to think I have the right to live in peace in our rented house?

[FrameyMcFrame]

The landlords (a retired couple) seem to think that renting a house is a retirement project, and they just want to 'pop round' whenever they are bored.

We have given them access for all sorts of spurious reasons, such 'checking that the windows open ok' Getting things out of the garage and most noteably, so that they could pretend to be living in the property to fraudulently obtain free cavity wall insulation for the over 60s.

Recently they had the exterior of the property painted and they wanted to come round to check the job had been done ok (this was yesterday) I was at work at DP lost it with them when they said they wanted to go upstairs in the house again. He couldn't understand why they needed to go upstairs when the work was on the outside of the house.

so he said no... bad idea. Mr Landlord said I'm just going up there anyway you can't stop me, to which DP said yes I can and stood in the way of the stairs (while holdong our 14 month DS)
Mr Landlord got very agressive and said that the bedrooms were 'his bedrooms' and he could do what he wanted in his own home.

DP asked them to leave then, but they refused so he phoned the police. Police said unless theer was a breach of the peace they wouldn't come out.

DP asked them again why they wanted to go upstairs into our rooms, and they said they wanted to check the windows open. DP had opened all the windows anyway so they could see that they were all open from the front of the house.

In the end DP just let them go upstairs as they wouldn't back down.

Are we being unreasonable, wanting to live in peace and quiet without these unnecissary interuptions?

(sorry for long post, thanks for reading if you got this far!)

This is one of the major downsides of renting. There really should be stricter regulations, and it should be harder to chuck a tenant out. The LL is making money from you, they shouldn't be able to make you feel like a guest in your own home.

I have had landlords extended family letting themselves in my house before

Sounds like they may be worried about their property. We had a landlady like this and ended up reassuring her that if there were any problems we would contact her.

It may be their entire retirement investment - all their money could be sunk in it. It is risky, I have been a tenant and landlord at the same time so I know it is hard to let go. Thankfully distance stopped the urge to check on the property.

I agree, write them a nice letter, saying you understand it's their property and that it is hard entrusting such a value to strangers. However you are entitled to live in peace and this is upsetting your right to exactly this. Perhaps ask them what their main concerns are (could be ventilation, or damp etc)and ensure them that you are responsible enough to keep on top of the issues they may be worried about.

If you get into confrontation, you may find yourself being asked to vacate after six months, and that will be so much more upsetting and costly.

Poor you yanbu - I hope you can get the message across to your landlords that they are out of order.

The best landlord I ever had lived in France (we were renting his London flat)we never saw him just got the odd email. Bliss.

I let out my house via a letting agency and make an appointment to go round once a year. I do pop in if I am back in the UK but it tends to be to drop off chocolates for my tenants, so I hope that isn't seen as being too intrusive.

I do also have the keys to the house as does dh, but we don't take them back to UK with us, hey stay abroad.

Hissy, it's a one year assured shorthold tennancy agreement and we have been living here for 5 months.

When can they serve notice? There's no break clause in the contract so do they have to wait until the year is up?

I really don't want them coming round here again upsetting my kids, he was really threatening and DP was really shakey after they left and had to pour himself a glass of wine. Most unpleasant (not the wine! )

And scaryteacher, you sound like a great landlord!

Mrsincomunicado, I think you're right, they are worried about the property but we are good tennants, always pay the rent and look after the house and garden.

They have plenty of money so it's not their nest egg or anything, she used to live in the property until her previous husband died and she moved in with MR Landlord so it's her place really but he is the agressive one.

They are now also renting out her mother's old house apparently so god help the tennants there too!

They cannot serve notice until 2 months before the end of the year. they would be stupid to do so as good tenants are rare but they might. But if you don't speak up you will have this shit forever more. They are being completely out of order and intrusive. That is not how landlords are supposed to conduct themselves. Write to them asap.

You have 5 months before they can serve notice which should be long enough for them to get your letter, become enraged by it, calm down, realise that it will cost a fortune to evict you, leave you alone.

You don't have to let them in for anything, not even to do gas safty checks. They can let themselves in in an emergency such as you have been injured and paramedics need access, you have left the bath running and it floods next door. Checking windows are open is not an emergency.

Now that you have had a bit of a confruntation with them, they may back down anyway.

My tenants are getting on a bit and she is not well, so I take chocs round when I'm back for them. I live in Belgium so it's good chocolate!

