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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Genuinely Would IBU?

56 replies

MontyDonnsgirl · 12/04/2014 21:51

We have rented our house since October last year. Our LL insisted that we have a gardener come every 2 weeks at a cost of £56 per month. This was added to the rent. The gardener turned out not to exist and a new one was appointed and has shown up 3 times ( £28 a go).
The LL would skin a flea for its hide. She's hiked the rent once already and we wanted to extend our tenancy for another 6onths but she said she would only do an 8 month extension, and only if we pay an addition £600 a month over the original rent. She has notions about our financial position.

Anyway, we have found another house, it's great but the garden is heavily overgrown with woody stuff. WIBU to get our current gardener to go to the new place and attack the garden? We pay the LL and she pays him btw.

OP posts:

LimeLelloLizard · 12/04/2014 21:54

Can't you get your Dad to do your gardening, MontyDonnsgirl?

Realitybitesyourbum · 12/04/2014 21:55

I don't know why you are paying for a gardener when you don't have to! Is it in your contract? I would send him to the new house .

RevoltingPeasant · 12/04/2014 22:00

Wait. She wanted to raise your rent by £600 a month?

Erm.

Sorry, I can't get past that.

MirandaGoshawk · 12/04/2014 22:07

Why would the gardener agree to going to a different house and then getting someone else to pay for it?

You should sort out your grievances with your LL & separately organise a new gardener for your new place, or ask the current gardener and pay him direct. Anything else is dishonest.

I'm glad you've found a new house

Original poster

MontyDonnsgirl · 12/04/2014 22:08

Yep. House was originally on at £2400. It's been empty for ages and also for sale. We wanted an 8 month let and she said she would do a shorter let at £2800/mth plus £56 for the gardener. We wanted to extend the tenancy for 6 months at £2856 and she said no, she would only do an 8 month let at £3000 a month. So that's £600 over the original rent last October.

OP posts:

Original poster

MontyDonnsgirl · 12/04/2014 22:11

I think the gardener would do it because he has only recently been appointed and I explained what had happened, and we agreed that I'd get him to do gardening to the value of what we had paid since last October. He was happy because it was money he hadn't had and he just invoices the LL. I've had the front lawn rotavated into a veg patch for example, so jobs over what a fortnightly tidy might be.

OP posts:

honeythewitch · 12/04/2014 22:56

I dont think it is reasonable at all. If the landlady pays the gardener his contract is with her not you, surely?

Original poster

MontyDonnsgirl · 12/04/2014 23:22

Well yes. But if he doesn't do it, we've paid for gardening we've never had...

OP posts:

NotQuiteWithItAtAll · 12/04/2014 23:30

£3000 pm! I can't even begin to imagine what the house is like for that amount!

I don't think it's unreasonable for the gardener to go to your new place.

lottiegarbanzo · 12/04/2014 23:34

I don't quite understand. Surely your gardening payments end when the rent does, when the contract ends? You haven't paid for gardening in advance, for a period you're not committed to in your contract, surely?

So, if you want gardening done at the new place, you pay the gardener direct, yourselves.

Original poster

MontyDonnsgirl · 12/04/2014 23:38

No, the rent, paid for since Oct was £2856, and the £56 was non optional gardening. But no one showed up till one time in Feb and then someone else twice in March. The LL when pressed said they'd had someone over summer at that rate and hadn't realised they weren't coming in winter! So what were we paying for? In any event we've paid for gardening which hasn't happened and now we are leaving I'd like our money to be spent where we are living .

OP posts:

honeythewitch · 12/04/2014 23:50

If you haven't had the gardening you paid the landlady for you should seek a reimbursement from her, because your contract is with the landlady, not the gardener.

BerniesBurneze · 13/04/2014 01:19

I get your point but I would move, ignore the loose ends and start anew.

lottiegarbanzo · 13/04/2014 08:35

Ask for the money back from the landlady. Set it out in writing.

RedFocus · 13/04/2014 08:48

And I thought £1400 pm was a bit steep for where we live! Do you live in Buckingham palace?

paxtecum · 13/04/2014 08:56

Just wondering if the LL knows about the front lawn being rotavated.

HolidayCriminal · 13/04/2014 09:08

I can't figure out what's reasonable (only that OP must live central London for those numbers), but I would ask the gardener & if they're happy then do whatever.

Realitybitesyourbum · 13/04/2014 09:12

Me too, if you had rotivated my front lawn i would go nuts! Does land lady know?

MoreSkyThanWeNeed · 13/04/2014 09:12

Do gardeners come as often over winter? Could it be an annual cost divided by 12, but in reality the gardener comes mostly over summer?

I would ask the staff myself, but one doesn't talk directly with them, dahling. too common for a gardener

Minnieisthedevilmouse · 13/04/2014 09:12

Then ask the ll for reimbursement and go direct to gardener yourself.

Not hard to work that out surely? Why complicate it?

ThePriory · 13/04/2014 09:12

OMG I can't get over £3000 p/m either. Surely it''s cheaper to pay for a mortgage and buy a house?
No LL Should insist on the tenant paying for a gardener that is not just U it's totally outrageous.
You could get any gardener to come to this new house, why send this particular gardener?? Look in the yellow pages.

PrimalLass · 13/04/2014 09:17

You had someone else's front lawn dug up? I hope you asked the LL first.

ShabbyChic8 · 13/04/2014 09:54

Not fair that the LL should get to keep your £56+ worth of 'gardening' that never appeared. I would ask her for a reimbursement first, as others have said.

If she refuses then write a letter stating that you will then get your reimbursement by getting the gardening services at your new house and him billing her.

Why should she get to keep money for services that were never carried out?

Original poster

MontyDonnsgirl · 13/04/2014 16:38

Thanks for your views! We are in the Home Counties and the house is fairly underwhelming really! 10 ys old, 5 bed detached on an estate full of commuters. It's nicely finished and the rooms are huge but that's it. We have our own house/mortgage but are here as a part of a big big insurance claim so it's not actually us that pay the rent.

The front lawn is tiny and the only place that gets any sun, so I had it dug as a veg patch. As it happens if we're moving I won't bother doing any more. And if the LL isn't keen she can use the balance of what we paid to have it returfed!

The LL has been a pain since we moved - the house was filthy and she had refused to get it cleaned because she said the deposit hadn't cleared into her account. It was sat with the letting agent actually, and we were under pressure to get in so we took it as it was. She refused to sign the contract because she wanted to add some additional clauses, but this was well after we had moved in, and the agent was going crackers with her nonsense.

Anyway, I'll deal with the garden at the other house separately and I think we won't see the gardening money again unless it's against delapidations which I'm sure she will invent.

OP posts:

honeythewitch · 13/04/2014 18:29

So if the gardener has already been paid why would he do your garden for free?

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