UK Landlord Forum / Life

I moved in to my accommodation and find that there is a problem with the water coming to the shower. It runs OK then suddenly comes in cold - very unpleasant! The landlord and agent insist that I have to sit in from 8am till 6pm and wait for the boiler service man as they won't attend an empty house. I have already done this once, and the man was meant to have fixed it but didn't so the problem remains. I have offered to drop a spare key at the agent's office so the boiler man can sort it out but they insist that I have to put everything off again and sit in and wait. I cannot do this and surely it must be the responsibility of the landlord: it has never worked. I don't mind letting them in at a set time then going out but I am not wasting another whole day again to fix this. Please can anyone tell me what the legal aspect of this is? The agent refuses to come and sit in and says it is my responsibility. What can I do?

Seems a bit mean I know, but sometimes it can help to see things from both sides.

A landlord can easily compromise themselves by accepting access to a property when the tenant is not present.

If the tenant perceives that anything has gone missing during the visit, he might suspect that the landlord or his tradesman have stolen it.

I think it is reasonable to expect you to be there, providing they turn up and providing they are doing their best to sort the problem.

I dont think the "legal aspect" comes into it. You should be working with your landlord to make your tenancy a good one.

I agree that there is not really a legal aspect to this and, to be fair, going 'all legal' will hardly help your cause.

I can only relay what I do... for repairs I ensure that I, as Landlord, am present... this is important (to me) because I am paying for the work that is undertaken, therefore I need to know it has been done to a good standard and then I can sign it off. I would only not attend if the Tenant made it clear that they did not want me to attend. I would never try to force the Tenant to take on what is clearly my own responsibility. I see this as part of my job, as Landlord, the conducting or overseeing repairs and maintenance.

Your Landlord - obviously - does not look at things in this way.

The Landlord is certainly responsible for any installations that provide water, or any appliance provided by the Landlord for using the water... shower should come under this... but being responsible for usually means affecting the repair of, not necessarily being present.

If you owned the home, who would you expect to be in for you? The obvious answer is that no-one could do it - you'd have to - and there are Tenant responsibilities too.

It  feels like, yes, you could continue to push back on this... but it's only really further inconvenience to yourself that you are bringing about.

As to what you can do... I think you need to take a deep breath and understand that starting-off a tenancy on the wrong foot isn't going to be good for you.

P.S. - any company that gives a 08:00 to 18:00 'time slot' needs getting rid of right away... they're not professional enough to work with. Any outfit can manage their time better... or at least give you 30 minutes notice before they start off to your place and, maybe, you can drop what you're doing at that time and return briefly.

It is annoying.

But it is a fact of life really, and if you want the issue fixed, you'll have to be put out again.

If you dont it is you that could be seen to be unreasonable.

Cant you combine it with another task that you need to get done at home i.e. do your tax return, sort out clothes for charity, catch up with ironing, defrost the freezer, clean out all the kitchen cupboards, investigate better home insurance and utility bills, apply for a meerkat as a result.

You could end up making yourself a couple of hundred quid for sitting round waiting.

That's what i do.

If you owned your own property you would have to make provisions for tradesmen when things go wrong.