“I felt it necessary to copy and paste a letter ......”
1 Star Review
Mar 12,2011
By:
'papergangsta'
Mar 12,2011
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode:
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode:
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I felt it necessary to copy and paste a letter of complaint I have recently sent to a solicitor regarding taking legal action over this agency due to their blatant disregard for the safety of their tenants.
The issue are, but not limited to, the following;
****Toilet will not flush, and hasn't worked since mid-December. We have made at least 4 or 5 complaints ot the maintaninence department about this, and when they did send someone to us, all he did was confirm what we had already told the agency multiple times. That was a little over 2 weeks ago now, and we have heard nothing more on the matter.
****Oven is caked in layers of grime and dirt, and extractor fan is layered in brown grease which will not come off despite many attempts at cleaning it. Incidentally, when contact is made with the fan, it emits an electric shock. The ignition at the back of the oven regularly switches itself off after it has been lit. It is blind luck that one of us noticed the first couple of times it happened, and now we have to stand and supervise the oven when it is in use. The inspector who visited today advised us that the stove is also unsafe for use.
****In October, the agency sent us a letter advising that the boiler in the house was potentially unsafe and was due for an annual check up. Coincidentally, the boiler had began to make some very unusual sounds around the same date. The agency deemed this situation severe enough to make a call to one of us in the house and tell her that that the boiler was dangerous and must be switched off as a matter of urgency. Eventually a British Gas engineer assessed the boiler, and said that it needed replacing. After about a month or so, the agency sent us another letter, basically saying the same thing as before but was written in a tone which implied we had ignored their previous correspondence. Again, a British Gas engineer came, said the same thing and said he cannot personally do anything because the work would need to be carried out by people specifically trained for this kind of work, which British Gas engineers are not. He told me he would report back to the landlord with a quote for the repair work, and left me a copy of the quote.
This same pattern of letter-sending followed by an engineer returning to say the same thing as the previous one continued twice more, and at the time of writing we still have heard nothing regardning a replacement or repaired boiler. The inspector who came today said that the boiler has been leaking gas into the property and it is a massive danger to have it operational. We were also told that it would be inadvisable to use the oven, the stove or even the hot water. How on earth can anyone be expected to live in a property where you cannot even prepare a decent meal or take a shower without potentially risking your health? I've recently been put on medication by my doctor for severe headaches which I have been getting every day for about 2 months. I'm now wondering if my headaches were due to the leaking of gas into the property. My bedroom is right next to the cupboard where the boiler is, and I've never had this problem in my entire life before moving into this property.
****The corners of the kitchen where the wall and floor meet are not covered up with skirting boards, meaning that rodents or other small animals could easily find a way into the kitchen. Rodents have clearly been an issue in the past with this property since I came across 3 mouse/rat traps when we moved in, 2 of which were located a few feet from these holes. The holes have been crudely covered by some silver masking tape, which offers absolutely no protection from rats or mice.
****Since moving in, there have been numerous occasions where upon switching on a light switch, that particular light has blown, on one occasion leading to a bulb to shatter, raining glass down onto the floor below which then had to be cleaned up in total darkness. After replacing the broken bulbs with new ones which then do not work, it is clear that the issue is with the electrics in the property.
After weeks and months of complaints, the only action the agency has taken is to send a man round to take inventory of all the problems in the property. That was around 3 weeks ago, and again we have been given the silent treatment. We send a letter to the head office of the agency about a month ago, detailing all the problems and accompanied by photos of all the problems. The only reason this letter was even responded to, 3 weeks after it was posted, was due to one of the housemates speaking to someone in the office on the phone and basically plead with them to read it. So does this mean that before then, they were aware of the letter's existence but chose to put it to one side, not deeming it enough of a priority to respond to? We are
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