General Chat

Well John,you obviously own your own home - lucky you!
If you ever rent a holiday home, I hope you will accept the Landlord coming around whenever it suits - s*d what you're doing - after all, according to you, it's his right isn't it?

Why, if you were this surveyor would you be 'a bit nowty'?
Because I was at work the first 2 times he came around unannounced?
Because I phoned to make an appointment for him to come around when I knew I would be in?
Because he didn't get a reply when he (yet again) turned up unannounced?

Please tell me where I've gone wrong.
Is it:
a) because I'm female?
b)because I work?
c)because I had the audacity to go to work when he wanted to come around?
d) because I don't own my own house, am therefore scum and have no rights - (according to the law of John) but have the nerve to believe I do when it's (apparently) the likes of John who are providing my home - and not, as I believed the council who are charging a very high rent!)

John, Wrong again

The highway code is not a book of codes its a book of rules most of which are legal requirements

Break them at your peril

Many of the rules in The Highway Code are legal requirements, and if you disobey these rules you are committing a criminal offence. You may be fined, given penalty points on your licence or be disqualified from driving. In the most serious cases you may be sent to prison. Such rules are identified by the use of the words ‘MUST/MUST NOT’. In addition, the rule includes an abbreviated reference to the legislation which creates the offence

Added
Although failure to comply with the other rules of The Highway Code will not, in itself, cause a person to be prosecuted, The Highway Code may be used in evidence in any court proceedings under the Traffic Acts (see The road user and the law) to establish liability. This includes rules which use advisory wording such as ‘should/should not’ or ‘do/do not’.

https://www.gov.uk/highway-code/introduction


Roy

I have rented when I was younger - could not afford a deposit till I was 28. So ten years of renting. It never crossed my mind that the property belonged to me, and expected property to be checked regularly - particularly if work was required by either me or landlord.

You said in OP that surveyor thought you were not co-operating. And I think your attitude as expressed in this thread would give him grounds to be nowty. Yes, I think you are being awkward from what you have written.

Anyway, your OP woke me up today from my slumbers :-)

No Maggie, you are not being awkward.
John you are being argumentative.

Putting the law aside for a moment, when someone rents out their house it becomes the TENANTS HOME. Common courtesy should dictate that the house owner does not invade the privacy of the tenant.

The only time I believe I could have been called 'awkward' was when I didn't want him coming around in the evening, and when he knocked this morning - when the appointment was for this afternoon.

Wonder what would happen if I randomly turned up to the dentist and demanded he see me or a check up? Methinks I'd get short shrift.

Even then the appointment was 'after 1', which means I am hanging around waiting, when I need to give a neighbour a key to feed my cats :-P

Maggie I am also a landlady. Appointments should be made at a time convenient to both parties. It is not unreasonable that you did not want a night time visit so I honestly do not think you are being awkward. From what you have said it seems he just wanted to turn up at any time to suit himself.

Landlords must operate within the law and comply with numerous Housing Acts as failure to comply with them can lead to severe fines or even jail, . If you feel you have been intimidated by this man, I suggest you contact his superior.

John - no matter what the topic - you are always right and everyone else is always wrong.

Who is out 'of step'? Pity you did not go back to your slumbers.

Maggie - it is worth putting a complaint in - in writing to Housing Dept.

As the mother said at the Sandhurst passing out parade. "Look, they are all out of step except my Willy". I am not at all sure I am right (not taking my bar exams till next year), but I did at least bother to find out that all this "you cannot come into my home unless you give me notice and is not after dark or when I'm cooking or vacuuming" is not enacted in any Act of Parliament as one or two clever clogs have stated.

Edit. Also I would complain about the attitude of the surveyor, who may need to be told to keep calmer. And his boss will have to come out and discuss the complaint - and hopefully bring his notebook and his camera with him or her. Problem solved.

Well, he's been and gone.
The letter from the council was misleading. He was mainly assessing the state of the kitchens - put in 20 odd years ago, and bathrooms, put in about 15 years ago. Also lagging in loft (which he couldn't see in mine because of the 'personal' lagging :-D), fuse box, smoke alarm, air extractors (of which I have none) and state of front & back doors, and garden.
Pleased to say, he didn't believe the council had put my kitchen in, as it was 'unusual' ( we chose what elements we wanted from a limited pallatte, but I know I was the only one to choose black worktops with a green fleck). When I said they did - he thought it must have been 5 years ago or less. :-D Due for renewal in 10 years or more.
Bathroom could be renewed sooner - but not if I don't want a plastic bath - which I don't. My bath was installed complete with a chip - but it hasn't got any worse.
Fuse box renewed last year, smoke alarm to be upgraded.

