Tenant Left With No Hot Water Or Heating For Two Years!

Over 4 years, this tenant paid his rent six months in advance only to be left with no heating or hot water for
two years!

Our client, Mr K Brown rented a house in Thornby-on-Tees from February 2020 for 4 years until April 2024. Mr Brown paid a tenancy deposit of £600.00 for the property and paid his rent in advance every six months during his tenancy.

We are all fully aware that finding an affordable and suitable home to rent is really difficult at the moment and has been for some time, and this was no different for Mr Brown. Before entering the rental market, our client was forced to close his business, sell his home and his car, needless to say, this was a challenging moment in his life.

Over the next 4 weeks, Mr Brown set about contacting local private landlords and letting agents to arrange viewings but yet again, lady luck was not on his side. Properties were either unaffordable or were simply snapped up before he had a chance to enquire.

Finally, Mr Brown found a property that was available, within budget and close to family life but it was in severe state of disrepair. There was a bucket under the sink catching water from pipes that needed replacing, door hinges and handles missing, sticky tape holding things together… it wasn’t good, but he was quickly running out of options.

At the time, Mr Brown was living in a hotel room, which simply was not sustainable and although this property was far from ideal, he bit the bullet and signed a six-month AST.

Once Mr Brown moved in, more issues came to light. There was no gas safety certificate, structural issues with broken brickwork and worse still, there was no hot water or heating which the landlord refused to fix for two years!

The sad reality for thousands of tenants across the country is that you can’t ‘just move somewhere else’. There is a huge shortfall of affordable housing and there are other circumstances which can make being accepted for a private rented property beyond reach.

Fast forward to April 2024, Mr Brown provided his landlord with his notice to end the tenancy agreement. At this point, the repair issues the tenant had highlighted were now being blamed on him and the landlord refused to return the tenancy deposit plus 10 days’ worth of rent that had been paid up front.

Following a thorough review by our team, we could confirm that the tenancy deposit was not protected and Mr Brown would not only get his deposit back in full, but he would receive compensation on top!

In just a few weeks, Tenant Angels and our fantastic legal team managed to secure compensation of £1,500 plus Mr Brown’s £600 deposit!*

We spoke to Mr Brown after he received his deposit protection claim compensation and he said;

“Initially, I was very, very sceptical about these types of things, especially no-win, no-fee claims. When you’ve been dealt some bad luck like I have, you start to feel that nobody will genuinely be on your side.

I rang around some local solicitors and it wasn’t a great experience. They were arrogant and just didn’t want to listen to me. I was small fry to them and the little guy just gets ignored.

After more searching, I found Tenant Angels online and submitted their online form. I had a call back from Laura and she was fantastic! She listened to me, explained everything, answered my questions quickly and professionally. I decided I had nothing more to lose at this point and asked Tenant Angels to proceed with my claim. I was then transferred to the legal team who were equally brilliant.

A week later, I approved the letter to be sent to the landlord and another week after that, I received my money. The big difference with Tenant Angels is that they are prepared to open the door for you, even if your situation isn’t very straight forward and they’ll do all of the leg work. They were my last hope and they came through for me.”

Mr Brown now rents a lovely home. His new landlord is great and any issues are resolved swiftly. It would seem his luck is on the up since speaking with Tenant Angels!

*All claims are handled on a no-win, no-fee basis