75ZT Community

Not a tale from the Court this time.

A friend of ours, recently divorced, lives in a ground floor "studio flat" in a three storey building in Keswick. He pays £345 per month rent. It's all he can afford following the divorce settlement.

His flat was rendered uninhabitable recently owing to the flood water during storm Desmond. The landlord, a private owner of several properties in the area, was given the all clear for the first and second floor flats to remain occupied now the water has receded and the services / structure have passed a safety inspection by the local authority.

In the spirit of goodwill to all men which abounds at this time of year, the landlord has offered Trevor and the other ground floor flat tenant first refusal on identical vacant flats on the top floor of the building with no additional deposit required... at a rent of £900 per month.

I can't put the words I want to call the landlord! - I would probably get banned

That's sad for your friend at any time of the year. Perhaps room at a local Inn might be found until the Noahrian flood recedes (the other vacant flats remaining vacant, of course. Permanently).

Look away Paul ....... Needs someone with a baseball bat to enlighten the landlord - never kick someone when they are down.

His boss is paying for B & B pro tem.

In the paper today:

Cumbrian Properties increased their admin charge from £110 per person - plus a £99 'check-in fee' to £600. The owner has since admitted it was a mistake (presumably because of bad publicaity and nothing else) and has now reduced the fees to £200. What a nice company to do business with.

The Liberal leader wants those with second homes in the area to give them over to those who have lost their homes due to flooding. So do it wrong and you have sitting tenants plus what about any damage etc....but he is against people having second homes, suppose those who have put their money in to them should have spent it down the 'bookies', in the pub or smoked heavily or pent it in foreign countries on exotic holidays.

So...Liberal in the literal sense then - give it all away so long as it's somebody else's. Phew! Apolitical! That was close! (Sorry Mick, too difficult to resist)

raistlin wrote:In the spirit of goodwill to all men which abounds at this time of year, the landlord has offered Trevor and the other ground floor flat tenant first refusal on identical vacant flats on the top floor of the building with no additional deposit required... at a rent of £900 per month.

I can picture the landlords emphasis on "no additional deposit required" then pausing for when the atmosphere was thick with .

Thing is the L/L will get away with it, because there will be people with insurance who will be able to pass these costs on to the companies they are with. Who will have to pay out, which of course means those costs get passed onto the rest of us.

How do these people sleep at night?

Gary M.

Trevor couldn't afford insurance Gary. The so-called "government help" doesn't seem to have materialised yet. people are being looked after by voluntary agencies. However, he is negotiating another studio flat elsewhere in the town.

Hope he gets sorted Paul, never a good time but this time of year...

Gary M.