They had paid a deposit and rent in cash, without her landlord or letting agent giving her a receipt. Her washing machine stopped working and the letting agent ignored her requests to get it fixed or replaced. They also sent her a letter saying they would make regular inspections of the flat without her permission, even if she wasn’t there. She felt insecure about challenging her landlord. In April 2019, she came to us for advice.
We advised Eva about the rights of Private Tenants to repairs, receipts for her deposit and rent payments, and privacy. Confident that she wasn’t risking eviction by asserting her rights, she asked us to contact the letting agent, which we did. Shortly after, Eva came to tell us that the attitude of the letting agent was more respectful and that the washing machine had been replaced.
In March 2020, following lockdown measures, Eva got in touch again as her husband had lost his job and they expected to miss the next rent payment. Our previous history on that tenancy allowed us to re-establish contact to ensure a clear communication with the letting agent, and to agree on the principle of delayed payments and partial rent relief. We expect more of these sorts of cases in future.