UK Landlord Forum / Life

We live in a lovely house that is fully managed by the agent. For some reason the previous owner of the property fitted an 'industrial' sized pump to keep the pressure going to the upstairs bathrooms. We have been in the property for just over a year to date but in late August the pump (which was already a little noisy) became very noisy. Like a sherman tank. The pump was located in the utility room but the noise reverberated through the house when it came on. This was just about acceptable during the day but was annoying when it came on at 4am for some reason and as it got worse, became a nuisance during the day, espeacially when we worked from home and were on calls. We reported the problem to the managing agent who have been very good to their credit and advised us that they had informed the landlord. Long story short it took 4 months for the landlord to make a decision about what to do with the pump and it was resolved just before Christmas after a visit from a plumber to remove the pump, leave us with the inability to have a shower or bath for 3 days, to then return and just switch a leaver that allowed mains pressure in! My question that I am seeking some advice for is that as we reported the issue end of August and it took 4 months to resolve (reasonable period of time is alledgedly 14 days!) do I have a case for a small claims against her as we are just about to leave the property (I know we have a six year window) and if so at what level of compensation. Any views welcomed.

There is no time scale on "reasonable", and 14 days is a urban myth.

You are entitled to compensation for your loss in the event of a breach of contract (or, less commonly, a breach of the landlord's duty of care). It's hard to quantify what your loss is, other than the 3 days when you had no hot water.

A noisy pump is an inconvenience, but it's value is to a reasonable normal person, you being at home on calls isn't applicable, but being woken up at 4AM probably is.

I'd say, that, yes you have a case, but I have no opinion about the possible size of the claim. But, as I suspect, your incentive is to penalise the landlord for providing a poor response, not actually financial, why not just pick an annoying value? And I'd wait until you've got your deposit back before making a claim.

The title of the thread contains "4 months". However, the actual timeframe you meant to write was "3 days". Well within the alledged (sic) 14 day reasonable timeframe your friend down the pub told you. Just move on, quietly...

I very much doubt that you would be awarded much if anything.It could be expensive, take many months, and involve producing much more actual proof of harm than you seem to have. Most of us will have had disrupted sleep and noise nuisance at some time, without feeling the need to make a drama of it after the event.   

I dunno, though. Three months to organise a plumber (or presumably to tell the agent to do that) isn't reasonable. There was obviously some kind of problem that needed addressing. I can see why someone might want their landlord to suffer a bit in return.

If they just want to cause him some embarrassment and don't mind spending time and money to do that, fair enough. However without any noise recording evidence, or proof that their livelihood was affected, I very much doubt that they will be awarded anything. I am not saying the landlord is blameless, I would not just ignore something like that. It's this idea that life should be perfect and fair, and when it's not (which is most of the time in my experience) someone must pay.