So me and my partner live above a pub in a flat. Our front door is inside the pub with access outside via a fire door. we have been having so many issues and our landlords are making us feel really unsafe:
- One landlord has entered the property multiple times without prior notice. We sent a letter to the outlining the issues we have, including this, and this was ignored as he walked into the flat via our fire-door in our hallway and told my partner “Oh I didn’t think anyone was in.” We sent them an email reminding them that they cannot enter the property without 24h notice, and told them we have been to the council and the police as suggested by Citizens Advice. We then received an email back accusing us of being threatening and aggressive (we weren’t)
- Our deposit isn’t in a scheme. We told them in the letter we send a few months ago that it’s a legal requirement to hold our deposit in a scheme, to which they responded with “it’s just a hassle putting it in the scheme”
- Our council tax letter states the pubs name, not our flat. We went to the council who said they would sort this, but we still receive council tax letters with the pubs address. We had the issue when renewing our electric that our address didn’t exist - it is just the pub. Are they illegally renting it out?
- We have had some extreme water damage on our living room wall from the guttering outside, which created mould. They have plastered over this (after months of asking them, and they sorted it without 24h notice…) and there is still mould on other walls. My partner has a respiratory disease and the mould is so damaging.
- There is a locked door into our flat from the upstairs of the pub. They have now told us that a key must be left upstairs in the pub into our hallway incase of a fire. There is already a fire door upstairs in the pub. We told them we do not feel like that is safe as we have people trying that door anyway, and if random people are upstairs with our key, what’s to stop them using it - people are curious. They told us to lock our living room door and bedroom door. We have a child living here, they expect us to lock her in her room (which is next to the living room, seperate to our bedroom down the hallway). What if there’s an emergency? Nothing on our tenancy agreement (which is generic and is misprinted so you can’t read some of it anyway) says that the pub requires access to our hallway.
- We both work full time but due to just finishing university, we are both in our overdrafts still and have no savings, it’s just gonna take some time. We have applied to join the council house list but they ask for a landlord reference. I do not want to ask them for one because they have made us feel unsafe, and I imagine they’ll be negative.
AIBU to be complaining about these things? They make me feel like I’m in the wrong for bringing these issues up. We have nowhere else to go, there’s no properties to rent around here that are under £1000p/m, we are restricted to this town due to work.