Hayley's story
This content applies to Scotland only.
Housing laws vary between Scotland and England. Get advice relating to England
Hayley's nightmare landlord left her in the cold when he refused to repair her central heating and gave her an unsafe electric fire she didn't dare switch on.
Left in the cold
'It was so freezing in that flat. Instead of mending the heating, my landlord gave me this crappy one-bar electric fire with frayed wires. I had to carry it between the bedroom and the sitting room and I didn't dare leave it on overnight in case it burst into flames.
'I asked him loads of times to repair the heating but he never returned my calls.'
Withholding rent
I was desperate to get the heating fixed before the weather got any colder
'Eventually, I decided to start withholding the rent. I was desperate to get the heating fixed before the weather got any colder. I thought, if I stop paying the rent, he'll have to do something!
'I kept my weekly rent payments in a savings account, to prove I wasn't spending the money on anything else, but after a month, the landlord still hadn't done anything about the heating.'
Getting advice
I'd signed a six-month contract, and I didn't know if I could just walk out
'That was it, I had to get out of there. I'd signed a six-month contract though, and I didn't know if I could just walk out with three months still to go.
'I didn't know what to do, so I decided to go and see a housing adviser. She managed to get in touch with my landlord, and negotiate a deal.'
Making a compromise
'My landlord agreed to let me move out in four weeks' time, provided I paid him a reduced amount of rent to cover the weeks when I'd been withholding the money. In the meantime, he would provide a new, safe heater for the flat.'
A new home
'I agreed to this, and my adviser then helped me to find a room in another flat, shared with two students. This time I made sure the heating was working before I moved in. That's the last time I go to bed with three jumpers on.'
The words used are not that of the actual client. Each person's story, although carefully reflecting genuine client situations as presented to us, has been re-written to sound like their actual voice. Names have also been changed to protect anonymity.
To protect the identity of our clients, models have been used in photographs.
