Anyone else’s Landlord do this? AIBU to be irritated?

[Specksofwhiteallaround]

For context we’ve been renting this house from our Landlady for just over ten years now and she’s hands down the most intrusive landlord I’ve ever had. Can be very free with her opinions on how we live and has form for dropping in unannounced as she’s passing by, if she does let us know she’s coming it’s with as little notice as possible.
So fairly or not I find her very irritating generally but what’s really annoying me is the last couple of years she's developed a habit of scheduling in visits to the house every single time my son is off school. My son has autism and attends a special school, he really doesn’t like having strangers in our home which she is aware of. As my husband frequently travels for work at short notice I don’t work so she could come anytime during term time but she repeatedly turns up during the holidays, usually with one days notice and disrupts our plans. I just don’t understand why she herself wouldn’t rather come when my sons at school, everything is tidied away etc.
The last straw is her texting me at 6:30am on bank holiday Monday to say she wanted to call in at some point that afternoon to drop in some paperwork to us. She wasn’t too happy at being told we weren’t available that short notice but agreed to reschedule so now she’s coming today at some point between late morning and early afternoon so we’re wasting a day just hanging around waiting for her and I spent the hottest day of the year deep cleaning downstairs to circumvent comments on my not having hoovered over the bank holiday weekend and how my son really doesn’t need that many toys out…
Is anyone else’s landlord like this? Am I unreasonable to find this annoying and wish she’d try to schedule this in outside of the holidays?

She’s behaving in a really weird manner. She hasn’t got any of the rights that you’re giving her but enforcing those rights is going to be a lot of time and hassle. If I were you I would start looking for another place.
There is a document we’re supposed to give tenants by the end of May about the new rights, but that can be emailed. I am a landlord.

I hope they carried out a full inspection before you moved in!

LL can't increase the rent more than once every 12 months and not by more than the rate of inflation. The LL has to give you 2 months notice, they must use a section 13

https://www.gov.uk/assured-tenancy-agreements-a-guide-for-landlords/rent-increases

if your rent was increased 6 months ago - then LL can't increase rent for another 6 months

If your LL turns up with these form in hand - she is on a sticky wicket and can be told so. tell her you'll take it to first tier tribunal https://www.gov.uk/housing-tribunals/apply-to-the-tribunal as she has already raised your rent within the 12 months

Well- they might know if they are away and the neighbour reports a funny smell coming from the place, and they need to enter, or the managing agent needs to enter. Which has actually happened to us before. But i am willing to bet (considering our tenancy agreements are standard issue) that it's in the poster's tenancy agreement. I'm not sure she wants to start being in breach of anything right now.

She doesn't like you or your family, and probably has a range of ill-informed opinions which she has decided are worthwhile because she owns more than one house.

She does like your money though.

It always amazes me when 'small time' landlords ask 'would you prefer to rent from a faceless, anonymous corporation , where you're just a number?'. Yes, I would actually, because this so-called personal service seems to come all too often with an unhealthy dollop of interfering busybody.

I’m a landlord and I would never do this. She has no legal authority to behave in this way. You need to stand your ground and stop this happening

To the people asking it was indeed to new renters rights information she was dropping in, I’m unsure if me signing for it was for her own benefit or something everyone needs to do but that was why she was insisting on it in person.

Regarding her coming here so often it’s always for things that make it hard to say no to. There was a long standing issue with an old style bathroom light burning out and needing special expensive light bulbs, after a year of us complaining about it she came in November to look at it and see what she wanted to do about it, then she came back with the electricians to show them what she wanted, then again on the morning they were doing the work to confirm, then again the day after to check it, and again a week later when they had to come back and redo part of it because she’d told them the wrong thing… and a final time after they’d redone it so for one job I had her in this house five times. Even the electricians said when she’d left is she always like this. What with that job, painting the bathroom and then the stairs it feels like she’s always here but at the same time it’s hard to say no as ever request in isolation feels reasonable at the time.

Sorry, I made a mistake above and can't seem to edit the post. She is within the deadline of 31 May to give you a copy of the Renters Rights Act, and if this is what she is giving you today, take the opportunity to go through it with her, so that there is no misunderstanding on either side, and point up especially whatever is in the Act concerning inspections and legally allowed visits to your tenanted property.

We’ve already written off the deposit, we suspect she’ll be difficult and I just don’t want the hassle of fighting her. I wouldn’t even know where to start over who’s responsible for the laminate issues or the peeling paint and other stuff.

Has she protected your deposit? She can only withhold it under very specific circumstances and if she hasn't protected it she can be fined.

Don't write it off.

She needs to justify witholding it. And if these things were not repaired and you asked then she cannot justify it. I've just gone through a very unpleasant adjudication process myself with a tenant who deliberately and spitefully caused (provable) damage and even we did not get to keep the full deposit.

This is ridiculous. I understand you have tolerated it because of fear of a no fault eviction (section 21), but the renter’s rights act has ended that now so you have no reason to accommodate her intrusive and unlawful behaviour.

Have you ever read up about your legal rights under the housing act 1998 or renter’s rights act 2026?

