AIBU to refuse access to knobhead gas engineer

[streetface]

Hi, long time lurker, new poster.

We rent. Have done our entire working lives. Never had any problems. Rented long term in London, had super relationship with previous landlords, even got card and flowers when we left and told if we ever need to go back to the area to give them a call.
Moved out of London to cheaper, nicer area. Landlady sends round gas engineer who for reasons unbeknown to me behaves like an arrogant fucking cockwomble. Parks on my drive without asking so I couldn't get my car on when I came home. Husband was already home and let him in thinking I was expecting him (I wasn't) I walk in to my living room and he's there and doesn't even acknowledge me when i ask what he's there for. (landlady forgot to tell me) I ask him to please take his shoes off. "I can't" he says then without asking telling me what he's doing he walks upstairs, boots on, starts opening all my cupboards, I call up asking what he's looking for (boiler obvs), I tell him where it is. Doesn't say a word to me, just opens it. I go down stairs, in the kitchen telling husband what a rude twat he is when he barges in the kitchen, in between my husband and I having a chat, not an excuse me, no, "I just need to check the oven" or similar....no, nothing, not a word. He turns my oven off with the kids dinner in it. I say, 'erm excuse me could you wait until I take that out' I get (with back turned to me) "No I haven't finished" He then TAKES MY TEA TOWEL AND CHUCKS IT ON THE FUCKING FLOOR" Now this would be bad anyway but I suffer from chronic OCD and general anxiety disorder. I threw him out there and then. I felt so invaded. My home is my orderly 'safe space' and it was such a horrible experience. My husband told letting agent to tell landlady never let him back. Letting agent was witness as she rolled up halfway profusely apologising that she forgot to tell me. She was standing in kitchen with us when I chucked him out.

Now I must say, we are a landlords dream even if I say it myself. Professionals, rent paid early each month, house immaculate, new quality carpet laid at our expense, long term renters. Our previous landlords have always appreciated this and never made us feel like second class citizens or 'just renters'
Despite knowing I have OCD (I let landlord know before I moved in as it seriously affects my life and home access, always need shoes removed, funny about strangers using my loo etc) she was happy to go ahead. Now the gas certificate is due again. I'm being told it HAS to be the same guy, he's the ONLY person qualified and it leaves all previous guarantees void if anyone else does it. Is this true? I can't find anything online about this. Now I know I need to allow access for maintenance but I also know I am entitled to live without harassment and live in peace. Do I really need let the man who i had to chuck out round my bloody home again? I have never had a single problem in the 20 years I've rented so I don't feel I'm being unreasonable asking the landlady to give a bit more consideration to really good tenants who i am told are a rarity. The letting agent has explained how damn rude he was. If it was her home I'm sure she wouldn't allow someone who had offended her in her own home back, why is it acceptable for her to force this arsehole on us again? AIBU to refuse access?

good luck streetface. you really aren't being unreasonable.

I hope it all works out well for you.

The engineer who replaced my boiler removed my underwear from my bedroom radiator whilst I left him in the house alone, left a boiler part in my bin without telling me so obviously bin didn't get emptied and I got a fine and had his radio plugged in all day (electric on meter, single mum) blasting music when next door have a small baby too. Some of these men are disrespectful and think they can do what they like without asking/telling you because of their 'work' they suddenly have free roam of your entire house. Haha I don't think so. Mine also tread mud and dirt everywhere and didn't clean up after himself. The boiler is in the bathroom and he didn't put insulation between the pipes and the wall so the wall is covered in scorch marks. Now my bathroom looks horrendous and I'm ashamed to have visitors. Can post pics, very much a cowboy job. I'm pretty sure it's leaking from somewhere too.

A PP is right, private landlords/estate agents probably hire the cheapest ones going because of the amount of jobs they have to contract them to

How did it go op?

How are things now OP?

