About 5 months ago I moved house, into a completely bonkers Gothic mansion that has, at various points, been a vicarage, an orphanage and a half way house for mental hospital outpatients.
It's massive, cheap as chips, and you can do what the heck you like, with one problem - the place is basically on the verge of collapse. There are electric sockets hanging out of the walls, a fire alarm with a bit of tape permanently over silencer button, blocked drains, jungle garden, cracked window panes, and a kitchen that makes you want to boak before you'e even cooked anything in it.
When I moved in the landlady (who also lives there, in a flat above the main house) gave me the impression that the place was a work in progress and was gradually being done up. Sure enough, there are a few nice fixtures (my room has a preposterous marble fireplace) but since I moved in, nothing has been done, unless it's by the long-suffering tenants. Every time I spoke to her it was "I'm so busy at the moment" or "That's being sorted out, I just need to phone someone". A note about my landlady - she is in her forties but dresses like a teenage goth, has a weird botoxed face, leaves the house at about mid-day if at all ("I don't rise much before 11" she once said to me) and appears to have no job other than looking after the house.
About a month ago I decided I'd had enough of this and got in touch with the council. Turns out they were also trying to inspect the property, but kept being fobbed off with lame last-minute excuses. I said I'd give them access, so they came round this morning and inspected it. They also notified my landlady. The council arrived just in time to see her scarpering off down the drive in her car. 😀
After looking at the place the council people said they'd need to get the fire brigade round to check the alarm (the one with the bit of tape over it). The fire brigade came round straight away and basically said they wouldn't leave until the property had been made safe. They phoned my landlady, who eventually came back to the property around lunch time. I happened to walk into the kitchen as she was talking to the firemen. When she saw me, she shouted at me to get out of room. I didn't leave stright away, so she yelled at me to get out again, then told me that I had 24 hours' notice to remove my bike shed from round the side of the house, as it was on her property.
I get the feeling that this is just the start, and that she's going to be doing her best to make my life a misery for the rest of the time I'm at the property. I've given my notice in, thank f--k, and I'm going in to see the council tenant relations people on Monday, as I gather what she is doing is basically harassment. Any other advice or tips? I have quite a bit of stuff, and it's going to be later in the month before I can move out.
Sounds like a living hell.
If you need somewhere to crash mate, give us a bell.
Cheers for the offer (I bet Lucy would be chuffed 😆 ) but I have that covered. Just wondering what to do if she starts messing around with my stuff, changing locks etc.
[i]cheap as chips[/i]
What do you expect?
What do you expect?
A legal minimum standard?
You know what she needs.
A legal minimum standard?
Exactly.
When I say "cheap as chips", that's pretty relative - it's actually a bit more than the immaculate shoebox I was renting before.
[i]A legal minimum standard?[/i]
Things are usually 'cheap as chips' for a reason.
can you take pictures of the place and show us it sounds mega! im well interested haha!
I have a nice tent you can borrow?
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Ha if it was the Spaced House ID BE THERE RIGHT NOW!
(I bet Lucy would be chuffed 😆 )
Oh I'm sure she'll be fine with it if its for a week or two and not forever ...
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Can't be it becuase the lights are working ...
😀
Not far off actually:
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And here's a bit of the inside. It's a lovely house. Shame the owner is such an idle b!tchwad.
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By the sounds of it I'd never even rented the place from the start.
badass house now get a picture of her 😀
Wow. That looks nice. From your description I thought you were almost living in a squat but the above- I can understand. Its 'interesting'. Id' negiotate a return of your deposit and any rent remaining and leave otherwise I could see you starring as a victim in one of those British 70's Hammer House Horror movies 😯
I have no deposit, nor do any of the other tenants, I suspect because she can't be arsed to do the paperwork for the new scheme that's come in.
In one sense that is very handy as no doubt she would try and hang on to some of it for spurious reasons.
On the other hand, it means that the place is probably only going to get shabbier and shabbier as she lets it to more wasters. 🙂
Then I say move on with no regrets. There are worse landlord/ladies out there I bet. You merely had a version of Rigsby!
The place looks well cool and she sounds just my type, I'll marry her move in and let you stay for nowt for you introductory services.
I wonder how many people have died there!
I can see dead people...
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Is this in Bristol?
Zaskar, yeah, it's hard not to imagine icy hands brushing your face as you try to get to sleep. 😆
I'd rather not say exactly where it is for obvious reasons.
