To think it’s inappropriate of the landlord to drive past and complain about the state of the drive?

[Raisinsandginger]

We have moved out of our rental property, and so aren’t living there at the moment. We still have until November left on the tenancy.

The landlord has complained today as he drove past and the drive needed weeding, and the letting agent rang us up to complain about this. DH is normally very mild mannered but he was visibly irritated by this.

So as not to drip feed, the house is on its own - the drive isn’t shared - and there aren’t actually any other houses around it who might be impacted by weeds on the drive. We have been back to cut the lawn and to weed, but obviously this isn’t daily as we aren’t living there.

We have a property we let out and I wouldn’t dream of doing this to the tenant. AIBU to be really quite pissed off about this? The other problem is they now want to inspect the rest of the house, which is in a bit of disarray due to the fact we’re half in and half out, so next week we’ll have to schedule a day to get in and sort that.

He is probably trying to find an excuse to with-hold your deposit. Our private let LL did this about a decade ago when we rented privately for a bit... They said we had left the lawn unmowed (it was November and didn't need it!) and had left rubbish in the back garden. (Lies, it was rubbish from the tenant before, we had only been there 18 months.)

The LL with-held £450 of our £625 deposit, as they claimed they had to pay people to sort what we had left... I was fuming but couldn't be arsed to fight it as I was already stressed from moving home and a couple of close family members being very ill. So we lost £450.

I did laugh though, when, a year later, the tenant who went in after us legged it and left 2 months rent arrears. The LL lost £1300 in rent. (The LL kept their £650 deposit, but was still £650 down.) Karma.

Is he aware you have moved out? The property being empty for more than 30 days will likely invalidate his insurance. If anything happens he might have a claim against you.

But you could have still tried to speak to him about an early surrender.

I don’t know why you’re being so combative toward people replying.

You should still know how it all works. You are legally responsible for the deposit so how do you know of your agent, as many of them are crap, is doing what they are supposed to do if you don’t even know what that is?

Lots of landlords are a pain in the arse. However, one who is worried about his property looking empty isn’t necessarily just being a pain. Most tenancies have clauses about how long properties are allowed to be left empty.

Also if you’re not a new tenant then you didn’t have to sign for six months, you could have gone into a rolling contract.

If you are a new tenant who appears to have moved out after just a couple of months then it’s not surprising he’s concerned given the horror stories about houses being used for dodgy things (cannabis farms, deposit scams etc)

If you've bought your own place so don't need a reference you can very politely tell him to get stuffed. What's he going to do, evict you?

Re your deposit, it should be in a scheme and he will need to make his case to the scheme if he wants to keep any of it. If his case is that 2 months ago there were weeds and the house was untidy, but you've handed it back in the condition you got it in, he's got no chance.

It's concerning that you're letting out your own place and don't know this stuff. If your letting agent does something dodgy - and you should expect that they will try it on somehow - you as the landlord are legally liable, as they are acting on your behalf. You could end up having to pay your tenants 3x their deposit if your agent doesn't protect it correctly, for example.

Echoing what others have said about you moving out.

Check your rental agreement for how long you can leave it empty for. if you're not going back before tenancy ends in November then LL would be rightly worried. Damage from leaks, fires, break-ins etc, all a real possibility.

I am a LL and would also be checking on my property in these circumstances.

Make sure you leave the heating on in the autumn and winter to avoid burst pipes.

My driveway has some weeds and I am living here!

LL and agent can piss off

I don’t think I’m being combative, but if you would like to draw my attention to the posts you feel are rude or aggressive then I’ll certainly apologise.

Regardless of the rights or wrongs about us moving out, we have only been in our new property for two and a half weeks. There’s no intent of being combative but I do think it’s reasonable to point out that there’s not much we can do about it. We had to sign for six months, the agent certainly won’t entertain ending the tenancy early, so what people really seem to be saying is that we should be emptying the property and handing the keys back - and continue to pay for it, and for weeds to continue to grow!