AIBU to wonder how often other tenants see their landlord?

[Specksofwhiteallaround]

I am absolutely sick of the sight of mine but Dh insists it’s the same for all people who rent and I’m curious if he’s right as it’s not my experience of renting. So as not to drip feed we do have cats, but they knew this and agreed to rent to us. The cats have caused damage to the bottom of the stair carpet and a radiator but I have absolutely no problem paying to rectify this when/if we leave.

My annoyance is that in the three years since we’ve lived here we’ve had almost 3 monthly house inspections. Every time she comes she finds fault with something and I just don’t think any of it is that big a deal. Some examples are that a tree in the garden wasn’t pruned to her satisfaction so we had to buy a lot of expensive equipment to make that better, we don’t get to the weeds quickly enough, she wants us to have a window cleaner come every week and insisted I buy a rug to put under our computer chair which makes it unusable...
She has another house around the corner and checks how often and how long my bathroom window is open and it’s never enough.

The last straw for me is that we informed her about a plumping issue at the last inspection in mid December which has been steadily getting worse while she organised a plumber. Yesterday she turned up unannounced at the door to lecture me about what the problem was (she was wrong, it emerged yesterday that the problem has been caused by a pretty major leak in one of the outside pipes not us.) and let me know a plumber would be there the next morning. While at the door she also took me to task for not cleaning the gas cupboard in the porch. Not five minutes later she’s back with a man from the water board in tow and wants access to the house, apparently the fact it was 11am and I hadn’t washed up dishes from that morning didn’t escape her notice and today she’s messaged informing me of a house inspection this Wednesday. Oh and will I go out and inform the people from the water board that she wants them to come and fit new taps in the kitchen they’re outside fixing the leak...

I have terrible social anxiety anyway but lately It’s getting so bad I don’t feel I can leave the house some days and I’m just so anxious about everything all the time and it’s draining, I feel like I’m constantly waiting for her to turn up at the door or text or ring about more cleaning issues. I’ve not had this level of landlord interference before in my life, it’s like she expects us to keep this a show home and it’s just not feasible.
Sorry this is so long, I guess I needed a good rant I really hope my dh is wrong and this isn’t the norm because I wouldn’t wish this stress on anyone.

In my last house I had 3 monthly inspections from the letting agent but they only picked up on job that needed doing, not things I had done.

My current house is owned by my very good friend and he comes for cuppas but never to inspect, I think he's hoping I decorate and knows I'll leave it as good if not better than when I moved in

We own now, but in the past it was very varied. One place we lived in we never even met the LL, he lived about 100 miles away. We had one sort-of inspection in that time as he was swapping mortgage providers and had to get the place valued. Another place was literally next door to the LL and we saw them very regularly. Literally monthly. Other places every 3 months was pretty standard.

Pets - quarterly inspection is acceptable particularly as you've already noted they've caused damage that you haven't fixed. As a LL this would worry me! Otherwise a six monthly inspection or for long term annual. Anyone not having a minimum of an annual inspection I would actually be concerned at the possibility of being hit with costs at end of tenancy that you might not be expecting. Decor and carpeting would be expected to be replaced 3-5 yearly too. You need to check what your tenancy agreement says.

We see ours regularly but this is because she stops to say "Hello" when she walks the dogs, she never calls by to check up on us. Yours is breaking the rules.

I am a landlord and my property is managed by estate agents. Both my mortgage and insurance state there needs to be regular inspections as a condition of obtaining mortgage and insurance. The estate agents inspect quarterly to ensure any maintenance issues are dealt with not because I ask them to do so.

What does your tenancy agreement say? How often you wash up is NONE of your landlords business. Neither is how often you wash the windows, weed the garden or prune the tree.

She has to give 24 hours notice for her visits - she can't just drop in whenever she likes.

Look up 'quiet enjoyment' of a tenancy.

Not sure how to tag people sorry but in response to TARSCOUT, the problem with the stair carpet is that it’s not something I can just fix, it will need to be replaced and the cats aren’t going to suddenly stop doing it, so should I be replacing the whole stair carpet every few months for my entire tenancy? If I had that kind of money I dare say I’d own my home by now and not be renting. I have absolutely no problem paying extra to fix it but they agreed that us paying separately to replace anything the cats have damaged at the end of tenancy was appropriate so to me that was an end to it.

I rented a room in a houseshare for 6 months. Knew the landlord personally, he never inspected the room though he did have to go in to do maintenance work one time. He was in the common areas quite a bit but that was for maintenance work.

DM rents from a housing association so the landlord isn't one person. They don't do any inspections, they just arrange a tradesperson to come and check the boiler once a year, and to come out if we raise any other repair issues with them. They've also arranged new windows, kitchen, and central heating during her time. They've raised concerns about the garden being a jungle, but never had any issue with inside being messy.

I never see mine..
In fact i have the opposit problem in that she refuses to talk to me instead prefering to refer me to an agency.