Sounds a bit like some of the gas engineers that our local council employ. Most of them are really nice and considerate,but a few are total dicks. Like the one who needed to get to the pressure gauge (which is in a low cupboard). Never had any problems with them accessing it in the past,but this one managed to tip nearly an entire box of soap powder all over the floor. He also put my tea towel on the floor for some reason,switched the hot water and heating on and left it on when it was the middle of summer and nudging 28 degrees outside! Another one trampled mud all over the hall and kitchen floor,left a puddle of water behind the bathroom door from the radiator and (this one annoyed me the most) started looking through my hall cupboard. When I asked what he was looking for (to my mind there was nothing remotely associated with the heating system in there),he said he needed the toilet and was looking for a toilet roll! Cheeky bastard. I had deliberately left a nearly empty one in the toilet as I was sick of work/tradesmen using our loo like a public convenience,and thought this might discourage them. I now dread the annual gas maintenance check.

They see tenants as beneath them Janey and treat them accordingly.

How about buying a place, then you won't have to deal with landlords, their tradesmen etc and have more control. Landlords can be annoying, my landlord was a nightmare when I was renting his place. He used to open my mail , send round his workmen without notice , the lot. He pushed me so far, but I was stuck couldn't afford to leave and rent somewhere better. Fortunately I inherited a property, so I sold it . Then bought myself a place outright, don't think I would of got a mortgage as I only work now and then . It was the best thing I ever did , only moved a little bit out of London too, I got the power now, my respect back , my dignity back .

Op you shouldn't of paid the ctax , you're paying the previous tenants ctax !!!

Where abouts did you move to op ?

Because people renting don't have any dignity, obviously...

Tell us, wise pp, what people should do if they don't inherit a property and have the means to buy somewhere outright...

I have severe OCD too, to the point we don't have visitors at all. We have a broken telephone line, a broken gas fire, a boiler that hasnt worked in over 7 years, but all would require strangers to come in to my home, which just can't happen.
Regard to the shoes on thing, i know with electricians its required because the rubber soles prevent against electrocution, not sure why a gas engineer would HAVE to leave theirs on, unless it's to protect their feet from dropping anything on them, some of those tools are damn heavy and could break bones.

I am a landlord and I would absolutely horrified if my tenants were treated like this, the agents would be getting a stern telling off and I would request not to use that engineer again. The majority of the time (with agent managed properties) the agents organise the gas safety certificate - and it's actually more expensive to use a 'trusted engineer' that they have organised. Other posters are right when they say it doesn't matter who does the check.
You sound like excellent tenants. In my experience good landlords get awful tenants and good tenants end up with awful landlords.
Good luck with it all.

they absolutely do see tenants as beneath them. To their mind their contract is with the landlord and you just happen to be in the way. Also some of them are mucky by nature and not particularly bothered to be so. We had work done last year by two different guys and the one tidied up meticulously and the other was just generally messy. Same I guess as I'm a lot more messy in kitchen than my husband.

Also agree that it's a bit ridiculous to say "just buy somewhere" if you only own because you inherited a house originally!

I'm always suspicious of cheap professionals particularly in highly sought after occupations, you have to wonder WHY they're cheap - assuming of course that's why LL uses him.

The guff about it HAS to be him is just that total guff (cousin a gas engineer).

And there's NEVER any need to be rude and ignorant (literally in this case).

I'm agoraphobic with anxiety and struggle with tradesmen coming in my home too.

Yes I know there are legal requirements so I work with my LL as far as possible and try to deal with the fallout after they've left.

Nosun you are aware as a LL you are also required to adhere to the equality act and not discriminate against disabled tenants? Mh is classed as a disability in the equality act so you're required to make adjustments where possible.

YANBU.

I hope you never have to deal wuth him again. LL needs to find a decent engineer and she pays.

LL is totally unreasonable and does not deserve good tenants.

