It’s because they are used to renting to people who have few options and are a bit trapped. I.e. both can’t afford to buy and need a reference if they want to live to another rented property, and who don’t want to run risk of eviction. It’s really shit.
You’re in a different position and you’re not innured to being treated like that.
How the landlords in our block deal with common repairs and improvements is pretty shocking. My STBXH and my neighbour do a lot of the liaison for that (I tend to do the contacting tradespeople etc).
Short arms and deep pockets. And the agents are just so fucking rude to people it’s insane.
One of them came to our door once instead of the floor above by mistake and was pretty threatening until I disabused him of the notion that I was one of his tenants.
Another was used to dealing with my husband over email and when he came to the door on an errand dropped heavy hints about how I’d better tow the line as he had a very good relationship with the owner of the property even though he wasn’t the agent per se. I said “well I think I’ve got a better relationship with the owners than you do as I’m one of them who is married to the other”.
So many of them are absolute fly by night chancers who will pull any lazy, dirty trick to save a buck or spare some effort. No matter who it hurts or what damage it does.
It’s disgusting to see how they treat people. And so much of the housing stock in this country is going to rack and ruin because all the goodness is being milked out of it like a cash cow. So disrespectful, wasteful and low.
I can tell you are livid. And rightly so.