Landlord has destroyed garden

Aquatronixjenny

I really do feel for you. I had a lovely wild flower section in my old garden and it was beautiful. I know exactly what you mean when you describe it as we did exactly the same with a winding path mown through it. It was obvious that it was there for a reason.

Is your garden enclosed? If so, change the locks on the back gate and maybe fit a cheap intruder alarm on the front door so that if your landlord does try to enter again he will get a little surprise The wild flowers will grow back, you can buy seeds very cheaply, and the grass will grow back quickly. But it is heart breaking when you create a lovely natural wild life park and some idiot destroys it just so that it looks neat.

ceridwen

Back from my days - many years back now - of living in rented property the law stated that landlords must give at least 24 hours notice of their intention to come in.

I found that because my landlord was taking a few liberties with letting himself in behind my back - to which in the end I changed the lock so he couldnt physically do so. He never mentioned that he was finding he couldnt get in - he just started turning up when he knew I would actually be in. In his case - the reason he turned up was to empty the electric meter.

Mind - this was back in the days when tenants had rather more rights in some respects than they do now - so not sure how a 2011 landlord would react to a tenant changing locks without mentioning it to him.

I cannot imagine the law on that requirement to give notice of coming in has changed in the intervening years - so I suggest looking it up to see.

FATBALLZ

ceridwen wrote: »

Back from my days - many years back now - of living in rented property the law stated that landlords must give at least 24 hours notice of their intention to come in.

I cannot imagine the law on that requirement to give notice of coming in has changed in the intervening years - so I suggest looking it up to see.

Landlord has no right to come round at all if the tenant doesn't want them to.

This sounds like criminal damage to me.

GDB2222

FATBALLZ wrote: »

This sounds like criminal damage to me.

Really? What's the definition of criminal damage? Is there a requirement to prove mens rea? How would you go about that?

What beats me is why the LL would go to the trouble and expense of mowing the garden unless he thought there was an urgent need to do that? It's not like he's been particularly quick to do the repair work.

wildmanmatt

ceridwen wrote: »

I found that because my landlord was taking a few liberties with letting himself in behind my back - to which in the end I changed the lock so he couldnt physically do so. He never mentioned that he was finding he couldnt get in - he just started turning up when he knew I would actually be in. In his case - the reason he turned up was to empty the electric meter.

Changing the locks wouldn't help because they don't have a set of keys anyway - they lost the management set that I gave them when we moved in (had to have better locks fitted for insurance purposes when I moved in).

GDB2222 wrote: »

What beats me is why the LL would go to the trouble and expense of mowing the garden unless he thought there was an urgent need to do that? It's not like he's been particularly quick to do the repair work.

The landlord was strimming the communal areas of the property anyway - there's a large expanse of communal land across the drive (my garden on one side, communal land on the other) and just went over onto my garden at the same time.
As I've already mentioned, he has a habit of wandering around being a busybody for a few days and then disappearing for months....my neighbour said he drove down here 7 or 8 times on Thursday just to look around and wander around the outside of our property (mine and my neighbour's are linked as mine used to be a farmhouse and theirs used to be the offices/stables connected to the farmhouse).

Thanks for everyone's thoughts, I think a letter is the best option addressing the damage to the property that remains unrepaired along with reminding him of the terms of the contract - and asking that in future he leave my (beautiful) garden alone!

shegar

I just want to say im so sorry that your LL has caused you so much greive .......:mad:.....its such a shame all your hard work ,time , effort , and expense ..........so sorry...