Crappy Landlord/Lady

[NordicCrankShaft]

I see enough threads on here about crappy tennants, about time we had one for the landords. Anyway, not looking for advice, just looking to vent.

I'm in a situation right now, we had to give 3 months notice on our apartment, which we did and official move out date is Sunday even though unofficially we've moved out already and cleaned down. We missed two or three things during the cleaning and got a passive aggressive text message from the landlady. The whole passive aggressive thing isn't the first time we've encountered this from her but we let it slide because we couldn't be bothered with the hassle and the misses is too nice to say anything. So I happily go back to finish the minor things we missed no problem, the landlord was there and not the lady so he went through with me what he wanted done, I did it and checked with him before leaving and all was ok. Although I did mention to him in a normal tone and manner that he should talk to her about the passive aggressive messages and that it is not appreciated and that you cannot talk to people the way she does again all in a normal tone and manner. fast forward to today and she's again passive aggressive messaged the missus saying she spent 17 hours cleaning the apartment. The place was spotless when I left, so unless she threw st up the walls after I'd gone I've no idea what happened.

Anyway, we're more worried about the £3k deposit we'd laid down when we took it. It's a really strange situation as aside from her passive aggressive messages she was normally ok with us her 3 ratty nesbitt kids run riot around the place but we never complained, the kids were always playing instruments early in the morning...we never complained, they even scratched fk out of our car with their football, we said nothing (not my choice). two weeks before moving out she practically begged us to stay, gave this whole speech about how lovely and kind my missus is and how we're the best tennant she's ever had. Even helped feed her caty when they buggered off on holiday for 3 weeks. Now she treats us like this.

[ColinM50]

What does "passive aggressive" mean?

[Honey Badger]

Your deposit should be protected via the DPS so you can contest anything that the landlord wants to take out of it. In this case I would assume that unless they have photos of the apartment before the 'cleaning' they can't take anything out of the deposit for cleaning.

I've never had to challenge via the DPS so not sure on the exact details

[Leptons]

I think she's trying to tell you You're not getting your bond back.

[dazwalsh]

You could always go through the deposit protection mediation thingy to defend any deductions from your deposit. They will deem what's fair and what's not, and if her paperwork isn't squeaky clean using detailed inventories then she hasn't got a leg to stand on.

Further more, and it's a longshot here but is the deposit protected and did you receive the cert and documents within 30 days of paying deposit?

[Jonmx]

You're right, tenants do seem to get a bad rep when there are also a good number of rogue Landlords, and not just the ones who exploit the immigrant population. When my family had a couple of houses to let we worked our nuts off to ensure the tenants were looked after. On the few occasions I have rented, it's been generally good, other than the experience below.
I shared a house with 5 other lads at Uni, and the Landlord was a real cock. I was the one who turned up to hand the house over at the end of the tenancy, and he pointed out a load of things that would need doing before he would give back the deposits. Like a mug, I worked my bks off, taking one for the team, or so I thought, cleaning the place. At the end of it, the grinning bd thanked me and gave me my deposit. He refused to give anyone else theirs back though, around £1k. Apparently a ploy he used often, but it caught up with him when several of his student houses were firebombed a year or so after I left. What the article below doesn't mention is that he had been blacklisted by the University and the Council on account of his sub standard and dangerous accommodation. One of the toilets in our house leaked through the ceiling onto the cooker. When we complained he came round and used bathroom sealant around the ceiling.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/landl...

[NordicCrankShaft]

I live in Norway so it's governed differently. But it's a similar scheme and we have the certificates ad all the relevant paperwork.

[Colonial]

Did you take photos before you started and after you left your tenancy?

It's what I always used to do.

[trickywoo]

I've only ever rented offices but always found the landlords to be useless and lazy.

Hope you get your deposit ok but don't give up if they are difficult about it.

[iphonedyou]

ColinM50 said:

What does "passive aggressive" mean?

Best Googling - it's a generally well understood phrase.

OP; sadly not surprising, and particularly the change in behaviour pre and post leaving. On the basis of what's been written it sounds like she's laying the groundwork for retaining deposit.

Some of them don't live on this planet. Our last landlord let a flat to us right outside a bus stop. The London buses stained the walls, and she asked us to try sponging a spot on the wall to see if it cleaned up. We told her this wouldn't work, but alas.

Fast forward to our leaving and she withheld the full £2,500 deposit based on the fact that walls would require redecoration because of the clean spot on the wall now standing out from the fume stains around it. Needless to say, she backed down completely as soon as we referred to adjudication. Muppet.

Do you have a tenancy deposit scheme and attendant adjudication options in Norway?

We're a landlord, and were both letting and renting at the same time up until moving into a house last year. Quite eye opening seeing how differently some landlords operate.

Edited by iphonedyou on Wednesday 26th July 07:27

[cootuk]

My previous landlady had a few ccjs so electric and gas were on prepay meters. Quite often there wouldn't be gas as she thought putting £15 per week for three people was enough, even though it had a combi boiler for showers/hot water/heating. Every excuse under the sun about it until we got peed off and showed her the zero credit on the meter. She then got very shirty and disconnected the electric oven as punishment.

One of the advertised features was a massive luxury bath, but it cost too much to fill with hot water so she disconnected the hot supply to it.

She had a business unit next door, on some cheap electric rate, and ran cheap extension cables from there, across a yard, and into the house . I counted four extensions. Two were for her office in the house, one ran the washing machine and a space heater (probably overloaded circuit), and the last one ran heat lamps for her dogs. She had a regular routine of replacing yellowed plugs and extensions.

Also no smoke detectors as "she had never had a fire so didn't need them".

Reported to the council, but I left before anything happened. I pass by there sometimes, cables still across yard, and various cars outside so she's carrying on as normal.

[PAULJ5555]

In Wales you now need a licence to rent or you can get an agent to manage it for you.

I assume you can complain to the council and they could take away your licence and you will get fined if you rent.

The only problem the dodgy ones wont even bother to get a licence as they will have to behave.