Flat with no heating

[Vamoo]

Hello,

I've been renting an apartment in South East London with my girlfriend since July 2009. At the time of viewing there was no floor laid out, just the bare concrete, and we were told that underfloor heating and wooden tiles would be laid down before we moved in.
The heating system has always been working perfectly well in all the areas that have an independent control (that is not connected to the main timer), i.e. the bathrooms and the entry hall. In the other areas (the bedrooms and the living room), not so well.
Just today, after a chat with my neighbours I found out that during the laying of the wooden floor, when there were no blinds, they could see that only a few tiles of underfloor heating had been laid in random spots. Consequently, the living room is not well-heated. It seems that, in an attempt to save money, the building company chose to do a shoddy job in the hope that we would not see the difference. In the bitter cold of January, we're beginning to resent paying full rent when we are getting hardly any heating in the room that we always use. What law can we refer to when speaking with our agency and what is the best course of action when we request a repair? If a repair is not made, can we ask for a discount on the rent? Can our contract be amended?

Kind regards,

Cosi and Sheila

 

[PaddyBloggit]

You're on an Irish forum so you might not get the advice you need here.

 

[MOB]

In broad terms, the laws of Ireland and UK would be similar on such issues. Is the building company your landlord? Or did it sell to an investor, from whom you now rent the place?

If the apartment was purchased by an investor, he\she may well have a claim against the builder for shoddy work, and you should notify him\her of the situation.

Regarding your own situation, you may have a claim for damages ( compensation) or a right to terminate your tenancy or both. The problem is that your claim is probably so small as to be uneconomic to pursue through a solicitor. I believe that the small claims\consumer end of things is quite user-friendly in the UK, so you might consider bringing a claim without legal representation. Remember though that your claim ( if you have one) is against your landlord ( who may or may not be the builder; your post is not too clear on this).