After years of loyal tenancy I was told quite abruptly that the owner of the house needed it back as his idiot son had run off and got married out of the blue. I was given a termination date without even an apology.
Well why would I expect an apology or treated with any kind of respect since I am ‘just the tenant’ and clearly some kind of second class citizen.
Since then, I have been trying to buy a house, as I am sick of renting and not having a place of my own, and also always having the possibility of this kind of thing happening.
I found a house, I made an offer, I got an entry date that was before I had to leave here… but then it fell through. I started again, I am now doing the same process with another house, but now there is no chance I can move in before I have to leave here (assuming my offer is successful) So I ring the agent, tell them the situation, ask if they could be a little flexible on the leaving date and today they call back and say NO. (and yes they checked with the owner, so it’s coming from him)
They don’t give a damn. Probably this isnt news to some of you, but really under the circumstances I would have expected a little flexibility.
Especially from supposedly upstanding members of the community, church-going people, who have clearly forgotten that charity begins at home and ‘do as you would be done by’. A little consideration or kindness for someone else - someone who has maintained their house, and paid them a shedload of money for the priviledge - is obviously a foreign concept.
Why would I expect some flexibility? After all what have I done to deserve it?
- redecorating their crappy house from top to bottom. Every room has been painted
- Repairing the outside doors as they were rotten and showing daylight through them
- paying over the odds for heating - don’t get me started on that one
- fixing window frames for the same reasons as the doors
- not complaining too loudly about the lack of maintenance
- putting up with the crappy heating system
- the cows running through and eating my plants
- the shitty road I fell down
- being snowed in in winter and having to wait for the road to be cleared until after they cleared the other road the milk tanker needs
- for putting up with a freezing cold house which even now in JUNE, I have to wear knee length furry boots, a sweater AND a cardigan IN THE HOUSE
- not replacing things that break down or wear out
- replacing the flooring in 3 rooms since what was there was NOT fit for human habitation
- giving them a tv and a mobile phone, bags full of stationery and a bunch of other stuff
- regularly baking them pies, cakes and other sweet things
Oh yeah I forgot, I’m just the tenant, I’m some kind of fucking second class citizen!
Let’s talk a little about the heating. It runs on oil/tractor diesel/kerosene. For the last year it has been £180 for 500 litres. 500 litres has been lasting a MONTH, I’m sure you can work out how much that is costing me!
Ok, you say, so the heating is MEGA expensive but at least it heats the house. WRONG WRONG WRONG. The house is always FREEZING - even now in JUNE it is cold. ‘But that’s not possible’ you say. Well actually it is, because:
1. they have no insulation in the roof
2. the boiler is an antique
3. if the boiler is running then it heats the radiators AND the hot water
4. the radiators are the old kind that do not throw any heat out into the rooms
5. there are 3 outside doors and they are all full of cracks and gaps
6. there are 14 windows in the house and 9 of them are single glazed
In addition to this, the boiler breaks down regularly. I get tired of saying to people, ‘my heating isn’t working again’ or more recently, ‘the oil has run out again’. I’ve had to borrow money from family to pay for oil because NO ONE can afford to pay that much every month.
I spoke to someone the other day who has the same type of oil heating. 500 litres lasts them THREE OR FOUR MONTHS, not ONE MONTH like mine. They have a new combi boiler, they have new radiators and they have insulation in the roof - like every other normal person.
This house was offered for rent with 4 appliances in the kitchen - fridge, washing machine, cooker, and dishwasher. ALL OF THEM have since worn out or broken down and because they are so old, can’t be repaired. Did the owner replace them? NO he did not. I bought my own appliances - theirs were old and crappy and really grotty from whoever had lived here before.
(While I’m on the subject, the agent said that they had the house cleaned before I moved in, well they should have got a refund, because the house was FILTHY. My mum and I spent two weeks cleaning it. Carpets were old and filthy, the living room carpet was damp, mouldy and rotted, the bath had black gunge coming up out of it and the kitchen!!! My mum spent a week in there alone, just scrubbing it into some semblance of hygiene. The owner came by that week and his only comment was ‘mother’s are great things aren’t they’. He should have said, ‘OMFG this house is filthy, I’m really sorry you have to do this’. Then I could tell you about the old pairs of underwear that were wedged behind the radiators… the fact that every insect in the neighbourhood comes INSIDE the house through some secret entrances, to visit. That is a a sign of dampness - woodlice, snails, centipedes, millipedes, beetles, slugs, spiders, yup I’ve seen them all and had to live with them. FLIES in the summer it is unbearable. The proximity of the cows, the shit, the silage and the slurry attracts them like nobody’s business. Not to mention the birthday party we had when everyone wore their coats as it was so cold because THE HEATING WASNT WORKING AGAIN. The fact that the owner gets some friend to fit things after he has done his real job, so sometimes you have to wait a while - three weeks at one time - for the heating to be fixed, and you know what, it ALWAYS breaks down in winter when its bitterly cold.
