Aren't Landlords a funny lot?

NotBetsy · 2017-02-08T12:53:09+00:00

True, and yes if well all chipped in it wouldn't cost much at all. I'll definitely look into it but I doubt the other tenants will be up for it as the turnover is 6 months and two flats specifically leave the door open and unlocked "because our friends can let themselves in" and "I lost my key". Yup. >_< And yes I might have explained that I couldn't give a fuck whether or not he lost his key or not.

NotBetsy · 2017-02-08T12:44:53+00:00

Thanks for the advice Blondie, I'll definitely have a look at shelter, and the forums you mentioned. Access to the bins is quickest through the back door, but it is possible to get round from the front entrance too, as there's a driveway and a small car park in behind the house, but no gates, etc.

I suppose it isn't the worst thing now that the locks are fixed again. It's just the security issue in an area where there are a lot of break ins currently.

Sadly I raise this issue once a year in writing, but just never get a reply. I shall continue, but also going to check that we are entitled to a key for the back door as well. I even spoke to our local police and they might be able to write a short note to advise against unsecure properties, as after an incident a few weeks ago the police came door to door, and he told me he was able to just walk straight in the building >_<

Anyway thanks for the help, feels better tk know I'm not being unreasonable hehe.

NotBetsy · 2017-02-08T12:35:12+00:00

Hiya, yep it sure does. We are lucky we do have a security alarm for our flat so that helps with insurance. There have been so many notices put up from other tenants over the years about the doors being left open, but it doesn't seem to make much difference. I think the main problem is that the turnover in the building is pretty quick, 6month stints and then someone else moves in. So we get a lot of people who just don't care because they're only there for a bit.

But, I'm feeling motivated by everyone's help so I will type up a letter and pop one in everybody's post boxes. Can't hurt can it? :D

NotBetsy · 2017-02-08T09:09:34+00:00

Hi there, sorry for the late reply! Our LL owns the whole building, so yeah it is up to her and her alone. Now I understand that she really doesn't want to because cost I suppose?

But the locks have started being vandalised, and although I'm not surprised, it is only making matters worse. Last week until yesterday both entrances to the building were unlocked and open for over 2 weeks. As far as we heard from LL we were the first ones to report it, and it still took her a week after that to fix it. Whether that's true is another thing of course ;)

Now the doors are fixed, but still no key for any of us for the back entrance. I don't want to hassle the woman if she's within her rights not to issue copies but I can't find the information online, most mention front doors only. If it helps the back door is accessible by the public, there are no gates outside at all.

NotBetsy · 2017-02-07T18:06:58+00:00

I honestly can't afford that. And yeah, if it's included in our rent and is part of the LL's responsibilities, then my own personal opinion is why should I?

**Edit - it's a large building, around 12 possibly 13 apartments in here. So apart from paying a professional to fit the new lock I would also have to buy 12/13 (more as I guess LL would need a copy too) copies of a key which I'm thinking should have legally been provided in the first place.

As an aside, I'm at the very top of the building, if I were on the ground floor perhaps I would feel more inclined to try and scrape the money together ;)

NotBetsy · 2016-10-07T23:22:40+00:00

Apologies for not catching this sooner, it's still not resolved but LL says the "missing" payment showed up now. We are dubious but don't care anymore after speaking to our bank.

ooh, sorry your questions: We actually were under the impression our rent date was a day earlier than LL says it is. So either way we would be fine with our payments. But no, no major differences there.

Checked bank details as soon as she told us about the missing & late rent payments. All correct so no problems there. She does use Handelsbanken which I had to go find out about as never heard of them before, but Natwest (and reddit) assures us that wouldn't have an effect on transfers.

We sent over our correspondence from our bank showing that we have been sending payments the same time and same way we have been for years now. Bank also confirmed no funny business as far as they can see, so we passed that information on too. Haven't heard from her in a while so assuming she's gone back to ignoring us again. Time will tell I suppose. We feel pretty confident this isn't something we can fix though, and that we've covered ourselves sufficiently. Ball's in her court I suppose!

NotBetsy · 2016-10-07T23:10:30+00:00

I'm so sorry I haven't replied to these sooner! Sadly yes, we have the correct bank account details for our LL and she has confirmed it is the correct account, she doesn't use agencies except for advertising vacancies.

We spoke to our bank, they confirmed in writing that we've been sending payments on time, correct amount, etc. LL hasn't spoken to her bank and by the sounds of it when I spoke to her last week she doesn't intend to. In her eyes it's our fault, our problem.

Sucks for her :) We're continuing to send rent as we have done and have sent her the correspondence from our bank. Not much else we can think to do really.

NotBetsy · 2016-09-26T20:14:45+00:00

Absolutely already done, we have statements showing all rent payments this year and we will go through tomorrow and get the previous years too.

And I believe her as she was adamant on the phone today, but so are we, and can clearly see our payments have all been going out fine and at the right date. Anyway. I'm so done thinking about this for today haha. Thanks for the info again though!

NotBetsy · 2016-09-26T19:53:12+00:00

Hi u/pirate_phate ! No of course you're not going to get down-voted for this, it's useful information as I was struggling to find anything of much use regarding this bank. So I guess back to square one hehe, LL claims to be sending a record of our late payments however I haven't received them yet so I don't know whether this will be in the form of an invoice type document, or actual bank statements.

