Asking about getting a dog resulting in eviction

bitsandpieces

GotToChange wrote: »

But now they have expressed out loud/to me their wish that I move (unlike their friend across the road, who wrote it on Twitter for crissake) and it will be held over me like the sword of Damocles.

Would it help to view eviction as less of a threat and more an opportunity? Even if you need to move to a smaller place, I suspect you'd enjoy it more due to being able to use the space without having to worry about the neighbours. One of the real advantages of renting over buying is that you *can* move relatively quickly and relatively easily if you end up living next to a***holes!

Of course moving is disruptive and it costs money - you need to focus on what works best for you. But I wouldn't want to live next to a landlord like this.

GotToChange wrote: »

(Re. some new tenant moving in a GD - when, in the course of the conversation yesterday, I said that it might have been tempting to "just do it" - he shouted "And you would have been out on your ear within a week!" ()

You wouldn't have been (unless you agreed to leave or they illegally evicted you). Not sure how long these things take nowadays or in your part of the country, but you could move in a whole menagerie and it would still take them a fair while and cost them a fair amount of money to go through the eviction process - and that's assuming that the 'no pets' clause in the tenancy agreement stands up.

Yorkie1

Keep a record of everything which happens.

Ask Shelter about illegal harassment, as referred to earlier in the thread. You can then decide whether to make a formal complaint to the police.

Don't forget that although you are tied in to the contract until its expiry, there is nothing making you give notice if you leave at its end.

So, if you were to decide to move on when it expired next January, you don't have to give them any notice as long as you're out by the end of the fixed term. It leaves them with an unexpected void. You might not manage it completely unexpectedly if your new LL needed a reference, but if you were up front with your new LL from the start, there might be a way round it.

Not usually a course recommended on here, but perhaps one to think about as they clearly assume they have ultimate power over you.

And no, they can't just get rid of you before the end of the tenancy so long as you keep paying rent.

GotToChange

You are of course absolutely right - and thank you.

The thing is that I couldn't even move within the village; rental properties are as rare as hen's teeth (ergo, it may not stand empty for long if still to be let out rather than sold), which means extra upheaval and disorientation for me - which much as I want to see in a positive light, I struggle to.

Even by now, I am wondering what I can do to make things better with them - so they don't hate me - so I don't cause her to be stressed (and so they might rescind the refusal re. the dog.......:o) and I don't feel so uncomforatble/indebted/on a knife edge.

Interesting point that you make wrt the process if I had just "gone ahead" with the puppy. It is in the TA so take it to be carved in stone; or at least they do - and certainly spoke as though "if it's in it it's law", rather than, well, it can be changed/updated. (Of course, I would say this.)

The other unfortunate thing about the Guide Dog puppy was that they would have been my choice as the "professional person"-type referee (required for the process); I know such a small pool of people - and certainly no-one else matches the long-term "relationship"-professional criteria.

Silly me.

GotToChange

Yorkie1 wrote: »

Keep a record of everything which happens.

Ask Shelter about illegal harassment, as referred to earlier in the thread. You can then decide whether to make a formal complaint to the police.

Don't forget that although you are tied in to the contract until its expiry, there is nothing making you give notice if you leave at its end.

So, if you were to decide to move on when it expired next January, you don't have to give them any notice as long as you're out by the end of the fixed term. It leaves them with an unexpected void. You might not manage it completely unexpectedly if your new LL needed a reference, but if you were up front with your new LL from the start, there might be a way round it.

Not usually a course recommended on here, but perhaps one to think about as they clearly assume they have ultimate power over you.

And no, they can't just get rid of you before the end of the tenancy so long as you keep paying rent.

Very useful to know, thank you Yorkie.

The whole LL reference is going to be a sticky wicket I suppose - unless they are so keen that they give a glowing one - not, note, that I would ask them if there were any other way.

