We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING: Hello Forumites! In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place for our users, discussions around non-MoneySaving matters are not permitted per the Forum rules. While we understand that mentioning house prices may sometimes be relevant to a user's specific MoneySaving situation, we ask that you please avoid veering into broad, general debates about the market, the economy and politics, as these can unfortunately lead to abusive or hateful behaviour. Threads that are found to have derailed into wider discussions may be removed. Users who repeatedly disregard this may have their Forum account banned. Please also avoid posting personally identifiable information, including links to your own online property listing which may reveal your address. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Landlady from hell
Options
Geno123
Posts: 4 Newbie
Hi i'm new here so apologies in advance if I miss out important info but I will try to give as much as I can (If I remember it all in my first post)
We moved into this house 2.5 years ago, which we found through a letting agency. AST for 6 months. Landlady happy with us so since the initial agreement, we have been on a rolling contract dealing directly with the landlady. She wanted to cut out the agent.
Its an old house, poorly maintained for years but in a beautiful location so we decided to stay and got permission from landlady to give it a lick of paint and tidy it up a bit (all done for pennies, we're not stupid enough to spend £££ on a house we don't own)
My partner is a qualified carpenter so did jobs around the house, fixing doors etc without bothering her, but within a few weeks of moving in we noticed an issue with the drains.
The drains had overflowed into the garden, so faeces was backed up against the exterior wall of the living room. We notified letting agent, it was cleared by Dino Rod and a report sent for new channels to be installed.
Long story short, this continued every few weeks for the next 18 months. Same reports from Dino Rod, they found 2 manhole covers had been paved over that needed to be exposed to gain proper access. After sending her handymen round (which turned out to be a farce) the manholes were exposed (which had perished) but she just left for a month with patio slabs propped up in the garden.
We couldn't let my daughter out to play in that time as it was unsafe.
We contacted her numerous times by text or phonecalls which she chose to ignore. During this time the drains continued to block.
Eventually my partner got a friend to come and give us a quote that we could send on to landlady to get the job done. She obviously didn't want to pay it so pulled her finger out and got it done on her insurance.
Although she took some of the invoices left by Dino Rod, we still have a couple ourselves as evidence.
Because she took her time getting the manholes exposed, the only other one Dino Rod could use at the top of the drive became unsafe. The concrete surrounding it started to crumble making it a nasty trip hazard. We have to walk over this to get to the front door. We told her 3 times!! She sent her 'handyman' again, he just cemented the cracks, but it was loose within 2 weeks.
Last week our oven (built in, landlady responsible) started tripping the electric. Not to bother her as she always has an attitude with us if something will cost her money, my partner arranged for his electrician mate to have a look. He said the wiring to the electric oven was shocking and the circuit board was dangerous and needed replacing.
Landlady arranged for her own electrician to come. They condemned the oven and patched up the circuit board with silicone!!!!
Electrician mate had another look, was gobsmacked and told my partner to get back on to the landlady. She went nuts at him!
She accused him of harassing her and if we didn't like it to get out :mad:. A lot more was said by her, all abusive so my partner ended the call.
She text my partner the next day to say a new oven will be fitted. I then text her to tell her to deal direct with me, no longer my partner. She must have thought about it because she then text to tell me a new circuit board will be installed.
She KNOWS it was dodgy! The letting agency took a photo of it for the inventory so we have evidence of it in all its glory!
The electrician came, rushed the job without checking all the sockets properly, so that night our electric tripped out again. We located it to a fault with the upstairs landing light fitting (we changed light bulbs). I text her on friday to tell her it's not an emergency but could she send her electrician back to rectify today.
She has ignored the text :mad:
I've discovered over the weekend, she is in breach of section 48 as we have no address for her. I've asked her before but she got cagey and changed the subject. We had no idea she is required to give it to us.
We will keep the moral high ground though and continue to pay our rent even though she has no right to demand it without supplying her address.
After her abuse the other day, we are anticipating an eviction notice. We want to move now anyway, we can't stay here after this.
What we need to know is:
Who can we report her to?
What can we do about a reference? We have been good tenants, pay our rent early every month and the house is immaculate because of what we've done to it.
I'm not too concerned about the bond, its with the DPS and we have witness statements, evidence about the drains and photo's of the state of the decor when we moved in.
She shouldn't be allowed to get away with this :mad:
(Sorry its such a long post, I wanted to give the details as best I can)
We moved into this house 2.5 years ago, which we found through a letting agency. AST for 6 months. Landlady happy with us so since the initial agreement, we have been on a rolling contract dealing directly with the landlady. She wanted to cut out the agent.
Its an old house, poorly maintained for years but in a beautiful location so we decided to stay and got permission from landlady to give it a lick of paint and tidy it up a bit (all done for pennies, we're not stupid enough to spend £££ on a house we don't own)
My partner is a qualified carpenter so did jobs around the house, fixing doors etc without bothering her, but within a few weeks of moving in we noticed an issue with the drains.
