Landlord turning up unannounced

[Crazyhousewife]

So I moved house recently and my landlord seems to be coming round a lot. He comes round more then my own family. He is trying to get my family to do repairs had to do a few as he hasn’t done them and it costs me for the things that needed buying to do the repair. I pay quite a high rent for my area and I’ve noticed he seems to hang around more when rent is due. He was supposed to be coming by for something yesterday but then turns up randomly today. Am i in the wrong but I’m kind of getting sick of it. I just want privacy is that so wrong.I homeschool so the constant disruption really isn’t good for learning. I honestly dread him messaging or calling because I can’t deal with the constantly coming around. I’ve got enough to deal with financially so I don’t need him hovering over stressing me out more.

Its a shame its been allowed to get this far and I would leave and go stay with family however far away they are
www.thetenantsvoice.co.uk/advice_from_us/illegal-eviction-and-harassment/

Your rent isn’t late op. You moved in late and paid rent on days when you should not have done so as the property was not available. You need to discuss this all with shelter urgently and get them to help you change your move in and rent pay date in line with when your actually moved in. You cannot pay rent for days the property was unavailable and this needs rectifying asap.

The landlord cannot serve you notice if you’ve actually just moved in on a section 21. Your rental agreement will be at least 6 months long so he needs to wait until 2 months before it expires to serve notice legally on a section 21. If he serves you a section 8 eviction notice for non payment (or repeated late payment), he would have to take you to court if you refused to leave. This is a very lengthy process.

He would be nuts to try and get you out in a section 8 through court if the council is following policy because the rent is regularly paid a couple of weeks late. I don’t think he’s actually going to do this right now and is instead is preparing to harass you into paying on time or leave. I’m thinking he maybe has anger or mental health issues as this behaviour is not normal. This one of the reasons why it’s important to establish when you moved in.

And please, report him every time he threatens or harasses you. Keep a log of texts and any time he comes to the house, sits outside or knocks on the door to build a case against him. Take photos of him to prove he is there. Don’t let the police fob you off with this being a civil matter as if he won’t leave you alone, it is harassment. Hopefully if you provide enough evidence the can charge him for harassment.

It is fine to chase late rental payments in writing a couple of times a week btw. What he is doing is not ok at all.

I’ve emailed my local private housing team to provide advice as they are apparently good at reigning in landlords and the legalities of it all. They are trying to introduce a licensing fee in our area for private landlords like this. He then got his mother to call me off a mobile number and with me waiting on the electrician to call, I made the mistake of answering. I had to explain the situation to her and asked her to stop all of this contact. She then left a voicemail on my phone after calling back again in which it was background noise talking to my landlord. I need to leave the house today and if he enters the council can deal with it because I’m not sitting in the house and being controlled by his behaviour anymore. I will be leaving at the end of the tenancy and can understand why many have left before me. I’m going to see if my private landlord sector can change my move in date too.

Allowed the electrician in yesterday. The electrics failed and now I’ve had a further call from another of my landlords friends. I’m getting sick of the council fobbing me off and I just want out. Sounds like my landlords coming around again today. I’ve blocked his numbers to stop contact and it’s still coming from everyone

Change your phone number or block all unknown numbers. Have you tried calling Shelter. What do you mean the electrics failed, is it working now.

The electrician came out and tested the electrics as I don’t have a certificate and he failed them and said he would have to come out and do the work. Said the landlord had to do the work. He said it was a c1 which apparently is the highest fail you can get. He’s tampered with the electrics the electrician said and removed the rdc s and the circuit board was hanging off the wall. So now I’ve had the landlords friend ring me and continually harass me threatening to come round now to remove the tenancy agreement and gas certificate. I’ve called the police who have logged it again and it’s down as a harassment case and also he is to get in contact when he finishes. I have to ring 999 when the landlord and his friend comes to the door. Apparently he can’t take the tenancy agreement he stated the police have told him he can

There is no gas certificate and an un signed tenancy agreement so there is nothing to remove, is there nowhere else you can go, this is pure harassment and sounds unsafe for you and your children. I guess rhe police will come when you call them, have you changed the locks.

OP, your house is dangerous if the electrician has condemned the electrics. It is the LL's responsibility to house you if you have paid rent (I know that is a moot point as to whether or not you owe him due to the 9 days). A friend of mine died in a rented house where the LL had ignored electrical safety.

In these situations, I think you need to decide what you want as the outcome. Obviously you want this shark of a LL to back off and stop harassing you. But would you rather move on somewhere? Or would you rather be in this house with the repairs etc done correctly?

