So, please read my previous blog before reading this one, hold onto your knickers, because this one's a screamer! So, continuing on from last one, where we got a section 21 to leave the property, we had done nothing wrong, had paid all our bills and rent was up to date, out of the blue, there's an email turns up, we have 6 months to find somewhere new. Thankfully we did! I wrongly said 4 months in last one, apologies I meant 6. So, started the process of moving, a big sigh of relief, or so you'd think....
We get a letter through the post, for an electric bill of over £600, now, unless we'd of been running an aluminium smelting plant or something similar, no way would it be that amount, a month before that, I get a letter from BPO collections saying that the last bill hadn't been paid, our usual amount was between £120-£180 quarterly, I promptly sent emails to prove I had paid that with bank statements, thankfully that has been sorted and found, but not the hundreds of pounds, until something kicked off unexpectedly.
We rang up the electric company, and my partner was on the phone to them for 3 hours, they said something pretty unexpected, that the landlord said he moved out July of this year, couldn't of as we have been living there for nearly 3 years, it has never felt like our home, and he's made it so uncomfortable, letting himself in (isn't that illegal!?!) and shouting the odds, he's rather abrupt, the letting agents we got the place from had said the same thing, I found it weird as him and his wife brought us flowers at Christmas, does that sound ungrateful? I'd never heard of a landlord giving tenants flowers before, that was one of the strange things that happened, the other things we noticed were he never came to remedy the rising damp in the bathroom, the letting agents wouldn't do anything about any repairs saying The landlord was responsible for them, he would ignore our calls, texts and when we told him about it, he denied he'd received any texts from us! also, the lady who lived above us (please see previous blog) when we went to see her was apparently responsible for the ceiling leak, whenever she had a shower, water would be pouring (and I mean pouring, not dripping) through the ceiling, the landlord argued that the lady above us was responsible for that repair, how can she be when it's him she's renting off, what a lazy douche! So the only way she could 'fix' it was to put a towel down, didn't remedy the fact that the wood was rotting away and when you shine a UV torch on it, it glows yellow/green, bodily fluids, how grim is that! 😱
So where am I up to, the electric yes! So, one of our family is an electrician, we sent her photos of the set up, not sure for legal reasons if I can show them or not on here so won't, basically, all the farm electrics were in our part of the cottage, it's a weird set up to explain, so we lived on the bottom bit, And had stairs going to our bedroom, there was a door near our bedroom, which had a big lock on it, which leads through to the lady next door, I think most of her property must of been above, there was no peace what with the leak in the ceiling, the loud door slamming, loud thuds when she was walking from room to room, and sometimes like there was a bowling ball going across the ceiling, makes me wonder how much she could hear us, now we weren't having big raves or sacrificing goats on the lawn or any unruly behaviour you can think of, we just kept ourselves to ourselves really.
Back to the electric, there was a knock at the door between 5-6 am that the electric had gone off at the dairy farm, we thought the way they knocked, that there was some kind of emergency evacuation, so panicked to get dressed, it was a very stressful place to live, not knowing when someone was going to knock on the door, and as I have complicated mental health issues, I started to become rather suicidal. I also suffer with poor mobility and disability, as does my partner, so moving house has been completely stressful, both mentally and physically and has took a toll on us, in fact the whole thing has from start to finish, though we haven't finished yet!
So, the £600 bill, I'm getting there, seems like a Sat nav that's taking you on all sorts of diversions eh! There's the fuse that went in the early hours of the morning, I get up to wait for an electrician, the farmers are coming in and out, now, we've never had a safety check which should be done yearly I believe? One of the electricians points out an old manweb metre, and I have no knowledge of electrics, what I could tell you I could fit on a postage stamp, so our spark relative gets sent photographs of the set up, she notices several issues which would resort in a fail, including some of it looks like its been tampered with, which rings alarm bells. My partner quite rightly rang environmental health, and sent them photos of the farm electrics on the stairs, they said it should be condemned and looked very dangerous, when we first looked around and started moving our stuff in, it's only after the 1st few weeks we started to notice all the issues, Rose tinted speccys maybe because the views are amazing! So, the more we find out, the more raises the question, have we been billed for the whole farms electricity use? Got the environmental health chap coming next week to have a look, we are not out to hinder the farming industry, it's just that could of been very fatal, when we have questioned the landlord about it, he has told us of his plans to move the electrics to a nearby barn as no one should have that in our home, begs the question why we had it in there for 3 years then! He originally told us that he wanted the place back because one of his workers was struggling to find a place to live, he's now told us that his daughter in law is going to be moving in there. Between the landlord and the letting agents, they seem to be passing the blame to each other when something goes wrong, so don't know who to believe.
