Need some advice on rude landlord

mellymeep

Yesterday I had a surprise visit from not my landlord, but a representative for the company that i've rented this house through. They're exceptionally rude and I wish we had never gone with this company.

Anyway, yesterday he came round.. knocked on the door and as I was rushing downstairs saw he had let himself in and was half way through the door (now correct me if i'm wrong this entirely illegal, unless he has a warrant to enter the house or something?) He was then extremely rude as he usually is.. waltzing round the house inspecting it and blaming us for faults which were reported on move in day in our itinerary which after much pushing still haven't had anything done about them, the one thing that I will put my hands up and say was wrong with the house was there were some drawings on the wall in the living room in pencil done during a drunken episode by my other flat-mates, which we removed immediately when asked to and originally had the definite intention of removing before we moved out. He also delivered us a notice that they had reason to believe we had someone residing illegally within the house?? (which we don't) And when I asked if he could disclose how he got this information he was adamant he couldn't tell us (something which i'm also sure we are entitled to know?)

Now apparently they are going to make more of these surprise visits to and I quote "try and catch us out." I pointed out to him that this was in fact illegal and he said "well if we don't do that we can't make any money can we?"

If he does ever come round again un-announced i'm just wondering if I do actually have the right to deny him access to the property and shut the door? I'm going round to the CAB today and can also contact UNIPOL a student housing advice service available to me, but was just wondering if anyone else could give me some advice?

Loretta

mellymeep wrote: »

Yesterday I had a surprise visit from not my landlord, but a representative for the company that i've rented this house through. They're exceptionally rude and I wish we had never gone with this company.

Anyway, yesterday he came round.. knocked on the door and as I was rushing downstairs saw he had let himself in and was half way through the door (now correct me if i'm wrong this entirely illegal, unless he has a warrant to enter the house or something?) He was then extremely rude as he usually is.. waltzing round the house inspecting it and blaming us for faults which were reported on move in day in our itinerary which after much pushing still haven't had anything done about them, the one thing that I will put my hands up and say was wrong with the house was there were some drawings on the wall in the living room in pencil done during a drunken episode by my other flat-mates, which we removed immediately when asked to and originally had the definite intention of removing before we moved out. He also delivered us a notice that they had reason to believe we had someone residing illegally within the house?? (which we don't) And when I asked if he could disclose how he got this information he was adamant he couldn't tell us (something which i'm also sure we are entitled to know?)

Now apparently they are going to make more of these surprise visits to and I quote "try and catch us out." I pointed out to him that this was in fact illegal and he said "well if we don't do that we can't make any money can we?"

If he does ever come round again un-announced i'm just wondering if I do actually have the right to deny him access to the property and shut the door? I'm going round to the CAB today and can also contact UNIPOL a student housing advice service available to me, but was just wondering if anyone else could give me some advice?

No he does not have the right to do this. Change the locks, you can buy a new barrell for about £14 from somewhere like B&Q and it is easy to fit, even my hsband managed this last week!

Write to the agent and tell them that you have taken legal advice, someone will come on here and tell you all the relevent Acts and technical 'speak' I am sure and that he is not to do it again and what the consiquences will be if he does.

I would also write to your landlord, you are entitled to know his name and address, someone on here will tell you how to do this, and let your landlord know how his representatives, people he is paying, are behaving and this agent may then lose all the money he is getting from managing this property. Sometimes the only way to teach people with this arrogant attitude to behave like a human is to hit them in the pocket.

This agent risks being accused of stealing, damage and if you are girls in the flat something much worse and is extremely stupid to do this

I hate bullies

pinkshoes

Change the locks immediately! It's cheap to do, and you can retain the old lock and re-fit it when you move out. Don't bother telling them you've done this, and if they turn up, then tell them to go away. IF they force their way in for any reason, call the police.

They need to give 24 hours notice to come round, and only for emergencies i.e. fixing something that you've requested. You're entitled to quiet enjoyment of your home for the period of your tenancy, and they are most certainly NOT allowed to just barge in like that.

PasturesNew

I've nothing more to add, except to post that no, they are NOT allowed to just let themselves in. He has acted entirely illegally.

