Advice please - Landlord harassment

Daised

Hi,

I've been lurking on these boards for a while and today plucked up the courage to register and post

I'm after some advice, opinions on what I should do.

My boyfriend and I are living in shared accommodation at the moment with another man. I have been there for 3 yeras now, my b'friend and the bloke have been living there for about 2.5 and 2 years respectivly. our landlord owns the house and lives in Australia. it is a private rent under a shortterm tennancy agreement and there is no management company in the UK.
We have had a number of problems over the last couple of years but have put up with most of it as the rent is relatively cheap and the BF and I are saving to buy our first house.

on 26th August we got a very abusive phonecall from our landlords sister saying that we were being served notice and getting evicted so she could have the house. we told her that we were not going to accept her word for it and wanted to speak to the landlord and also wanted it in writing with two months notice as per our agreement.
we got a phone call from the landlord later that day, extremely apologetic explaining that he had simply asked his sister to print off and post the letters that he had written to us explaining the situation and serving us our notice to vacate the property by 31st October as his sister had had some personal problems and needed to come back here to live.
I told him that I was very unhappy about being contacted by his sister as she was very abusive on the phone and said that I did not wish to be contacted again by her and would only deal directly with him. he agreed to this and although we were initally slightly miffed at having to find a new house we got on with things and soon began to look forward to moving.

I had requested to the land lord that on completion of the tennacy he give me back my deposit via bank transfer as this was the easiest way to handle things with them being in Oz. however they were having some problems with their UK bank account and asked if I would mind being paid by cheque, I said that this was OK and the landlord said he would ask his sister to drop the cheque round this weekend just gone. I explained that we were away all weekend so she would have to post the cheque through the door.

Following our weekend away both my bf and I have come directly to work this morning and will be going back to the house this evening, however I have recieved a number of emails today that have caused me a great deal of concern.

Firstly it would appear that the sister came round on Saturday and let herself into the house when no-one was there (so she could measure up for furniture) rather than posting the cheque through the door as requested, then she apparently had some issue locking the door and judging by what was written in the email, left the house unlocked and went back to her mothers so she could call the landline number for the house (which was empty when she left it) to let our housemate know she couldn't lock the door. she has also moaned that the house is untidy (we're in the middle of packing of course it's untidy)

I still don't know if the house is secure as I'm not sure if our housemate was at home this weekend, and I've been unable to reach him on his mobile. I'm really worried that I'm going to get home and find all our handily boxed up possessions have been stolen and looking on our contents insurance policy the fact that the house has been left unlocked would invalidate it.

I have emailed the landlord back explaining that I'm very unhappy with what had gone on, but I wondered if there was any further recourse and if we can do anything to stop the sister getting into the house between now and the end of our tennancy agreement.

sorry it's such a long post!

Thanks for taking the time to read it.

Nic

Jowo_2

change the lock and change it back when you leave.

keep good records of the harassment in case it escalates.

have a look at the Shelter website section on harassment which provides good hints and tips to manage this.

BitterAndTwisted

If all your lovely possessions are still there when you return later, pop down to B&Q and buy replacement barrels for all of the locks, front and back. There is no way in the world that anybody, even the landlord, can legally enter the premises without your express permission. You will need to replace the barrels with the original ones when you leave but this is quite simple and straightforward

DVardysShadow

Change the locks.

You are in contact with LL, he seems OK. Just let him know what you have told us, tell him you are changing the locks, as quite reasonably, you do not want your stuff left unsecured, and that you will change them back before you move out. Assuming your stuff is OK.

But if the sister has issues, you may be faced with a bigger problem. I don't want to alarm you, but do think through what you will do if your stuff is not secure! When you get home tonight, at the first sign of loss or damage to your property, step out of the house and call the police.

Beyond that, keep all the emails, especially about the sister not locking the door. I think that the insurance should cover you and they would claim either against the LL or the sister.

BTW, unless the LL is involved in this or you have reason to think so, I think your post title is misleading.

Jowo_2

I thought insurance is void when thefts have been facilitated by the failure to secure the premises - unlocked doors and windows?

Sounds like his sister is manipulative and he's probably going to rue the day he let her control his property after a sob story from her. Landlord forums are chockablock full of threads of lettings between friends and relatives that turn sour.

poppysarah

You're entitled to two months notice (or compensation surely?)

Shocking behaviour from this person.
Change locks to ensure your stuff stays safe til you move.

DVardysShadow

Jowo wrote: »

I thought insurance is void when thefts have been facilitated by the failure to secure the premises - unlocked doors and windows?

That should only apply to failure on the part of the insured. There are more exclusion clauses these days, but in this case there is no evidence that the insured failed to secure the premises and a ot of evidence that a 3rd party unsecured them.

There may be a difficult stage where the Insurance Call centre stonewall, but I think that as a long stop, the Insurance Ombudsman at least would agree that any such loss would not be due to a failing on the part of the insured. At least there is an email to support this, plus others to support the general outline of what is happening. I would expect the Insurance Co to pay up and recover from the LL or sister.

Sounds like his sister is manipulative and he's probably going to rue the day he let her control his property after a sob story from her. Landlord forums are chockablock full of threads of lettings between friends and relatives that turn sour.

Agree.

clutton_2

when is your rent day ?

have you received a SEction 21 notice ? if so, what does it say

when did you last sign a tenancy agreement ?

are you all on the same agreement ?

Daised

hi everyone,
thanks for the responses,
the reason I used landlord harrassment on the topic title was that she was supposed to be acting on our LL's behalf this weekend to deliver the cheque, and she has obviously got the spare keys from the LL's mum who holds a spare set in the UK in case of problems.

we are due to get the keys to our new house on Friday so will be moving all our stuff out at the weekend (hopefully!) I read my insurance the same as Jowo, in that it was invalid if there was evidence that locks had been left undone, windows open etc.

we last signed a tennancy agreement last October I can't remember the exact terms but it was a standard shorthold tennancy agreement (don't have it with me at work). we've not recieved a section 21 notice (what is that?) all we have received is the letter from the LL saying that they would not be renewing the tennancy agreement at the end of October.

i have emailed the LL asking (again) that his sister doesn't come round to the house until we have handed the keys back and that her entering the house without our premission is a breach of our tennancy agreement. so I guess we will just have to wait and see what they come back with. I'm away with work for 3 days this week so I can't even make sure she doesn't come back round in the evenings.

I think the LL is already regreting letting her have the house, as she had told him she will be living there rent free (he has said that she reckons she is doing him a favour by house sitting for him whilst he is in Oz)

thanks again
nic

franklee

That's bad, the landlord should have told his sister not to go in. I hope nothing gets nicked. Like the others I'd change the locks.

PS: As it sounds like you have an amateur landlord, I take you know about the non resident landlord's scheme to make sure any tax doesn't fall to you:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/CNR/nr_landlords.htm
"If Non resident landlords don't have UK letting agents acting for them, and the rent is more than £100 a week, their tenants must deduct the tax. When working out the amount to tax the letting agent/tenant can take off deductible expenses .

Letting agents and/or tenants don't have to deduct tax if HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) tells them not to HMRC will tell an agent/tenant not to deduct tax if Non resident landlords have successfully applied for approval to receive rents with no tax deducted."