We even had the lettings agent say to us not to worry, that they'd help us find somewhere, but to no avail, we went into the branch and seemed very blasé about it really, we went on the website, seen two properties, no heads up about them, and we went into the branch again to apply, they told us they'd get in touch about if they accepted pets or not, they never did. Luckily with 2 months left on the clock we found somewhere ourselves, after searching the whole of the UK via Internet, we went to a few properties to look at them, one in Scotland which was ridden with black mould, the letting agents were adamant the landlady had done amazing job of ridding the place of it, i beg to differ, glad we were able to view it in person as there was a lot of online viewings due to a certain global pandemic, plus, we got onto little lies there right from the start so a big nope there! Another one we went to see was near Newcastle, without sounding like a snob, it looked very run down, but, more to the point, there was a lot (and I mean a lot) of wooden steep steps up to the flat we were going to view, which isn't good for somebody with poor mobility, would of been Slippy and icy in winter too, we phoned up the letting agents and they apologised and said we weren't on the system to go for a viewing, a nearly 3 hour drive if memory serves me correctly, but my partner took me to see the angel of the North, so it wasn't a totally wasted journey in the end a day out if you will, though I feel for my partner as it was a heck of a drive there and back, something like 6 hours total?
So, we got to see this place with the council, I only tell people I trust where I'm moving, so apologies im not disclosing that, a beautiful view, and we got it! The way the dates fell, our tenancy agreement was to end in December, the letting agents wanted us to still pay up til then, who can afford two amounts of rent? We handed in our notice to the letting agent, the head office said no sorry, you will have to pay up til December, it's a no break clause, so my partner wanted to speak to the landlord, see if there was a way he could let us end it quicker, my partner caught sight of the landlady getting out the car from our kitchen window, it always seemed like a bit of a goldfish bowl, as there was people passing who walked infront of the window, I wondered if it was just an eye magnet if someone was there, but my partner thinks they were having a good stare, it did seem intimidating that the landlord and landlady would always park their cars right opposite the window, when there was more than enough space to drive up a bit further to the farm house next door that they were going into, I'm sure that door is dodgy, as they'd always bang it shut, it would always wake us up, and at really early hours of the day, I appreciate how farmers work rediculously hard, and long hours, but it just seemed like everything there was set up to annoy or frustrate us, I don't want to sound dramatic, but I must repeat myself, I have serious mental health issues, so sudden banging that's unexpected, water coming through the ceiling, someone letting themselves in whenever they wish, (I could of been sleeping in my birthday suit, or in the shower or having a sh*t), the loud bangs and everything the lady in the cottage above was doing, not a good mix with bad mental health! It even affected my partner mentally, and he has seldom suffered with his mental health.
So, my partner happened to spot the land lady had parked outside, he shouted to her could he have a word, and apparently, she looked like she got the fright of her life, I was not there to witness what was said, but my partner recalled it to me, he told her everything he knew, and that her husband had not come to fix the leak in the roof, and various other things, she said he's no good with emails and texts, begs the question why is he a landlord then! She basically acted dumb to everything, and a few hours later, popped a note through the door saying it was fine to end the tenancy quickly, though we would have to pay up to when we handed our notice, which was 2 weeks after the rent due date, same date every month. She also said the landlord denied receiving any of our texts about the repairs needing doing, so again playing dumb. They are denying anything is wrong with the electric and that we owe that amount. It was getting nearer the time of moving, and my partner did an amazing job of finding vans, and all the stuff that goes with moving, we didn't bother to hoover as what was the point if removal men and ourselves were going to be coming in and out of the house, and would have a big clean when it was empty, so it did look pretty messy, but doesn't everywhere when you move, the cats were a little stressed too with all the commotion and packing going on, but we were determined to get the heck out of there quick, and it's one of the best things we've ever done, the new place feels like it's ours, the other didn't, like we were exhibits or in a zoo, and not thought of, just an extra bit of income.
