Are tenants always thought of as second class to home owners?

[stillvicarinatutu]

I rent . It's a brand new build , and it's expensive for me as I live alone . I do still have a mortgage with ex dh, but we intend to sort that out soon .

There have been a few snagging issues in this house which I have always sorted out with the site office but let my landlady know .

One of them is the state of the turf that was laid . The contractor was sacked - there were many complaints. It looks like nothing was levelled and it was thrown down in January last year - it got waterlogged, it's not joined together, it's dead in places and it's completely uneven, to the point getting a lawn mower over it is difficult.

I along with many others complained about the turf . Today a radiator fell off the wall- the bracket actually fell out . Went to site office and plumber turned up with site manager.

Site manager tried to blame my dog ....well he is t much of a plumber so I do t think it was him - plus he was with me while I was working when I heard the crash .

Anyway while I had site manager I asked re the turf . Apparently y complaint was rejected on the basis i have a dog .

I'd raised this issue before I even moved in. !
Said the dog can't make the turf completely uneven etc . Then the jumped up little sod came out with "well it's not even your house is it - you rent "

I got slightly arsey at this and said that's not the point !
So I said fine - I'll just take it up with landlady and she can complain.

Now he's left I'm completely pissed off I didn't say something more . I probably pay more rent than if I'd bought it ! It's my home . Why should I have less right as a tenant to level grass ?!
Cheeky sod.
Is this how people actually think ?

Basic common sense would dictate yes, they will care more about those who actually own the home than those who rent.

No, I’ve known buyers of new builds have similar problems and there are countless stories of homeowners being left with shoddy and incomplete work by tradesman.

I think their responsibility is to the owner of the house rather than the tenant in this situation. I would go ahead & report every issue to your LL from now on & ask her to deal with the site office.

PS - can your dog pop round & have a look at my radiator? 😪😴

He was only shitty with you because he thinks you're making work for him but it doesn't matter who owns the house - the work was still shoddy and needs correcting.

They are just using any excuse to fob you off, if you were a homeowner there would be a different reason. Hope you get your problems sorted.

Personally, I wouldn’t think less of you. I’ve rented and had to deal with tradespeople being arses.

He didn’t want to have to deal with it so thought of the best excuse he could. House builders are the worst.

How the hell is it a dog’s fault if a radiator falls off the wall?

Our big dog has lived in 3 of our houses without any detrimental effects on the heating system. DM, DSis & BIL haven’t had their dogs affect their radiators either.

he just sounds a bit if a twit tbh. He’s probably fed up of being moaned at by angry home owners so thought he’d try to shut you up by trying to put you down. He’s an arse -ignore him. That really isn’t how most people think. I know the people renting over the road from us are paying double what our mortgage costs, we certainly couldn’t afford to rent these days!

@stillvicarinatutu
Friends bought a newbuild first owners of the house.
Leaks AND turf so poorly laid over Rubble.
absolute shambles.
Don’t be fobbed off.

Dogs cause scorched lawns, dug lawns, but not shrunken lawns and humpy and bumpy ones.

On a wider level, you do often see on here when people are complaining about neighbours or some such ‘I own and they rent’ as if renting confers a lower ‘status’.

Not trying to make excuses for the twat but he probably meant ‘ why are you so bothered when you don’t own it ‘ . Also if you owned the house and had a dog you’d be getting the same excuse .Lots of people are idiots and best ignored .

It doesn’t confer lower status

but if you have problems with neighbours who rent it’s a lot easier to then let people know as then advise can be relevant.

The home builder in this cases liability and contract is with the homeowner, not the OP. That’s why they’ll care less when dealing with them as complaints from the OP won’t hold much if any water compared to the homeowner themselves

I fix things way faster for my tenants than I do for myself! They are paying for a service and come second to nobody.

You should contact the LL with all the issues you find. If there were delays or complaints or compensation it would be to the own r who would have to demonstrate the complaints made and when.

Wider yes I think there is a stigma because owning or buying is seen as more stable. I don’t think it’s the same in countries that have more tenants protection.

I've co texted my LL who is lovely and she's gonna come look for herself.

