Hi, after waiting in all day and landlords handyman once again didnt turn up, landlord text me he will come on Saturday to fix fire alarm and windows that arnt closing. Seems landlord just wants to save money. He works as delivery driver, how would he be able to fix fire alarm and windows? If he could have done these why did he keep sending his handyman to do it? Now hes realised his handyman wont turn up is he trying to fix the problems himself to save money and hes not even sure?
“fixing” a smoke alarm is either a battery or a replacement unit - does the unit you have , have a date on it?
As for the windows - who knows
Best let him try
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Its a mains wired smoke alarm. Half of it is missing. The windows arnt closing right on top left corner. Could need new hinges. If landlord knew what he was doing then why keep sending his handyman and not do these jobs at start?
I went to a delivery drivers house a couple of years ago. He had carved a lovely rocking horse . Such a talent. Sometimes we can have a surprise, maybe
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How do you know the landlord is not completely proficient in DIY ? Sometimes I use other tradesmen to do things I can actually do myself because I am time-poor. Sometimes I don’t.
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Maybe the landlord has no time especially at this time of year I would imagine delivery drivers are amongst the busiest so he was getting a Handy man who has let him down so to save his tenant waiting any longer with the cold weather he is prepared to forsake his weekend time with his family and instead spend however long needed to fix the problems in your house
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By the sound of it, your LL wants to save you waiting and takes a more pro-active approach. If you’d rather wait (nobody can say how much longer), communicate it to your LL that you will prefer a qualified person to fix the windows and will wait as long as it takes.
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I have messaged him that he is free to come and attempt the repairs, but i would hope if he cant do them he will hire professionals. I feel he wants to save money. Took 6 weeks for him to get heating and cold water taps fixed as his handyman never showed up to appointments. His handyman is his best friend.
LL don’t make much money now, quite a few just break even and keep the place as a long-term investment rather than a money-maker. It’s understandable that your LL wants to save his money. I suspect, window repair would wipe a couple of your rents or more. Somebody recently posted that their quote for replacing windows was around £10K.
Sad to see that the tone of your message speaks of poor working relationship between you two. You don’t seem to have much respect for them. Hope it’s well deserved and not just ideological sentiment.
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Have had too many landlords serve eviction notices when repairs were requested.
how many times has this happened to you?
There is legislation to prevent a landlord evicting a tenant because they ask for repairs. Did you use it?
Just to add to the discussion. We do as many repairs we can ourselves. We have instructed the letting agent to inform us of any repairs needed, and the tenants have our phone number and can contact us directly. There are a few reasons we do this. Obviously, one is to save money. We started doing this 30 years ago when we were charged £45 for an electrician to change a light bulb! the tenant had complained that the light was broken. We are pretty good at fixing most things, but if we can’t, of course we get the professionals in. I’d dare to say my husband does a much better job than most too. Another, more subtle reason, is that we get to know the tenants and they know us, which creates a nice atmosphere of mutual trust. Letting agents are of variable quality but they will never be as good as the owner at looking after the property. I can’t, of course, say if your landlord is a good DIY person or not, but please give them a chance, and time, to do the work required. If it doesn’t work out then of course you need to complain.
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Sent text to my landlord during last week that he can come this Saturday to do repairs. He hasnt even had the decency to reply.
Whilst I would hope your landlord will reply, as landlords we only go out to do emergency repairs at the weekend as we need our down time too, so Saturday would not be a good time for us?!
In the world of TaskRabbit and online directories using contractors to fix things should be so quick and easy.
I wish there were penalties for letting things go unfixed, so if a landlord doesn’t fix something critical within x amount of time the rent would go down 5% by law and continue to go down.
There seems to be no real incentive other than some landlords caring about people and property - and some landlords not caring.
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It does seem that high integrity and moral values are the main motivator from both sides.
What is this TaskRabbit? Some emergency repairs company where they do it “quick and easy”? From our experience, waiting times for contractors can vary from weeks to several months.
By law, LL have 14 days to respond to your problem. I’m sure your LL will be in touch soon. Not everybody can reply within one day and it would be unreasonable to expect it.
Sometimes handymen let you down, and you have to learn and do the job yourself to not let the tenant down.
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I’m not 100% certain but when I had problems when I lived in Blackpool with the alarm keep going off and the landlord accusing me of touching it. The fire brigade got involved and it went off when I was actually in London which proves it was nothing to do with me. I’m pretty sure you have to be qualified to touch of fire alarm but call your local fire brigade up and check with them or sate to them you don’t think he’s qualified they will come out and investigate as it’s part of their job. And I guarantee you one thing they will not take rubbish from your landlord they will follow it through to the end and make sure it is fitted correctly and a proper qualified engineer will do the job or they would do it for your landlord and Bill him.
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