A good few years ago (when times/my life were simpler), I had the chance (as my marriage gave up the ghost) to move into a windmill (no sails, so just a tower really); simple process - paid the deposit, the LL decorated each of the circular rooms to my (then) taste, even arranged to have my piano in the hallway between tower and attached house (wouldn't fit against any of the walls) - job done (as they say).
Then my husband wanted to give "it" another go (sort of) - and I let my chance go (also had a job lined up at a farm vehicle showroom just down the road). How stupid was I?
Came here when the marriage really failed (spectacularly you might say).

Things are so much more difficult (and for me especially) nowadays.

Here it is:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-for-sale/property-34311707.html

Gentoo365

Just a polite question, as a way of trying to understand some of the issues here.

Are you paying significantly below the market rent?

When you moved in was it expected to be shorter term?

When you moved in was there extenuating circumstances whereby the current landlord may have felt obligated to help you out?

The reason I ask is that it may be that they are concerned that they are morally locked into the current arrangement. It may be not a personal issue, just that they want the ability to sell the property if and when they need the money. Basically they may be concerned that somehow they have a moral obligation towards you rather than a business arrangement.

This does not excuse their behaviour as you have described, but may explain it.

Remember that just as you feel that the property is your home, they may be concerned that the longer the arrangement continues the harder it will be for them to give you notice to leave.

G_M

Look - you have 3 options:

1) knuckle under. Accept the bullying, and live with it.
2) attempt to improve the relationship through diplomacy - don't ask me how!
3) Stand up for your rights, whatever the consequences from the LLs. Whatever reaction you get it can hardly be worse than now! And at least you can keep them out of your home, stop the aggression, and pay rent how you wish
4) Start working on moving out. Once you have a place ot two as options, play them at their own game... ask if they really want you out and say you are willing to leave early if they pay your associated costs.

Oops - that's 4!

GotToChange

Duplicated post.
(How on Earth did I do that?)

GotToChange

G_M wrote: »

Look - you have 3 options:

1) knuckle under. Accept the bullying, and live with it.
2) attempt to improve the relationship through diplomacy - don't ask me how!
3) Stand up for your rights, whatever the consequences from the LLs. Whatever reaction you get it can hardly be worse than now! And at least you can keep them out of your home, stop the aggression, and pay rent how you wish
4) Start working on moving out. Once you have a place ot two as options, play them at their own game... ask if they really want you out and say you are willing to leave early if they pay your associated costs.

Oops - that's 4!

Diplomacy would probably = some grovelling (for some reason) -
which does not really work alongside option 3....
so, I know that a combo of 3 and 4 is the way to go.

I am just such a weed.

And very tired.

GotToChange

They are fair questions, given the circumstances and my tale of woe.

I guess they MAY feel morally obligated even though it didn't sound so yesterday (this is the whole blurred boundaries thing; they know/suppose too much).

I pay a fair rent and am not sure how much of that is longevity/goodwill... (he told me that his friend/neighbour told him that he could get SO much more) or if there is any kind of trade-off with me being (I thought) a good tenant... I don't really know any more.

As they have got older (and their kids have), it probably may prey on their minds that there is money tied up in the property. It possibly explains the ever-increasing hostility which may have been some kind of sly way to make me quit the property of my own accord.

(My own childhood was spent with my g/parents in a rented house [dogs allowed....] which continued until g/f died, leaving g/ma alone. Even so, she continued (with state assistance I believe) - until the owner (even older than my g/ma died and her kids wanted to sell up - so "this" [kind of] happened to her in her 70s (!!!!!!). (Sort of) thankfully, her son (my uncle - not my father, oh no) stepped in and bought the house for her (another one who bought outright); he charged her enough rent to cover the purchase price (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!- oops, sorry, this p's me off; backstory) and then sold the house when she died for 4 x what he had paid for it.
And .......
.....still took over four years to put a headstone on her grave.
(And wouldn't let me buy one - because he owned the plot.)


Anyway - back to the main point..... I understand where they are coming from - and the reasons for your questions. I suppose that I have become slightly entrenched here -
need to get "un"trenched.

Ha.


Ha.

Sambucus_Nigra

If you did leave - bearing in mind your AST runs til January - then you may well be liable for the rent until then. So again, find out your rights as it could leave you in a sticky wicket x 2