This is a question to the blog clinic from Catherine who is a tenant.
We rent a property privately via estate agency for 5 years . the homemade extension is in bad repair and now the backdoor cannot be locked . we cannot get contents insurance. and I think it would invalidate Landlords insurance too.
We have notified landlord of the deterioration in person and by letter but he won’t see the problem .
We don’t want to move . any advice ?
Answer
Well if you are going to stay in the property you will need to get this fixed. As the landlord won’t do it, the quickest way to get it done is to do it yourself.
It is arguable that this would fall under ‘structure and exterior’ of the property which it is the landlord’s duty to keep in repair under the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985. So it may be worth following the procedure set out here.
However, if you actually claim the money back from your rent, your landlord may respond by requiring you to leave – I don’t know whether he will do this or not but it is always a possibility. So you will have to judge whether this is a good thing to do or not.
Or you could wait until you leave and deduct it from your final month’s rent – although if the landlord wants to deduct this from your deposit be aware that the deposit adjudicators do not have the power to consider this sort of claim – so you may need to go to court instead.
If the door is insecure then it may be a Category 1 Hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and therefore your local Environmental Health Officer could require the Landlord to do the repair using powers contained within the Housing Act 2004.
Another possibility is the local authority EHOs who can contact the landlord, as this is a case of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System hazard #12 “Danger of entry by intruders”.
Highly unlikely that the EHO will serve a works notice as it isnt a serious category 1 or 2 hazard but a letter from the council sometimes helps…….believe it or not
Is the “homemade extension” outside of the main house with a full secure back door separating it from the name house? I am thinking of someone like a garden shed that that is fixed to the house wall so the backdoor opens into the shed.
If so, then just don’t put anything in it…….