tenants rights

[hammerman]

My step daughter lives in a rented house which has a lot of problems. The house is rented through an agent and my step daughter has requested on more than one occasion that these items are fixed.

I've now told her to write the things down and go back to the agent and tell them that if these things aren't fixed in xxx amount of weeks (2 weeks ?) she will report the agent to.....

But i don't know if there's a governing body that protects tenants whom the agent can be reported to.

Any ideas. ?

Ta

[ixion]

This is the org in Scotland

http://www.prhpscotland.gov.uk/prhp/1.html

[bednobs]

hi hammerman - can you give us some idea of what sort of problems? Are they things that are liveable, or are they things that must be demanded to be fixed ASAP? (this might help us know what sort of place to report to.
TBH it may even be the landlady/lord who is stalling - depending what kind of contract they have with the agent, the agents responsibility may end with just rreporting it to the owner

[puma86]

Hi Hammerman,

If a landlord refuses to carry out repairs then she can start a claim in the small claims court for repairs under £5,000
or
carry out repairs herself and deduct costs from rent - this can be the messier option and would need legal advice etc and inform the landlord that they are going to do this.

Try going to

http://www.direct.gov...ndstandards/DG_189194

Hope this helps :o)

[TonyV]

What are the problems / issues? - is your step daughter in England or Scotland?

[puma86]

Bednobs is right - mostly agents are just a 'messenger'. I currently rent my place from my landlord but we used to be through an agent. When we have problems now we call the landlord and its sorted straight away. Before this, however, we used to contact agent wait a few days for them to contact landlord, wait a few days for them to reply etc etc.........total nightmare!!

[what..the?]

1. Letting agents are unregulated
Yes, anyone can set up as a letting agent. There are no exams to pass, no regulations to comply with. So that letting agent with the fancy web-site and all the talk could be completely inexperienced, know virtually nothing about landlord and tenant law, and have no professional indemnity insurance.

Some agents are regulated but this is voluntary. But if at all possible it is best to choose one of these. The organisations are:

•The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) – www.arla.co.uk

•The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) – www.rics.org

•The National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) – www.nalscheme.co.uk

•The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) – www.naea.co.uk

It is also good if they are registered with the Property Ombudsman (TPO) – www.tpos.co.uk

[what..the?]

check if the letting agents are registered with any of the above and contact them

[Auntie-Mimi]

Your daughter should put her complaint about the items needing fixing in writing to the agents who will pass onto landlord, you have 2 weeks, then if no response do it again, each time the letters should be sent by recorded delivery, then if still no response you (step daugher) can contact her local council who will have a department that deals with private tenants and they can take up complaint for repairs on her behalf they can even inspect property and take proceedings wif it comes to that