Problems with Letting agents

[bingosucks]

safety checks are not needed on eletrics everyear a cp4 (gas saftey is)..the thing with electrics is you plug it in and it works ?? great how do yo know if it has continuity ,correct polarity, the cables aren`t damaged , the rcd unit is functioning correctly and of course theres actually an earth at source ?..onlya test can prove this and this is before we even consider if the right cable is supplying the correct ampage... the same goes for gas, a tightness test, working pressure test,standing pressure test (is the meter supplying the correct amount of gas ,is the cooker using the correct amount of gas) yes indeed it is a minefield

[PeterM]

Proper thread hijack but...

Thing is you can buy all this stuff that you are not supposed to fit yourself all over the place in huge quantities ....so surely that says something to the authorities ? But you can't buy a cat C first aid kit as it has some fairly mundane drugs in it

You cant do much more than change a bulb ( in theory) in your own house ....but I can take several tons of car and trailer , do what I'm allowed to work on my own car/ trailer/boat maybe leaving it in a 'shocking' ( see what I did there?) state- and thats fine ....but far more likely to kill innocent bystanders.

Gas is a whole differant thing to electric...I wont go near it ...

[PeterM]

Building Regulations - Part P FAQs - IET Electrical

a swift google ( the sirens were getting louder) to the above link I feel shows I am not an electrcial criminal with the cooker ( even if I did it now as opposed to ten years ago) , or my garage lights..... as I feel all could be counted as spurs off an existing circuit ....

I will sleep easy tonight...

[Erin]

You have to be careful of your interpretation of that google link Pete. Not being notifiable work is not the same as it not needing to done by a 'competent' person. TBH I've not come across many competent sparky's, so it does make you wonder.

[hobbit555]

Thanks for the replys so far, some of you mentioned buy don't rent, we'll I am happy with renting and circumstances prevent me from buying and on principle I am not one for lining bankers pockets with my money in interest!!!!
As I said in my original post these issues have now been going on for several years and when the immersion shorted out last week was the last straw, to then be told by the plumber that the wiring had caused it. When the last plumber fitted a new immersion and timer it was all fitted properly on cable tray etc. this new plumber rewired it with the same cable but failed to re attach it to the cable tray. PS my background is ships and cables are never left hanging on terminal screws as I insisted when the cable tray was fitted.
Have phoned the letting agent for the last 3 days and are still waiting for a plumber to call.
I suppose a call to the council housing office saying we have no hot water may bump us up the housing list;-)
The plumber is from a largish company who employ many plumbers some better than others and the agents have used them for us on several occasions.

[Tim M]

I had similarly terrible experiences of letting when I used to live in Portsmouth. One particular experience sticks in my mind: rented a newly renovated flat through an agent. A few weeks in, and one of the bedrooms got flooded from above (our landlady also owned the flat upstairs). Loads of our stuff got damaged, and my house mate had to move back in with his parents while we waited for the damage to be repaired. Many weeks of hassling the agent and the landlady and nothing happened (other than the builder who was working on the property upstairs stealing a liferaft from our garden for his fishing boat).

In the end we said we want to terminate our contract early. They agreed, I think just to get us off their back. Of course, when we moved out the agent claimed we had damaged the property and wanted to keep all of our four figure deposit. Went to deposit protection people who ruled in our favour. If I recall the only thing they made up pay for was a bag of grass seed (after the agent said they needed to re-turf the garden due to some dead grass).

Another flat springs to mind where someone threw a snowball at a window and smashed it. I lived there for another year with cardboard over the hole because the agents were too lazy to sort it out.

I know it's easy to say, but buying really is a much better option if you can. We pay about half in mortgage payments now what next door is paying to rent every month.

[Silverfox]

In 99.9% of tenancy agreements I have seen, broken glass is the responsibility of the tenant regardless of how the damage occurred.

Just one more point on agents however, the government will not legislate to regulate the industry. This means that anybody, and I mean anybody can set up an agency and suddenly find they have lots of responsibilities to landlords and tenants, and also hold hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds of other people's money, with no accountability to any one.

There is legislation to protect that money, but it isn't policed.

So if you are renting or a landlord, make sure you use an agent who is licensed by ARLA, and is a member of the Property Ombudsman, if it goes wrong these two will sort the issue out.