UK Rental help

[UnderProtest]

I'm hoping for advice on how to deal with our landlord/property manager.  

LONG story short, we have had a couple outstanding water leak and window leak issues in our house since May and July, respectively.  We have reported the issues promptly and I have patiently waited for them to be fixed.  Our landlord is insisting on using the contractor who renovated the property for her and he has been screwing around for months.  At the beginning of October, we wrote a firmly worded email that said we weren't paying rent until the issues were resolved.  He finally came round at the end of October, broke something else while fixing one thing and completely screwed up another thing leaving us without a bathroom skylight window for two weeks.  Those items were finally fixed last Friday, but there is still a clogged drain that I think it is because of their work.  Because of all the issues, we haven't been able to use two of the bathrooms (out of 4.5 total, so not all) for months, I have had things strewn about the house because of the issues, and I have been inconvenienced to no end by his late/no shows, early appointments where my kids and I have to get up early for their appointments, having to be home to watch the workers because they left the front door wide open in Central London, and major annoyance by the waiting for anyone to schedule anything.  The property manager has also been slack at scheduling anything and communicated with me about when and if things are going to be fixed.  

So now it comes down to compensation.  The property manager doesn't think we are owed much since the house has been habitable.  I think we are owed round a month's rent for the continued shenanigans, mostly because the landlord is insisting on using this idiot who breaks more than he fixes and because they all have delayed getting the issues fixed.  The property manager wants me to send an email justifying why I think I want so much compensation. 

Okay, so that wasn't really short, but it could have been longer.

So what do you think is fair here and how do I go about it?

[frlcb]

Welcome to customer service in England.

I am stuck at 4.5 bathrooms in central London, nice!

Honestly this is the way everything went when we lived there, slow and painful. If you still had 2.5 bathrooms to use and the rest was just a time thing I can see where the property manager is coming from. But why not put everything you said here in writing and see what happens?

[GilliC]

Dec 5, 2014 14:24:59 GMT -5 frlcb said:

I am stuck at 4.5 bathrooms in central London, nice!

LOL! This was exactly what I was thinking! "4.5 bathrooms?! Holy moley! I can't even imagine having 4.5 bathrooms in a suburban house in the US, let alone in Europe! I wonder if that's more m² in bathrooms than I have in my whole flat!"

...and then I got to "Central London."  Wow!

[UnderProtest]

FOCUS people! Yeah, I hesitated putting that because I know how it looks. We are EXTREMELY fortunate to have an amazing housing allowance that allows us to have more bathrooms here than in the States. But it is relative to the number of stairs. We wouldn't have been able to have this on our own and won't have this when we go back to the States. Anyway, while I know it was livable during this whole six months, that doesn't make the f'ups by the contractor any easier to take. i've had to be here at the house so many times because he has screwed up (and the landlord insists on using him instead of cutting bait and using someone new). That is part of my frustration. I am going to put this (and more) in an e-mail, but I'm frustrated I have to do more work because the property manager can't remember all the craziness.

So the remaining question is.....what is reasonable to get from this whole situation?

[blushing]

We were once stuck with no heating, which meant no hot water for our one bathroom, in winter, when it snowed, for almost 2 weeks... We got no compensation of any sort. Well, I suppose our gas bill was less that month. DH was showering work and I took DS with me to the gym. Welcome to the UK.

[GilliC]

Personally I don't think the situation sounds so bad. You had two functioning bathrooms at all times. When my friends had someone working on their bathroom, they had to shower at the gym for a month. And when I moved in, the bathroom sink couldn't be used, but I still had the kitchen sink, so it wasn't a big deal.

And while the time is annoying, isn't it just par for the course? Wouldn't any contractor require you to be there?

If there has been some concrete loss due to the problems (e.g. destroyed property), I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for compensation in kind. But if it's just the inconvenience, you could always just find another place! It sounds like your allowance is generous enough that there should be other options.

[frlcb]

Yeah, I just don't think you will get much. It is just kind of the way stuff in the UK works. You can always ask for a months rent and hope they offer something.

[mrsukyankee]

The only people I can think you might be able to talk to are the Citizens Advice Bureau. www.citizensadvice.org.uk But I think they'll just blow it off as you had useable bathrooms even if it was a pain.

[potatopie]

Not the UK, but definitely outside of US service aspects...when they were renovating my building at work, we didn't have usable bathrooms for 3 months. And those that did work didn't have locks, or didn't have privacy screens over the windows (so the rest of the building could see you sitting on the toilet).

I had to walk across the road every time I went to the bathroom. And I brought my own soap since there never was any.

And I worked in a building full of architects and construction managers.