Looks like a strange house you'd get in Brizzle. Those chimney stacks look familiar too.
could be worse
anyone seen kingpin?
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Here's Landlady!
Thank god you're getting out. Personally if I was paying a good price I would expect the house to be in tip top shape.
If you're paying bugger all then expect bugger all!
She's just miffed at you for peeing her off. What'd you expect-open arms?
Chill relax and move out or stay and hush up.
I'd stash as much of your valuable stuff with friends as possible, just in case she turns out to be a real moon unit. Sounds like you won't lose the deposit.
Or move to the North Downs. 😀
or we all come round for a mass squat. Does it have grounds? Another STW pump track in the making.
I'd stash as much of your valuable stuff with friends as possible, just in case she turns out to be a real moon unit.
I'm thinking along these lines too. She strikes me as someone who is mental enough to chuck my stuff out into the street. 😐
move to the North Downs
And get stuck behind mincers in knee pads every time I try to ride a bit of singletrack? 😆
Does it have grounds? Another STW pump track in the making.
This thought has also ocurred to me. The garden isn;t massive, and there would be some slashing and burning required, but it's definitely big enough for a BMX-friendly setup. 🙂
I have invited a few people round for a barbecue in a couple of weeks' time. Maybe I can utilise the Facebook snowball effect and a couple of hundred lairy teenagers will turn up and demolish the place?
move to the North DownsAnd get stuck behind mincers in knee pads every time I try to ride a bit of singletrack?
GPWM - I got stuck behind one on Sunday 😀
I was ruling the trails, honest - you were just poaching my lines. 🙂
Not a chance. As a certain equine gentleman pointed out, I was merely a passenger on the bike that morning. Didn't see you for dust. 🙂
seduce her, forge her will leaving it all to you, then rig her light switch to the main grid? obvious really?
Why does this thread keep threatening to descend into filth? I thought STW was a zone of pure thoughts, sunshine, flowers and kittens.
You could use flowers, kittens and sunshine to seduce her, although her being a goth might not suggest sunshine is a god thing.
Are you in Bristol as there is rented place just around the corner which is just like that. Very odd place but amazing building. I would bug out ASAP and get it behind you. I had a dodgy landlord back in the uni days and he would do what ever he could to screw us over. Even took us to court for breaking the roof. Never explained how he thought we broke the roof on a 4 3 story building!
Woody74, yep, in Bristol here. I think you probably live nearby, although I'd rather not say where on a public forum.
Kimbers right at the very very end of Kingpin she goes crackers doing that- blowing raspberries, the lot. Gross! 😀
She's going into the woods and hacking down tree's in 50 acre right now...
I've lived in places worse than that, with dodgier landlords than that too.
So she took you for no deposit, the place was really cheap, but you decided that presumably having seen and inspected it, that you wanted it nicer, presumably for the same terms, and used the council to try and get your way?
Why for goodness sake didn't you hand in your notice like decent people, hand over a big deposit for a shoebox and leave her well alone?
Why go sneaking round without even the courtesey to talk to her first.
I'd have physically evicted you and your posessions there and then for your behaviour and stuff the law. Do you have issues with confrontation?
Honestly, if you dont like somewhere, or it no longer suits, why run to the authorities?
Nightmare landlady? offering you somewhere cheap without a deposit?
Nightmare ungrateful tennant more like!
I've just got in, to find a note that basically says she's going to charge me £20 a day rent for my shed unless I remove it at 1pm tomorrow. Also that I owe her £50 rent (I don't) and that I've been bullying the other tenants.
I think the council's tenancy relations people are going to have a field day with her. 😆
The council tenancy relations folk won't care Mr AGreeable.
she only has to give you reasonable notice and you will have to leave. no court order, just reasonable notice.
She don't need to protect the deposit, as she is not issuing assured shorthold tenancys. so you are wrong there.
You reported the conditions of the property as you wanted them improved, but you now have to move.
Click my name for your rights, but tbh you ain't got many. ~
[i]I'd have physically evicted you and your posessions there and then for your behaviour and stuff the law.[/i]
How nice. Perhaps he's already tried all the tactics you deducted, Holmes like, from the spaces between his words?
Perhaps he's completely entitled to do this in he spirit and the letter of the law, given that he was made promises that have not been fulfilled? Oh, sorry, stuff the law, yes. Oooh, very impressive.
