Preventing landlord access

Wyndham

G_M wrote: »

chipolatta - you are resurrecting a 2-year-old thread. I suspect Wyndham has resolved the problem or indeed moved home by now!

Yes, I have! In the end I decided I wasn't going to pay him a penny more rent than I had to, and found another place at the end of the six months. I don't even live in that one anymore!

lookstraightahead

I wish they would change 'tenant' to customer, then tenants might be treated differently. Landlord could be changed to 'house provider' or something similar (like energy provider, mortgage provider etc). Landlord and tenant sounds too much like something off a Catherine Cookson film.

Comms69

lookstraightahead wrote: »

I wish they would change 'tenant' to customer, then tenants might be treated differently. Landlord could be changed to 'house provider' or something similar (like energy provider, mortgage provider etc). Landlord and tenant sounds too much like something off a Catherine Cookson film.

Does labelling really mean so much?


I mean this was a simple change the locks scenario

G_M

lookstraightahead wrote: »

I wish they would change 'tenant' to customer, then tenants might be treated differently. Landlord could be changed to 'house provider' or something similar (like energy provider, mortgage provider etc). Landlord and tenant sounds too much like something off a Catherine Cookson film.

Oh for the days of 'Rising Damp'!!!

Red-Squirrel_2

Wyndham wrote: »

Yes, I have! In the end I decided I wasn't going to pay him a penny more rent than I had to, and found another place at the end of the six months. I don't even live in that one anymore!

Did you change the locks in the end? Hope your new landlord is more professional!

Autumnella

I had similar issues with my previous landlord (Not HMO or lodger) behaving inappropriately. Alarm bells should have rang when I met him at the house to get the keys and he said he would have to meet my (preschool) children sometime since they were going to be living in his house.

During the year I rented the property he would knock on without notice at 8 o clock at night when I was in my pj's to check if the gardening needed doing (we had an agreement where I paid him to do it), then never came back to do it. He let himself into the house while I was out and without letting me know he was coming after contractors had been to check the work and also accessed other parts of the house such as my bedroom which didn't need to be accessed for the work that had been completed. One morning I woke up to a private facebook message from him at 3am on a Saturday, he wasn't on my friends list or anything so must have searched for me. Told me once he drove into the street (dead end so couldn't have been passing) sometimes just to check on things and would see my children playing with their friends.

lookstraightahead

I do think landlords sometimes think they are better than the tenants, which is really bizarre when most businesses bend over backwards to serve their customers.

Cakeguts

lookstraightahead wrote: »

I do think landlords sometimes think they are better than the tenants, which is really bizarre when most businesses bend over backwards to serve their customers.

Not all landlords think like this. Many of us regard tenants as our customers. You only ever hear about the ones who don't. Tenants who are happy with their homes don't post on lots of forums complaining about them or their landlords.

Wyndham

Can't quite believe so many people are continuing to comment on my two year old thread!

In the end, I had another chat with him, and he agreed not to go in without permission, and did stick to that for the rest of the tenancy. Looking back, I think he was a genuinely nice bloke, just out of his depth as a landlord. I later found out he was an accidental landlord. If he'd just had a few days void between tenancies, he could have sorted everything out before I moved in, but I moved in the day after the previous tenant had vacated, which I think is why I had quite so many issues.

All of these issues, took a lot of time and inconvenience, so I asked him for some money because of that. In the end he gave me £100 plus some costs (parking - at city centre rates) that I'd had to pay out for. I wasn't bothered about the money, more about making the point, and I gave the whole amount, including the costs, to Shelter, as I know that there are people out there in a much worse situation.

I'd like to think that I made him a better landlord, but I'm not sure in the end if I did!