Why do Private Tenants have no protection against a bad Private Landlord?
Why do private tenants have no protection against a bad landlord? That is a good question, isn’t it? I mean, it is a question that my husband and I have been asking ourselves for many a year. We have lived in our property now for 10yrs, so we are loyal and compliant tenants. We have never missed a rent payment, have continued to maintain the property {not improve it because that is the landlord’s area}, so yes, we are good tenants to have. However, what protection do private tenants have? Why do private tenants have no protection against bad private landlords? Yet, everywhere you look, private landlords are given chance after chance to protect themselves. Yet, when you are on the other end, and are a private tenant, regardless of being a good well-paying tenant or not, you have no protection.
I think we can all agree that the government has things a little backwards, yes? And do perfect landlords even exist?
Private Tenants Rights in NI
According to Housing Rights NI, there are two types of private tenants. Those who are ‘protected’ and those who are not. It’s as simple as that. A protected tenant is one were it has a rent-control agreement and the other I’m assuming {as it doesn’t state, but it has been mentioned to me} is a periodic tenant. One that does not have a rent-controlled agreement and lives on a tenancy agreement on a month by month basis. However, all private tenants have {and I quote} “some basic rights”. You can read more about the basic rights of a private tenant on their website.
And then speaking of tenancy agreements, ours point blank refuses to supply us with a new one. We have asked repeatedly over the years to no avail. He keeps saying to us that we can find any tenancy contract online as they are {and I quote} “all the same”. So, from a tenants stand point, does that mean that we can just up & go when we can? I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments on that one as I am unsure.
Our experience with a bad Private Landlord
We have lived in our property for ten years. When we first moved in, we had to go through a local estate agents to start renting this private landlord property. And do you know what? Whenever the estate agent and or the landlord did not bother to show up to the planned viewing of said property, that should have been my first red flag. However, we ‘really’ needed to move, so I booked another viewing. And upon that viewing, with just the estate agent, the dead woodlice around the home really should have been red flag number two. But again, we really needed this house and that could be fixed with a brush and shovel. So no real big deal, right?
So we signed the tenancy agreement, moved in that Winter and everything was dandy. However, looking back, one of our core ‘basic tenancy rights’ was to be given a rent book and we never received a rent book, ever. But in hindsight that really isn’t a big deal. We had bigger problems afoot, that came to light within our first 12 months at the property. And what followed was a string of requests from estate agent to landlord and back again to have repairs done to the house. Shortly after, it turns out that the estate agents fired our landlord due to him being so absurdly difficult to work with. And having spoken with him several times regarding repairs, I totally understood their actions. But that now left us with solely having to deal with him.
Long story short? Those initial repairs from 9 years ago are still outstanding and there are a dozen more since then. Some that are major safety concerns i.e oil boiler leaking, having low carbon monoxide poisoning etc. We were left with no choice but to call Environmental Health. This was after ten years of living at the property and nine years awaiting on repairs. We also realised that our landlord was not registered as a landlord and our property has not been registered onto the Northern Ireland Land Registration Scheme.
Our list of repairs needing done – spaning back 9yrs!
– Broken PVC window latches
– Broken radiators
– Radiators needing to be flushed
– Damp caused by construction damage
– Hole in rear of the property due to birds
– Broken fascias at front & rear of property
– Hazardous leaking oil boiler
– Dodgey electrics throughout the property
– Broken shower
– Damaged bathroom floor due to roofspace leaks {which was literal pouring over severeal months!}
– Broken PVC window sealants
It clearly states that all repairs should be reported to your landlord. Of which ours where. However he just refused time and time again to make repairs. Whereever possible, he would make a repair himself, makes things worse, leave it at that and ignore our professional repair requests. He always made the problem worse and always made out that he had amended the problem. So, as a private tenant, it is frustrating knowing the repairs and safety rights of private tenants means nothing if your landlord has no intentions of listening.
Why didn’t we reach out to Environmental Health sooner?
Good question! Getting Environmental Health involved can result in you being given a notice to quit. It’s as simple as that. And that is something we did not want to do because we needed to think of keeping a roof over our childrens heads. So, being a private tenant and being at the end of the road {per say!} and being left with two choices. Choice one: To stay and continue paying rent to a slumlord who refuses to make repairs. Or, choice two: rock the boat to get repairs done even with the possibility of getting an eviction notice.
Choice two is a scary one to go with however there is only so long these people can or should be allowed to get away with not fulfilling their responsbiity to their private tenants. And should be held accountable for their lack of responsibility and contractual agreement i.e the tenancy agreement. There is not enough support out their for private tenants and there is certainly not enough reprocussions out their for private landlords who do not fulfill their end of the tenancy agreement. Then frustratingly seem to be protected at every turn.
Getting Environmental Health involved
I finally took the step to reach out to our local Environemental Health department. At first they were not very reassuring. There was no reassurance given due to our circumstances nor was there any compassion considering this was our final shot to get things fixed, at the risk if facing eviction. That’s the point you are pushed too when getting environmental health involved, getting evicted due to being seen as a menace to your landlord. When all we wanted was a working property that we pay handsomely for.
It took a good lot of weeks to get the ball rolling. Due to not having a home address or an email address for our landlord, all we could do was message him on whatsapp. Environmental Health was given his name and mobile number and at first, even their attempts to talk with him was constantly ignored. However, with persistence from myself to keep them in the mindset to keep trying {which is shameful that had to even be done!} they finally spoke with him.
Due to difficulties of getting through to our landlord i.e him understanding repairs do need to be made. We seperately arranged with Environmental Health to come to our home, to check it out for themselves. When they came out, they brought a machine to check the level of damp in the walls and to document all of the issues wrong with the property. They were quite thorough and left with a plan to approach the landlord regarding everything they found wrong with the house we were privately renting.
A Joint Landlord and Environmental Health Meeting with ourselves
This joint meeting was arranged because our landlord was still refusing to believe we had a faulty boiler. We had no hot water or central heating for a month, which was enough to warrant a hefty repair fee on his part. So environmental health made an appointment for both themselves and our landlord to have a walkthrough at the property. All the while, they were pointing out to him the repairs and that those repairs were his responsibilty.
You can be sure that the landlord fought them every step of the way. He continued to blame my Husband and I whereever he could. He was repeatedly shot down by environemental health officer. Mainly for how he was incorrect in those accusations due to facts that they have pertained themselves. And that certain damages to the property were due to wood rot in the fasces {guttering}, damp in the walls due to blocked guttering and wood rot in fasces. A very clear broken boiler that he has no record of ever having serviced. The list goes on!
So once again I say, after all of that above – why is there no protection for tenants with bad landlords?
Lastly…
And where do we stand right now? We have arranged and our landlord has shockingly agreed to mediation services through Housing Rights NI. So, we shall see how that goes and I will sure to keep you posted. Bad landlords should not be getting away with carry on like this. We are long standing tenants, going back ten years.A long time, I am sure you will agree! And all we are asking is that he keeps up his responsibilities as the landlord of the property. And it is mental how much we have actually actually to fight to get any movement whatsoever.
Have you ever experienced a poor landlord? I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.
