or is it the landlady?

[massivenamechange]

I am so sick of this.

The woman rings up at 8am on a Monday to say - with no prior notice - that a builder will turn up at 9am and we need to let him into the house or leave the key under the mat.

Not only that, but because I didn't answer the phone as i was skyping work colleagues from home (as I'm not allowed to use skype at work), and DP was in the loo, she came round 10 minutes later to bash on the door and shriek at DP about not ever being able to get messages to us - as well as deliver the message about today's builder.

She has our phone numbers, she has our email addresses, we are almost always here in the evenings. Yet she always rings up within an hour or two of wanting something done, and if we say "I'm sorry I am just on my way to work" then she wants us to leave the house open so whichever tradesman can just come and go as they like.

We have politely refused to leave the house open and unattended, and have asked again and again for sufficient notice to be able to rearrange our committments to facilitate her requests, but she just does it again and again.

She thinks we are accusing her tradesmen of being dishonest. We have said again and again that this is not the case, but that it makes no sense to leave a house open and allow total strangers into it - for one thing it would invalidate our contents insurance.

The other thing is the tradesmen repeatedly don't turn up, so we screw up our work lives by changing plans to suit her for nothing, and then she says it is all because we have accused the builders of being dishonest.

FGS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thankyou everyone for the most helpful advice.

I think we will be having quiet words with our friends about whether they really do want to rent the house. And with the solicitor. and with the university accommodation service where it's advertised.

I could go on with more explanations and anecdotes and speculations on reasoning, but it would be instantly recognisable to anyone who has lived in the vicinity for the last 50+ years, and one of the chief features of the whole interaction is passive aggression... better to just get out....

MNC, sounds like a plan. Please do do have those quiet words. It'd be a shame to be posting the same advice to someone else about the same landlady a year down the line, and this way there's a chance it won't happen. Only a chance, but that's better than nothing...

It sounds as if the landlady has no idea of her legal obligations. I had a landlady like this - she was gobsmacked when I told her she needed to give me 24 hours notice and thought I was taking the piss. She'd been letting houses for quite a while, too. I moved out later on, but told her other long-term tenants she had to give them fair notice (which they were interested to learn!). Now she's selling the rental as it's all too much trouble. I do feel better that she's out of it all now. I think you should:

1. Tell the landlady she has legal obligations to you, and you have a legal right to quiet enjoyment.

2. Don't just pass the problem on to the next people, let it get around that she's a bad landlady.

Have reported it to the accommodation service (who have dealt with advertising the place since the 1970s). They were most helpful in letting me rant !

Will consider what to say to the solicitor, who is likely to be tactless as he is the landlady's family solicitor since the year dot, and empirically is as annoying as she is.

Reporting to the accommodation service sounds good (and I love a good rant in the right ears). Glad they were nice about it.

Good plan MNC!