Heart attack

Saturday, January 25, 2014

House Inspection . . .On, then off, then on again . . .and so on!

Another week has gone by and I haven't posted anything.

We were supposed to be having an inspection of the house from our landlord. I had an email a couple of weeks ago from the agency who are supposed to be managing this property, if 'managing' means merely sitting in an office and drinking cups of coffee and pushing a few pieces of paper around on a desk and earning around 10-15% commission on your tenant's rent, then things are not what they seem at all. Around eighteen months or so ago we had problems with our cooker. The one that was in the property when we moved in around four years ago gave up on us and the landlord replaced it with a cheap model from Argos. THAT lasted all of 18 months. Very poor quality. It rusted badly and the painted surface flaked off. The thing took an age to heat up sufficiently to cook anything in the oven and the hot plates took an eternity to merely boil a saucepan of water. When we contacted the agency about this they eventually got hold of the landlord. It transpired that he refused to replace the oven so we had no option but to buy our own. A good one, incidentally, with a halogen hob which put the price up considerably but we've found it worth it has it is far more efficient and heats up quickly, unlike the old one. I can't believe how poorly the old Bush AE56SW oven was made and finished. (Anyone thinking of buying a new oven, then don't even think of buying this model. It's rubbish.) We dragged the thing outside and it sat on the front lawn only a few days before someone came and knocked on the door and took it away for scrap! Well, it saved us either taking it to the tidy-tip or ringing the Council for them to come and dispose of it. Anyway, during all this the landlord's wife turned up unannounced. Legally your landlord has to give you reasonable notice before visiting. She unfortunately saw the house in not exactly first class condition cleanliness-wise. I had been clearing out some of the kitchen cupboards and there were piles of old bottles and jars on the work-surfaces which didn't help matters and there were lots of things piled up under the stairs in the entrance hall when she came in. As a result we heard from the agency that the landlord wanted to have an inspection every two months.  To tell the truth, they never did any two-monthly inspection of the place. Neither, it would appear, did they seem to keep any record of anything the landlord said, or any explanation as to why they have never done a two-monthly inspection.

So, when we got this notification of an inspection out of the blue, we were somewhat surprised. The manager of the agency came to do a pre-lndlord inspection and was, frankly quite rude as regards the state of the cleanliness. We had spent around two weeks cleaning and tidying and, frankly, the place is now a good deal cleaner than when we moved in. He told us that the landlord's wife didn't like dogs and said that she could smell the dogs when she had visited. Well, we've been living here for around four years and they've never mentioned this before and they knew we had two dogs when we moved in. He then said that we'd missed a rent payment, which is completely untrue. We have never missed a payment as it's done by direct debit. If we had missed a payment why have they never told us? I'm sure if a payment had been missed the bank would have written to tell us. This is all just a complete lie, I'm sure to try and get out of the reason for them not managing the property properly and not making sure we had the two-monthly inspections we were supposed to have had.

An appointment for an inspection was made for last weekend, but then we got another email from the agency to let us know that it would have to be cancelled because the landlord had some 'family business' to attend to. Another inspection was supposed to have been today, Saturday, at 3 p.m., but again this was cancelled for the same reason. They did this to us sometime last year when they were meant to visit for an inspection. We got the house clean and tidy, then they didn't turn up. The time came and went without any sort of apology or any explanation as to why they hadn't turned up. Frankly, somewhat rude if you ask me, considering all the time and effort that went into the cleaning of the house and the fact we waited in all day. So, when can we actually expect the inspection? I don't really think they have any intention of turning up. We look after the house, pay our rent on time so why should they need to look around? I still say it's the agency not doing their job properly.

No comments: