[gk7661]

Hi. We have lived at this house for two months of a 6 month tenancy agreement. Before we signed the agreement, we asked the landlord about the two fires in the property. One open fire which he said was safe and one gas. We were told that the gas fire was condemed but the open fire worked fine and that the gas fire would be mended or replaced.also a sorage shed in the garden was going to be replaced the week after we moved in.
We paid full rent plus a bond of a full months rent on signing.
Several dates have been given for the new storage shed but nothing has ever appeared.
Last week the central heating broke down and we had no heat/or hot water for over 24hrs we rang and asked the landlord if the open coal fire was definitely safe to use he said yes.
We lit a fire only to have the fumes fill the other room downstairs as there appeared to be holes conecting the two chimneys so we stopped the fire and told him that this was unsafe.
The proprty has no fire alarms and he said people must have stolen them even though there are no signs of any fittings(no holes in celings etc)
.the landlord did arrange british gas to come out and mend the boiler but the engineer informed us that the fires were not insured by them since they had been condemned over twelve months earlier.
Two months into this agrrement we are still waiting.we have now been told that as the house was warm when a handyman came to look at the fires that the landlord will board up the unsafe open fire and that he will not touch the broke gas fire in the front room.
We even asked if he could maybe remove and board this up and said we'd buy our own electric fire but he still has said no to this too.
We feel this landlord has broken the terms of agreement and would like to leave but he said we must stay/pay till the end of the 6 months?
Can you give us any advise please.

[ScottGem]

You need to document your request for repairs. You also need to contact your local housing board to find the rules for inhabitable property. If you can prove the property inhabitable you should be able to get out of the lease.