The manager tried to insinuate that the dog had someone out his weight on the radiator. You have to actually lift the bloody thing up to get it off - the bracket fell out - can't see how the dog did that especially while he was laid at my feet upstairs while I was working!

The turf is awful. Laid over rubble - completely uneven .

Now my dog isn't a digger, he pees up the fence cos he a boy , and he's a fat lazy 9 year old ! It's not his fault the turf is uneven !

Anyway LL very quick to act is coming tomorrow to view shite lawn . She can tackle them !

When my marriage was ending, I was conned into moving out of the house we owned jointly - and I moved to the neighbourig village and rented privately, in the days when it was much "easier". Quiet cul-de-sac, with - BIG mustake - the llandlord living next door (that's another story....) I actually thought I would fit in OK (hah!), as in those days, I was fairly outgoing, and had moved to the village because my horse was in the main farm there. Everyone knew me and the horse from riding around the area, and I already had many friends there.

A few weeks in, and I was invited to a casual party across the road (the neighbours who were deparetaly trying to keep up with their neighbours next door, as I later figured out). I can't remember what I said or did to elicit the remark, but the woman of the house, said very loudly and to an audience, "Ooh, Barry, you do rent your hosue to some strange people!" Insulting in several ways, and after a while I did realise that they thought - without knowing the full facts - that I was a lesser human.

And yes, I do think it is worse these days. As if everything else about renting isn't bad enough!

The builder's legal contract is with the home owner. So that's who they are worried about.

Your contract is with your landlord.

I have always told my LL of any issues but since I live across the road from site office I volunteered to deal with any issues and cut out the middle man .

Forgetting I am the middle man .

But I'm there - if I hadn't gone and told them the radiator fell off it would still be leaking all over my carpet now .

As it happens they've come and out it back on the wall and now it's not working 🤷🏻‍♀️

In general, yes. Home owners do look down on tenants. I think it is wrong how this country is absolutely obsessed with home ownership.

Do you mean in general? No-one really needs to know whether or not someone owns/rents, unless it is obvious, as it was in my case.
I am from the age where home ownership was possible and relatively easy, so renting was unusual - back then. But I would not have known if someone was. Or cared, or looked down on them.
My mother worked for the National Trust, and her lovely cottage came with the job. When she retired, she would have been required to pay rent at markket rates, so had to move away from the place she had loved for over 25 years.

The worst of it, is the insecurity. And some landlords thinking that the tenant should be grateful/obseqious/shut the F up.

I'm really lucky that this is a long term let and my LL is lovely .

My plan is when I retire to buy a camper van and travel or buy a log cabin somewhere.

I have equity in my house - but to sell would render my ex husband homeless so I've resisted that option .

It just shocked me when the jumped up manager who looks about 12 said that to me .

But yeah LL can take it up .

It just shocked me when the jumped up manager who looks about 12 said that to me .

There’s no need for nasty comments about how someone looks or whether you think they’re too young for the job.

You don’t own - it’s not your property. Their responsibility is not to you. It is to the homeowner, so report your issues to your landlady and leave it at that.

I do own actually. Just not this house .

His comments were rude . Like I'm not entitled to a level turfed fit for purpose garden because I rent .

Well he can have a big fuck off pill .

None of that is relevant nor is it a reason to be nasty about someone because you don’t like the way they look.

It’s not your property, his responsibility is to the homeowner. Not you.

I would say yes. I moved in with my partner, we chose to rent together, had lots of nice ‘new home’ cards which was lovely.
the following year we bought a house together, suddenly we had lots of offers for house related gifts and questions of was there anything we needed as they knew things were expensive.

it actually really irritated me, as yes buying a house is expensive but so is renting a house in its own way plus we’d had to buy all of the pans and plates etc when we first moved in together whereas a year later we didn’t have that cost.

obviously I just smiled and said thank you but just a card is fine but it really showed me that people saw a different level of worth between renting and buying.

it also made me feel that should have no been able to afford to buy a house then our relationship would always been seen as less than.

If the LL isn’t bothered about the turf being uneven and you accepted it like that then I can’t see why you are complaining.

Your contract is with your LL. speak to them.