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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!