Need help with tenancy rights

MortgageMamma

Hi All

I hope there is someone here who can help me out.

I rented a house in October, a detached property in a reasonably quiet location. One of the reasons I selected the property is because its not overlooked, as we previously lived on a farm and enjoy our privacy.

Yesterday morning there was a knock on my office window - I went outside to investigate and it was a gardener who said they had come to prune the bushes. My dogs were distressed at the strangers in the garden so I took them out for a walk, only to return to find all the high bushes and trees in my garden masscared and we are now overlooked.

The neighbours across the road can see into our bedrooms, our dining room, kitchen and my office. They can see straight into the garden.

I am extremely upset about this for the following reasons:-

1. we were not notified by the letting agents this was going to happen
2. Our privacy has been taken away and what was a lovely established garden is now nothing but stumps of wood
3. The noise from the chain saws has upset my dogs and they have pee'd on the carpets which will now have to be professionally cleaned
4. We agreed verbally with the letting agents that we would maintain the gardens as my husband used to be a gardener.

This is just one of a long string of problems we have had. It took them 2 months to repair our central heating and 4 weeks to repair a window pane that THEIR glazier cracked

As I type, the gardeners are outside my office window cutting up the branches and I can't answer the phone due to the noise, this is now two days work i have lost and I've had to lock my dogs into the garage.

I am thinking of making a complaint to the letting agents and possibly even ending the tenancy early because of this, as I don't want to spend my summer in this house now we have no garden.

we pay 1250 a month in rent for this property so feel we should have least been consulted on this, if we wanted to be overlooked we could have moved onto a housing estate an paid approximately £450 a month less in rent.

Can anybody tell me about my rights and how I should deal with this please?

Thanks in advance

MortgageMamma

clutton_2

i am so sorry to hear about this MM - you would have expected some communication at least.

What does it say in your tenancy agreement about the garden ? - unless is says that they reserve the right to maintain the garden, it may be that they had no right to come into the garden at all, but, unfortunately, its done now - seems to me that you'd be best moving on and finding a nicer place. nothing can now bring back your feeling of safety and privacy in this property.

if there is nothing in the Agreement about the garden, i would be tempted to insist on them allowing you to leave early without penalty as they have breached the agreement by removing part of the "facilities" which attracted you to the house in the first place.

bw

MortgageMamma

Hi Clutton and thanks

I have just read through my tenancy agreement and it said 24 hours notice will be given if access is required to the property and there is also a clause saying we should be allowed to live here peacefully and without disturbance. It says we are responsible for the gardening though.

Do you think in view of this, and the fact all our windows steam up as the double glazing has failed I have grounds to terminate the tenancy or am I being unreasonable?

MortgageMamma

anyone? please? I'm doing a letter to the agent but I'm really stuck on what i can and cant do

N79

The landlord / agent has failed to get your agreement to allow access and to provide you with 24h notice. This is a breach of the tenancy as your right to quiet enjoyment has been breached.

I agree with clutton (I normally do!) that you should explain that they have breached the agreement and that you are very disappointed, explain about the loss of facilities and that they were central to you choosing the property and would like to be released early from the agreement.

I don't know what their response will be and I am not certain which way a court decision would go if they say no. I think a bit of negotiation, at least to start, is the key. How long do you have left on your agreement?


N79

clutton_2

i would start to look for somewhere else - it sounds as if it might take you a while to find somewhere as nice as this was - if you have a 6 months AST from October then April is not far away - it might take you that much time to find somewhere else.

i believe they have breached their agreement if the AST says you are responsible for the garden.

dont take offence MM - but did the landlady actually KNOW that the trees and privacy were THE most important parts of your attraction to the property ? if she did not - then maybe she thought she was doing you a favour - by giving you less vegetation to manage ?

this is a tricky one and i really dont know what the answer is

clutton_2

:j "" I agree with clutton (I normally do!) ""

oh 'er mrs - = the beginings of a fan club !!

MortgageMamma

get a room you two!!

Thanks for your help. the tenancy is a 12 month tenancy and as we took the property through a letting agency we never went into details about why we chose it apart from the spaciousness and the lovely enclosed garden for our kids.

I am going to have a go at putting a complaint in, I've had a word with DH tonight and he said we should try and get out of the agreement

MortgageMamma

in fact here is the letter I drafted yesterday. if you can think of anything obvious that i have omitted please let me know

This morning at approximately 10.30am I was startled by a loud knock on my office window, situated at the rear of the house.