Let me summarise the relevant ones now:

• she has no legal right to enter the property without your permission except in the following 4 emergencies: fire, flood, gas leak, severe structural damage.
• the 24-hours must be given but it is still a REQUEST to enter, you can (and should now) refuse it. That includes for inspections or repairs.
• she has no legal right whatsoever to comment on how you keep the property.
• if she tries to claim any of the wear and tear is your fault and deduct from your deposit, you must go through the deposit protection service and they will throw out her unauthorised claim and award you all your money
• speaking of which, are you certain she has protected your deposit? Let me know if you’re not sure and I’ll explain how to check. If she hasn’t it’s a huge win for you as you can claim back up to 3x the amount from her.
• you must give 2 months’ notice to leave (doesn’t matter what it says in your contact, the new law supersedes that). I suggest you give that once you’re sure the house you’re buying is secure.

My advice is to quote the relevant pieces of law regarding access to YOUR HOME to her in an email and say you are no longer accepting any visits. No matter what threats she makes, it doesn’t matter.

I can help you draft the email if helpful.

@Specksofwhiteallaround Was your deposit under the Tenancy Deposit Scheme? Did you just hand it over in cash, or what? The law as of 1 May this year is crystal clear concerning who is responsible for "other stuff" - you are protected, you have the law on your side concerning "other stuff" and every other kind of "stuff": the landlord is now liable for criminal charges if she continues to mess you about in the way she has done.

Sounds as if she's got you exactly where she wants you - too cowed to raise even the slightest issue concerning her rightful duties as a landlord, and that all these incessant intrusions are, in fact, manipulations and general harassment to keep it that way.

Yeah she was very not happy with these new regulations. She asked us for a meeting to discuss the new legislation, again in the evening knowing my son would be home and be a distraction, then skimmed over that then she started talking about how much money it was going to cost her, next thing we know she’s telling us our rent was going to increase next month but she’d be keeping it below market rate as we’re such good tenants and she and her DH believe in helping out young people. DH was furious she'd lied and said it was just talk about the new rules then increased our rent with no notice. Suddenly became obvious she’d increased the rent as much as she legally could before she could only do it once a year.

Email her (so you have a record) and ask her to make sure she gives 24 hours notice and a specific time/date in future.

I'm a landlady. It really isn't that hard to do.

And it is absolutely fine for you to give a date / time which is convenient for you.

I would (and am) be fine with all of those conditions. They are actually backed by law.

As for the rent increase, if it's below market rent, there isn't much you can do about it. Unfortunately, the new legislation around renting is going to adversely affect tenants the most.

She should be given you 24 hours notice minimum.

Don’t write off your deposit - it’s actually really difficult for landlords to make a claim on your deposit.

I’m not in the uk but friends of ours rented out their uk flat for years through an agent. They had long term tenants and clearly the agents were shite as when the tenants moved out there was a lot of damage. The tenants had pets without permission and they clearly didn’t look after them very well as the carpets were pet urine soaked and lots of damage to walls and skirtings from the pets. It was put down to fair wear and tear. The real biggy though was the tenants removed the second bathroom and made it into an office!! Yes, they removed the bathroom suite and turned the room into an office. Our friends applied to claim their deposit and basically got a tiny amount, nowhere near enough to sort the issues. Obviously with long term tenants you would expect to replace carpets and decorate, but the filth and damage to this flat - it really shocked me that they were awarded so little and the tenants got most of their deposit back.

Edited to add the deposit was held with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme so all done through official channels. Honestly think your landlord wouldn’t be entitled to a bean as you haven’t caused any damage, it’s just general wear and tear.

It’s May 27…

Don’t do that. It should be in a scheme so she can’t just nick it. You very simply submit evidence of the house after you leave (time stamped photos) and any cleaning services paid for etc and they rule in your favour. Don’t be a wet wipe.

Most of that stuff is considered wear and tear after a few years so she cannot claim it from you.

She definitely treats us though she’s doing us a favour by letting us live here rather than us paying for the right to live here. Always making comments on our age even though we were thirty one and thirty two when we first moved in nd have been living together and renting since I was twenty one. Always making comments about my appearance in weird ways, I have social anxiety and when it came up in conversation it was like she didn’t believe it, kept saying No, beautiful blonde specksofwhite can’t possibly have social anxiety!', just very weird as I’m not particularly attractive and I’m fairly sure hair colour isn’t related to mental health issues 😂
I just find her extremely contrary. She regularly compliments how clean the house is but in the same breath makes comments on how much stuff we own and repeatedly suggests we’re hoarders. She knew we had cats and was happy to rent to us but she really can’t stand my cat and has made a couple of very poor taste jokes about getting them out down. Could barely contain her relief when one did actually pass away of an illness which I thought was pretty horrible.

This. ^^
i was a landlord until last winter. No way would I have disturbed my long term tenants like this. They are entitled to the “quiet enjoyment of their home.”

Shes disrespectful & you can put a stop to it constructively by suggesting 2 inspections a year. Nothing more. If she’s pushy, keep her on te doorstep. Thats pretty standard.

Set up some constructive boundaries. Get familiar with your tenancy rights. Look up the Shelter website. Gov.uk & Citizens Advice too.

Yeah, I know, sorry😐I rectified the mistake in my last post above.

She sounds unhinged at best and fucking nasty at worst.

Sounds to me that she is currently worrying about the new renters rights paperwork and also worried that she has been charging you too little and if she does not get your rent where it needs to be before a certain deadline then she won't be able to increase it and you could take advantage of the situation and the new incoming renters rights.

Definitely this she’s tried to get us close to market rate as she can in the time she’s had before the new renters rights are in effect. I'd much rather have had a smaller yearly increase to keep in line with this area instead of her putting it up so much in such a short space of time. She puts charging us below market down to wanting to help young people and keeping such good long term tenants but I guess she’s regretting that now for whatever reason.