Landlord wants us to live in a show home

[Rosybud88]

We moved into a property in April this year, it’s a nice house and we pay rent fully and promptly.

I have a 9 month old and I’m 5 months pregnant. It’s a 3 story house and I’m struggling with the stairs. When we rented the house I didn’t know I was pregnant. My husband also works away internationally a lot.

The property has a downstairs room which is full of boxes and unpacked items. The bedroom on the middle floor has clothes and a suitcase on the bed as I’m travelling next week. The kitchen sides have an air fryer, steriliser, your standard bits and bobs. The washing machine cupboard door decided to fall off the top hinge one day, no damage to the door and it’s just in a downstairs cupboard waiting to be rehung.

Estate agents have just done a 3 month visit, all was fine and nothing was mentioned. I have just received an email today basically saying the landlord will be worried if she sees the pictures as she’s particular about the home. The agents basically want us to resort the house, they come back in a few weeks and retake the photos so to not make the landlord consider not renewing the tenancy next year.

To me, it just feels utterly ridiculous. I’m not new to renting and there is zero damage to the property. The estate agent is trying to make out that the floors on the ground floor are very expensive and we are to take great care with them - I’m no floor expert but they don’t look it. They are saying I need to sort limescale in the bathroom etc and it’s just a bit OTT. I need to clear off all the kitchen sides. We need to trim a bush in the garden etc There is nothing wrong with any of the rooms it all feels like nitpicking.

Is it reasonable for our landlord to expect us to live in a show home and if not, then they not renew our tenancy?

Oh I feel for you on this one OP, I had this too. Landlord came with the estate agent for 6 month check. Looked absolutely everywhere and told me it wasn't up to his wife's standards, and I'm lucky she wasn't with him viewing the house or she would have been mad. He just went around every room making snide digs after I had spent days cleaning, making sure it was in perfect condition, but apparently this wasn't good enough. He told me the hedge out the back garden wasn't cut to his standards, and he used to cut the hedge every weekend, so I should too. I have a son with severe autism with me full time, and don't have the time to sort myself out, let alone the hedge weekly. It was the most awful experience ever.

I've been in my house for 4 years and still have an inspection every 4-6 months. I often feel like I've just recovered from tidying for it when the next email arrives (solo parent with ADHD). It also feels like a regular reminder that it's not my home and I shouldn't get too comfortable 😞

EA can be brutally arrogant. My mums EA insisted on doing an inspection when she was bed-bound in the living room and dying of cancer. She actually died 3 days later. The EA who came round was more concerned about a leaky window (in a single glazed original Edwardian property) and then telling me all about how her husband has just left her.
You can refuse the 3 monthly inspections. It's not allowing you quiet enjoyment of your home and it not a legal requirement. EA just don't bank on tenants knowing their rights. I'd be prepared for them to serve a S21 as soon as your fixed time ends. Sounds like they're already planning it anyway.

I think it's the estate agent's job to explain that mess is ok especially for a mum alone with a baby who is pregnant.

However if they are sure that the landlord will want to evict messy people then you have been warned

Just want to add - ive rented 4 different properties in different parts of the country over the past 10 years. 3 of those were estate agent managed. And none of those EVER took photos for an inspection. Very odd!!

I would also be inclined to think they're planning on putting it back on the market and planning on ending your tenancy.

Why have the estate agents visited in the first place?

Coming to check the property after three months is pretty odd IMO.

Just say no - you find it intrusive and it’s unnecessary to inspect the property so frequently.

I'm a landlord and couldn't care less how tenants live in the property, messy, tidy, whatever. I just want the property handed back to me in good order. You can't dictate how people live, as long as it's not upsetting neighbours, etc.

They are unreasonable when you are have small children

Things like these make me so grateful for owning my little 4 walls, even if the mortgage is on a gaviscon level.

This is gleeful and stinks of schadenfreude. We don’t live in Victorian times where pregnant women can be chucked onto the streets for a home not meeting someone else’s ridiculous standards.

