Rent a flat or a house in Liverpool

Hi,

I moved from my home country to Liverpool, and stayed there for a year before I moved back home.

[Moderated: no defamatory message please]

Let me just start off by saying that I absolutely love Liverpool, it's a fantastic city to live in. However, the actual house we lived in and the experience I had with our landlord was absolutely horrible! I was shocked, and so were my house mates.

I rented one room in a typical English house, a Victorian terrace I believe it's called. The house is in Kensington, approximately 10 minutes from the city centre.

Before I even moved in, the landlord [Moderated] lied to me. She ensured me that electricity and gas was included in the rent. And the rent was £300/month for that one room. But when I actually came to England and saw her, it turns out that it's included up to £120 - after that you have to pay for it yourself. And the thing is that if you live by yourself you can control how much electricity and gas to use, but when you share a house with 4 other people, it's really difficult to control the usage.

We had the type of system where you top up the gas and electricity yourself, and during the winter months I had to put in a few hundred extra pounds in order to not freeze to death (the house was not insulated well at all, I woke up from the cold every night during the winter). So don't let them fool you that £120 will cover the costs for gas/electricity. It will not.

Secondly, there was only one toilet. We were 5 strangers living there, most of my housemates were girls, and some of them would apply their makeup in that one bathroom. Let's just said you had to plan your bathroom visits carefully. Sometimes you had to wait for ages to get in there.

The kitchen cupboards were full of mold. Now, the landlord would not remove the mold, she only had someone put up a piece of wood over it. So we had to keep our food in a moldy cupboard, which is not healthy.

We had so many problems in this house. The bathroom was placed above the kitchen, and water from the shower leaked down and dripped through the kitchen ceiling. One morning we woke up and the entire floor was covered in water.

The washing machine was also moldy. We tried our best to get rid of the mold, but our clothes would never smell good.

We were promised a microwave oven, because the actual stove and oven took so much electricity that we couldn't afford to use it all the time. It took the landlord one month to give us one, and when she finally did, it was a broken one that was useless. We had to wait another month before she gave us one we could actually use.

The only nice person we had to contact was this man called Nick - he pretty much did everything. He was the nicest person, but he suddenly stopped showing up, and I emailed him and found out that the landlord hadn't paid him so he couldn't work for them anymore.

In the winter, our gas stopped working for some reason, and we could not heat up the house. There were also no hot water. I contacted the landlord plently of times, but she never got back to me. So I emailed this Nick person, even though I knew he didn't work for them anymore, and he was kind enough to help us contact her so we could get our hot water back. After a good few days without being able to take a shower, you're pretty fed up with it.

The landlord kept coming up with reasons to charge more for rent. I was home a lot of the time - and because I was actually in the house all day, she decided that I had to pay more for rent. So I had to pay an extra £180 to actually be allowed to live in my house.

These are just a few of the things that happened to me/us when I lived in one of their houses.

[Moderated]

I am not trying to be mean in any way. This is just what happened - this is what I actually experienced, and I think it's only fair that I let you guys know.

Best of luck finding a place in Liverpool!

As a Brit now living in Germany, I was disgusted but NOT surprised to read your posting on living in Liverpool.  A warning to everyone - THIS HAPPENS EVERYWHERE in the UK.  Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.  My only advice to you all is - if you've got a problem - find somewhere new and better - fast!  Alternatively, if you are not in a position to move - then contact the local council and they will (eventually) investigate the matter for you.  The other option of course, is rather than pay the increased rent (ridiculous reason given by the landlady in this case), give the money to a Solicitor.  Often, just one letter from a Solicitor, representing all tenants sharing a property, will suffice to get things changed.  Go to your Solicitor armed with a total list of problems that you need fixing.  The Solicitor will then advise the landlady/landlord in writing that a certain amount of rent will be withheld (often decided by the council) until things are put right e.g mold is NOT acceptable.  With regards to a microwave - if it wasn't part of the original fixtures and fittings the landlady/lord is not obliged to provide one.  Equally, one bathroom was there when you viewed the property before moving in so again, the landlord/lady is not obliged to put another in.  However, mold, leaks, no gas etc etc etc is absolutely NOT acceptable. 

My advice to anyone moving to England and renting ...  Talk to people BEFORE renting.  Anyone - visit a pub, cafe even a library and get advice from locals about the area.  Contact the council to see if there's been any complaints/problems with potential landlords.  Find a reputable (certificated) agent who can come out with things like "actually, we handle three properties for this landlord/lady" and then ask if you can talk to one of the existing tenants. 

Be careful.  There are more bad stories than good stories out there.  Good luck.