My daughter is moving into a 9 bedroom student house and they all thought the furniture was included. The furniture is all pictured in the agents inventory. However the agent is removing all the sofas as I asked if they are compliant with fire regs (they are not) and he is not replacing them. The tenancy agreement does not state furnished or unfurnished and the agent says the furniture is not the Landlords but has been left by the tenants over the years. There is nothing in writing to say the furniture was not included so now they are moving into a 9 bedroom house at over £8,000 per month with no sofas. What is their legal right as tenants? The house was also filthy and moth infested with the agent insisting it had a £1000 professional clean and there has apparently now been a moth treatment. He will not provide evidence for the clean or moth treatment having been asked.
do you have evidence of the “filthy” state of the property and/or moth infestation. If so, you can add these to the inventory and I would suggest you take all that to the agent’s redress scheme. Ask the agent for the address of the scheme they belong to.
A judge is unlikely to be sympathetic to a LL who has removed sofas for communal seating for a property with 9 bedrooms.
Yes I have lots of evidence. The communal sofas are apparently being replaced but not the sofas and armchairs in some of the bedrooms which is a great disappointment to the students moving in so I wondered whether they have any rights to insist on replacement sofas and arm chairs. This seems a typical example of an agent poorly managing a house and assuming students won’t care and don’t know their rights. The inventory is not a professional inventory and the agent said the furniture in the pictures is irrelevant and the pictures are to show the general condition. The pictures taken also were not how the property was when I first visited but as I said I have lots of evidence myself. I think I need legal advice on whether the tenants have any rights to expect the bedroom furniture to be replaced.
They probably have rights under consumer legislation as the advert and viewings showed furniture and there was no verbal or written statement to the contrary. You may need to see a solicitor to enforce this, but if the landlord still disagrees, the tenants would probably have the right to unwind the tenancy and get a full refund. That, of course, may not be very helpful if there is no alternative accommodation available to them at short notice.
Incidently, fabric moths are very hard to fully eradicate and the eggs are usually transported to other properties on clothes. All the parents would be likely to get them in their properties when the students come home for breaks.
Well it’s good from a safety pov that sofas which arent fire rated (presumably old left by former tenants) have been removed, and that the moth treatment has been done.
Its fair to expect some seating to be provided if some was shown in the adverts - but youve not said that was the case ’ and it was advertised as furnished
If the sofas were only shown in an agents move out inventory (produced for when former tenants move d out?) that was shared, that’s not necessarily any promise of what facilities the new tenants would get unless presented as such.
If the place is filthy - well the new tenants should have raised whether a pre clean tenancy would be done before move in - if they didnt its caveat emptir, and a professional move in inventory should reflect the state of the cleaning anyway. If recorded as v dirty, It means if they manage to clean to same level when they move out then they shouldnt have any deposit reductions for cleaning. If cleanliness not recorded or shown at all by photos the deposit schemes also wont allow landlord claims for cleaning. So there is a silver lining. Plus the students get to start their tenancy with a nice big clean to do instead of any Gen Z entitlement, and learn not to ‘assume’ everything would be done for them.
Good luck