Thanks for the (mostly) supportive replies. Just to clarify I have a great relationship with the letting agent. She was in the property at the time to witness it (as mentioned earlier for those that missed it) and is very supportive and can't understand why the landlady is being so obtuse over the situation. It is the landlady, not the letting agent (despite it being fully managed) who is insisting on this idiot coming back into our home.
I haven't heard a dicky since our last conversation though the letting agent was supposed to get back to me the following day despite a follow up text so I'm very much in the dark still.
However, on Friday my husband took the day off work as we had a Sky engineer coming. As it happened, the same guy that originally installed it when we moved in turned up which was nice as he was familiar and really lovely. Guess what he was wearing on his boots?? (without it even having been mentioned) SHOE COVERS! And he needed access the main bedroom. Guess what he said? "Is it ok if I go to the room upstairs to work now?" "Which door is it please?" "Thank you very much" And explained what he was going to do before he did it. So for those (few) who said I was being unreasonable and deserved the gas man being rude to me for asking him politely to remove his shoes after he walked mud everywhere, clearly not all workmen or landlords (going by PP who are landlords themselves and who said they would have been horrified if workmen had treated their tenants like that) IANBU. NoSun I feel sorry for your tenants. You sound utterly up your own arse and completely undeserving of decent tenants. You're not my landlady are you?

For PP that asked I moved from London to somewhere on the south coast (won't identify where) to a much larger house than I could not have got a mortgage for when my family grew and significantly larger than I could have afforded in London.

Never said people who rent have no dignity, but if you want to put your own thoughts in your mind that's fine. There's nice places to rent and there are nice landlords. Was always only offered the rubbish places when I was renting, due to the state of repair of the places I was looked down on , not necessarily because I was renting.

NoSun I feel sorry for your tenants. You sound utterly up your own arse and completely undeserving of decent tenants. You're not my landlady are you?

Why the abuse? My tenants are very happy, as I said earlier, the plumber was there within the hour when she reported a problem. It was her fault but he didn't charge her or us. What a horrible man!

It isn't me who's up my own arse, pet. Read your own posts.

Our tenants are very happy and arrived on our doorstep with a bottle of brandy for Christmas last night.

I didn't make them take their shoes off when I invited them in.

P.s but it's nice that pp don't point out the illegal stuff LL was doing against me, but point out about me eventually buying a place and trash me for it .

Anyway this thread is for the op , hope things will eventually go well for you.

I do think it's weird to want to wear outdoor shoes around the house. The result of never taking shoes off indoors is you have to waste far more of your life hoovering, mopping and cleaning up dog shit, bits of disintegrating Autumn leaf, grey-black snow and mud off your carpets than you would if you took your shoes off when you came in. I would consider myself extremely rude to inflict that on someone letting me into their home unless they wandered round the house in dirty outdoor shoes themselves. You don't need to have OCD to think someone is a selfish twunt if they wander onto cream carpets in muddy outdoor boots.

We have a doormat that works very well.

Obviously very muddy shoes would be removed but Mine don' get muddy.

If you wouldn't ask the Queen to take her shoes off, don't ask anyone else.

Well the upside is that you now have an entry for the Guinness Book of Records, in the Appalling Rudeness category.

I wouldn't expect to have to ask anyone to remove their shoes - the very act of not noticing what other people have done with their shoes makes you rude. I would consider the Queen unbelievably rude to enter anyone's home in her shoes if she noticed nobody else was wearing theirs. And unless you also provide someone with a knife and mudscraper to get the mud out of their ridged-soled workmen's boots, a doormat is not going to hack it (especially one which several people have already just wiped their dog shit all over...).

Re the shoe issue it is rude to not remove shoes at the door of a house or ask. No one i know doesnt ask or remove. Sun you live in a different world to me but recent shoes on or off post on here shows that too. However work guys i let them leave shoes on but 99.9 percent of the time they have blue covers or ask. The parking on the driveway is normal. The rest no way i wouldnt allow him to return. He is rude. Ive rented across the south and london and now been lucky to buy in the last year. Ive like op mostly had good lls. The bad ones you remember and leave. The agents know who they are as their flats come up every year. I had one ea apologise about her ll who refused to come to sort out our indoor water feature in the lounge caused by leaves in the guttering. I think i popped into the ea with different photos daily until i gave notice. Why allow your property to get worse by not fixing something so simple. Never understood that ll, neither did the ea. op stick ro your guns here. He was rude. Its your home. Ll finds another polite gas man.