To ask landlady not to ?

[PigeonAndPotato]

I've lived in the same house for 15 years and it used to be managed by an agency. In the last 4 years my landlady now manages this and other properties herself. She is an OK landlady and I don't want to cause unnecessary upset. I live here with my children and dog. A lot of cosmetic repairs / updates have been carried out to the house recently which is nice but is obviously reflected in the frequent rent increases.

Repairs are usually done in a decent time frame, and either herself or her partner have done most of the repairs themselves. The issue is that whenever there's a house inspection or repairs, the landlady arrives with her partner and their daughter who is about 6. I would like to preface this by saying that the landlady, her partner and child are all nice enough but the landlady doesn't seem to see an issue with this.

The daughter is scared of my dog, so I usually end up having to pay for a dog walker to take the dog out or for boarding for the dog if the repairs will take hours / days to do - I work from home so taking the dog out for the day myself isn't an option, and he cannot be locked away in a room because the landlady's daughter wanders around the house and opens doors. There was one ocassion when he was shut in the kitchen and she opened the door, realised he was there and ran to the other side of the house leaving all doors open because she was scared and my dog ended up in the street running in front of a car. He was fine but now I'm not comfortable having my dog in the house when the child is here.

One of my children has autism and gets very stressed by this child being in their space and using their things for example if there is work being done outside she will wander in and out of the house, she will empty toyboxes or play with scooters / bikes or anything else that has been left in the yard. There have been two occasions now where the landlady's daughter has broken items belonging to my children and the landlady has shrugged it off in a kids will be kids way.

Do I have any right to ask the landlady to not bring her child?

I'm allowed pets as per my tenancy agreement, and the landlord also agreed to it in writing before I got the dog. He is not destructive and very rarely left alone anyway!

We have not caused damage to the house, the landlady and her partner own several rentals and have been renovating them all presumably to justify rent increases or to to increase selling value in the future. But because they have been doing the work themselves, around their own actual jobs, it takes ages.

In the last 3 years we've had both the upstairs bathroom and downstairs toilet ripped out and retiled, new bathroom suite, new flooring and radiators. New kitchen worktops and kitchen retiled, new kitchen sink. All of the downstairs internal doors have been replaced, they were basic white ones and now are a wood colour. Wardrobes have been built into the master bedroom. New window panes upstairs.
The outside of the house has been rendered to cover up the old brickwork, and a new fence has been built. There was nothing wrong with the old stuff, they were just old. I am happy with the renovations, the house looks lovely and I am even happy for them to be taking ages to finish as I understand they are doing the work themselves. I really just needed to know if I'd be being unreasonable to ask them not to bring their daughter

As PPs have said, the LL and family should be fitting round you, not the other way round. They should take good care of your possessions (including Ddog) and not cause disruption to your family such as DS. It sounds as though much of this work was done at their instigation for reasons of improvement and possible future increase in rental or sale value whereas you were quite happy with the home as it stood. Quite apart from this issues of safety and convenience you are not paying to live in a building site!

I expect they’re doing all of this work to reduce their tax bill since the changes to mortgage interest relief. They need to be careful though as only necessary work is tax deductible. We are doing this too slowly but using contractors so the work is fast. But only necessary work, such as changing tired kitchen and bathrooms. Changing undamaged, serviceable doors for example, isn’t necessary. Stuff like fencing comes under general repairs and replaced when blown down or broken etc.

Are you ok with them doing all this work? You do have a choice. I had to really push one tenant to change a bathroom for example as he didn’t want the inconvenience but the bathroom was falling to pieces and it really needed doing. I put him and his ds up in a furnished apartment for 8 nights so he could wfh with no issues. Another set of tenants are dying for us to change the kitchen and bathroom, which is planned next month as I didn’t want it to be done in the winter when it was serviceable. They will live round it and will always have basic facilities like a sink and loo. They’re a family of 5 so finding it easier not to move out iyswim.

The 'repairs' you describe are way more than is reasonable, unless the original fittings were broken or in a poor state of repair,

You do not need to allow them to carry out these 'improvements' if they are not strictly necessary. Particularly if she then raises the rent!

You have a right to QUIET ENJOYMENT of your property. I suggest you talk to Shelter as the way your LL behaves is totally unprofessional.