Oh great for you. What a useful post. Do you think most people rent because they love it? Or, you know, maybe they do because they have to.

I spent 20 years renting. I paid more rent a month than a mortgage but couldn't buy as I had no deposit.... because of the bloody rent!

What a ridiculously unhelpful post

We rented for about 4 years outside the UK where tenant rights are frankly abysmal.
We had quarterly inspections and we used to tidy for them. I just wanted the agent/LL to realise we were considerate tenants I suppose. The monthly payments of the frankly eye watering rent should have made that clear but no that wasn't enough.
One inspection I totally forgot about as I had a load going on (parents visiting from the UK, work stuff) and our bedroom and ensuite was a tip. Clothes on the floor, toothpaste splashes on the bathroom mirror, an overflowing bin, unmade beds and my parents still asleep in the spare room after a long haul flight.
The agent took photos of everything and two days later the LL went apeshit about us renting out another room and wrecking the place.
I explained and he was baffled. The agents (same people had done every inspection prior, 4 times a year for three years) had jumped on the opportunity and suggested he kick us out and get in new tenants because they could now get 25% more rent and they wanted their cut.
He loved us as we were quiet, considerate, solved minor problems ourselves, looked after his precious garden and paid the rent on time consistently.

As he was reasonable he sacked the agents rather than us and we never got another inspection again.

Erm... no? She has the right to quiet enjoyment and as long as the home is habitable, and no damage is being caused, the landlord and agent can piss off with changes. She's 5-months pregnant with a 9-month-old, they should give her a break.

Well actually, you do.

No fault eviction is legal.

‘You’re messy’ isn’t a no fault eviction.

You seem really unpleasant doing the crying with laughter emoji at the idea of someone being evicted with a baby and toddler.

There’s quite a big line between untidy and neglected. I’m guessing if after 3 months of tenancy the lime scale has built up on the bath to the extent it’s visible in photos; the floors are dirty and the garden overgrown , plus a cupboard door fallen off , as a landlord I’d be pretty concerned what a whole year was going to bring. Having been on both sides as a LL and as a tenant , a bit of clutter on worktops is nothing - but certainly before a landlord visit I always made an effort to show I was respecting the property by trying to make it look cared for. Apologies of I’m wrong , but with your comments re “ the floor isn’t that expensive” etc it does sound like you aren’t very respectful/ mindful of someone else’s house? You certainly have a right to quiet enjoyment, put paying rent doesn’t give you the right to allow damage/ dirt etc to build up until it is a huge issue to deal with; regardless of how busy you are.

It was absolutely foul. Really distasteful post and horribly smug. It wouldn’t have mattered if it had been ‘the landlords really out of order but I’d just clear up for a quiet life’ but the post oozed barely concealed spite.

I am a landlord and I have come across this kind of not-pickery. Some people don’t want to really rent their property so you may find this LL behaviour likely to continue and a frank chat regarding your safe use of the space may not make a difference. Some landlords just like a bit of drama to maintain contact with their home. And not all tenants are disrespectful.

Oh my lord, you have children, a life, you're busy as it is, why must u live in a show home?! Its utterly preposterous, also if one wants a show home, then let them do the leg work, normal wear and tear, any kind of quiet enjoyment of a place you pay rent on is your space to do with what you choose, with various caveats, but no one has the right to tell you how to live

I would email back and say - certainly, when I’m no longer running around after small children with my husband working away. I’ll let you know when those changes occur and you can pop round.

The comments are extremely unreasonable she is entitled to the quiet enjoyment of her home. The landlord can not dictate how she lives as long as she is not physically damaging the property. Of course there is the risk this landlord will not renew the tenancy but actually would you want to live there if you could not relax in your own home . It is landlords like this that are responsible for the proposed changes and the threatened abolition of the no fault notice regime

I understand but pregnant and with a young baby plus a husband who works away, would you want to be faced with your landlord not extending your tenancy? I wouldn’t