Sick to death of novice, difficult landlord

Tiddlywinks

theartfullodger wrote: »

Any landlord this stupid deserves and will learn from a good, vengeful, kicking.

Vengence is mine sayeth the Lord.

Just to be pedantic - this phrase is often misused to justify seeking vengeance but the teaching actually means the opposite; as in, do not seek revenge leave it to me (the Lord), turn the other cheek instead.

Feel better now that I've got that off my chest .

sooz

top_drawer wrote: »

, there is a thread from a landlord re:cats and tenants. One person suggests asking for £500 more deposit!! Its a cat for gawd's sake, children cause far more hassle/noise etc.

TD

Actually it was the OP's letting agent on that thread who suggested £500 per cat, which is unusually high. Posters here (myself included) suggested less, small extra deposit, or nothing at all.

Cats rarely cause hassle or much noise.,it's the clawing, scratching, fleas and weeing you have to watch out for.

As you have individual contracts it looks like you are in an HMO.

Therefore you cannot change the locks or chuck out your LL's junk, unless it's in your room.

But you can contact your local council to see if she needs or has an HMO licence

Sambucus_Nigra

I'd find somewhere else, give notice and then leave.

Pyx

Top_drawer, my husband and I were in a similar position to you up until a year ago. Our landlady had me running around after the holiday tennants she had in the property next door, cleaning for her, aranging tradesmen, you name it! Yes, I have mug tatooed under my hair, as she did not pay me a penny or reduce our rent in ANY way. I like to be helpful to people, but she really did take the p!ss, but I felt sorry for her because she was so stressed out, lived down in Kent, no one helped her, yada yada yada... After a while it became easy to see why her family left her to it - no one could do anything right! It was constantly wrong, and she saw no harm in telling you what a crap job you'd done. It escalated at the end of 2010 when we started to have water running through our living room and she didn't believe us, until she came up and saw it running through the house next door too...then all she did was complain about the tradesman that had done the drainage - ten years before! This is just the tip of the iceberg of what we went through, and I swear the effect it had on our mental health and our relationship was appalling. When we left we both wanted to take her to court for our deposit, report her for being unregistered and sue her for anything we could possibly think of. I despised the woman. But when I moved my life changed so drastically for the better I was just thankful to be out of that situation.

I'm not saying I was right, I do think I should have fought her all the way. What I'm trying to say is, just concentrate on leaving for now and getting yourself sorted. Moving's stressful enough. There are ways in which you can deal with her afterwards.

Take care! x

theartfullodger

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

Just to be pedantic - this phrase is often misused to justify seeking vengeance but the teaching actually means the opposite; as in, do not seek revenge leave it to me (the Lord), turn the other cheek instead.

Feel better now that I've got that off my chest .

Yup, Thanks, I knew that.. Think you got the wrong interpretation...

My God had already told me He would be taking action against this LL..

Cheers!

Artful

BitterAndTwisted

OP: if you really want to f-up your landlady the time to start doing it is now. About your deposit and its non-protection. A recent high court ruling determined that tenants could not pursue their landlords through the courts and ask for three-times the deposit as a penalty for non-protection once that tenancy had ended. While you are still a tenant is this property, that is the threat that you could legitimately make IF you can stand to deal with the likely fall-out.

Check all three deposit-protection schemes online now (DPS, TDS and MyDeposits) and get confirmation from all three that the deposit has most definitely not been protected. Then. write to your landlady and tell her that you are minded to seek redress through the courts for non-protection. If she isn't as great a fool and she sounds she will protect it tout suite. This will make trying to enforce spurious deductions at the end end your tenancy much more difficult for her.

If you don't want to go down that route you could choose to not pay your last month's rent in order to claw back your deposit but you should also expect fall-out where that is concerned too, most especially if she has keys to the property.

There are a number of other things you could choose to do after your tenancy has ended but we could leave those for another time once you have decided on the route you wish to take.

top_drawer_2

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

OP: if you really want to f-up your landlady the time to start doing it is now. About your deposit and its non-protection. A recent high court ruling determined that tenants could not pursue their landlords through the courts and ask for three-times the deposit as a penalty for non-protection once that tenancy had ended. While you are still a tenant is this property, that is the threat that you could legitimately make IF you can stand to deal with the likely fall-out.

Check all three deposit-protection schemes online now (DPS, TDS and MyDeposits) and get confirmation from all three that the deposit has most definitely not been protected. Then. write to your landlady and tell her that you are minded to seek redress through the courts for non-protection. If she isn't as great a fool and she sounds she will protect it tout suite. This will make trying to enforce spurious deductions at the end end your tenancy much more difficult for her.

If you don't want to go down that route you could choose to not pay your last month's rent in order to claw back your deposit but you should also expect fall-out where that is concerned too, most especially if she has keys to the property.

There are a number of other things you could choose to do after your tenancy has ended but we could leave those for another time once you have decided on the route you wish to take.

Is it acceptable to email the three different protection schemes or should I write them, I've just had a email confirming that my deposit is not protected in their scheme - save it and would it be ok to print it?

I've decided on this option because I suspect she already knows I am planning to move and will check her bank account closely this next couple of months - unless there is a way I can claw the money back somehow, the rent is paid on a standing order every month.


TD

EKAndrew

i've never rented in my life, so i dont know how useful my input will be!! but this is my thought after everything you mention........

write a letter, post it to her, but to your address
when it arrives, hide it, so she cant collect it!
dont pay your last rent, because you have already given her the notice that you are leaving!!!!
its not your fault that she didnt get the mail!!!

would that work?!?!?!?!?!

Yorkie1

@EKAndrew, it depends on the address given in the tenancy for service of notices. I bet the address for the LL isn't the OP's own address, in which case your suggestion will backfire spectacularly on the OP...

adouglasmhor

ognum wrote: »

I do agree with you but just don't get the go along with it encourage it and then kick it!

Have you never heard the phrase "Give them enough rope"?