YANBU however I think in the interests of not peeing your landlady off, given how difficult it would probably be to find a new let with a dog in the current market, I'd be inclined to smile sweetly and disappear out for the day with the dog.

This situation sounds more like you live in a borrowed space that the LL lets you use, as opposed to a private home. This is crazy. They are basically renovating the house while you continue to live there and pay rent, taking as long as they like because they're choosing to renovate (unnecessarily) around their nine-to-fives, bringing their child with them to play in the house as if it's an extension of their home? OP, are you a boiled frog? This is no way to live!

I think you need to tell her that it is not safe for your dog or her kid and she needs to either leave the kid at home or send someone else to do the repairs.

How often is she coming round!? It sounds like it's quite often.

Er no.
The child doesnt come over the threshold.

She has to give you notice of coming, so when she suggests a time that's not convenient say so, and offer alternative times that are?

she let herself in. She was shocked that I was upset about her entering the house when I wasn't there without permission and didn't seem to understand what was wrong.

Oh dear. She should look at the legal responsibilities and restrictions that apply to her in her role as a landlady, which may further shock her. Why is it that so many landlords and landladies think they can just rent out a property (which is a business activity) without paying attention to the relevant laws about what they must do and what they cannot do?

And when you arrange a time, say 'just so you know, the dog will be here"

An apt description. Additionally, in some countries the landlord has to temporarily decrease the rent due to the disturbance of building work / renovations. That means all the times you are disturbed due to their renovation work, you could possibly get a deduction. It's the case where I live. Perhaps the aforementioned Shelter or other government site has information on your location.

I think it's normal to shut pets away or make arrangements for them if work people are in the house. The child coming along and wandering around treating it like her own home is not ok and when they arrange a visit I think you should say for them to arrange child care and if they turn up with her ask them to come back another time. I don't think you need to get into details about why it's not ok, just be clear about what you expect.

This is outrageous! They own the house but they don't own your possessions and the child has absolutely no right to wander around freely and touch your stuff!

You have a right to say who comes into your home while you are paying to rent to property. Ok, the odd inspection by one person, at a time to suit you and reasonable repairs but that's it!

If they wanted to renovate the house they shouldn't have have rented if out. Renovations (rather than repairs) should only happen in an empty house. Gobsmacked st their cheek. I hope they won't then ramp up your rent.

The LL sounds unprofessional. Next time she contacts you to arrange an inspection/repair, agree but explain that she needs to come without her child because of the impact she has on your son and dog. I can't believe her parents let her just wander around. Both adults don't need to be there.

This. Why on earth is she treating this as a family outing? This sounds horribly intrusive.

Check your contract for terms of access and right to ‘quiet enjoyment’ and have a chat with her - “I understand you need to visit to inspect work but I’m afraid we won’t be able to accommodate your family on these visits”.

YADBU!

My dad was a LL. he would never do this. When the tenant was living there, he called ahead, made an appointment, and came in and did the repairs. He surely did not renovate whilst people were living there. He waited till they moved out, then did the renovations for the next tenant.

Sorry I missed where they are DIY-ing the renovations, not repairs. Totally unacceptable. They can’t have it both ways. Time to stop this.

How often is this person coming to yoir house? From your post it sounds almost on a daily basis. Just how many repairs and inspections are needed?.
You need to stop being a doormat and tell her straight that her visits are only to be strictly necessary ones and her daughter must not be present

Renovations that benefit you that you welcome are fine I think. You should be able to decline anything disruptive and unhelpful. How often does she inspect? Surely if they’ve had access for work they shouldn’t need to inspect for ages.

Nothing to add-you just need to be firm.

OP, I understand you don’t want to rock the boat with your LL. Knowing that the law is on your side, would you be comfortable saying or messaging something like this ….

Thank you for letting me know when you will be coming next week for your inspection visit. Just to let you know that I can’t accommodate your little daughter on this visit because of her tendency to wander round the house opening all doors and cupboards. As you know it is a risk to my dog and my child becomes extremely upset with another person inviting themselves into his personal space and using/breaking/rearranging his belongings.
Please would it be possible to do future visits during business hours as weekends and after school times are inconvenient for me. Thanks for your understanding on this matter.

"Of course you are welcome to visit on x date.

m an I ask that you don't bring Emma with you please? The dog can no longer be boarded out and stevens autism means that he simply cannot tolerate other children in his home at all.

thank you for your understanding.

tennant."