Agent urges tenants to take landlords to court over conditions

Agent urges tenants to take landlords to court over conditions


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A lettings agent has taken the unorthodox approach of advising tenants to take their landlords to court in a bid to improve conditions.

Ajay Jagota – who runs KIS lettings agency in the north of England – also runs an insurance and problem-chasing service called Veriwise, and he says: “Evidence suggests conditions in rented homes have nose-dived during Covid-19 – as demonstrated in recent reports by Channel 4 News and ITV – but it’s clear that across the country completely reasonable and legally necessary requests to landlords to improve living conditions in their properties are falling on deaf ears.

“…That problem is made much worse by the simple fact that so few renters know whose is responsible for repairing their property, and are left living with no heating, dangerous electrics, damp and mould, crumbling walls and even rats because their landlord won’t fix things – or even paying for it themselves.

“Renters don’t seem to realise they can use the courts to force their landlords to put things right – and that they could even be in line for compensation.”

Jagota claims that figures from the Ministry of Justice appear to show that only 0.06 per cent of renters know who is responsible for carrying out repairs on their home – equivalent to one tenant in every 1,700.

 

He also claims that 23 per cent of privately rented homes and 12 per cent of socially rented homes fail to meet minimum standards, and that nearly a million rented homes in England have a problem with damp.

Jagota says that under the Housing Act 1988 and the Homes (Fit For Human Habitation) Act 2019 the landlord is “always” responsible for  ensuring that a rented property it fit for human habitation and has heating and hot water, safely functioning electrics, sanitary plumbing and structural stability.

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