Shitty email from rental agent

[Whyohsky]

AIBU to be annoyed by this? Have rented our current house for a couple of months now and today I got an email from the agent saying they’d had a complaint from some neighbours about our car being parked on the ‘green’ (crappy grassy area in front of a few of the houses). Firstly, it wasn’t our car! And secondly, how dare they start accusing us of something on the word of an unnamed neighbour? Our landlord hasn’t been in touch, so it’s clearly not an issue they’re aware of (or at all ) but how dare a neighbour go tittle tattling to the people we rent our house through, whether we’d done anything or not?

WWYD? So far I wrote back a one line email saying it wasn’t our car (which is always in the drive) but I’m appalled they’ve taken the word of a local busybody and essentially told me off for something I haven’t done. Even if I had done it, it’s not illegal! For context, it’s a very naice area, lots of retired people round a close and just a couple of families. It’s expensive (£2K/month) and I get the feeling the neighbours look down on us for renting (one came and asked if I was the new tenant when we moved in, very snooty). We’re just a boring family, 2.4 DC, both at work during the day and DC at school/holiday club. It’s really upset me!

malicious accusations. 😂 I’d say you fit right in in your neighbourhood. Over dramatic. Accusatory.

God this would infuriate me, I’m angry just thinking about it. I’d reply saying:

It’s not my car. I’m sure you realise my tenancy agreement doesn’t specify anything about my behaviour on public roads and trust if this were to happen again you would explain that to the complainant.

Actually I’d probably just phone and bollock them

Welcome to renting. It is shit. The world assumes you are scum and have myriad antisocial and criminal habits that 'normal' people don't have.

But I don't think the email was rude, rather a bit blunt. I would have softened it myself by asking if this was your car.

But this is generally what agents do. Pass shit on and do bugger all to be useful or foster good relations with anyone. They just don't care.

I would check up on how you agents treat your tenants. Possibly just as badly.

Oh ffs. Calm down.

But this is generally what agents do. Pass shit on and do bugger all to be useful or foster good relations with anyone. They just don't care

That would be my assumption, too

How strange!! This happened to me and I posted about it the other day!!

Parking... I have a diagram! http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/amiibeingunreasonable/3325989-parking-i-have-a-diagram

Just in case there's any good advice on mine!!

Language - do we have the same agent? I will read your thread!

Glint - that’s what I feel like saying! Honestly, it’s a joke. Treated as the lowest of the low because we don’t own the house we happen to be living in at the moment. Like a PP said, I might start mentioning my London home to the neighbours in passing (which is worth at least twice what this house is, if not more, incidentally). I’ve read threads on here before about how tenants are picked on but never seen it myself until we moved here. So much for the nice area. Nice area, nasty people!

I would have phoned up. Made the point that I hoped they checked things if it was anything serious.

@whyohsky I understand where you are coming from. Our previous rental agency were frankly massive twats. They were total cowboys, would be so slack about getting in touch for repairs we'd logged etc but they would write us snooty emails like we were trouble making scumbags. Really pissed us off and we seriously begrudged paying those weasels their 'admin' fee when the tenancy renewal came up. Luckily our landlord was an angel.

how is an email treating you like the lowest of the low? are you reading the same email that you posted?

We have had reports from a neighbour that your car had been parked on the green outside number X They have kindly asked that you not park on the green in the future.

where is the snark????

You sound difficult OP. My gut says it might not have been your car but I bet it was a visitor of yours or someone connected to you. Am I close? Do you know who the car belonged to?

Who cares? The car isn’t anything to do with the estate agent. The bloody wimpy neighbour can knock on the door and ask themselves if it bothers them

That is a perfectly polite email.
You have not been subject to a “malicious accusation” it’s just that they didn’t recognise that car and assumed that it was yours as you are new.

Honestly, you do sound terribly hard work. This wouldn’t even register with me.

You are imagining everyone on the street looking down on you. When we moved to our house we had a really snooty letter from our neighbor about parking “outside her house” (public highways) which is on a bend so she meant the whole 4-5 car space front and side. (Not including her own double garage at the back) Because and I quote “I had a party and SOME of my visitors had to park elsewhere”. She even complained on a local neighbourhood Facebook group. We were intitially mortified thinking all the neighbors were gossiping. It turns out this woman had form and we started hearing tales of various infractions our neighbors have had letters and complaints from her over. Some people are just like this. Move on and pay it no further attention.

Op sounds difficult. Maybe neighbour simply thought a complaint to the agency would be less confrontational than knocking on OP's door.

It's a ridiculous overreaction to a trivial thing. I can only assume op has lived a charmed life in which no one has ever challenged or accused her of anything.

Tripping - no, nothing to do with me. I don’t see how I’m being difficult sticking up for myself! I’m not going to let an amateur letting agent bully me with their ‘reports’. Are we living in Gilead?! The way I read the email was as Glint and Lady seem to have interpreted it. The insinuation is there that I/we have done something wrong. Why not say that IF this were the case, please refrain from doing it again. Why assume we’re ‘guilty’? I’m beginning to see why tenants hate renting so much. Even when you stick up for yourself over something that is nothing to do with you, and are rightly irked by being told off for something you haven’t done, apparently you’re awkward... hard work...

Have rented and owned, both more than once, and have never noticed a difference with how people treated me.

Are you subconsciously looking for offence? Worth considering.

If you react so badly to a perfectly polite email, how are you going to manage when something serious (break-in, flood) happens to your home?

Me neither Bluegrey!

I completely understand where you're coming from OP. I used to rent a flat and was there for several years. I always felt that the people who owned their homes looked down on me even though I was a model tenant. I kept the flat beautifully clean, always paid my rent on time and was a good neighbour. However one time we had a problem with someone fly tipping in our street. I was emailed by my letting agent telling me off, saying a neighbour had complained and I was to remove the rubbish immediately!! I was so angry that it was just assumed that I was guilty because some random neighbour had complained. Try to rise above it!

"Why assume we’re ‘guilty’?"

Probably because the reporting neighbour was so confident it was your car.

"Why not say that IF this were the case, please refrain from doing it again."

I think you're probably not going to rest from this injustice until you've spoken to the agent and asked that very question.

" I don’t see how I’m being difficult sticking up for myself!"

'Sticking up for myself' suggests someone is harming you in some way. They're not. A neighbour accused you of something. The letting agent believed them. You told the agent they were wrong. Job done. No 'sticking up for yourself' required really.

The email might be fine, but it should not exist in the first place.

This is one of the reasons I hate renting. if the OP owned, the neighbour would have come round and spoke to her. Or not, if they did not dare, which is more likely.

When you rent there is someone to "tattle" to without having to actually do any confrontation yourself.

Our neighbours apparently "keep an eye on us" for the landlord. As if I am not an actual grown adult in a professional job and need to be watched like a child. I dislike them greatly.

And the award for best overreaction of the year goes to.....