Let’s have a break and talk about the garden now. WHAT GARDEN? There is an overgrown un tended for 10+ years excuse for a garden out the back of the house. It would be impossible to turn this into a garden without professional help and a team of gardeners. I have tried, believe me, since I would love a garden, but its a losing battle. At one stage the owner said to me and my mum ‘its really the tenants responsibility to maintain the garden’ YES IF THERE WAS A GARDEN TO BEGIN WITH. But there wasnt, just a field. If there had been a properly maintained, laid out garden, then of course I would have maintained it but when you are given a wild field full of nettles, thistles, 3 foot high grass, dangerously uneven grass areas that have been trampled by cows, who leave giant pot holes in it, and old rusted farm machinery dotted around, and not even a place to hang your washing out, then what are you supposed to do?
There was never any indication that I wouldnt be able to live here as long as I wanted. Several times they have said to me and my family, that they wouldnt want to lose me, and I have asked several times what plans they had for this house, and they talked of renting it out indefinitely, even to students if I left. AT NO TIME, even when I asked the son directly, did they say that he would move in if and when he got married.
Since it was indicated that I could live here for as long as I liked, I did more than just paint a few walls, I laid vinyl flooring in the bathroom and kitchen - the kitchen is a 25 square metre room, and I laid a floating wooden floor in the living room and hall that cost me £600+. I did this because I thought, if I’m living here for a while, then I may as well improve my living conditions. I replaced the carpet in the living room especially because it was DAMP, MOULDY AND ROTTEN. So rotten in fact that when we came to lift it off the floor, it fell apart into pieces. Mould is dangerous, I have asthma, getting mould spores in your lungs can be serious. Not to mention living in permanent dampness. Well I am taking my floor with me, its a floating floor, its not attached to anything, its designed to be lifted easily. Unless they are willing to pay me £600 for it, give me one good reason why I should leave it here? I replaced light fittings in the ceiling, so those are coming with me and their old lights can go back.
Everything I took out of this house to replace with my stuff was stored in the old storeroom at the other end of this building - carpet from the hall, worktop from the kitchen, curtain rails, lights, shades, curtains, etc. A few weeks ago the son and his friend, decided they would clean out that old storeroom which is usually overflowing with their junk. I texted him and told him there was stuff in there that had to go back in this house but too late for most of it as he has thrown it all away. I rescued the kitchen worktop even though its a bit warped as he left it out in the rain that day, but the carpet has gone, the curtain rails have gone and at least one of my boxes labelled ‘contents from farmhouse’ has gone. He said not to worry about the carpet but obviously he thinks he’s getting a wooden floor instead. WRONG.
Admittedly they did give me official notice in February but its not been easy to find a house and I am not prepared to live ‘just anywhere’ for the sake of leaving here early. I do care about where I live and I do need to find a suitable house, not just any old vacant property. So it has taken me until now to find something. These people used to give me a xmas present but last xmas they strangely didnt. Probably because they already knew they would have to tell me to move out. How things change.
I should also say that they have never increased the rent even though it’s in the contract that it would be increased 10% /year. Ooh that’s great you say, well yes and no. If they don’t increase the rent then they dont have to do anything about the house, they dont have to do any maintenance, they dont have to replace anything that breaks, which they would have to do if the rent went up. Now, they can just say, oh well we never increased the rent, or well if you want things fixed thats going to cost money, so your rent is going up. They think that I think they are ‘being nice’ because I’m such a good tenant, well a little of that is true because if the rent had gone up I might have gone elsewhere, so they didnt want to lose a good tenant… until it was convenient to do so.
So yeah, why should I expect better treatment, I must be crazy. I was going to leave some stuff in the house because I FELT SORRY FOR THEM, but not now.
That’s my rant over, and thats the state of play.
The moral of this tale is IF THE HOUSE DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU, DO NOT SPEND ANY MONEY DOING IT UP.
I do have some before and after pictures so I might dig them out and post them later.
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