Rental advice please... what are my rights?

ene

I am based in the uk but i always asks boardsies my questions so hope you can help me.

I am currently renting a flat in Brighton, when we went to view the property the previous tenants had millions of things in it so it was hard to see many details but we fell in love with the location so put a deposit down on it.

A couple of weeks before we were due to move in i asked to see the property again as the tenants had moved out and i couldn't remember what it looked like.

I was shocked to find kitchen cupboards broken, the flooring had lots of gaps in it, there was literally a hole in the wall, the garden hadn't been cleared etc etc. obviously i should have seen this as a warning but the letting agency assured me it would all be done when we moved in.

When we moved in it wasn't done and the person we were dealing with went on indefinite leave, we were told we were not promised that these things would be fixed and fearing that we would have no where to go or loose our deposit we moved in and are trying to make the most of it.

Now 2 months later the bath has broken (the bathroom roof is sloped like a dome so cannot stand in the bath to wash you have to kneel of squat), it broke where we normally have to lean to get the water to not flow all over the ground (no shower curtain and roof doesn't allow us to instal one ourselves).

Now the letting agent is obviously ****e and i want to know are they obliged to fix it? is it my responsibility? are these reasons enough to break tenancy?

we are really unhappy here and looking everyday for a new flat we just can't afford to loose our deposit!

sorry for the long post! please help!

Michael D Not Higgins

I'm trying to imagine your bathroom setup but can't. Do you have a picture of the bath/damage? How the damage occured can determine whose fault it is and whose responsibility it is. They are obliged to fix it but if you're at fault then you might be on the hook for the cost. However, from the sounds of it they'd prefer not to fix anything.

I don't think it's reason enough to break the lease. You agreed to move in after learning the problems would not be addressed. The timing of when you signed the lease may be important though. If you handed over the deposit and signed the lease in good faith on the agent's word that the issues would be fixed I would say you have some comeback but if you signed after you were told the issues were remaining as is then you could have backed away (loss of deposit being a separate issue).

I'm not sure how competitive the market is down south but I know when I was moving into my current place I paid a booking deposit which was a third of a month's rent in advance of signing the lease. I'm not sure if your deposit was the full amount or a small booking deposit but you could have explored that option with the agent at the time too.

Gasherbraun

ene wrote: »

I am based in the uk but i always asks boardsies my questions so hope you can help me.

I am currently renting a flat in Brighton, when we went to view the property the previous tenants had millions of things in it so it was hard to see many details but we fell in love with the location so put a deposit down on it.

A couple of weeks before we were due to move in i asked to see the property again as the tenants had moved out and i couldn't remember what it looked like.

I was shocked to find kitchen cupboards broken, the flooring had lots of gaps in it, there was literally a hole in the wall, the garden hadn't been cleared etc etc. obviously i should have seen this as a warning but the letting agency assured me it would all be done when we moved in.

When we moved in it wasn't done and the person we were dealing with went on indefinite leave, we were told we were not promised that these things would be fixed and fearing that we would have no where to go or loose our deposit we moved in and are trying to make the most of it.

Now 2 months later the bath has broken (the bathroom roof is sloped like a dome so cannot stand in the bath to wash you have to kneel of squat), it broke where we normally have to lean to get the water to not flow all over the ground (no shower curtain and roof doesn't allow us to instal one ourselves).

Now the letting agent is obviously ****e and i want to know are they obliged to fix it? is it my responsibility? are these reasons enough to break tenancy?

we are really unhappy here and looking everyday for a new flat we just can't afford to loose our deposit!

sorry for the long post! please help!

I would suggest firstly you report this to the agent. Landlords / agents in the UK have a repairing liability just like Ireland so see what they say first of all.

Did you get an inventory that you agreed or have a check in procedure? If you did, and did not raise these concerns at the time it will be hard to go back on it now.

It sounds like the member of staff you were dealing with originally no longer works for them so you probably have little recourse over any verbal agreements that were made.

Were you informed of where your deposit has been lodged? UK agents have to inform tenants of what scheme the deposit is held in and failure to do so has fairly heavy fines (equivalent of three months’ rent) so this may be worth something as a bargaining point.