NottsRed

I had planned to throw her out if she came out with any comments like thsi, but my father advised me against it because her parents (who are the owners of the property) could just serve me notice. Her father was also there so had to be a bit more careful. So instead I just did as you said, told her it's nothing to do with her as it's not affecting the structure of the property, to which she didn't have a response. I also pointed out on several occasions when she was mentioning the garden that it is actually winter, and therefore not the best time for mowing the garden. The landlord is her father. However from my understanding he can delegate responsibility for inspecting the property to whoever he wants. Hopefully though they'll get someone else to do it in future though following my formal complaint via the estate agents, or at least tell her to wind her neck in next time. Unfortunately as I said above I think he can delegate responsibility to whoever he likes. As long as he gives ample notice he can ask anyone to enter the property, as long as either we are present, or we authorise them to come in while we're not present. Still waiting for a response to my emailed complaint, though my wife has now told me she doesn't think the email address printed on the estate agents website works, so I'll have to forward it on to another address.

Ah, that's interesting, so if they do come back and try to claim that it was untidy and therefore she had a right to be annoyed I can quote the OFT I would have told them to F off anyway if they did say that, but it's better to have something like that to quote. Thanks.

Thanks, will have to check it out before pushing it. To be honest, even if she does come again, if she starts with the same attitude I'll just put her out. I've made the complaint now so hopefully someone will have a word.

I didn't realise I could do that, thought the landlord could ask anyone to inspect. If that's the case I'll just insist that someone else conducts the inspection. Thanks to everyone who has replied.

Yep, one girl and another on the way (due in June). So another reason not to move if possible, don't think my wife needs to have all the stress at the moment. I did send a complaint to the agency this morning, stating exactly what was said and why I thought it was unacceptable, rude and disrespectful. I requested that either in future inspections are conducted by another person, or if by her then she needs to speak to us in a more respectful manner. I asked them to forward it to the landlord if he needs to deal with it. Now awaiting the reply.

Yeah, done so up to now, including copying emails to myself. Already worked out well when we waited for months to have a repair done, I had a long chain of emails requesting that the work be done. After 6 months I said if it wasn't done within a week, we'd start deducting £25 from our rent for each week it remained unresolved, they still didn't fix it for a month so we took £75 from our rent, as we weren't receiving the full service we were paying for. It only got sorted when we got environmental health on the case. When they chased us for the money, I sent the chain of emails to them, and they didn't mention it again. Apparently we shouldn't have done that, but I don't see why not to be honest - any other service you'd refuse to pay and request a refund. Maybe this is a reason for them being silly now.

Look what happens, I nip out to lunch and get loads of replies I've been looking around for houses in our area but can't see any unfortunately at the moment so will have to keep looking. We only moved in just over a year ago, and my daughter was a bit upset at losing her friends. She's now made more at her new school so don't really want her to have to change again, but if all else fails... Exactly, just a shame he didn't ask her to wind her neck in when she started being silly. I believe the property was empty for about a year before we moved in, they'd tried unsuccessfully to sell and then took a while to rent it. Wish I'd known all that before we moved in, rather than after from a neighbour. So he must have left around January 2008, so a couple of years ago now. With regards being walked over, I did have a whole plan in mind about chucking her out if she started, but after speaking with my father he advised me to be careful as if I say too much they'll try and get me out (then would have issues with references etc.). But I made sure she knew I wasn't going to take it by basically responding to all her complaints in a way that she had no response, such as the "the untidiness of the kitchen is not affecting the structure or condition of the property and is therefore nothing to do with this inspection". Yeah, I do think it is to do with the tax. Possibly also the fact that he gets free health care here, not sure what the situation is in cyprus but I assume you pay for it there? Probably cheaper for him to nip here now and again to get his medication. The estate agents do use an independent company with regards to the deposit who assess what should be paid back, so hopefully we'll have no issues there. I also have all the inventory etc. to hand, with notes regarding damage that was there before we moved in, plus I have photo's, so hopefully I'll be ok. There is a clause that says I'm not allowed to advertise the address as a business or display any promotional material, so again I should hopefully be covered. I do web design in my spare time, but don't have visitors coming around, don't advertise the address, and besides I'm actually registered as self employed for the part-time work and not as a company as such.

