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advice - house-sitting gone wrong!
baronne
Posts: 11 Forumite
Hi, looking for a bit of advice, apologies as this may be a little long for me to explain, so here goes...
About a year ago a former friend of mine who emigrated to France was in the fortunate position to have a home she didn't need to rent out or sell. However, we discussed the possibility of me moving in a house-sitting arrangement whereby I got cheap rent and bills included (around £800/month) for a 3 bed home. It had all her belongings in and the idea was that she could come back when she visited the UK and stay - not a problem.
However, during the Summer she arrived back to visit friends and family, and things took a downward turn. She went through everything in the house with a fine-tooth combe and decided I wasn't keeping it in the condition she was expecting. Now, I should point out that everything was absolutely fine, the place was very well kept, I had a regular cleaner and certainly kept to a good standard.
We had an uncomfortable conversation which resulted in us deciding it would be best if I moved out. As it happened I had an opportunity to go and live in France for 3 months while the purchase of a new home I put an offer in for went through.
I had been packing the house and getting ready for the move, putting stuff in storage, getting ready for my French move. However there were some of my possessions in her garage which she always felt extremely uncomfortable about me accessing, so had to go via an elderly couple who looked after her spare key. Unfortunately when it came to me asking for access as I was leaving the next week, she declined and stated she was flying over from France as she wasn't happy with things in her house and needed to discuss. This presented me with a problem as I needed to get the stuff out of the garage and into storage so I could ensure the house was all good to go for the day I left. She point-blank refused me access and when she arrived on the Wednesday (the night before I was due to leave), she unleashed on me and we got into a very heated argument about the things that hadn't been sorted and that she was extremely dissatisfied with, namely:
There was a cobweb high up in the stairwell that couldn't be reached by the cleaner I paid £80 for who spent 6 hours meticulously cleaning - she demanded they return to clean the place properly
My son accidentally ripped the tassles off a cushion which was on a kitchen chair which I unfortunately never got round to getting repaired (she stood in the kitchen demanding I sew them back on, and sniggered when I said I didn't know how to
There was a mark on sofa which I paid £50 to have cleaned but unfortunately the small mark didn't wash out, so she demanded I have it done properly
My son accidentally damaged her bedroom door frame which wasn't significant, but I, again, didn't get a chance to sort it and would have done so (in fact, I offered for my friend to come over at a later stage, which she refused)
On the morning I was leaving, I had hired a van by the hour to take the remaining possessions to storage including what I hoped to be my belongings in her garage, but as I was on a tight schedule to get stuff into storage, pack my car for France and get to the Eurotunnel, I eventually had to confront her and ask if she could let me have my possessions, which again she refused, saying there are things we need to discuss. She demanded £200 to get things sorted.
I ended up leaving and taking stuff to storage, dropped the van off and loaded my car and set off for France, quite upset at this point, I considered calling the whole France house-sitting arrangement off which only would have severely put the house-sitting owners in a very difficult position as they were off to travel Nepal for 3 months whilst I looked after their house and pets.
I continued my journey to France, stopping about halfway for a break I checked my work emails to find the landlord/lady had taken foodstuff out of the freezer I had left (due to lack of time, with scuppered planning) and she put it in plastic bags and took it to my work/office and dumped it outside. When a colleague spotted her, she bareface lied and said I was coming back later to collect. Work were none the wiser and took the plastic bags inside, only to find the next day everything had melted and stained the carpet in the office entrance.
I also got a message from the gardener who I had paid £120 to come and tidy up the garden for Winter that she had told them to come back and finish off properly some Ivy that had not been cut to her satisfaction and that he should invoice me for the work.
I arrived in France to find she'd contacted the home owners where I am house-sitting (she knows them and is friends of theirs) - saying she was going to invoice me for £600 worth of things that I was now going to need to cough up for and she'd invoice with 7 days payment and I'd have to pay up.
There are various other intricate details to this including how awful her messages were to me on Whatsapp, I almost felt bullied by this woman.
I don't really know what to do , I'm in France now for a couple of months or so, she, unfortunately lives about 30 minutes from me, but has been told not to come to the property to interfere with me here.
Just interested to hear what some of you think of this, can she really get away with this? It's not a formal rental agreement we had and I'd go so far as to question whether she just disguised a rental arrangement as house-sitting, God knows, but she has truly driven me to despair!
About a year ago a former friend of mine who emigrated to France was in the fortunate position to have a home she didn't need to rent out or sell. However, we discussed the possibility of me moving in a house-sitting arrangement whereby I got cheap rent and bills included (around £800/month) for a 3 bed home. It had all her belongings in and the idea was that she could come back when she visited the UK and stay - not a problem.