[i] Do you have issues with confrontation?[/i]
Clearly you do. I'm unbelieveably glad you're not my landlord..
>I'd have physically evicted you and your posessions there and then for your behaviour and stuff the law.
Yes, how dare he let the authorities in to see what sounds like a deathtrap.
Boohoohoo. You get cheap rent on a huge place and then you go whinging to the authorities that it's not a ****ing Barret home...My heart bleeds. Call the police mate. Call them now. **** freedom of choice in these matters. The dirty cow dresses inappropriately and does not conform to standard activity hours, she must be a bad'un. Don't feel stupid for moving into the wrong accomodation for you, grass the bitch up!
Yes, how dare he let the authorities in to see what sounds like a deathtrap.
Why is it a 'death trap' ? According to the OP :
[i]"After looking at the place the council people said they'd need to get the fire brigade round to check the alarm (the one with the bit of tape over it)"[/i]
So presumably they didn't find anything else [possibly] wrong.
And tbh the landlady sounds pretty easy going - if she let him plonk a shed outside her property.
Heh heh heh, this is getting good.
Ernie_lynch, they found shedloads wrong: dodgy electrics, blocked drains, damp, collapsing ceilings and fire hazards just for starters. However the council can't take any immediate action to make the place safer, hence they had to call out the boys in blue (and yellow). The electrics have now been sorted as a result, as apparently has the alarm, although it has gone off about four times tonight, so I expect the tape will be going back on it soon.
Steve_Austin, you're right about the assured/shorthold tenancy thing - I had assumed that because she has a separate flat it didn't apply. I'm not sure whether the building counts as a converted house or not, but in any case it's irrelevant, as first of all her behaviour is harassment (she's never raised any of these issues until today) and secondly under common law she has to give reasonable notice which for this tenancy is 1 month.
Dr Dolittle and jujuuk68, you try to come across as sounding like badasses in your posts but really what you're saying is pretty cowardly - "put up or shut up" seems to be the gist. I've raised all these issues with my landlady repeatedly over the past few months, and she's done nothing, so this is the last resort. She's also previously been served with a notice of improvement which she hasn't complied with. I'm really glad not everyone thinks like you, or we'd all still be doffing our cap to the factory owner and thanking him for our bowl of gruel. 🙂
Ernie_lynch, they found shedloads wrong
Well I'm mystified how, on a thread which you start concerning a [i]nightmare landlady[/i], you 'forget' to mention that the council wallahs found anything wrong with the property. Surely it's pertinent to the story - why did it take you 8 hours and a prod from me for you to mention it ?
[i]"She's also previously been served with a notice of improvement which she hasn't complied with"[/i]
I can't figure that one out. Non-compliance is not ignored by LA councils. IIRC, if the work is not carried out by the landlord, then the council simple carries out the work themselves, and the bill is then sent to the landlord.
Ernie, the council can hardly do repair works if they a) don't know whether they need carrying out or not, and b) can't get access. And like I say, she's been fobbing them off for a few months now.
the council can hardly do repair works if they a) don't know whether they need carrying out or not.....
Sorry mate, you've completely lost me now. I thought you said : "She's also previously been served with a notice of improvement which she hasn't complied with" ?
😕
..... never mind though.
Sorry, I meant "have been carried out already". I thought a man of your active mind would be able to infer that. 😉
So you go and rent a room in a house, without paying any bond, you know its not quite right when you look around it, but its cheap, so you go for it.
When things arnt repaired and the landlady keeps fobbing you off you decide to make her sought it out by getting the council in. Why the hell didn't you just move out? It was surely obvious from day one that it was never going to a be a 'formal' tenancy etc, and to me it sounds like she can not afford to do repairs etc. IMO its no surprise she now wants to get rid of you.
However and this is quite a major one, and nothing to do with how much you pay. Where ever you live it should be safe, and if the fireservice condem a property then yes it should be sorted.
Must admit, she doesnt sound that bad a Landlord. Probably struggling to keep the place maintained. Lets face it. I still haven't fixed a cupboard door from last year and my Boss has had a broken shower for the past 6months (wtf!).
When things arnt repaired and the landlady keeps fobbing you off you decide to make her sought it out by getting the council in. Why the hell didn't you just move out?
Has it occoured to you that turning a blind eye and moving out isn't necessarily the best thing to do?