I went outside to see who it was, to be presented with two “gardeners” and their van parked on my driveway. The gardeners informed me they had come to tidy up the bushes in my garden to which naturally I had no objection.

Within ten minutes the gardeners had begun using a chain saw, and were cutting down the bushes. The noise was continuous for the entire day, which distressed my dogs and left me unable to run my business as I could not hear people talking on the phone. Consequently I have lost a days work and have two VERY distressed animals to deal with.

I am extremely aggrieved that I was not informed of the gardener’s attendance beforehand so I could make appropriate arrangements for my pets to stay elsewhere and so that I could have made alternative office arrangements for the day. I believe this is an infringement of my rights to privacy in the property and I am extremely unhappy about it.

To make this situation even worse, the majority of our bushes and trees have been cut down. This might not seem important to you, but to us it is very upsetting as the reason we chose this property was because of the level of seclusion we had. Before the bushes were cut down we were not overlooked by the houses opposite the side of the property and now the residents of those properties can see straight into our garden, into our dining room, my office, our kitchen. Our privacy has been compromised and we are extremely angry, not only that our garden has been massacred to such an extent, but the fact we were not informed about it. Our garden, which we valued, has been changed beyond recognition and this is unfair and was very unnecessary as we agreed with you at the beginning of the tenancy that we would maintain the gardens ourselves.






Yesterday afternoon I spent a lot of time consoling my four year old son, whose bird tree, together with bag of bird nuts had been chopped to pieces whilst he was at nursery. This is his home and your lack of consideration has taken away something that meant a lot to him – this birds that he feeds each morning.

We are absolutely furious that this has been done without our consultation, and intend to look for alternative housing immediately. We are NOT prepared to spend our summer paying a high price for a property which, due to your lack of consideration and infringements upon our rights to reside here peacefully and without disturbance, is no longer suitable for us.

I feel compelled to add that I am disappointed in the lack of professionalism from Ark, we let the previous issues with the boiler and the windows go as a one off, but this really has pushed me too far.

I have enclosed some photos I have taken to demonstrate the extent to which our garden has been destroyed.

I would suggest you remarket the property immediately, and I am not prepared to be financially penalised for this.

clutton_2

mmmm - some cross lady !!!

i think you need to specify that you think it reasonable to end the contract early, on the grounds of loss of amenities, and you expect them to do the decent thing and not charge you rent until the Term End. BUT, it will make their "ok" response more likely if you offer to accept prospective tenant viewings on xxxxxx days and times.

now dont get mad here - but - devils advocate question coming up - if they were chain sawing all day - why did you not go out and see what they were doing and stop them, and phone the agent on the day to find out what was happening ? That is what they may say to you .....

Lavendyr

I think you need to emphasise more heavily the breach to your tenancy agreement. Reference the exact terms/sections of the agreement and point out that you were given no notice that these people were coming round. The breach in the agreement is not that the garden was massacred, but that they massacred it without prior notice, IYSWIM, so I think you need to focus on that.

Personally I would write a much shorter letter which simply picks out the problems and confirms your dissatisfaction - no need to go into too much detail with them, or to talk about how things make you feel.

In future situations I would refuse to let the gardeners go ahead without communication from the LL or LA that they were supposed to be there.

How about something like:

Dear [letting agency]

On [date] at [time] we received an impromptu visit from [gardening company] who stated that they had been appointed to maintain the garden.

I am most disappointed that we were not consulted as to the arrangement of this appointment. As you will note on our tenancy agreement, section X, tenants must be given 24 hours' notice of any requirement for access and this must be by mutual consent. Furthermore, according to section Y, we are entitled to quiet enjoyment of the property. The arrival of [gardening company] without prior communication is therefore a clear breach of the tenancy agreement.

We are most dissatisfied, moreover, with the state in which the garden was left by the gardeners. The majority of our bushes and trees have been cut down, leaving our garden overlooked by neighbours. Residents of nearby properties can now see straight into our garden, into our dining room, my office, our kitchen. Our privacy has been severely compromised.

As a consequence of these issues, we intend to look for alternative housing immediately. We are not prepared to spend our summer paying a high price for a property which, due to your lack of consideration and infringements upon our rights to reside here peacefully and without disturbance, is no longer suitable for us. As a result of this breach in contract by yourselves, we feel that it is only just that we seek an early termination to the contract without penalty.

I await your swift response.

etc