to expect my landlady to do what she flaming well says she will!

[JosieRosie]

This may not be the most appropriate place to post this, but I could really do with some advice and I know AIBU gets lots of traffic.

My landlady is driving me up the wall! She's very nice, very pleasant etc but it takes her 100 years to get anything done. She recently bought a new table and chairs for dining room (after talking about it for 3 months), and took old chairs away. We were left with the old table. We told her with a month's notice that we would have family coming to stay on a particular weekend and we needed the table moved by then. She agreed to this. Well quelle surprise, the table hadn't been moved and we had to wedge it into the guest bedroom, causing a right old squash for our guests.

There is ALWAYS an excuse, usually health-related, along the lines of (via email) - 'Dear X and Y, I'm sorry I haven't been able to do A/B/C. I have been really unwell/came down with the flu/had to visit hospital/had to take my mum to the doctors. I will be in touch soon to sort it out'. Then we don't hear from her for weeks. She has my sympathies if she does indeed have health problems but I feel we are constantly being fobbed off because she can't/won't organise herself properly.

I'm in favour of sending a fairly brisk email advising her that having the table there when we had guests was very inconvenient and when is she planning to move it? DP is worried about ruffling her feathers (it's a lovely flat and we have a very good deal on the rent) and wants to be all understanding.
Any advice on dealing with this kind of slippery person? TIA

What about "We'll put it outside for you on , (or better still - we HAVE put it outside for you!) to make it easier for you to collect it, rather than trouble you to wrestle it out of the flat."

Perhaps if she knows it will be outside, she might get her arse into gear? And you are being 'helpful', not stroppy.

Oh dear, my sympathies. Is doing something quite blunt, like say moving the table into the garden/hallway and giving her notice that 'this is where it will be now', so she will have to move it, out of the question? Done in a very polite way of course, but just making it clear you have your own life to live and not everything revolves and has to fit-in around her stuff.
I have a similar situation in that my rent is a great deal so I don't feel I can say much, but my landlord is a bit doddery, deaf, forgetful and takes an age to do anything, and when it is done the fuss and mess, and the half-assed result was never worth it. So where possible I've taken to doing what needs to be done myself and just leaving him out of it.

It's a business she is trying to run here, and sounds like she needs to get a bit more professional. Sure she could get other tenants, but they would likely expect a lot more from her than you do, so she is the one who should think herself lucky!

Good luck!

I would dismantle it if you can, then ring (not email, too easy for her to ignore) and ask her if she still wants it as it's been so long. Tell her you are willing to take it to tip/dump it, but that it can not stay in the flat as it is causing a hazard.

Thanks everyone, good advice. Can't dismantle and can't leave outside (no secure area) but I like the suggestion about phoning her. Email is way too easy to ignore. We are excellent tenants (if I say so myself!) and I know she has no plans to get rid of us but DP gets scared about being too confrontational! Robin, you're absolutely right about her running a business and we have the right to expect a bit better 'customer service'. And being brutally honest, I feel that her health issues are NOMFP (not my effin' problem) and I think I need to get better at standing up to her

Wow. Your landlady bought you new dining room furniture. What was wrong with the old furniture?

Two broken chairs (not our fault BTW). We had begged and pleaded with her to replace them for months. They are the crappiest ever but functional. All the other furniture that needed replacing, we have bought ourselves. Currently stuck with a couch she bought which my friend has said is like sitting on a deckchair and just as uncomfortable Desperately trying to get her to agree to remove it so we can buy our own!

Why not let an unfurnished property, so you can have the freedom of choosing (and disposing) of your own furniture? I don't think I'd fancy living beyond my student years with someone else's choice of furniture!

I think most landlords, like tenants, just want to be left in peace unless its something urgent, and really theres no need for constant contact unless you want to get into things like waiting for people to do things and their health problems. If the rent is really that good, then I suspect theres not much (if any) profit margin in it for her so its not worth her while doing too much running around or hiring people to remove furniture.

Maybe her reference to health problems is a polite attempt by her to get you to back off?

VirtualWitch, believe me, I don't want any more contact with her than is necessary! It's her constant foot-dragging that means something which should be sorted out in 2 or 3 emails ends up taking 20 or 30. We're not interested in moving, we love the flat, been here almost 4 years. We rented the flat as furnished but in my book, 'furnished' should mean 'comfortable', not just any old crappy sticks of furniture. The bed that was here was fit for nothing but the scrap heap! I feel that her reference to her health problems is just acting the martyr and I have little patience for people like that.

Furnished doesn't mean 'comfortable'. Don't be so precious.

If you've seen the place, and nothing has actually broken or worn out, it's cheeky to expect replacements - she's being nice to do it.

Have you offered to dispose of the table for her?

Offering to freecycle it would be more proactive than constantly nag with emails.

I would politely tell her all about freecycle and offer to list the table/sofa - job done :o

I'm actually getting enough grief straight with this situation without arsey unhelpful comments, so thanks a lot justabout and LRD Thanks to the others for your genuine suggestions