I'm so glad i can distinguish what is not an AST . and to think ten years working in housing and I am able to get this basic distinction correct 🙄
I'm not sure where you get 1 months notice under common law though. As i said click my name, do the tenancy checker, get your rights.
Harassment? You need to consider what you regard as harassment. knocking on your door asking for rent at midday is not harassment. knocking on your twenty times a day, when you refuse to answer is not harassment. asking you to pay rent on shed in the garden is not harassment. writing you letters is not harassment.
Improvement notices MUST be acted upon. Google for HHSRS and look at the categories. Type 1 and 2 hazards. 1 must be remedied and is actionable through the courts if it is not. 2 is a polite letter from the council requesting the LL does the work, but it is not enforceable.
mr_a YGM - will be in most of this afternoon if you want to get things sorted asap...
Found another note shoved under my door late last night, basically saying you MUST move your shed by 1pm today (not gonna happen as I work normal office hours, she knows this) and that I owe her rent (as I've explained at the start of the thread, the last month's was paid up in advance, in lieu of a deposit, a weird arrangement which makes me think she is avoiding the deposit scheme - she is probably unaware that it doesn't apply to her).
Steve_Austin, I pay my rent monthly, so my understanding is that I'm on a month's notice, which I have already given. She hasn't given me any kind of notice. She has been very aggressive towards me (which is unpleasant even though I'm about twice her size) and as I say, all this behaviour started as soon as she figured out who dobbed her in. I'm not going to apply for a restraining order, but she is definitely exerting pressure to get me to move out early for no good reason.
I also have to say that your advice reads to me like you're telling me to go and flush myself down the toilet - I'm quite lucky in that I have supportive friends and family, and work for a law firm rather than being on the dole, but I hope you sugar-coat it a bit for your more vulnerable tenants.
I once had a tenant like you, pain in the ar$e he was. Dead now, poor soul. 😉
if you want sugar coated advice, you'll either have to pay for it or be legally aidable. free advice will be blunt, direct and to the point 🙂
1. Spade
2. Have sex with her corpse
With respect Steve, I think you've missed the point - all this shit is a direct response to her being caught bang to rights, it's nothing to do with my conduct as a tenant.
If you want a hand shifting stuff, give us a bell. Crazy witch bint.
I think she needs to feature on some zombie stickers though ...
she is definitely exerting pressure to get me to move out early for no good reason.
Just out of interest, how [i]exactly[/i] did you expect her to react/behave after you had grassed her up to the council ?
You strike as someone who isn't much of an expert on human nature 😕
Just got a slew of completely mental texts from her. "I have kindly asked you to remove ur property... U have had more than enough notice" etc.
Gus, if I wanted a quiet life then obviously I wouldn't have done this. But her attitude gets on my t!ts - she's had us wait two weeks until she calls a repairman to fix the washing machine, tenants have had to unblock the drains themselves, and she's never lifted a finger.
Gus, if I wanted a quiet life then obviously I wouldn't have done this.
Ah, right, you were expecting a reaction then. That's a relief - from the sort of stuff you were posting I was getting the impression that you were surprised/it was unexpected.
You got what you wanted then.
Not yet.
You should shop her to [i]points west[/i].
You strike as someone who isn't much of an expert on human nature
And how, pray tell, can you tell that from a few intenet posts, Einstein?
This is of course assuming that you ARE an expert and would know what it takes?
🙄
And how, pray tell, can you tell that from a few intenet posts, Einstein?
Well I found clues in stuff like : [i]"exerting pressure to get me to move out early [u]for no good reason[/u]"[/i]
......I'm clever like that.
There isn't a good reason though, forcing crazy witch bint to abide by the law isn't a good reason to get him to move out ...
If he'd ripped the roof off, daubed that walls with faeces and refused to pay for any damage, that'd be a good reason.
......I'm clever like that.
You are indeed. Pat on the head. 🙂
You should shop her to points west.
That's not a bad idea, except I might have to be on television, and I look a bit like a mumbling bearded giant toe.
......I'm clever like that.
So you are. I can see you can cut and paste as well as I can!
I bet none of this true anyways 🙄
I bet none of this is true anyways 🙄
Oh dear Steve. I can just visualise the advice you give to your "clients" - "You're buggered mate. I'd start looking for a cardboard box if I were you. And are you sure you're not just lying through your teeth?"
Have stuff to do now but for those who've offered, I'll be in touch if I need any help over the weekend.