Bats in the belfry, windows are jammed - London flat renting, deposits & landlords

@Greenbank - You don't need to prove you didn't received it. It's up to the Landlord to prove to the court you received it within 30 days of the Tenancy commencing.

@TW - These are all the documents a Tenant MUST receive in order for the law to be complied with, and ideally there needs to be a signature to state receipt from both parties. If any one document is missing as in the test case in 2012, its a complete failure to comply with the law. Even links to the information aren't enough, it must be hard copies.

@aggi - Alas the court ruled it must be hard copies. And all of the documents have to be supplied. The TDS is a contract, the same way there must be a hard copy of your tenancy contract too with your signature on.

No, the information is meant to be more specific to your situation. Where in the contract it details deposit deductions, how to reclaim the money, etc.

I stand corrected. It is the landlord's responsibility to provide the prescribed information to the tenant.

Wootwoot.

Looks like my shitty agent/slumlord will be paying for a recuperative cycling holiday someplace warm and dry then-he'd have been better actually using the previous tenants deposit to do some cleaning and remedial work instead of turning over the hole that I inherited...

@Muppetteer I'll owe you a beer!

@aggi - Alas the court ruled it must be hard copies.

the law is indeed an ass.

So, after escaping the frozen wastes of my last slum-i mean apartment-I'm now in a what I thought was a nicer place and have been beset by a plague of fleas for the last month.

Short of opening my own tiny circus, I'm getting molested daily despite having the place fumigated and sprayed, running EVERYTHING through the wash, bedding on an almost daily basis as well as jamming things that can't be washed in tiny freezer.

In short, it's royally doing my fucking clackers in, and although the landlord has been 'good' about it in the sense that he's paid for the pest control, he seems to be doubtful that there's much of an issue, whereas for us it's been a fucking nightmare and even sending pics of our many fleabites doesn't seem to inspire much sympathy.

Am I right in thinking that under these circumstances we shouldn't be paying full rent? I want to keep the guy on side and don't think he's a complete arsehole, but it's horrible being in a new home and feeling this way and the little bastards are showing no sign of dying off any time soon so we're thinking it might be best to just jump ship and find somewhere else. Not impress, very unhappy, so tired of endless washing.

Snot the landlord's fault, unless he lived there before you and brought them in. It'll need fumigating again at exactly the right time, something about the eggs not being killed I think, the pest company will know.

Fleas aren't indestructible, it's fixable. A bit itchy and manky, but you'll be ok.

Hoover everything every other day for a couple of weeks (furniture included) and get a flea spray to use whilst you're at work.

Yeah, not saying it's his fault but still his responsibility to sort it out! We're dealing with it and it's not our fault either, the only difference is that he's profiting whilst this is all going on and it's pretty grim coming home and being itchy/paranoid every day.

I have heard the egg thing which makes me think we should get a steam cleaner in and just blast every fabric surface there is as the fumigation is supposed to last 6 weeks.

Been doing this too and just as we start to relax and think it's over... itch itch itch. Horrible.

Yeah tell me about it, we had some last summer and thought we'd got rid of them until we came back from holiday and about 15 immediately jumped onto my legs!
They did go eventually but it took quite a long time and a lot of effort washing/hoovering things. I'll see if I can find the spray we used as apparently a lot of them are useless.

not the landlord's fault

It is probably his responsibility though, particularly if the infestation existed prior to gruber moving in.

Watch out for buboes though, gruber. I hear that plague is making a comeback.

Moves house to a nicer neighbourhood, gets the plague. #classicgruber

Yeh, soz, didn't mean to imply it's not the landlord's responsibility.

Get them to fumigate it again.

Was fumigated again last night... woke up to 3 new bites around my ankles. How is this even possible? I've visions of tiny flea gas masks and lots of laughter.

There is never any one shot fix to this. You need to work with their natural reproduction cycle - you can kill the adults and then the eggs hatch and around you go again. It will take time and you will need to be persistent.

You might want to check for bedbugs too...

Yeah, that was the first thing I thought it was as although we'd brought our own mattress the bedframe was in the flat, but no sign.

I guess either the eggs must have hatched overnight or the bites came before the fumigation? got water traps set up and another spray can, washing machine going steady....

FML.

when we signed a new tenancy with our landlord, the contract was based upon the landlord carrying out lots of remedial works. he hasn't done these works and we are at the end of the tenancy. we have chased almost every week. then he text us today saying he is going to raise the rent.

any actual options?

any actual options?

Move? LL sounds less than ideal. If you mean 'how do we get the LL to do what we want' well, he's already reneged on what might have been a contractual obligation, so you might be on a hiding to nothing there.

when we signed a new tenancy with our landlord, the contract was based upon the landlord carrying out lots of remedial works.

Was that in writing or a verbal agreement?

@Howard yeah. total belm. in every possible way. racist, angry, lying etc etc

@Mr_Sworld, we signed a contract which agreed to the rent rise on the condition of works being carried out...so yeah it is actually in writing. just deciding whether all the hassle is worth it

Find somewhere else to live, document the lack of works, gather correspondence, move out, get your deposit back and then take him to small claims court for the difference you paid in rent.
You might never get the cash out of him, but it's worth a punt given that small claims is pretty cheap to do. Has the added bonus of being a small price to pay to shit up someone you don't like, who hasn't treated you well.

^ this and maybe drop a hint or two on here as to who / where they might be, so others may recognise and steer clear?

Edit: actually probably not, as this might prejudice your case /piss off the legal types (someone more knowledgeable please correct me)

Yeah, don't do that. Just keep it professional. Make sure you've got all the correspondence about rent increase and works in writing.

yeah, will post up when I'm free and clear. he is most east london based, i'm in Whitechapel. Think I may have found a place, and like you say, better to get out and then explore routes as then he has no leverage. for example our deposits were never put in the safe schemes so i'm pretty sure we can claim compensation for that too if we really want to.

the thing that bugs me most is how much of a dick he is, considering how many houses he owns, and how much money we have paid him and have literally been the perfect tenants. the house is in a better state now than when we moved in as we gave up on him fixing shit and did it ourselves, even down to putting in a phoneline!