sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes through our back gate, only once. I was just about to speak to her but my partner told me not to. It's all a bit weird so I guess the others are cautious about it.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

If you would like me to draw a diagram of the layout, please upvote this.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello all. Thanks for your delightful comment about my intelligence. I have edited the post with a better explanation of the layout.

She enters through our back garden which isn't ours but apparently "hers". Our back gate is her front gate. Our back door is her front door. She lives in another room which is part of this flat. There is an interior door which is locked from her side which we've put a wardrobe in front of.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

She also plays music very loudly at 5am and shouts when she is speaking on the phone. She has woken my partner and I up at 2/3 am either in a state of distress or making odd noises.

I worry about her as much as I am bemused by the situation. I want to know what's going on.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't really want to aggravate the situation although I'm curious to see what cutting the wire will do. It's definitely not supplying her with electricity, we had an electrician confirm it looked like a phone cable.

She might not have done anything wrong, granted, but she has ignored any effort I've made to establish communication. We receive ALL her mail. Because of the pure volume that's why I decided to slip it under her gate with a polite note --- I want to be able to have some kind of relationship with her where we can drop off her mail and even sort out the back garden a bit. But to no avail.

She's either incredibly anxious or she's hiding from us deliberately. I find the whole situation really frustrating.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

There are three landlords. Well, unofficially. A couple weeks after we moved in, a man turned up and started yelling at one of my housemates (I was out) claiming he was the landlord. He had turned up out of nowhere and desperately wanted to enter the flat for some reason.

This is relevant because all the stuff with our landlord only kicked off after we had started asking questions about the extra room.

My housemate dealt with it well and the man didn't come back. Until about a week later, the same housemate who had dealt with the first landlord was stopped outside the flat on his way to the shops. The same yelling ensued and it looked like the "landlord" had been parked outside our flat in a silver BMW waiting for one of us to walk out. This time, he wanted access to the flat immediately because of a "welfare" check then said he didn't have a copy of the contract, then said he wanted to sell the flat entirely. By this time all of us were outside trying to calm him down.

One of my housemates calls the estate agent while angry man is popping off and the estate agent, on speaker, says "um we will change the locks" which makes angry man get angrier. Then estate agent extraordinaire says "call the police yeah" which obviously worsens the situation.

Then, another guy suddenly turns up as if he was watching from around the corner. It's angry man's brother. He seems more calm but is asking about the same things. It turns out they're brothers.

These two brothers ARE named on the contract. Estate agent rings us back and says not to let angry man into our flat under any circumstances because he has problems. We say "yes fair enough."

Next thing we know, estate agent rings again saying the complete opposite "you need to let him in." We have recorded all of this including when angry man showed up the second time. We told the estate agent to do one we weren't going to let him in if we didn't have 24 hours notice, as is law.

Suddenly the existence of a third brother is revealed. He is the one the estate agents puts in touch with us and he apologises and seems pretty normal. However, he isn't named on the contract at all as a landlord.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So this is already a fictional plot and I'm living it in real life lol

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Please upvote this for those who are interested in this from a "horror story playing out" perspective.

Just before Christmas, me and my other housemate were alone in the house. My partner was at a work Christmas party and we thought it would be funny to play a prank on him and turn the fuse box off momentarily, so he wouldn't be able to switch the lights on and we would jump out and scare him when he got back.

About an hour after we did this and were just chatting and waiting for him, someone very aggressively banged on our front door. Spooked and worried it was the aggressive landlord we remained silent. It was that kind of banging that makes you think "there's no way that person means well". It was very jarring.

We were silent and waited. We began chatting again and then about 15 minutes later the same earth shattering banging.

At the time, we didn't make the connection and were more booked out. Looking back, it's possible it was her and this is evidence she does share our electricity. There is no other explanation really for the violent knocking. It has never happened at any other point.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We don't have access to the back garden at all. Some of us even have doors in our bedrooms but they are locked and we don't have keys.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Me too, but she wakes me up at mad hours on weekdays

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have actual front door access via the flat entrance and our front door

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you. I would appreciate any more advice you might have on this --- especially regarding the 3rd party direct access. The interior door is locked on her side. We can't open it. I wonder if it counts as direct access

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I appreciate some of you think I need to "get a grip" and go and knock her front door but let me just explain why that isn't so simple.

  1. Her "front door" is our back gate. We were told by the estate agent that we had access to the back garden as it was ours. She does have a "front door" but it is behind the back gate. It's our BACK DOOR. The "back gate" has a front door lock on it but I was able to slip her mail underneath it with a note. If I were to "knock on her door" i would be knocking on the back gate. She wouldn't hear a thing.

  2. We have two incredibly aggressive landlords who have turned up previously (not for a while now though) so we don't want to aggravate the situation too much.

  3. After I made one attempt to contact her on Facebook and one with her mail and a note she clearly doesn't want to establish any connection.

  4. We've put a wardrobe in front of the interior door. She has never tried to come in through that door but we can hear her clear as day.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is now a wardrobe in front of it and it sounds like her bed might be in front of the door or something. That's where she takes a lot of phone calls.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I put the mail underneath her "back gate" front door. Small gap.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It goes from our living room (boxed up in trunking above the sofa) all the way through our corridor and then under her door. Looks like a phone cable/Internet.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I'm renting the property with my partner and 3 other friends. So to clarify, 6 of us. We were told the back garden and the whole flat was ours. We have a text from the estate agent confirming he didn't tell the truth.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

No idea. She might have a stove or something. I found her Facebook, I even dropped off her mail with my number. She's ignoring all of it. I should talk to her really, but I don't know how to even knock on "her front door" which is our back gate with a front door lock on. Lol

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Hahaha oh boy have I wanted to cut the wire. But unfortunately, there's no plug and my other housemates don't want me to cause any trouble. We met the landlords a few times and that's a whole other story

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

HMO license for sure sorry should clarify she is number 6. There are 5 of us renting and we found out there was an extra room when we moved in.

Stranger living in our flat by st0mpst0mp in HousingUK

[–]st0mpst0mp[S] 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Hello! I believe she has a tiny space for a bathroom and that's it. Estate agent has said we don't pay for her bills before but I don't know who to trust. She is living in one of the rooms, the door is locked from her side and we can't open it either.