Landlord and letting agent left pair without heating for a year
Two Edinburgh flatmates protested outside a New Town letting agents to demand compensation after the pair were left without heating for a year.
Edinburgh residents, Stuart Cantlay and Rory Robertson, joined members of tenant’s union Living Rent outside the DJ Alexander offices on Wemyss Place to highlight their ordeal.
The tenants, who say they always paid their rent on time and in full, first reported the faulty heating system in December 2022, but said it took 12 months for repairs to be carried out. Stuart and Rory are now demanding a 50 per cent rebate for a year-long period and are asking for further repairs, which they reported four months ago, to be done.
In a joint statement, Stuart and Rory said: “We spent over a year in a flat with no heating and we were shivering throughout winter – and given it’s Scotland, we were cold most nights of the year. It took a whole day of calling staff at DJ Alexander to get movement after 12 months of being told it was being looked into. During those calls we found out the landlord hadn’t even fully paid for the work to be done, or given DJ Alexander a working phone number.
“We paid full rent on time every month – a third of our income – with inoperable windows and heaters which had been known about for months. We even got a three per cent rent increase in May last year. DJ Alexander and the landlord could have avoided this whole situation if there had been any inspection or repairs.”
Izzi Brannen of Living Rent said: “It is unbelievable what landlords think they can get away with. To have no heating for a year and be consistently ignored is unbelievable behaviour. Time and time again landlords show their true
It is appalling that Stuart and Rory were forced to put up with this for so long
colours by behaving as if they are above the law. It is appalling that Stuart and Rory were forced to put up with this for so long.”
A spokesman for DJ Alexander Scotland said: “We have been liaising with the landlord and the tenants over appropriate compensation to satisfactorily resolve this issue and hope that both sides can reach an amicable solution.”