantime. She can't live there at the moment in any event, due to the smell, so she's sleeping on my floor.

Question is, does the estate agent have to provide her with alternative accomodation? Does she have any rights, or who should we contact to find out if she has?

She's chinese so her english isn't the best and I think they're not that bothered as a result. I had an american friend who had something similar happen to him and his estate agent put him up in a hotel immediately and were very apologetic.

jubi lee

well i know as a loandlord if that happened i think ur meant to provide somewhere for the tenant to stay while the repairs are complete. i'm sure it's the same for estate agents/landlords.

can you ring the letting agent for her if her english isn't the best? also whats written into her agreement?

patrickolee

I think I will probably have to ring alright. I'm afraid she has no agreement, i.e. no contract, or at least she doesn't know if she has one. She's there about a year, but it's a rolling house share so there originally may have been something in writing, but it's long since lost.

Thanks for replying btw.