Living on a construction site since December storm. Please help with advice.

[Bianca 5378]

Following the storm in November and December, the roof of our house (which we are renting) blew off. Our landlord is willing to fix it (her insurance company), but that has involved turning our life upside down, since December 2013, by installing a huge and noisy dehumidifier that has to run as long as possible, people coming in and out all the time for measurements etc. It is only last week that they started to work on the roof, that involving the installing of a stillads. Yesterday they replaced the big noisy dehumidifier with a bigger one, installed in the bathroom, that has plastic tentacles, through which air runs to the roof, connecting our bedroom, the bathroom, and the kids’ bedroom, which makes it impossible to close the doors, plus letting little room to actually walk in and out and about. If all this would have lasted 2 weeks or a month, it would have been fine, but it’s been on since December, and it looks like it’s going to last at least as much more.

My questions are:
1. Shouldn’t the landlord have done all this long-term renovation with our permission, after we had initially been presented all the picture?
2. Can we complain and ask for part of the rent back, since the conditions of the house are not fulfilling the conditions of when we signed the contract?
3. What is the fair thing to do in this case?

Tak på forhånd
PS: An answer in Danish would be more than appreciated too.

[Jakob Lindberg]

Her er mit svar på jeres spørgsmål:

1) En udlejer skal istandsætte boligen (reparere taget og affugte huset, mm.) hurtigst muligt. Som lejer har man ikke krav på at skulle godkende istandsættelsen på forhånd.

2) Ja, I kan kræve et såkaldt forholdsmæssigt afslag i lejen for den tid i ikke har kunnet bruge lejligheden fuldt ud. I kan også kræve erstatning for ekstraudgifter, f.eks. ødelagt tøj, forøget el-forbrug og lignende.

3) I skal fremsætte et økonomisk krav i henhold til punkt 2. Hvis udlejer ikke vil betale, skal I kontakte en advokat med henblik på at anlægge en retssag.

Med venlig hilsen, Jakob Lindberg

[Forfatter]

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