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Problems with Landlord

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blownalot
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Problems with Landlord

Post by blownalot » Sun, 21 Sep 2008 7:07 pm

Hi

We are finding it impossible to get hold of our landlord and the agent says they can't get hold of them either.

We had a water heater burst and have been trying to get hold of them to carry out repairs to the property following that. At this stage we are very tempted to stop paying the rent and just move out even though we have almost 12 months left on the lease.

Can anyone recommend a lawyer for property matters please?

Thanks

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ukdesigner
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Post by ukdesigner » Mon, 22 Sep 2008 4:35 am

Alternatively what you could do is come to an arrangement with the agent and get the work done yourself and just deduct the cost from your rent. Get a proper receipt, scan it and email it to your agent.

When I moved into my place recently there were one or two problems that the agent had neglected to inform me about.. leaking toilet and a kitchen tap that decided to put more water on me than in the sink!!

I just rung my agent and told them that it wasn't good enough and I was getting a plumber in and deducting the cost from the rent. They weren't pleased but they had to deal with it.

I even found out that the landlord had had the gas meter removed! Go figure eh! So I billed them for the connection fee as the place was "sold" on the basis of having gas mains rather than using bottles.
Don't p*ss me off! I am running out of places to hide the bodies.

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durain
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Post by durain » Mon, 22 Sep 2008 6:47 am

i second the advise from ukdesigner. make sure you let the agent know what you are doing. also have a read thru your tenancy agreement to find out if such repair comes out from the landlord, etc.

blownalot
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Post by blownalot » Sun, 12 Oct 2008 6:30 pm

Thanks for the advice.

We rang the landlords agent and all she would say is that she was only their agent to find a tenant and she has nothing to do with them after that. We have sent registered letters asking them to get in touch but they have all been returned to us as the landlord never seems to be in the country.

Has anyone any experience with getting a lease terminated early as a result of the landlord not fulfilling their duties?

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k1w1
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Post by k1w1 » Sun, 12 Oct 2008 7:22 pm

I recently had a situation similar to this. LL and agent both impossible to contact. I sent the agent a letter detailing what needed to be done and said if it wasn't done in a reasonable amount of time (as stipulated in my TA), I would deduct it from my rent. I gave them 2 weeks, got receipts and fixed it. Paid the difference in rental that month and have still heard nothing from the owner.

I don't like your chances of getting out a rental agreement on the basis of a water heater. It would have to be something really serious or that stopped you actually using the property.

Lily Pad
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Post by Lily Pad » Mon, 13 Oct 2008 7:27 pm

Send a letter to the landlord's official address on your tenancy agreement detailing the water heater problem and the time you'll provide them to fix before taking action and deducting from rent. Ensure agent is cc'd.

This was the advice we received from the landlord's agent when we had a maintenance issue.

Min_Ong
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Post by Min_Ong » Tue, 14 Oct 2008 2:07 am

mmm. bad experience for you. we visit our tenant whenever there's a problem. to the extent of nursing the pond conditions. its all in the agreement. no point pushing blame and sooner or later, it has to be fixed.

but the deduction from rental fee billing method is sound advice. definately fair ground for you to do that.

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positano
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Post by positano » Tue, 14 Oct 2008 8:58 am

hi blownalot

my husband and i were in a similar situation where condo we were renting needed urgent repairs but the landlord was not contactable and the agent washed her hands of any responsibility.

after making several requests to the agent for the landlord to make a response or to contact us which failed, we sent registered letters to the landlord's address asking for action and for the landlord to contact us within a specified timeframe. we also obtained quotes from building contractors etc. we were not willing to spend any further time, energy or money as we were not getting any response. we sought legal advice and in the end, we decided to terminate the lease on the grounds that the property was not fit for living and we recovered our costs through the small claims tribunal (you can view my posts on a thread under "hdb rental frauds" where i mention a little on the small claims tribunal process.

if you need any further info let me know.

localman
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Post by localman » Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:33 am

blownalot wrote:Thanks for the advice.

We rang the landlords agent and all she would say is that she was only their agent to find a tenant and she has nothing to do with them after that. We have sent registered letters asking them to get in touch but they have all been returned to us as the landlord never seems to be in the country.

Has anyone any experience with getting a lease terminated early as a result of the landlord not fulfilling their duties?
Go back to your Tenancy Agreement (TA), somewhere it would have been said that in case where the landlord have failed to act, the tenant is entitled to get the repair done and deduct the cost against the rental payment. However before you do that ensure that the many registered letter that you sent are addressed to the address the landlord have provide in the TA, and do keep all the returned registered mail as evidence of your effort to contact the landlord. And lastly do ensure that you are dealing with the legitimate landlord.

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