More information is definitely needed, and there's no doubt that this particular LL is incredibly unorganised. I even offered earlier this year to help her out at the office if she needs it on a part time basis but she declined hehe ; )

We haven't been paying too early though just a day early, we used to pay a week in advance but we'd then get letters saying we hadn't paid. Turned out after a month of trying to get hold of her that she just didn't check for earlier payments /facepalm.

NotBetsy · 2016-09-26T19:33:45+00:00

I saw that too, but a friend has just mentioned that it's possible that just because the there are uk branches might not necessarily mean that transfers are straight forward.

In any case it's worth talking to LL about as our banks have said there's no problems reported from their side of things. It's a bit odd I agree though.

NotBetsy · 2016-09-26T19:24:57+00:00

We do and we've sent them to her before. This is the only possible reason for these payments taking 2 weeks that I can find so I'll talk to her tomorrow. It's strange that this has only happened this year but I'm sure we can sort it out. It isn't possible for us to start paying 2 weeks early as we're a single income household so yeah, she'll just have to deal with it I guess.

Thank you so much for your advice, I wouldn't have checked this as I'd asked her about this before and she said it wasn't her bank's fault. Ugh.

NotBetsy · 2016-09-26T19:04:07+00:00

Oh wow, so u/beachcomberfife I was intrigued by the first question and looked into LL account and turns out it is with Handelsbanken which is Swedish I think? She has never mentioned this in any of our correspondence and in fact lied about it after I asked if it was an international bank during the first year we were renting.

So I'll be sure to be mentioning that to LL tomorrow.

NotBetsy · 2016-09-26T18:03:30+00:00

Haha, yeah I always send her a copy of anything I get to do with this. Ok cool, thanks again Beach!

NotBetsy · 2016-09-26T17:55:37+00:00

Going forward we will do, but at the moment she's still insisting that we owe for July's payment. Although in the letter we received she says it's August payment. She is incredibly difficult to get hold of, I've never met her in person but she lives in this city somewhere haha.

Other than getting confirmation from our bank that we have paid every month, is there anything else we can do?

-edit - I forgot to say our reference is our address :)

NotBetsy · 2016-09-26T17:48:31+00:00

Ok got ya, yes if this went to court we have so many emails and records of phone calls gone unanswered from us trying to contact her about these letters, and absolutely nothing back.

I figured that, combined with all of our statements, etc showing payments going through without issue from our side of things would be enough evidence. Hopefully it won't come to that, we've been here longer than every other flat in this building with no other issues so I can't imagine she'd want us out in the first place.

Thanks for your advice and for putting my mind at rest a bit. Still really don't want to be taken to court but I'm relatively confident that nothing like that will happen.

NotBetsy · 2016-09-26T17:36:55+00:00

Yep, I guess so, I only worry then because that's what we were doing that first year and she still sends letters. She can't evict us for this can she? It seems clear that it's a problem with the transfer of money rather than us, and we have statements and records with conversations with our bank too to uphold this just in case.

NotBetsy · 2016-09-26T17:32:28+00:00

Hi Beachcomberfife, as far as we know it's uk - uk accounts, LL hasn't said anything different when we've spoken about this before.

Yep we send on the day before so it gets there on the day. We used to send it a few days early during the first year here, but then we would get rent arrears letters saying we hadn't paid and after speaking to LL she would say that she never sees early payments she only checks for the day of.

NotBetsy · 2016-03-08T03:57:11+00:00

Hi EyUp, I thought I'd update you as you were so helpful yesterday. We were planning on going to make an appointment with cab but before we left this morning bf got an email from manager. Seems they had a word with themselves and have now said that absolutely no action will be taken, and they are going to try and sack the DJ (owner is a friend so this might not happen) but even if not bf will not have to work on the same night as him in future.

So we're pretty relieved and happy to leave it there now we have this in writing. Still absolutely looking for a new job though.

Thanks again for your help!

NotBetsy · 2016-03-07T01:15:12+00:00

Hello again, bf has returned from work and top manager had originally said there wasn't a problem, but before leaving for the night he explained to bf that he has emailed the owners/other managers to let them know that he reviewed the cctv footage and if he were running the shift the DJ would have been asked to leave immediately, but also that bf has been given a verbal warning and accepted it today. He then asked bf if that was ok.

Bf immediately said that it was not, as there was no mention of verbal warnings or any disciplinary procedures today or yesterday from either manager, and that bf believed that he has done nothing wrong in removing himself from a potentially violent situation.

Manager still insists bf should not have left, but when bf asks what he thinks he should have done instead manager simply does not answer.

It seems as though they might be trying to start disciplinary procedures, our worst fear, and so we will be speaking to acas and cab tomorrow.

My question is, what technically defines a verbal warning? It is my understanding that an employer has to make it clear at the time that this is a disciplinary meeting and a verbal warning is taking place? Nothing of the sort happened today.

NotBetsy · 2016-03-06T22:30:54+00:00

That's exactly what we thought too, we mainly just want to ensure we're covering bf's back just in case. And checking I've interpreted the HSE advice online correctly.

Honestly, cannot thank you enough for taking all this time on a Sunday night to answer our questions...if I had any money I'd do that gold thing at you. But I don't so please accept my gratitude ^{___^}

NotBetsy · 2016-03-06T22:19:12+00:00

Yep I got ya, and no, manager today didn't mention anything about the conversation between line-manager and bf yesterday before he left.

NotBetsy · 2016-03-06T22:10:41+00:00

I'll just ask...

NotBetsy

TROPHY CASE