Am I a horrible person to be kind of happy about this?

[hatesomethinchangesomethin]

We got evicted in March.

Our LL was the worst we've ever had. She told us she wanted more money which is fine it's her house.. but she didn't fix a single thing in the time we were there. Apart from when the back door seized up and wouldn't open so she sent a locksmith round and asked if they could possibly leave the lock out because it cost less to fix. So she wanted to leave us without a locking door. The locksmith said no thank god. She also didn't provide any smoke alarms or carbon monoxide alarms when we moved in despite having a working wood burning stove and solid fuel aga so I had to provide those. When we moved out I took the carbon monoxide alarms with us because they cost a fair amount and I bought them! She actually had the audacity to try and charge us for taking them away with us because ' it's unsafe' well no shit Sherlock that's why I bought them!! She also just randomly turned up and let herself in as and when she wanted until we changed the locks and had a go at us for not giving her a key, but after she let the dog out to play in the traffic we couldn't risk it.

Anyway! It's still on Rightmove to let, it's just been decreased from 1200 to 850 which is what we paid. It's not really worth 850 but it's her house. Then when I walk past and see the garden all overgrown and weedy it just makes me laugh, it's a small village and she doesn't live here.

The tenants that were there before us were in the pub the other day talking to someone who mentioned that they had viewed it and they just destroyed the LL, admittedly they had a worse time of it than we did but it was quite funny listening. It's been on the market for 5 months because she put it on there before we moved out. Very luckily we managed to buy a house in the village in that time.

@Tootletum yes!! I love it when people actually take their landlords to court and get 3x the deposit back! It should be protected properly! Idiots!

YANBU. One of my neighbours is a scummy landlord, always moaning on at me about how tenants have all the rights and landlords just get ripped off. What she doesn't know is that I have been in the house she rents as I knew a family who stayed in it and it was in a terrible state. A front door that didn't open properly, heating and electric on the blink, flooring missing in parts of the house, plaster hanging of walls and ceilings, gaps in old, rotten window frames that kept every room freezing and guaranteed the occupants would get sick - nothing madam who dream of putting up with herself but its good enough for tenants. She also thinks she can waltz in whenever she feels like it. She has a horrible reputation, she considers anyone who rents to be practically sub human, and of the last two tenants, one was from another area so didn't know what she was like and my friend only rented it as it was the only family home available on public transport to her children's school and they had to take it after their home was flooded. It has been sitting empty now for a year as no one local will rent from her and she can't sell it. It serves her right, she has behaved so badly to her tenants over the years.

I'm assuming that your rental didn't go through a managing agent then?
Because the house I rent out in the UK does, and they make sure that everything is done properly, including all safety certificates etc.
I mostly pay for house repairs, the tenants pay for their own items - sometimes we go halves on stuff.
My tenants are excellent and look after the house very well - I wouldn't dream of trying to put their rent up massively or failing to address their problems with the house, in case they moved out!

@hatesomethinchangesomethin yeah and given I'm now a landlord myself, I know it takes 30 seconds to do and couldn't be simpler. I wouldn't dream of withholding any deposit unless they'd literally nicked all the furniture, never had any issues. Rogue landlords are a menace.

@ThumbWitchesAbroad it did actually but the land lord worked for them so did it herself..

I’m with you OP.

My most recent one before I bought was an absolute scum bag. House has been sat empty since March. Serves him right for being such a disgusting piece of shit.

[quote hatesomethinchangesomethin]@ThumbWitchesAbroad it did actually but the land lord worked for them so did it herself.. [/quote]
That's an unbelievable conflict of interest and clearly open to abuse. Can you tell the agent? It's hardly a great advert for the business.

not at all i say karma myself

[quote hatesomethinchangesomethin]@ThumbWitchesAbroad it did actually but the land lord worked for them so did it herself.. [/quote]
OMG - she works for an agency??? She should be sacked from her job!

There are greedy landlords out there.

For those of you renting, it’s worth calling their bluff when an unreasonable rent rise is asked for.

Tell them you can’t afford it, but you recognise that theirs is a business and you will have to move on.

Some may decide that a paying tenant is better than an empty house and the hope of higher rent.

Karma is great in these situations. I had a landlord who kicked us out because we fell out over something silly. The house was on the market for a year and he had to take a huge drop in price to sell it as he hadn’t maintained it all. Meanwhile I bought a lovely house. Whenever I drive past my old road I have a look and laugh.

Similar happened to a friend of mine.

