Hi all,
My first post here & hoping for some advice :-) Apologies in advance for the rambling!
I moved in to a property (3 year old property) with my husband & 4 children mid December 2013.
After just 2 weeks the boiler started cutting out, in the new year we informed the letting agency (property is managed by the estate agent). Throughout Jan & beginning of Feb we had to make many phone calls & have many visits from the boiler man to get the issue fixed, he kept 'fixing' it, only for it to break again.
Then 2 cosmetic faults have appeared on the walls (one in bathroom & one in kitchen, too hard to explain!!), they cause us no problem but felt we should let the agent know. After a couple of weeks, someone came to have a look at them, he said he needed someone else to come & have a look!
He also said that the bathroom issue wasn't under the warranty, that means someone else would deal with that - so another 2 further visits just to have a 'look' before they come to fix the 'faults'
At this point we made it clear to the agent that we were not happy with all the coming & going that has been going on over the past 2.5 months (at that point we'd lived there for just 3 months & had at least 6 visits & made at least 20 phone calls &, 30 texts to sort out the on going boiler issue and arrange the visit to 'look' at the cosmetic faults).
The agent spoke with the landlord & he agreed that the cosmetic repairs would be left until we had moved out (12month contract). We had already told the agency that we won't be staying any longer than our contacted 12 months as to be perfectly honest the house is very over priced - we privately rent a house that is surrounded by social housing. Let me explain that further! The families living in those houses are loud, allow the children (all less than 7 years old) to play outside until past 9 o'clock at night, the adults stand on the door steps drinking until 3am in the morning! So whilst ordinarily I have no issues WHAT SO EVER with social housing, I do take issue with paying £1000 rent for this particular house, which is well above average in this area anyway, to live on a social housing estate with people that have no respect for their neighbours. It's a new build that seemed perfect for us, we visited the property 3 times, unfortunately in November when we viewed the neighbours weren't all on their door steps drinking & smoking like they are now!
I do realise that sounds b**chy :-/ that's really not my intention, just trying to explain that the property really is over priced for the area & with the on going issues we it all adds up! We were very new to the area & thought we were moving to an idyllic country side location. We were very wrong, turns out we choose the worst area in the village lol!! Anyway that's beside the point..........
Now the boiler has started to fault AGAIN (4 months into the contact), so we are awaiting (in the coming week) someone to come & look then attempt to fix again. We are out of pocket by £20 as I've had to buy a carbon monoxide detector as I do not trust the boiler (located in my bedroom).
ALSO the landlord has now gone back on his word & said that the cosmetic work will need attention ASAP as his warranty expires in May. So we're now in for even more visits, phone calls, e-mails & repairs - just 4 months into our contract.
We have 4 children, husband works long & unsociable shifts, I work full time hours from home (when kids are in bed so through to early hours) & my children (the older ones) are home educated (as there aren't any school places in the village!!). So we (like most families) are extremely busy - as the kids aren't at school I have to make sure we go out daily & they attend various clubs etc. So these visits, phone calls etc are really a nuisance, they are impacting our lives & we have had enough!!
The estate agent suggested with give them a key so that they can come when we're out to do repairs etc, but I will not allow strangers in my home when I am not here and feel I am within my rights to refuse that. Even if I owned the house I wouldn't leave strangers here, it's just not something I am comfortable with.
The basic question is, we want to leave, we want to terminate out contact due to the on going problems with this house that are impacting our lives, taking up our valuable time & are now also costing us money. Are we within our rights?
Please help :-) Many thanks in advance!
My first post here & hoping for some advice :-) Apologies in advance for the rambling!
I moved in to a property (3 year old property) with my husband & 4 children mid December 2013.
After just 2 weeks the boiler started cutting out, in the new year we informed the letting agency (property is managed by the estate agent). Throughout Jan & beginning of Feb we had to make many phone calls & have many visits from the boiler man to get the issue fixed, he kept 'fixing' it, only for it to break again.
Then 2 cosmetic faults have appeared on the walls (one in bathroom & one in kitchen, too hard to explain!!), they cause us no problem but felt we should let the agent know. After a couple of weeks, someone came to have a look at them, he said he needed someone else to come & have a look!
He also said that the bathroom issue wasn't under the warranty, that means someone else would deal with that - so another 2 further visits just to have a 'look' before they come to fix the 'faults'
At this point we made it clear to the agent that we were not happy with all the coming & going that has been going on over the past 2.5 months (at that point we'd lived there for just 3 months & had at least 6 visits & made at least 20 phone calls &, 30 texts to sort out the on going boiler issue and arrange the visit to 'look' at the cosmetic faults).
The agent spoke with the landlord & he agreed that the cosmetic repairs would be left until we had moved out (12month contract). We had already told the agency that we won't be staying any longer than our contacted 12 months as to be perfectly honest the house is very over priced - we privately rent a house that is surrounded by social housing. Let me explain that further! The families living in those houses are loud, allow the children (all less than 7 years old) to play outside until past 9 o'clock at night, the adults stand on the door steps drinking until 3am in the morning! So whilst ordinarily I have no issues WHAT SO EVER with social housing, I do take issue with paying £1000 rent for this particular house, which is well above average in this area anyway, to live on a social housing estate with people that have no respect for their neighbours. It's a new build that seemed perfect for us, we visited the property 3 times, unfortunately in November when we viewed the neighbours weren't all on their door steps drinking & smoking like they are now!
I do realise that sounds b**chy :-/ that's really not my intention, just trying to explain that the property really is over priced for the area & with the on going issues we it all adds up! We were very new to the area & thought we were moving to an idyllic country side location. We were very wrong, turns out we choose the worst area in the village lol!! Anyway that's beside the point..........
Now the boiler has started to fault AGAIN (4 months into the contact), so we are awaiting (in the coming week) someone to come & look then attempt to fix again. We are out of pocket by £20 as I've had to buy a carbon monoxide detector as I do not trust the boiler (located in my bedroom).
ALSO the landlord has now gone back on his word & said that the cosmetic work will need attention ASAP as his warranty expires in May. So we're now in for even more visits, phone calls, e-mails & repairs - just 4 months into our contract.
We have 4 children, husband works long & unsociable shifts, I work full time hours from home (when kids are in bed so through to early hours) & my children (the older ones) are home educated (as there aren't any school places in the village!!). So we (like most families) are extremely busy - as the kids aren't at school I have to make sure we go out daily & they attend various clubs etc. So these visits, phone calls etc are really a nuisance, they are impacting our lives & we have had enough!!
The estate agent suggested with give them a key so that they can come when we're out to do repairs etc, but I will not allow strangers in my home when I am not here and feel I am within my rights to refuse that. Even if I owned the house I wouldn't leave strangers here, it's just not something I am comfortable with.
The basic question is, we want to leave, we want to terminate out contact due to the on going problems with this house that are impacting our lives, taking up our valuable time & are now also costing us money. Are we within our rights?
Please help :-) Many thanks in advance!
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