When I rented, I saw my landlord only when I'd asked him to come round to fix something! I had a great landlord though.

I think what makes it really annoying is that everything she demands costs us money, time and effort and we don’t get the same consideration back. We had to buy all new tools to prune the tree which is fair enough but we also have to spend a lot of time and effort maintaining a group of small trees and holly that border a communal path but happens to be in front of the house which she made absolutely no mention of being our responsibility until a few months after we’d moved in, our next door neighbour later told us it was actually her responsibility but I don’t feel I can bring it up. We had a bag of weeds in our back garden over summer as we don’t own a car so were waiting on a lift from my dad to the tip and she insisted we pay for a council green bin which we duly did.
Twice I’ve mentioned that the towel rail is hanging off the wall and has been since the day we moved in and she shrugged her shoulders and said well the wall can’t really support it. It’s still hanging off. The paint is peeling all over the place and the laminate flooring is loose but nothing will be done about it.

You can report her for harassment

Before our LL gave a maintenance contract to an agent (it is a trust ownership but we always communicated with the daughter) we saw them once in 7 years - since the maintenance has been with the agent they do a visit once every 3 months to check smoke alarms (and have a discreet nosey) and ask if there are any issues

Yearly visit from landlord. Sometimes twice. And a visit from estate agents every 3 months.
Theres water damage on a couple of kitchen cupboard doors. So he wants us to pay for new ones even though its about 20 years old and his wife was screaming down the phone at the estate agent about it. We have had different companies out for measurements sent by him but it's a discontinued style but this is our fault too apparently. He hasn't fixed any issues we have raised though...
I'm sure he will ask us to leave soon as he just can't cope with renting out and having people in his house. He told the estate agents he wants it to look a show home all the time
.. but it's ouf furniture. Not his. He also doesn't like the fact we have kids even though we had them when we moved in.
He rented to us because he wanted a family to use it. If he makes us leave we will be screwed as it's rare to find something to rent in this area and I don't want to move the children from school!

And yes she did want me to go out and disturb the water board people who were digging up the neighbours garden to tell them she expected them to replace the kitchen taps. Even without having social anxiety I think this would have been a tall order...
Thank god someone came to the door later than day when dh was home from work to deal with it

@Universalcreditwoes he sounds remarkably like our landlady, she wants us to pay to make the house a show home and seems to think she’s doing us a favour by letting us pay to live in her home.
They put down cheap laminate and the boards aren’t at all secure and move apart when you walk on it, have done since the day we moved in but apparently that’s our fault and we need to get it fixed
I’m also dreading the day she finally decides to give us notice as my sons attends an amazing special school and it would be a nightmare to move areas

She's massively overstepping and is one of the landlords that gives LL's a bad name

I have two flats in the same block, my tenant joked yesterday that she's seen me more this past two weeks that I've been painting and freshening the other flat (so we've passed on the stairs and bumped into each other on te landing) than she has in the last 6 years she's been in the flat.

My landlord only comes round if I let him know something needs repairing/fixing. I'm in a small block of flats with a private car park and he texts occasionally to ask if he can use my car space if he's in the area ! He knows I don't drive so it's never a problem unless I have visitors.

I'm a Landlord. I'm in a licensing area. My licence says I have to do three monthly inspections and produce a report for each which I must submit to the Council on demand. It's a pain in the bloody neck.

Very rarely. She's ace though I'd happily see her more often . We don't have inspections, she always drops a card and bottle of wine round at Christmas and she'll pop round once a year to sort the new contract out. She might pop in for a cuppa if she's nearby because she loves our dog! If anything needs fixing we just call and she sorts it ASAP.

We are aware of how incredibly lucky we are!

This is my landlady’s too OP. We really dislike each other.

No advice just holding your hand

I've never met my tenants. The last ones were there 5 years and the current nearly a year.

Once a week.
(But she's my Mum so she visits for a cup of tea not an inspection😊)

My landlord has been round once, which was last week. I’ve lived here just over 4 years and he was only here to do some work outside, he didn’t even ask to come in, I invited him! He’s absolutely awesome, I ring him when something needs doing and someone comes and does it the next day. Because he trusts me and is so fabulous it goes both ways and I take care of his house with the upmost respect. It’s so important to have a good relationship with your landlord. My last one was a horror.

OP I had cats when I moved here too, I lived in 4 different rentals with them all together (bad luck, 2 landlords decided to sell while I was there). I was worried sick too, but more landlords than you think will accept cats if you ask. Mostly on Rightmove there tends to be an arbitrary no pets rule, especially with agencies, but if you actually ask many will be ok with it. I would seriously consider moving. Can you borrow deposit money until you get yours back? Honestly, she won’t change and complaining could make her dig her heels in more. Some people really aren’t cut out to be landlords, they need to understand their property is someone’s home! Good landlords get that.

I understand your anxiety. I feel like I'm walking on egg shells! We have been here 5 years as wellm so it's not like he doesn't know how we arem that's the only issue he can find but is very fixated on it