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AIBU?

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Original poster

Shitty email from rental agent

301 replies

Whyohsky · 06/08/2018 17:06

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 Hmm) 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!

OP posts:
Stirner · 07/08/2018 15:21

@RainySeptember - you don't get it do you ? Neighbour is using a third party to impinge on op. Wouldn't have that option in any other circumstances.

RainySeptember · 07/08/2018 15:22

"so why is it right that a letting agent gets involved with a dispute that isn't to do with the property?"

That question has been answered so many times already hasn't it?

Stirner · 07/08/2018 15:22

@RainySeptember. No it hasn't. It's been dodged.

Mookatron · 07/08/2018 15:37

I can see why this annoyed you.

I think I'd've said

'It's not my car. Please let the neighbour know they should feel free to contact me directly on trivial matters of this nature. It would save everyone time and unnecessary distress.'

The word 'kindly' in emails NEVER means kindly. It normally means 'do what I say as you are a recalcitrant child and I am the adult.'

Iknowwhoyouare123 · 07/08/2018 15:52

It must be exhausting to have such a toxic view of the world.

Stirner · 07/08/2018 15:58

@Iknowwhoyouare123 - less exhausting than letting yourself get trod on

DitheringBlidiot · 07/08/2018 15:59

It would wind me up. An old neighbour in a flat I used to live in with 4 friends complained to the agent about everything we did, including flushing the toilet after 10pm as it woke her up. She never once came round and talked to us, just ran off to the agent and then smiled smugly in the street. Being younger and more spiteful than her, we used to take it in turns to flush the toilet at all hours of day and night.

She obviously looked down on us and thought that she had more right to be in her home than we did.

GetAwayFromHer · 07/08/2018 16:02

Stirmer

This would be easily sorted if the OP just pointed out to everyone she's actually got her own LONDON house and is not a second class citizen 'like they believe'. (The property equivalent of: Don't you know who I am?)

KoolAidPickle · 07/08/2018 16:25

It would wind me up. An old neighbour in a flat I used to live in with 4 friends complained to the agent about everything we did, including flushing the toilet after 10pm as it woke her up. She never once came round and talked to us, just ran off to the agent and then smiled smugly in the street. Being younger and more spiteful than her, we used to take it in turns to flush the toilet at all hours of day and night

Did you ever consider that you FIVE people sharing a flat were loud and annoying and she didn't come to you directly because you were intimidating? I mean, you were clearly knobs who were trying to upset her, so she was right, wasn't she?

KoolAidPickle · 07/08/2018 16:26

3) why should she, as a renter, be treated like a second class citizen?

She isn't being, in any way.

DitheringBlidiot · 07/08/2018 16:29

Chill out Koolaid. Who would she have complained to if we owned it? I don’t know why I said flat ( thinking about my current move) it was a 5 bedroom house, so therefore room for 5 people. We were no louder than her 5 bed house. If she had had genuine issues about the overall noise then we would have listened of course, however her complaints were trivial, things like flushing th toilet too loud? It only has one setting. She didn’t like where our washing line was, the old neighbours hadn’t put it there and it blocked her view of the river. Can you see why those types of things would have been ignored and why she didn’t come to us directly? I’d have laughed her off the property if she’s said it directly.

KoolAidPickle · 07/08/2018 16:32

You chill out, your post was nasty. As are you, from the sound of it.

Nancy91 · 07/08/2018 16:34

Dithering, she complained about you flushing the toilet!? Some people don't get out much do they Grin

DitheringBlidiot · 07/08/2018 16:42

Yes it was too loud apparently Hmm

In the summer months I’d have a cup of tea out on the back step in my pjs/dressing gown and she would get a step ladder and pretend to be pruning something near the top of her fence. If I smiled or said hello then she’d jump off the ladder as if I couldn’t see her 😂

I would also hear her telling her son about all the things we’d done, like having a party one night when we were all staying at my mums house 100 miles away.

DitheringBlidiot · 07/08/2018 16:43

Koolaid, it’s quite clear what we did was not normal behaviour. But neither was hers that’s my point. How you’ve taken so much offence on her behalf is beyond me but on you go.

KoolAidPickle · 07/08/2018 17:08

Lived next door to too many git faced renters who think they can do as they please.
I'm also a renter, but unlike them I'm not inconsiderate and spiteful. It seems clear to me that you were more likely to be the issue than your poor neighbour, who had to put up with probably 5 other gits before you and another gitty 5 after you, and so on. Let's hope some of them were better than you to live next to.

Sunnymeg · 07/08/2018 17:19

It could be that there is something on the deeds stating that cars cannot be parked on the grassy area and the neighbours decided to bring this to the agents attention before it became a regular issue. It is a pity that they assumed that it was your car and parking causing a problem. However we have had a situation where renters in our road were causing issues and we went straight to the agent. We did have evidence that it was them doing it, so the situation was different. However we just thought, we are not putting up with this and complained direct to the agent rather than talk to the renters first.

RainySeptember · 07/08/2018 17:37

OP, It is a shame that the neighbour thought it was your car, that he didn't feel able to talk to you directly (though honestly I think he's had a lucky escape there) and that the letting agent believed him.

But nothing there, absolutely none of it, suggests that you are being walked over, being treated like a second class citizen, being trodden on, need to stand up for yourself, or are on a slippery slope to Gilead.

I'm with pp who said being this outraged by this trivia must be exhausting.

dwab45 · 07/08/2018 17:55

You’ve not broken any tenancy agreement. I should follow up your email with a personal visit to the agent and sort them out.

twattymctwatterson · 07/08/2018 18:13

Sounds like OP has always looked down on renters herself and now finds herself renting so expects everyone to be as snooty about renters as she was

AnyFucker · 07/08/2018 18:17

Yep, twatty

The projection is quite transparent

Stirner · 07/08/2018 18:36

I think @DitheringBlidiot was right in her response, it's refreshing to find someone with backbone on here

Twofingers · 07/08/2018 18:38

Contact your landlord yourself. Tell him/her that you don’t like the agent’s conduct and ask them to use a different agent or suggest you deal with them directly.
If you’re a good tenant you’re probably more valuable to them than the agent.

RainySeptember · 07/08/2018 18:59

Did you see the email upthread twofinger?

'Not liking the agents conduct' and suggesting they move seems pretty serious for such an innocuous thing.

We want a member of staff bollocked yes, for losing business?

Only that sounds a bit like what this shitty busybody neighbour did : complained to a third party rather than confronting the offender directly.

RainySeptember · 07/08/2018 19:02

"it's refreshing to find someone with backbone on here."

It's interesting how people see things differently. One person's backbone is another person's crazy easily-offended oversensitive whinyarse who must, surely, struggle to navigate daily life constantly feeling, as they must, slighted at every turn.