However, during the Summer she arrived back to visit friends and family, and things took a downward turn. She went through everything in the house with a fine-tooth combe and decided I wasn't keeping it in the condition she was expecting. Now, I should point out that everything was absolutely fine, the place was very well kept, I had a regular cleaner and certainly kept to a good standard.
We had an uncomfortable conversation which resulted in us deciding it would be best if I moved out. As it happened I had an opportunity to go and live in France for 3 months while the purchase of a new home I put an offer in for went through.
I had been packing the house and getting ready for the move, putting stuff in storage, getting ready for my French move. However there were some of my possessions in her garage which she always felt extremely uncomfortable about me accessing, so had to go via an elderly couple who looked after her spare key. Unfortunately when it came to me asking for access as I was leaving the next week, she declined and stated she was flying over from France as she wasn't happy with things in her house and needed to discuss. This presented me with a problem as I needed to get the stuff out of the garage and into storage so I could ensure the house was all good to go for the day I left. She point-blank refused me access and when she arrived on the Wednesday (the night before I was due to leave), she unleashed on me and we got into a very heated argument about the things that hadn't been sorted and that she was extremely dissatisfied with, namely:
There was a cobweb high up in the stairwell that couldn't be reached by the cleaner I paid £80 for who spent 6 hours meticulously cleaning - she demanded they return to clean the place properly
My son accidentally ripped the tassles off a cushion which was on a kitchen chair which I unfortunately never got round to getting repaired (she stood in the kitchen demanding I sew them back on, and sniggered when I said I didn't know how to
There was a mark on sofa which I paid £50 to have cleaned but unfortunately the small mark didn't wash out, so she demanded I have it done properly
My son accidentally damaged her bedroom door frame which wasn't significant, but I, again, didn't get a chance to sort it and would have done so (in fact, I offered for my friend to come over at a later stage, which she refused)
On the morning I was leaving, I had hired a van by the hour to take the remaining possessions to storage including what I hoped to be my belongings in her garage, but as I was on a tight schedule to get stuff into storage, pack my car for France and get to the Eurotunnel, I eventually had to confront her and ask if she could let me have my possessions, which again she refused, saying there are things we need to discuss. She demanded £200 to get things sorted.
I ended up leaving and taking stuff to storage, dropped the van off and loaded my car and set off for France, quite upset at this point, I considered calling the whole France house-sitting arrangement off which only would have severely put the house-sitting owners in a very difficult position as they were off to travel Nepal for 3 months whilst I looked after their house and pets.
I continued my journey to France, stopping about halfway for a break I checked my work emails to find the landlord/lady had taken foodstuff out of the freezer I had left (due to lack of time, with scuppered planning) and she put it in plastic bags and took it to my work/office and dumped it outside. When a colleague spotted her, she bareface lied and said I was coming back later to collect. Work were none the wiser and took the plastic bags inside, only to find the next day everything had melted and stained the carpet in the office entrance.
I also got a message from the gardener who I had paid £120 to come and tidy up the garden for Winter that she had told them to come back and finish off properly some Ivy that had not been cut to her satisfaction and that he should invoice me for the work.
I arrived in France to find she'd contacted the home owners where I am house-sitting (she knows them and is friends of theirs) - saying she was going to invoice me for £600 worth of things that I was now going to need to cough up for and she'd invoice with 7 days payment and I'd have to pay up.
There are various other intricate details to this including how awful her messages were to me on Whatsapp, I almost felt bullied by this woman.
I don't really know what to do , I'm in France now for a couple of months or so, she, unfortunately lives about 30 minutes from me, but has been told not to come to the property to interfere with me here.
Just interested to hear what some of you think of this, can she really get away with this? It's not a formal rental agreement we had and I'd go so far as to question whether she just disguised a rental arrangement as house-sitting, God knows, but she has truly driven me to despair!
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Comments
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I am totally convinced there are 2 sides to this story. If she were to post here looking for advice on how to deal with her 'house-sitter', it would doubtless read very differently.
You have missed several opportunities.
You may well have been a tenant, with tenant rights - "I got cheap rent". You paid rent you are (probably) a tenant. Arguably it remained her main residence "It had all her belongings in and the idea was that she could come back when she visited the UK" in which case you were a lodger, sharing with your landlord, though "friend of mine who emigrated to France" suggests her main residence was in France.
You could have changed the locks, denied her access, obtained access to the garage, refused to leave unless
* she used a S21 Notice +2 months or
* you served her notice or
* you each mutually agreed a date.
But too late now!
And now you have jumped from the frying pan into the fire, to another 'house-sitting' with a friend of your exfriend-landlord!
So the current situation seems to be:
* she is demanding £200 + £80 + £50?
* she is holding some of your possesions to ransom in her garage? How much are they worth (financially or emotionally)? eg could you write them off?
