Landlords as neighbours

Totally depends on how nice or not your landlords are. Thinking about it, the three rentals we had over the years, we have generally always had landlords next door. They either had bought up the neighbouring property or it was a house on a larger grander country estate (so they were in the 'big house' so to speak and we were in like the servant's quarter's!).

It's always been fine when we had lovely landlords and actually we used to socialise with them a bit. The only time it was a problem was when we had one set of crazy hoarder landlords who just caused a bit of drama and eventually evicted us because they wanted to claim back our house because they had run out of room (in their like 10,000 sq ft country manor house 😳) to store all their hoard. So they wanted our house free to start stashing stuff in there too. It caused a lot of stress moving out, but I guess that could happen anywhere and had nothing to do with them living down the road really.

I suspect that they don't want any potential tenants knocking at their door with issues that should go through an agency.

A friend of mine rents out a small apartment that he used to live in. He is a very nice person and told the tenant where he lives know. He had the tenant knock at his door at 2am once to tell him that he did not like the paint color of the front door. Tenant was out walking and saw the light on and decided it was the perfect time to call.

I wouldn't be happy, as I'd have avoided LL neighbours due to my own and my friend's experience with this arrangement (different properties/tenancies/LLs).

I used to come home from work in the dark to a note telling me to pick up the litter (a couple fag packets/receipts) that had blown off the street into the tiny yard while I was out.

They must have liked you or you would still be looking for a place.
Forget about it and good luck in your new home.

I've been in that situation twice.

First time we ended up moving because the LL was overbearing and curtain twitching and monitored out movements. The second time the LLs were fine and behaved like normal people wanting to get on with their lives and leaving us to ours.

But I was always twitchy and found it anxiety provoking. I'm a LL myself now and my policy is to deal with any issues raised immediately but to leave my tenants in peace. I don't even walk past the house going about my day in case they think I am checking up on them. (Granted, that might be OTT)

I'd avoid tbh.

@moonriverandme but they haven't remained anonymous. Now that the rental contract is signed and sealed they have allowed their identity to be known.

I’d be more bothered if I was the landlord living next to tenants TBH. Whenever there’s an issue the tenants are likely to come straight to you rather than the managing agent.

Provided you don’t plan on trashing the place or holding raucous parties I don’t know why you would be bothered.

Perhaps they prefer tenants not to know so they deal with the agent if there are problems,.Previous tenants may have been constantly knocking on their door with problems so it's less hassle for the LL to remain anonymous.

Like @maaamaaa I lived next door to my LL for a couple of years. They were lovely and we never felt surveilled.

Do you think yours are monitoring and scrutinising you or is it more of a (perfectly justified) feeling?

I dont see how it matters. As long as you're not doing anything wrong all is good.

YANBU for feeling duped.

It is creepy and surreptitious of the LL to ask for this fact to be kept secret prior to securing new tenants. One has to wonder what their agenda was. It certainly feels disrespectful and infantilising.

I think I would be tempted to ask them why they felt it was necessary or desirable to lie by omission. It is important not to be deceitful in this manner and is why courts of law extract our promise to tell the whole truth.

However, it isn't really fair to blame the agents, who were only acting on the instructions of the clients who paid them. They have a responsibility - and financial motive - to do what they're told.

I'm in a similar situation OP, fortunately our landlord is nice and stays clear of us pretty much. What kind of vibe did you get from them? Can you ask the agency if they are hands off? How they behave towards tenants?

It's not an ideal situation but it depends on the landlords themselves. If like mine they could be fine.

On the other hand I had a landlord who lived miles away but used to turn up unannounced on the doorstep! They were much more of a nightmare than the one who lives next door.