BBM has given excellent advice. They might think they can pop around just because they own the place, but that simply means they're not well read on tenancy laws. So long as you return the property in good condition there is no need for them to check anything in the meantime!

I don't know about that FH - I like to go and see my house once a year so I can plan what needs doing for the next year, to touch base with the tenants, and see what their niggles (if any) are. My managing agent does quarterly inspections as well, so we have a heads up about any problems.

I can understand wanting to check but the fact is that tenants are allowed to have 'peaceful enjoyment' or whatever the terminology is - once a year sounds reasonable to me though.

We had a few letting agents in the past do quarterly inspections and didn't know any better so always let them (they would insist on doing it when we weren't in and would just leave a card somewhere to show they'd been), but these days I think I'd be inclined to tell them no.

They can't serve notice until your existing contract is up.

IIRC, if the tenant does not wish to continue with the tenancy, then they can leave on the last day of the contract,, no additional notice is required. If LL wants to terminate the contract, then I think they have to give you 2m notice two months before the end of the current contract.

Either way, you are legally obliged to stay in that contract and pay the rent until the end of the term.

Are you sure that there is no break clause? double check, cos if at all, it'd be at 6m, which of course is about to hit. If not then you have the right to stay there until the end of the term.

I agree with the post about the LL being daft to serve notice on good tenants, but not all LL are in their right minds...

Try the softly softly approach first, it could just be something you can all reach an agreement about, and defuse the situation.

If you go in too heavy handed and it all goes badly wrong, you all have a long time to be irritating each other and winding each other up. No guarantees that this won't go tits up, but do what you can to prevent it. That is a HELLISH situation for all... and for another 7 months!!!!

I don't think a quarterly inspection is stopping 'peaceful enjoyment' at all. It gives the letting agent the chance to troubleshoot for me as I am abroad, and things are picked up faster, rectified quicker (and less expensively) than letting things slide; and prevents a massive problem and expensive bill arriving out of the blue because it wasn't picked up on early enough. Prevention in this instance is better than cure.

If a tenant refused the quarterly inspections written into their contract then I would be giving them notice. My house is also my family home and a major part of our income goes into it each month. I will be living there when I return to the UK, so want it maintained properly now (structurally) so don't come back to huge problems. It's also much nicer for the tenant and less inconvenience I would have thought to live in a well maintained property, where niggles are sorted out immediately as they are picked up and not left until an annual inspection. It also saves hassle over the deposits later as there are hopefully no problems when the tenants leave.

That's fair enough I do get why you'd want them - and the tenants have the option of trying to find somewhere that doesn't do inspections.

However, I think it's arguable that they do break peaceful enjoyment and if they weren't written into a contract they might be harder to enforce.

Please bear in mind the only knowledge I have is from the MSE forums so I could be talking from my bum!

They have to give you notice if they wish to enter your home.

Check your lease, take it to the CAB and get a letter sent to them out lining the bits they are breaching.

They sound like a pair of loons can you look for another home?

I think I would write them a really nice letter telling them how much this disturbs and upsets you and see if you can agree that they come round once or twice a year to do an inspection and other than that you will tell them if you have any problems opening the windows. If that doesn't work tell them if they don't leave you alone you will grass them up for fraudulently claiming money for cavity wall insulation.

thanks again for all the posts, darcymum, we have considered that option!

How many times have they visited since you moved in? Can you point out your right to "quiet enjoyment" of the property? And that their right to enter the property doesn't mean weekly visits?

And say that neither of you threatened physical violence, that you thought an "inspection" of upstairs was unnecessary and a violation of your quiet enjoyment of the house. And ask if their visits can be limited to quarterly, unless there is a specific problem which needs to be dealt with.

I'd add that you are looking after the property and garden and feel that you are fulfilling your side of the contract and would be grateful if they could do the same.

Throw back the legal advice given here. They are in the wrong in this respect, not you. (I don't think I'd be staying beyond the end of this tenancy, they sound a complete pain in the arse).

I'd be giving my notice 30 days before the tenancy finished and right now saving for a new place to live.

They're a pain in the arse. They want someone to pay them money for them to still have complete control of the house.

I'd start logging every single time they popped round. I'd have been doing that all along, tbh.

But I always have either a shite landlord or a shite neighbour so I'm getting used to this type of situation.

If it doesn't improve, you can use your option to move without notice at the end of a fixed term tenancy to get a good deal elsewhere. ie. by being able to move quickly. A bit nerve wracking but we've done well out of this in the past.