If you were in the UK I'd suggest you pay a locksmith (should have done this months ago!) to open the garage. Then remove your stuff, re-lock te garage, and let her whistle for the £330.0 -
She sounds like a nightmare. I’d just take the time to calm down and enjoy the break.
Some wear and tear is to be expected and dumping frozen food in an office is just childish
She’ll have to take you to court for the money and without proof she’s unlikely to win.0 -
except she has hostages held in the garage..... hard to believe the OP just left stuff there!Wanderingpomm wrote: »....
She’ll have to take you to court for the money and without proof she’s unlikely to win.0 -
except she has hostages held in the garage..... hard to believe the OP just left stuff there!
There has to be more to this story than is being stated here. The fact that she was happy to let you live in her house and then all of a sudden wasn’t just doesn’t add up. Either the damage caused was greater than you have listed here or there was some other reason for the falling out.
Either way, if what you want is your stuff back from her garage, depending on what it is worth, the hassle and cost of getting it back may be worth more than the stuff itself.
You got to live in her house at a subsidized rate for a period of time, you could just putt his down to a cost of doing business.0 -
House sitters don't pay rent, just bills. The point of the free rent is that the owner knows that their property is in good hands and will be looked after as if it were the sitters own (better than the sitters own really as you are expected to not go away overnight or have lots of people over).
It doesn't sound like you have left it in a terrible state, perhaps in a condition that a tenant may have left it in. In this case and if you were actually a tenant she is quite right to charge for minor damage that isn't wear and tear - if she took a deposit and supplied all the information that needs to be done to set up a tenancy. I bet she didn't.
I would be tempted to drive back to get your things using a locksmith, it doesn't take that long to get back from France although you might struggle to find a locksmith willing to open someone else's garage. Can you prove that the items in the garage are yours? Do you have any paperwork showing that you were house sitting (renting)?0 -
I nearly suggested that but the cost of petrol, Chunnel and other expenses..... might as well pay the £200 and have a friend collect!I would be tempted to drive back to get your things using a locksmith, it doesn't take that long to get back from France although you might struggle to find a locksmith willing to open someone else's garage. Can you prove that the items in the garage are yours? Do you have any paperwork showing that you were house sitting (renting)?0 -
I am totally convinced there are 2 sides to this story.
G_M has of course hit the nail on the head.which I unfortunately never got round to getting repairedunfortunately the small mark didn't wash out,damaged her bedroom door frame which wasn't significant, but I, again, didn't get a chance to sort ithad taken foodstuff out of the freezer I had left (due to lack of time, with scuppered planning)
There's a lot of things you "didn't get around to" and that's just the ones you have told us about so it's no wonder the relationship broke down.
You clearly owe the owner something, whether it is £600 or less depends on whether the amounts are reasonable or not. So wait for the invoice, go through the breakdown (ask for one if not included) and if you disagree with any then offer a compromise amount.
Above all else make sure you act reasonably so that if she takes you to court it will look better for you and you are unlikely to have extra costs awarded against you.Every generation blames the one before...
Mike + The Mechanics - The Living Years0 -
Sounds to me like OP and her son are not the most careful with other peoples possession and the chickens are coming home to roost.
To me it seems unlikely that the owner of the property is prepared to let others stay long term without issue yet develops a controlling OCD when OP moves in and checks out. If she was a house proud neat freak and wealthy enough not to need to rent / sell she wouldn't allow OP and child to move in at all IMO .
No what it reads like to me is OP and child are homeless ( hence one house sit job to the next, no mention of ' home' ) Homeowner offered property to help out and its gone sour as OP has trashed it.0 -
Sounds to me like OP and her son are not the most careful with other peoples possession and the chickens are coming home to roost.
To me it seems unlikely that the owner of the property is prepared to let others stay long term without issue yet develops a controlling OCD when OP moves in and checks out. If she was a house proud neat freak and wealthy enough not to need to rent / sell she wouldn't allow OP and child to move in at all IMO .
No what it reads like to me is OP and child are homeless ( hence one house sit job to the next, no mention of ' home' ) Homeowner offered property to help out and its gone sour as OP has trashed it.
The OP Says they are in the process of buying a house.
Also hardly sounds like she has 'trashed it'. These are relatively minor things and she has lived there for around a year so i would say minor wear and tear is to be expected.
However for the homeowner to make a big deal about a cobweb does make me think something else has gone on that has soured the relationship.0 -
The OP Says they are in the process of buying a house.
Also hardly sounds like she has 'trashed it'. These are relatively minor things and she has lived there for around a year so i would say minor wear and tear is to be expected.
However for the homeowner to make a big deal about a cobweb does make me think something else has gone on that has soured the relationship.
It is a selective cobweb. An indication of other problems not mentioned.0
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