The drains had overflowed into the garden, so faeces was backed up against the exterior wall of the living room. We notified letting agent, it was cleared by Dino Rod and a report sent for new channels to be installed.
Long story short, this continued every few weeks for the next 18 months. Same reports from Dino Rod, they found 2 manhole covers had been paved over that needed to be exposed to gain proper access. After sending her handymen round (which turned out to be a farce) the manholes were exposed (which had perished) but she just left for a month with patio slabs propped up in the garden.
We couldn't let my daughter out to play in that time as it was unsafe.
We contacted her numerous times by text or phonecalls which she chose to ignore. During this time the drains continued to block.
Eventually my partner got a friend to come and give us a quote that we could send on to landlady to get the job done. She obviously didn't want to pay it so pulled her finger out and got it done on her insurance.
Although she took some of the invoices left by Dino Rod, we still have a couple ourselves as evidence.
Because she took her time getting the manholes exposed, the only other one Dino Rod could use at the top of the drive became unsafe. The concrete surrounding it started to crumble making it a nasty trip hazard. We have to walk over this to get to the front door. We told her 3 times!! She sent her 'handyman' again, he just cemented the cracks, but it was loose within 2 weeks.
Last week our oven (built in, landlady responsible) started tripping the electric. Not to bother her as she always has an attitude with us if something will cost her money, my partner arranged for his electrician mate to have a look. He said the wiring to the electric oven was shocking and the circuit board was dangerous and needed replacing.
Landlady arranged for her own electrician to come. They condemned the oven and patched up the circuit board with silicone!!!!
Electrician mate had another look, was gobsmacked and told my partner to get back on to the landlady. She went nuts at him!
She accused him of harassing her and if we didn't like it to get out :mad:. A lot more was said by her, all abusive so my partner ended the call.
She text my partner the next day to say a new oven will be fitted. I then text her to tell her to deal direct with me, no longer my partner. She must have thought about it because she then text to tell me a new circuit board will be installed.
She KNOWS it was dodgy! The letting agency took a photo of it for the inventory so we have evidence of it in all its glory!
The electrician came, rushed the job without checking all the sockets properly, so that night our electric tripped out again. We located it to a fault with the upstairs landing light fitting (we changed light bulbs). I text her on friday to tell her it's not an emergency but could she send her electrician back to rectify today.
She has ignored the text :mad:
I've discovered over the weekend, she is in breach of section 48 as we have no address for her. I've asked her before but she got cagey and changed the subject. We had no idea she is required to give it to us.
We will keep the moral high ground though and continue to pay our rent even though she has no right to demand it without supplying her address.
After her abuse the other day, we are anticipating an eviction notice. We want to move now anyway, we can't stay here after this.
What we need to know is:
Who can we report her to?
What can we do about a reference? We have been good tenants, pay our rent early every month and the house is immaculate because of what we've done to it.
I'm not too concerned about the bond, its with the DPS and we have witness statements, evidence about the drains and photo's of the state of the decor when we moved in.
She shouldn't be allowed to get away with this :mad:
(Sorry its such a long post, I wanted to give the details as best I can)
0
Comments
-
Forgot to mention the drains overflowed again 4 weeks ago!
Dino Rod came back, found another fault with the pipe work that they missed first time round. Landlady went mad again, but with Dino Rod not us.
She has failed to make steps to get it sorted. So we are waiting patiently for #### to start piling up in the garden.0 -
Time to move on.Do you want your money back, and a bit more, search for 'money claim online' - They don't like it up 'em Captain Mainwaring0
-
That's exactly what we're doing. But.....
What about a reference? We had a clean history with our previous landlords, in fact they were glowing references.
And she shouldn't be allowed to get away with this. We feel like she has bullied us out of her house with the abuse she gave us last week.
Why can she get away with this when we have done nothing wrong?0 -
Sounds like environmental health might be interested!0
-
Hi,
I can only say this now from experience, but you need to go straight to your local housing officer at the council for private LL's. They were the biggest help for us.
Explain everything to them, say that you would have sent letters to the LL but you have no address.
They will arrange for Environmental Health to come and see the property, and if the LL is breaking any laws will assist you in getting them solved, and help you to track down an address. They will point out all the legal aspects and guide you through.
We were in a simialr situation in that we did not know where our LL lived, we did have an address for the serving of notices, we just knew that she did not live there anymore and was ignoring our text messages telling us not to bother her.
The council did warn us that rocking the boat would probably result in a section 21 being issued. But then at least we knew her address then and could pass it on to the council.
We also recieved assistance in finding alternative housing regulated by the council (when she did in fact issue us a section 21). Private LL but through council.0 -
Environmental health. But also look at moving.
The EH in theory will chase up issues to ensure the next tenant doesn't suffer.0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 351.1K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.2K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.7K Spending & Discounts
- 244.1K Work, Benefits & Business
- 599.2K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177K Life & Family
- 257.5K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards