Landlord entered property for purpose other than we gave permission for

Toad

Hi All,
We were recently out of the country for a month during which time we agreed to the landlord entering with an electrician to carry out some work laying a cable along the full length of the house that was a necessary activity to make the circuit safe (joining to radials into a ring).

The landlord called us on the first day we were away so we know he was in on that day. The following weekend, a neighbour contacted us telling us that he was in our house, with an unknown woman, taking photographs and that the woman appeared to have a 'professional' camera.
We called the landlord right away and he denied any photos were being taken and said that he was annoyed that the neighbours were watching him.
The landlord then called us a 3rd weekend because he was in the house and had forgotten the alarm code.
When we arrived home, our neighbours showed us a photo of the mystery woman taking internal photos from outside with the rear doors open. That area can only be accessed through the house.
A second neighbour has also told us that either 2 couples with a baby, or the same couple twice, were in the house with the landlord and came out saying something like "It's not as big as I thought".
We also found that many of our belongings were moved, sometimes hidden, as if to make prettier photos. For example our daughters ball was hidden on top of a very high cupboard and pushed right out of the way. It was in a room where no electrical work was to take place. Various other items, like clothing on the dining table, again nowhere near the electrical work, were moved to a different room. Really? items on clothing on the dining table needed to be moved for electrical work? but not the table itself?

Finally, if this cable had been laid under all the floor boards the full length of the house, why was there not a single spec of dust and not a single carpet disturbed?

We are quite confident that the electrical work was not carried out and that our neighbours are telling the truth about the photos and the people visiting.

Our question is, what, if anything, can we do about this? He did have permission to enter the house, however that was for carrying out electrical work. He did not have permission to enter for any other reason and did not have permission to take photos of our belongings.

We are no longer comfortable here and can only assume the photos were for trying to sell the house, though surely he cannot do that without us knowing because people need to come and view?!

Can we do anything about this intrusion other than a letter saying 'please don't do this again'? Which we fear would only have the affect of him making it very awkward to get our deposit back when we do leave. Which is now more likely sooner rather than later.

please help, we really don't know what to do.

T

G_M

* unlessyou have suffered a financial loss, which seems doubtful, there is nothing you can do about the past intrusions

* you can prohibit future intrusion by either writing to the LL forbidding access and/or changing the lock

* it seems fairly clear the LL is planning to sell. Maybe to another landlord (which may not affect you at all), or to a domestic buyer, who would require your LL to evict you

* what kind of tenancy do you have? Read this:
Ending/Renewing an AST (what happens when the Fixed Term ends?)(What is a Periodic Tenancy?)(How can a LL remove a tenant?)(How can a tenant end a tenancy?)

Blackpool_Saver

I have NEVER given permission for anyone to be in my home when I am not there, I'll bet you don't in future

G_M

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

I have NEVER given permission for anyone to be in my home when I am not there, I'll bet you don't in future

If you are a tenant, there is big difference between

* not giving permission for access and
* explicitly prohibiting access

Toad

We suffered a financial loss through having to make an international phone call to make sure it was him in the property and not somebody else and to ask him what he was doing.
As his actions have caused us to fell less comfortable here, and also now less safe due to the electrical work not being carried out (we need to have that tested) then we have going through the expense of moving house, but of course, that's not directly his fault.
We had a 6 month AST which went on to a monthly rolling with 2 months notice from the LL and 1 month from us.
What we don't want is to try and find a house in a rush when he gives notice so we're already on the hunt so we can move on our own term.

Toad

Too right, we'll change the code on the alarm and ask the neighbours to phone the police if the alarm is going and they see anybody in the house when we're not home!

G_M

Toad wrote: »

We suffered a financial loss through having to make an international phone call to make sure it was him in the property and not somebody else and to ask him what he was doing.

Write to him at the address provided "for the serving of notices", enclosinng a copy of the telephone bill, and request reimbursement. Anticipate resistance, and a negative reference if you ever need one.


As his actions have caused us to fell less comfortable here,
change the lock. Sorted
and also now less safe due to the electrical work not being carried out (we need to have that tested)
What evidence do you have the electrics are unsafe? Do you have an electrical inspection report?
then we have going through the expense of moving house, but of course, that's not directly his fault.
correct

We had a 6 month AST which went on to a monthly rolling with 2 months notice from the LL and 1 month from us.
What we don't want is to try and find a house in a rush when he gives notice so we're already on the hunt so we can move on our own term.

It is not "2 months notice from the LL and 1 month from us". See my link above.

Blackpool_Saver

G_M wrote: »

If you are a tenant, there is big difference between

* not giving permission for access and
* explicitly prohibiting access

Which of those did you understand me to say G_M?

G_M

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

Which of those did you understand me to say G_M?

errr.... I understood you to say

I have NEVER given permission for anyone to be in my home

Toad

That link says * The landlord must give the tenant two full Tenancy Period’s notice via a valid S21 Notice (see A3 above for invalid S21).
And our contract states that we must give 1 month notice from the anniversary of the contract.
How can that not be 2 months from the LL and 1 from us, when we're on a monthly rolling contract? surely '2 periods' is '2 months'?

* We cannot change the locks, according to the contract. "The tennant will not change any of the locks of the property or have any duplicate keys made".
* The electrician who made the initial repair when we kept losing power explained that as we had 2 radials and on of these served an area that included a double oven and grill, dish washer, kettle, pretty much all the high consuming items in the house, and we therefore had a reasonable expectation to overload the circuit during normal use - a full inspection was suggested but declined
As I understand, the potential was to cause a fire as the cables in the walls (as far as I saw when he was working on them, with no conduit) would overheat.

Toad

I suppose the other question here is was the landlord simply taking advantage of a situation and abusing our trust? Of course, there's nothing we can legally do about that except state our disdain as we depart and that it was a major factor in our departure.