Landlord has destroyed garden

wildmanmatt

Hi,

I'm hoping someone might have some ideas as to what I could do about this...

I have been away for a week and whilst I've been gone, my landlord has strimmed the wildflowers in my garden (I have roughly half an acre and at the end of my garden is a path that I've mowed into the long grass with wildflowers, a giant pampas grass plant, some trees and cow parsley).

Now I've returned to a wasteland, all of my wildflowers, parsley and long grass gone. And it looks like the pampas grass plant is dying as if it has been weed-killered.

The whole of my garden has always been nicely mowed (I have a gardener every 2 weeks in the summer to do it), my flower beds are well stocked and weeded and the entire garden is worlds better than when I moved in (because I've spent in the region of £1000-£2000 on the garden).

The end of the garden was left as a wildflower haven, was a wonderful attraction to bees, butterflies and wild fowl - just as I wanted it.

Now it is a desolate mess thanks to my landlord.

What do I do? There was no notice that he wanted to come in and do this, no consultation, no request that I 'sort something out' if he weren't happy.

What I want is for him to make good, but the garden took me 2 years to get how I wanted it. Actually, what I really want to do is cry...my beautiful garden destroyed

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt

candygirl

Not sure where you stand legally, but just want to sympathise with you.Your landlord is well out of order imo:mad::mad::mad:

Soot2006

It is unfortunate And very upsetting ... The slightly good news is that if he has only strimmed it down, leave it as is (or rake together into bundles) - this will keep the wildlife happy and enable the plants to go into emergency mode, whereby they will seed from the ground. The tall grass will regrow very quickly - I always leave mine to seed. The other plants will come back as well ... And definitely have words with LL about trespassing your home. In fact I would play naive and say someone broke in and trampled your valuable wildlife meadow. After all these are plants you could harvest the seeds from if you were leaving.

KiKi

I'm no expert, but I'm sure your LL can't just come over and enter the property without permission or agreement unless it's an emergency (like a gas leak or something).

Of course, it's ultimately his garden, but I would be as devastated as you. I'm so sorry.

KiKi

olias

I Know nothing about the landlord/tenant issue, sorry, but I believe that the wildflowers and cow parsley should grow back just as good next year. It's my understanding that wildflower meadows/ hay meadows need mowing to keep them prolific. I know that that is usually later in the season, but think you should still be OK.

I suggest you post a thread on the gardening section and they should be able to give you better advice.

I know it's not helping re the landlord, but at least you should be confident that all though it's a problem for this year, your garden is not destroyed and should be ok again next year.

Olias

Yorkie1

Sorry to hear about this.

I suspect that the LL thought that you had let the garden get overgrown and that you weren't going to tidy it up, therefore he did it himself. I['m not sure about the legalities of him doing so (in sofaras accessing the garden without notice).

Usual advice with regard to rented properties is not to spend much time and money on improvements, but if you're going to do so, get the LL's agreement and understanding first. £1K-£2K in a couple of years is an awful lot to spend; did you get his consent in writing to the changes you made in order to protect the improvements first?

Geenie

This sounds awful, and as someone who has expanses of her garden left during this time for wild flowers to flourish, I emphasise.

That said, I also have tenants who could claim the same, but actually can't be bothered to cut anything, and the garden is left to ruin. Wild areas actually need managing to encourage the right species.

The OP doesn’t say if the LL has been kept informed of their desire to have wild areas. No LL is a mind reader. If they see their property over grown they will assume a neglect.

What does the AST state in relation to the garden, as if it states the garden must be kept cut…..then that is what needs to be done.

The OP needs to communicate with the LL.

G_M

For the duration of the tenancy, the property is yours. The LL has no right to enter, whether to maintain, improve, ... or destroy....against your wishes.

If there has been destruction of a monetary value (ie plants that you paid for have been killed) clearly you can claim compensation.

Are you sure it was the LL, and how do you know? If you're not sure, why not report to the police? Might cause your LL some embarrassment!

What is your relationship like with the LL (prior to this!)? What kind of contract do your have (fixed term? periodic?) and what are your long term plans? If you react too aggresively, you might only succeed in getting a S21 Notice to quit......?

Maybe a friendly word (after you've calmed down a bit) to explain what kind of garden you'd created and why - my guess is he thought he was helping..... ( I know!). If the relationship is good and he's a nice guy, who knows? He might spontaneously apologise profusely and ask how he can possibly put things right!

Followed by (or instead) a letter making clear you'd be happier if he contacted you in advance in future if he needs to visit for any reason (get this in writing - it makes things clear for the future).

wildmanmatt

The whole garden is immaculate, so much so that there was a path mown down the middle of this wildflower area (that was mown every 2 weeks along with the rest of the lawn). The whole area was mown around making it pretty obvious that it was left for a reason.

The AST states that the garden must be kept clean and tidy and must be returned in a state at least as good as it was found at the end of the tenancy (which would involve me leaving it for 6 months for the grass to grow to waist height, planting stinging nettles and brambles and ensuring that the grew to at least 5ft over most of the newly created flower beds!!)

My AST has never been renewed so I'm still on the same one I was on when I first moved in in 2007 (which I think means that it all still applies except the notice period defaults to 1 month?). As to long term plans, I don't have any thoughts of moving on...and expect to be here for at least the next 5 years if not more.

In terms of communicating with the LL and our relationship...well, it's dire. So much so that there's still a hole in my kitchen ceiling from a flood (caused by a frozen pipe which in turn was caused by the non-functioning central heating system that I'd been telling him about for 6 months) over Christmas, still mould and wallpaper coming off the walls in the bathroom (from the same flood) and still a wall falling down outside my kitchen because it was put up by his 'odd-job man' without using any cement!

Other than these problems (which sound awful now that I've written them out, but really they're not all that bad considering how lovely the rest of the place is) the LL tends to leave everything alone....he just does things like come down and !!!!! about a few things and then disappear for a few months.

An example.... back in February, I was away for a couple of days and he drove down into the property (it's an old farm property with 3 dwellings around a courtyard and fields behind) at about 9pm and seeing that my car wasn't there, went and woke up my neighbour (another tenant) shouting and performing thinking that I'd done a 'moonlight flit' because my car wasn't there (even though all my stuff was still in the house....a lot of stuff in an unfurnished 4-bed!).

Thankfully, I don't think that it would be the easiest to re-let, it certainly sat on the market for a while before I took it and I think it would need a lot of work to make it presentable enough.

GDB2222

If you want to stay there, I suggest sorting things out with your LL. Start off by finding out if he had anything to do with the garden, rather than just assuming.

G_M

In terms of communicating with the LL and our relationship...well, it's dire. So much so that there's still a hole in my kitchen ceiling from a flood (caused by a frozen pipe which in turn was caused by the non-functioning central heating system that I'd been telling him about for 6 months) over Christmas....

In that case maybe you need to take a firmer and more formal approach.
A firm letter reminding the LL
1) you are entitled to 'quiet enjoyment' of the property which is your home
2) this means all visits must be i) with advance notice ii) with your agreement iii) in your presence

A claim for damages for £.... (calculate what it will cost to get a gardener in to re-plant everything etc).

Plus remind the LL that the damage you reported on xx/xx/2011 to 1) the central heating 2) the kitchen seiling 3) the wall etc etc has not been repaired, and giving him 5 working days to arrange repairs and advise you when they will be completed, otherwise you will rrange repairs yourself and deduct the cost from rent as per Shelter advice here.