He happily rented a small flat, in a nice area, for a number of years. No intention of moving, paid his rent on time, looked after the place, all was great.
Then the LL randomly decided to REALLY hike the rent. Friend argued it, but LL wouldn't back down, claiming it was the market average, and ANYONE would pay the asked rent. So friend moved out, into a new place, only a week or so before lockdown...

The flat is still empty now... We calculated that the LL has lost well over £3000 that he could have easily had. Solely because he's a greedy bastard. Well, karma got him.

There's a difference between misfortune and a come-uppance, and this is it.

@MsTSwift

Even funnier the potential sale came to nothing ha

Serves him right!

I wonder why you wouldn’t report those things to your local Council housing team? Genuine question. They could have improved conditions for you and also made the landlord brining it up standard for any other tenants.

@2020StepAwayFromTheCake because I didn't want to get evicted. Yes it was shit but it was a base. We moved 5 times in 4 years because of various reasons and I just didn't want to do it again

Misfortune, whatever, it's still horrible to delight in it.

She sounds awful but yabu to delight in another's misfortune

Its not misfortune though is it? It's a direct consequence of her shitty behaviour.

@betteliefsen what misfortune?

@2020StepAwayFromTheCake because I didn't want to get evicted. Yes it was shit but it was a base. We moved 5 times in 4 years because of various reasons and I just didn't want to do it again

Nothing to stop you reporting it now or even giving the management agency a bad review based on the fact that one of their properties wasn't properly/leagally maintained.

Maybe you could get everyone in the village to moan to the agency about the garden.

@ThumbWitchesAbroad

I'm assuming that your rental didn't go through a managing agent then? Because the house I rent out in the UK does, and they make sure that everything is done properly, including all safety certificates etc. I mostly pay for house repairs, the tenants pay for their own items - sometimes we go halves on stuff. My tenants are excellent and look after the house very well - I wouldn't dream of trying to put their rent up massively or failing to address their problems with the house, in case they moved out!

Do they? I've rented through 3 agenies and they were all rubbish. They all favoured the landlord and made us beg for work to be carried out. They'd fob us off with excuses or claim that they'd asked the landlord when they hadn't. We've always been good tenants. Looked after the houses we've rented and always communicated well. We own our house now but if we were to rent again we wouldn't touch an agency.

She actually sounds demented.

There are some really shitty land lords

We was evicted last year after living there for 5 years. The land lady said she wanted her house back

Fair enough. A pain in the arse but fine

No. She letted it out to a multiple house let. It was a 3 bed house and she crammed them in like sardines and charged a kings ransom.

This was after not paying to fix the damp proof, the leaky tap, the bath board, the faulty boiler, the damaged back door and other things

We told the council she was illegally letting to multiple people.

She was getting no end of complaints from neighbours too as they were playing loud music all night.

Serves her right

Well, everything your LL did was illegal. She can't put the rent up without consulting you and then she is only allowed to put it up by a fixed percentage per year (can't remember what it is right now). She is not allowed to rent the property without having proper smoke and carbon monoxide alarms fitted. She is not allowed to enter the premises without giving 24 hours notice but she may only do that to inspect the property (usually only every 6 months otherwise it is harrassment) or allow tradespeople in to redecorate and carry out repairs. Anything else is tresspass. This behaviour broke the contract (even a verbal one) as she broke the law under the Housing Acts. She would then find it nearly impossible to get you out as the contract that determines how long you can stay was rendered null and void by her actions - or lack of them. If she took a deposit and did not place it in a secure savings account that she could not touch, only to close it to give you the money plus the interest it had accrued, you can sue her for (I think) three or four times its value. Sometimes a LL will want to keep some of the money to pay for 'repairs'; but it cannot be used for re-decoration that was required after 'fair wear and tear'. In any case, if they say that repairs are needed they have to demonstrate that it was you who caused the damage. This is an extremely difficult as they have to produce direct evidence that you caused it. Just living there does not count as they have to allow for 'fair wear and tear' as well. Sometimes LLs get you to sign an inventory, don't sign anything unless it has a detailed description of the condition of the items when you move in. You both have to agree to everything on there. If you refuse to sign because you don't agree its accurate it has to go to the Rent Officer for arbitration. Anything not on that inventory doesn't count and they can't claim anything for it. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!

My DH and I have a rental property. I couldn’t live with myself if we allowed anything like that to happen. One, because we want our property kept in decent condition but two, because we want it to be a good home for someone. We get nowhere near market rent for our property and are fine with that. Your former landlord sounds like everything I would hate to be.