CF landlady or AIBU?

[Highheels1]

Hi all,

I am prepared that I may be being unreasonable here due to various history between the landlady and myself. (It was agreed that I was buying the house from them privately, they recently changed their mind without telling me and now are not selling but I have lost over £3000 & chance to buy my "home" as a result of this late withdrawal)

So I have lived here c.2yrs & my property is fully managed by letting agents. I have two inspections per year as stated in my contract, with the letting agents. My landlady lives close by.

My landlady is now pestering me to have access into the house so she can "look around". I am really not happy with this. This is not as a result of any repairs required, nor is it in place of the official "inspections" that the agent will be doing. It is literally to just "have a look inside".

My landlady is very nosey and has form for knowing every single detail of what I'm doing in the house, watching my movements and recalling better than myself what I have been up to so I already feel "inspected" enough by her.

Whilst I am always friendly and cordial, the house sale debacle has obv left a really bad taste in the mouth (aka livid) but I haven't been angry, made a fuss or said anything about it as there is no point.

I really feel like ringing the agents and saying that I'm not comfortable with her just coming in. I really do not want her to come in right now. I just don't. (Childish? Perhaps)

As far as I can see legally, her wanting to "have a nose around" doesn't fall under her 24hr notice access rights as a landlord, I'll still have the inspections etc and whilst I will probably just let her in I want to know if I am being unreasonable (judgement marred) in how strongly I am feeling about this.

Aibu?

YANBU

Does she know how badly the cancelled sale has affected you? If she does know, i think she's being hugely unreasonable. Perhaps though she doesn't fully realise. It sounds like she might want to nosy round with a view to selling it for more money....
YANBU not to want her round but I don't know whether it would be productive in the long run to refuse..
I agree that you should try and stick to going through the agent as obviously the trust has now gone and there is a lot of bad feeling.

Must admit my first thought was she wants to look about in order to sell publicly. Equally I don't see what stopping her will achieve in the long term but I'd take it as a sign to start getting yourself in order in case she puts it on the market.

I wouldn't let her , keep things formal

Refuse through the managing agents. Are you looking for somewhere else to live?

Does she know the sale withdrawal has cost you £3k?

Either way yanbu to not want her just coming in for a look around.

Another one asking if she is aware that her change of mind cost yo that much.

If not tell the agents that she can NOT come in for a nosy around. But if she wishes to compensate you for the money she cost you, or to sell you the house after all, you might reconsider!

What does it say in your contract?

What does it say in your contract? It won't matter. Contracts do not override the law!

Thanks for the replies- it’s a relief not to get a lot of replies saying IABU!

oldsockeater
She doesn’t know how the house sale has affected me, well I HAVE told her but the response was a sort of “oh well never mind” which has made me even angrier tbf! Raging in fact!!

They have already had several agents round to value it recently and we agreed a sale based on their valuations. They pulled out of selling to me and were going to put on market in spring, but now they are not selling at all.

What has really annoyed me is the house has no damp course and gets very damp in the winter.

I had planned to get this sorted before this winter after buying but now I’m stuck renting it with no remedy for the damp!

My landlords know about the damp, but they don’t care. I get a slightly reduced rent as a result.

I don’t want to move I love it here, but feel very stressed/angry with the landlords at the mo!

Ugh, I know what I would want to do. I would want to stop paying rent for a few months, and then make a moonlight flit, to claw back the £3k they screwed you over with.

I realise you shouldn't do that, but surely you can find a nicer home to rent in the vicinity than the damp house of this nosy, house-sale-withdrawing bint?

write a letter refusing access. england - no 24 hour rights.

legals? epc ok?

why stay in a damp dump?

I would say no, via the agency. She can't just come in to look around - you have inspections for that. If there's no valid reason for the visit, just say no.

I would look for another place though - she sounds far too involved for a landlord. It sounds like she might be looking to sell outside your agreement to me too.

YANBU to feel badly treated. You have been. But I don't think it's unreasonable for the LL to want to look around every so often to see for themselves the state of their investment.
Her timing isn't great and her motives might not be 100% honourable but I think the request itself is reasonable.

If I were you I'd look for somewhere else to buy/rent.

She has no right to access unless it is agreed by you or an emergency. if I were you I'd changed the locks (cheap and easy to do yourself). Keep the old ones and put them back when you move out.

She is up to something, you are DNBU, tell her no though the agents. She sounds like the type who would turn up on your door anyway, put the chain on the door when you in. I take it she has keys?

Ignoramusgiganticus, it is completely unreasonable for the landlord to do this. That's what inspections are for. She's delegated these to the lettings agency so no, she can't just pop in. The OP has a right to quiet enjoyment of the property.

i agree - refuse in writing to the agent, and get the locks changed- change them back when you leave.

But I don't think it's unreasonable for the LL to want to look around every so often to see for themselves the state of their investment. She can want. But she has no right to do so if her tenant says no. Especially if there have already been interim inspections carried out.

Highheels I too would suggest you start thinking about the legalities:

1. Did you receive the Prescribed Infomration when you moved in
2. Was your deposit protected correctly. If you have signed a new term agreement was it re-protected
3. Have you got a in date gas safety cert, has that always been the case

etc etc etc.

From my work experience the fussier the LL the more likely they are to had slipped by some of the legalities, as they consider themselves to be the final arbiter.

I'm a landlord, you don't have to agree to any access that isn't in your tenancy agreement. It sounds like that's any access other than your inspections with your letting agent. For example, the people we bought our house from rented it out before we bought it and they were refused access after our viewing because the tenants didn't want their lives disrupted after they realised what it all entailed. We had to wait 2 months before our survey could take place when they'd moved out.

Also, there is a little known law around landlord harrassment of tenants. A landlord is guilty of an offence if "he does acts likely to interfere with the peace or comfort of the residential occupier or members of his household". It sounds like this is what's happening to you. If you really want to prevent her having access, tell the letting agents this is what you feel is happening and they'll likely tell your landlord to back off. Citizen's advice or shelter are probably your best course of action after that.

no way would I let her in and if it's managed by an agent I'd have no correspondence with her at any point.

I am a long term renter. Been in this house for three years and it's managed by agents. Last year, the owner asked the same thing ...could he come to visit and look around.

We said yes immediately because it's natural that the owner wants to check it out now and then.

I think you're taking it personally because you were so let down.

I'd let her myself. People are funny about houses...our landlord was so happy to look around and see the garden again.

He's old...and his wife is ill and they have memories here. He took photos to show her when he got home because it looked so nice and the last tenants neglected it. I just think of myself as a sort of caretaker...as a renter I mean.

it's hard because you do sometimes fall in love with a house...but at the end of the day it's like being a foster carer. You care for the place and love it but sometimes you have to hand it back.

Remove your personal feelings.

One of my colleagues had this problem with her landlord, except that he would turn up and let himself in unexpectedly on days when a visit had been agreed, eg he visited by agreement at 2pm and then came back again at 4pm unannounced. All the tenants in the same block had this problem with him and they all decided to move, which my colleague thought was his intention. I would guess they want to sell the property without a sitting tenant and are trying to force you out.

I would go out of my way to make life difficult for her after what she's put you through

Ignoramusgiganticus I hope you aren't a landlord, you'd be on the wrong side of the law!