You'll get proper/legal advice here shortly, with relevant Acts to quote etc. And I bet by the end of today you'll have your letter ready to go out to him.

Barstew4rds.

For the record, it sounds like a shared/student let. I am wondering if it is a HMO, and therefore whether it is legal. So, how many people are living there, on how many floors?

And, have they protected your tenancy under the TDS?

It's often that an agent who breaks one rule is breaking many.

sooz

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've nothing more to add, except to post that no, they are NOT allowed to just let themselves in. He has acted entirely illegally.

You'll get proper/legal advice here shortly, with relevant Acts to quote etc. And I bet by the end of today you'll have your letter ready to go out to him.

Barstew4rds.

For the record, it sounds like a shared/student let. I am wondering if it is a HMO, and therefore whether it is legal. So, how many people are living there, on how many floors?

And, have they protected your tenancy under the TDS?

It's often that an agent who breaks one rule is breaking many.

Also, if it is an HMO, are you all on the same agreement, or are you renting room by room on individual agreements? If the latter, the agent MAY be allowed into the communal areas.

kissingthepink

Is there perhaps not a little bit more to this story that has made the LA scrutinise the property unannounced? I mean, adult tenants drawing on the walls? You sound like nightmare tenants.

That said, no the LA is not allowed to enter the property when it suits him. He needs to give you 24 hours notice.

Captain_Mainwaring_2

Drunken adult tenants. Are we sure that you can just change the locks without permit? I don't know, maybe yes.

There is always something more to it.

sooz

kissingthepink wrote: »

Is there perhaps not a little bit more to this story that has made the LA scrutinise the property unannounced? I mean, adult tenants drawing on the walls? You sound like nightmare tenants.

They are students

That said, no the LA is not allowed to enter the property when it suits him. He needs to give you 24 hours notice.

Unless they are renting rooms individually. Then depending on the contract, the LL or the LA may be able to enter the communal areas without notice (but not the bedrooms), and indeed it would be necessary for them to perform fire checks.

The OP needs to clarify what type of agreement they have.

tbs624

As Sooz says, the OP needs to clarify whether all occupants of the house are signatories to the one contract or whether each have individual ASTs for their own rooms.

A LL representative can enter the communal areas of the latter type of property without giving 24 hrs notice (although s/he would have to give notice to enter any individual student's room). Even in these cases a good LL/LA *will* generally warn in advance. However, this clearly wouldn't include the right to intimidate the tenants in any way.

Mellymeep - give us a bit more info and then more useful suggestions can be made.

If the LL/LA is registered with your Uni Accomms office they will have had to sign up to a code of practice so you may want to have a trawl through that, as well as your tenancy agreement.

Btw you may want to suggest to your housemates that they don't get so p*ssed that they write on walls in a rented property - bet they wouldn't do it back home with mum & dad - or they may next be posting on here "help, my LL is deducting xx quid from my deposit ..it was only a little drawing...., it's so unfair"

mellymeep

We are renting a whole house on a joint tenancy agreement there were 5 of us that had signed the contract for 5 bedrooms, but now one of the girls has left so theres just 4 of us and one spare bedroom which we are currently looking for a replacement for, we're all students, and all girls who are usually pretty quiet. We look after this house very well other than the little slip up with the drawing on the walls, and I will hold my hands up and say that was wrong, we did deface the property but its been corrected and there is no evidence of it on the wall at all now. His original reason to come round was to deliver us the letter about the suspected sub-letting, which I have no idea how they thought we were doing that.

I would say we are very good tenants, this house was given to us in a complete and utter state, and on the move in day when we had the chance to say something the guy went off on one and said to us that "we're students.. we should be happy with what we get" i'm sorry but we're normal human beings, we will not accept living in squalor. We cleaned this house from top to bottom, despite paying for the rental company to send cleaners round which never turned up. And the house looks a million times better now and I believe we're doing the company a favour because when viewers come round they'll see this place for what it is, and not the dump we recieved it as.

sooz

In which case change the locks, & speak to the uni accomodation office about how that LA deals with his tenants.

Are the remaining 4 of your paying the full rent now? Or is the girl who left still paying? Did you ask the LA to find you a new tenant?