So, we had removal van guys in to do the bigger furniture, as we would of struggled with that being disabled, and my partner hired a van to get the rest, and what didn't fit in that, we'd fit in a van. The removal men were amazing, very thorough, quick and worked fast, and made zero stress.
We got the van hire the next day, wouldn't you know it, most of Cumbria has floods, and there we are loading and unloading, and my partner driving in it, braver than I!
But, while we were loading the van at the old place, we are upstairs, the front door left open to make it easy for getting in and out to load the van, the landlord is shouting for us! He just blatantly let himself in, my partner was getting down the stairs with a big box, though may not be heavy to some was an awkward shape, and he's shouting his head off, my parter is shouting 'I'm on my way, Though you are not welcome here, we are busy moving things out!' I could hear the argument in the kitchen they were having, I thought it was going to come to blows, I hear my partner telling the landlord to sit down, by this time, I was nearly rocking back and forth wondering what the hell has gone on, as it sounded like the potential for a punch to be thrown, my partner later said it looked that way too, and he'd of let the landlord throw the 1st one, as my partner is very reasonable. The landlord was shouting about £600 we owe for the electricity, my partner then showed him around at all the repairs he'd ignored, but started to kick off at the state of the carpets, we said not to worry as they were getting cleaned, I wonder now is this because he wants to show those who are moving in early so they can see it, with our stuff still in there?!? Kind of makes me wish I would of stuck a big massive dildo on the wall and done a big pentagram in red paint on the floor or something, but I wouldn't really do that, tempting though...! He has a front door key so I wouldn't put it past him, again I'm sure we are supposed to get notice of that but he never has given us that, I naturally feel sorry for someone If they are being f**ked over, he tried all sorts of sob stories that he didn't make enough on the rent for the place and that the letting agents took a massive slice of it, but I couldn't feel sorry for him, he could of made us homeless, but I'm thinking of it as very bittersweet and a lucky escape. my partner has shouted me to come down, so I could be a witness as to what was going on, I'd hope to calm down the situation too. The landlord asked where we were moving my partner refused to tell him, and he seen his arse about that, the landlord then said he'd follow us, whether that was an attempt at humour or harrasment I don't know, but should he of followed that up, he could get done I'm sure. He was saying that he didn't want to fall out with us, he was going to be moving the farm electricity out of the annexe, shouldn't that of been done before we moved in, as he said, it's not good that it's in someone's home, like hell it is dont we Know that! He said he'd return later, though he did just to drive around like a warden as if he was spying on us, we couldn't get a signal as there's no phone signal there, as a lot of my partner's family said we should of rang the police, and our Internet is in the process of being transferred to the new place, when we questioned him about just letting himself in unexpectedly, he said 'I can, it's my house' so shows what little he thought of us. He used to question our disabilities, as its disabilities you cant see it seemed he thought we were lying, thought i wonder had he ever took the meds I was on, I will say fair enough if he ever has had to be on them, they are über strong meds.
So, at this moment in time, we are taking our time unpacking the van, the cats seem settled, though have their moments as per, and we've got little bits to pick up at the old place, and to go clean it, then we are completely out of there, I've made sure to transfer our post to the new place! What a crap situation, though isn't it bitter sweet at the same time, no one deserves a landlord like that, especially when rent is on time, and supposed to give 24 hours notice if coming to the property! Should anyone read this and need help...
For mental health
Mind.org.uk
For those affected by homelessness
Shelter.org.uk
For disabled readers who find themselves in troubled situations
Scope.org.uk
Many thanks for reading and hope if you've been in a similar situation that this brings you comfort in someway that you aren't alone, and there's things you can do to help fight, we are currently looking at getting legal help, no matter how much the landlord bullies us or thinks it is OK to belittle the situation, he put us though heaps of sh*t and we are NOT standing for it! X
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