The police are notoriously useless at dealing with LL issues as they think they are civil matters. In some respects they are correct, but once the LL starts to harass you, that's criminal. Try to separate the 2 out for the benefit of the police and focus on the criminal activities in your dealings with them.

Shelter are always busy, sadly. Please please keep trying them. It may be a good idea to film or at least voice record your LL's attempts to bully you. You are allowed to film on your own property. He has no right to take away your contract so that's just bullshit. You could have shredded it for all he knows. As long as you adhere to the terms agreed, it doesn't really matter in this case. It would possibly be worth contacting your local councillor(s) to lean on the council. Try your MP's office - you literally have nothing to lose here. Good luck

Do you want to stay there, this aggro wont stop, the best you can hope for is he gets a restraining order and a massive fine but is it worth the hassle.

That's not ok : www.northwooduk.com/articles/landlord-access-rights-can-a-landlord-enter-without-permission-in-the-uk/

I'd consider moving if that's a possibility.

You need to contact your local councillors or MP. This is urgent and dangerous. I would not want to be in a house with tampered electrics and a failed RCD.

I’ve finally got through to the private housing department who are now waiting on the landlord to provide them with the electricians report. He has isolated the electric shower and something else. The smart meter has stopped working since. I’m hoping the council can at least sort that part out when they get the report but I did speak to housing solutions and discussed temporary accommodation. Hopefully coming out this month of the house as it really seems like it’s one thing after another and the landlord has knowingly put myself and my children in a dangerous situation to profit from. I’m really annoyed that it took me threatening to call the newspapers to get anywhere with them. The police have already advised the situation has turned from a civil matter to a criminal one. The council have told him not to contact me but no doubt he will come in the house when I’m gone. Private rental isn’t an option in my area at the moment but I’m more worried about how to get my bond back as it isn’t protected and it’s in my landlords bank.

He is absolutely not allowed to do that!!

Email him and say that he cannot show up with no notice and if he does, you shan't be answering the door. He has to give you AT LEAST 24h notice and even then you don't have to agree to it. The only time landlords are allowed to enter your home without notice or permission is in an emergency, ie flooding, gas leak etc. If you so pleased you could refuse him entry for the entirety of your stay and he couldn't do a single thing about it.

Secondly, invoice him for every penny you have spent on repairs and tell him that it is up to him to sort whatever is left as that is his responsibility, not yours. The only things he could expect you to sort out are things you have broken yourself or if you've painted the living room neon green and he doesn't allow it. He's a CF and breaking tenancy law

He will have a penalty for not protecting your deposit

Sort out the housing need first OP then once you have moved on, take him to court. You should get your deposit plus you can be awarded up to 3 times the deposit as well.

It is good news something is moving along. I hope this will be sorted for you asap.

The councils private housing dept can refer to environmental health who can deem property too dangerous to occupy, if they do this the LA homelessness dept should offer temporary accommodation. It may actually be a blessing and get you into social housing with more security of tenure.

I’ve had an email asking him for my parents details specifically my dad because he paid my deposit. It was actually my stepmom as she used her credit card so it would be covered if anything went wrong. I didn’t think it mattered whose bank account it came from. He is also stating he needs my id and everything for a right to rent but I filled in an application form before I moved in. I don’t want to hand over my families details and mine to be honest

Is the email from dodgy landlord, do not give him any details. Leave it to the council and police to sdeal with.

Don't reply. Ignore ignore ignore.

Send him one message saying that you are not going to ask family members to do the repairs. If he wishes to pay them to do any work that is up to him and he can contact them directly. If he pushes again suggest he makes an arrangement himself. Do not get involved. It sounds like he is friends with family members. If so they can tell where to go.

Yeah it seemed like he was possibly going to get my dads details to harass him. As all details for the bank are on his bank account when the payment was sent. I’m leaving it to the council as I don’t trust him to not harass my family and not use my details for something dodgy. Even the police think there’s something off about him

Does anyone know if I get an electrician out so I can have a report of the issues will I face penalty for it. I know when I rang an electrician for advice they said the issues needed to be rectified immediately but it’s been nearly a week and my landlord has no intention neither does my council. They have powers to help but they just knock the call off after one ring and the licensing team are an admin dept and don’t do anything. Environmental health just pass me to the licensing team. Still calling shelter and looking at options to stay elsewhere but trying to get legal advice so it doesn’t look like I’ve deserted my tenancy and abandoned the house. Trying citizensadvice but I’m being offered shelter for advice by them. Our area is hopeless.

@Crazyhousewife I’d recommend posting on landlordzone. It’s a separate forum to this one, but it has been very useful to me in the past. You are more likely to get specialised advice over there.

Thank you very much as my local authority are hopeless