I suggested that to my wife actually, we've been asking for a number of repairs recently, such as the shower and heating, and previously a window that wouldn't lock shut (could simply push on it to open it, so an obvious security risk). They've never been happy at paying for these repairs, I think they assumed by renting they would be getting in loads of dosh and not having to spend any. I'm going to annoy them even more soon - we've started getting condensation inside our double glazing, obviously an issue somewhere.

Exactly, and thats what I told her when she mentioned the kitchen. She also said when she first walked into the lounge "oh, you use this room mainly as an office then". I didn't realise until later that she was refererring to the printer and paperwork in the corner of the room, probably another snipe at the "mess". What's the problem with using the lounge for doing work? Is it harming her? I'm not running a business from home, I just work from home occasionally, and all the paperwork was our bills etc. I see your point about the landlord having to put up with her, my opinion of him has just been raised further. that's not a bad idea. I must say things seem a bit dodgy anyway. My mother-in-law was in the local pharmacy last week and heard the pharmacist read out our address, and some bloke said "yeah, that's me" and took his prescription. When my mother-in-law challenged him, turned out it was the landlord. He's said several times that he's not supposed to be here - what on earth does that mean??? He's english but living in cyprus, why is he still using our address for prescriptions, and why is he not supposed to be here? All very strange.

I suspect you're both right. She turns up in her huge Merc (not that I've got anything against Merc owners), thinking she's a lot more important than she is. Each time I responded she couldn't really reply with anything, except for "errr, ok". I had to bite my tongue a bit after the "so you call this tidy" comment, I think the response I had in mind would have got us evicted.

Hi All, On Saturday morning we received a call from the landlady's daughter, which my wife answered, claiming that there had been a complaint about our garden being overgrown. As we get on well with our neighbours, and most gardens in our street are overgrown (as it's winter), we were a bit confused by this, but nevertheless she said she would be arranging an inspection. About 5 minutes later the estate agents called to say the landlady's daughter would be calling round on Monday morning to "check on repairs" that were being done. On Monday we had a guy coming out to look at the shower (only to diagnose the problem, not fix it), and not until Tuesday (yesterday) were we having the heating flushed. The fact she wanted to visit on Monday was a bit strange therefore as no repairs were actually being done, and I assumed, due to the telephone conversation, that she was actually wanting an inspection. I called the agency back and told them I wanted at least 48 hours written notice prior to the inspection, we then went out and on our return there was a hand delivered letter saying they would be inspecting on Tuesday. Yesterday she turned up, whilst the plumbers were working on the heating. Obviously with them needing access to all the radiators furniture was pulled into the middle of the rooms, and the place was a bit of a mess. First she complained about the garden, to which I told her we hadn't had the weather for doing it. She said she'd managed to do her garden, but I pointed out that nobody else around us had, she said this was no excuse. I pointed out that the garden was otherwise tidy, which she didn't disagree with. However, she then walked into the kitchen and commented, with a scowl, "call this tidy do you?". She was referring to the table being in the middle of the kitchen (see above), a wash basket being on the table, and a couple of breakfast dishes in the sink soaking. The manner in which she said this was extremely rude, not the way I expect to be spoken to in my home. I explained that the few bits that were out of place were nothing to do with the property structure or condition, and were our property, and therefore nothing to do with the inspection. She then, on leaving the property, insinuated that we were lying about all the pipework knocking throughout the night (the reason the plumbers were there) by asking her father "did you ever hear this knocking when you lived here". Now, this may seem like nothing, but it's difficult to explain on here the manner in which she said it, in front of the plumber, which was quite embarrassing. She also asked, again in front of the plumber, "so if I come back in the summer there will be a big improvement in the garden will there". Again, embarrassing to be spoken to like that in front of other people. The landlord himself (i.e. her father) was in contrast friendly and seemed happy with the condition of the property. He even had a joke about a Liverpool FC picture I had on the wall, saying it shouldn't be there, a Cheltenham one should be there instead Now if the landlord can be friendly, and has no complaints, why did his daughter feel the need to make snide comments whilst looking down her nose at us. Am I within my rights to request that she doesn't visit again, or at least if she does that she speaks to us in a more respectful manner? I have already sent a complaint to the estate agents regarding her attitude, but am wondering how far I can take it should they dismiss my complaint.