UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi there,

I was wondering if you could advise. Myself and my housemate live in a house with two bathrooms. The shower in one of our bathrooms hasn't been working for OVER a month (we raised this with the letting agency on day 1 of it not working - it's not a case of hot or cold water lacking, rather no water coming out at all); we have now been told for weeks 'they are awaiting the part' - when pressed for it they said that we must have broken it, only to take this back once we reminded them that this specific shower is behind the wall and not on the front side - meaning you can't physically access it to break it.

They then reverted back to 'awaiting for the part' and last week said the part would finally arrive last Friday or Saturday for installation this week. This week of course nothing has happened and they are still 'awaiting' the part, something they say is in transit. With this being a short week it will likely be fixed after Easter when it would be in its 5th week.
Am I correct in saying this is an excessive amount of time to repair something? What are our rights? We pay an absolute fortune (£2800 a month) to be able to have two bathrooms - with myself being 7 months PREGNANT, the walk-in shower is of essence as not only it's harder to get in & out of tub, I risk slipping when I do it. We're having to chase them every day (yes, every day!) to find out whether there is an update.

Would we be in our right to ask them to terminate the agreement, as we are not getting what we are paying for? Would they have a right to charge us an exit fee seen as they are the reason we are even considering moving? alternatively are we entitled to any portion of rent back? It just seems a little ridiculous that this has been going on for so long and we just want to know where we stand legally. I did ask for their complaints manual, but have not received it. They are part of an Ombudsman scheme, so wonder if that's the way forward or if we need to take them to a small claims court.

We had offered to get it fixed ourselves if that meant speeding the process up, but we were told we were not allowed to.

Any advice would be very appreciated as we (especially me) are lost with this.
Kind Regards

No, you do not have any rights as such.

A Landlord must be allowed "a reasonable time to effect repairs"... the key word is "reasonable". It's not objectively defined anywhere in Law. That means it's a grey area, an open-ended timeframe... because some progress is being made (although you would challenge this, rightly so) the Landlord can claim they are being reasonable (through their Agent) and you can do, and deserve, nothing.

Sorry.

It's even worse when you admit that there are actually 2 showers in the property... even if there was just 1 bath then you would have the ability to wash and clean yourself... so it wouldn't be considered any kind of emergency. I can see how it is to you, of course I can, but when you look at things from a legal perspective, you have the facilities you need to live.

Now, all of that said, there is a process that can be followed whereby Tenants can initiate the effect of repairs themselves and deduct the cost of those from the rent. I must be very clear that there is no legal angle that entitles you to withhold rent - and this link outlines that quite clearly too (from the outset, actually). You also do not have the right to unilaterally terminate the agreement over something like a non-working shower.

Have a read of this, see if it helps you - if you go down this route then follow the process to the letter:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/responsibility_for_repairs/tenants_doing_repairs