He also noticed the telephone engineer had left a line tester in my gutter!!! :-0
He liked my décor, (flatterer) and was worringly impressed by a painting in my living room, left to me by mum, which he thought may be worth something, but failed to notice the Rene LeForestier in my bedroom, which isn't worth a fortune, but if sold would definitely make a 100% profit - I bought it at a jumble sale for £2.50!!

John, As usual you have reverted back to like, Stating others have stated things that they have not, The law is the law and as for what is reasonable? that is for the judge to decide when any case comes before the court,

Roy

Oh - and the sweep - another council contractor - hasn't turned up :-|

Good thread this, Maggie. Sorry to sound so confrontational, but it did get my goat a bit. But great it is all sorted. And I would not like to know what you will do with sweep's brushes when he finally arrives :-0 :-0

Roy - back to school, old boy. The law is NOT the law. There is a difference between statutory and non-statutory law. Discuss differences in less that 500 words. But not on this thread, please ;-)

John is correct that in England & Wales there is statutory law ( Act of Parliament ) and judge made law which follows decisions made by judges in the Appeal and higher courts, usually as a result of lacunae in Acts of Parliament.

Current E&W ousing law occupies more than a yard of shelf space so posting it here might be a bit OTP. A landlord web site puts it very succintly though.

"Once you have rented out your property it becomes the tenants home not yours" (until the end of the lease).

http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2010/08/31/urban-myth-when-a-landlord-lets-a-property-its-still-his/

IMHO Maggie should make a complaint about the behaviour of the surveyor. Most Housing Associations are punctilious about observance of the law and would not be very happy about this sort of thing. Currently there is quite an oversupply of surveyors to available work in Hampshire so I am sure they can make a point.

I think Maggie you should ponder the reason for the survey.
We had the same situation about 3 years back and at first we thought of it as being very intrusive and it seemed they as if they were checking up on US (the tenants).
And thinking this way, it didn`t seem right and it made you feel very uncomfortable about it all.

What they don't tell you is that the council have been issued a government directive to bring their housing stock up to par (I forget what they call the scheme some thing to do with warming I think) and If they want to continue getting money (grants) from the government
they have to comply with this directive

Anyway I`ll cut it short... We had these intrusive surveys done, and we ended getting a brand new modern fitted kitchen, all new Windows (Double glazing) and just recently the Bathroom has been renovated and fitted out with new wash basin, toilet and made into a tiled Wet Room, Shower etc.
They also double insulated the loft, not to mention cavity walls filled with polystyrene .
And, just a year back solar panels were fitted on the roof, did I forget the fire alarm fittings as well. Even got a small amount of money to pay for a bit of decorating as well.

So the nasty little council chappie we thought was coming to spy on us was doing us proud actually.... What's that saying, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" .

Mind you your survey might be for an entirely different matter, but you ought to enquire what the survey is all about anyway.
I do hope it is for home improvements that you will benefit from.

Mind you we haven`t got the new outside doors we were promised as of yet (they ran out of money) but I shouldn`t grumble really should I? :-D :-D

Hi Budgie,
It was for exactly what yours was for - but the letter implied something totally different!!
Mind you, when I phoned the council to arrange the appointment - the girl on the other end of the line was clueless.
Then you start thinking about the bedroom tax etc, especially after receiving 2 'confidential' surveys. One with hidden 'reference' numbers - a small number on the address label, the same number at the bottom of the survey .
The other 'confidential' survey openly showing a reference number, oh, and the reminder sent asking me to send back the 'confidential' survey!! :-0 :-S :-P

He took pictures of the kitchen and bathroom.

I think you were in the right Maggie, but glad he has been now and you feel ok about his visit.

When I managed the student lets belonging to my friend, a few years ago, I was told that any inspection had to be after a minimum of 24 hrs notice. I found the best way to keep an eye on the state of the property was to hire a cleaner to go in weekly to clean the shared areas and added the cost to the rental, it worked well and made it easier to deep clean the whole house at changeover time. The students didn't mind, it made their lives a bit easier and if there were any problems they were quickly sorted out and any repairs noticed by the cleaner were dealt with before they became too big and expensive to deal with.

Lizx

What Budgie is talking about is the ""Decent Homes"" which is for new Bathrooms/Wet Rooms,new Kitchens,new DG Windows,New DG doors,
Loft and cavity insulation.

If you haven't had any of these in the last 30years then they should get done
in the near future.


I went through this porcedure 7 years ago when I lived in Otley West Yorkshire.

Maggie,,,NO you are not being awkward,,the surveyor should have stuck to the appointment you stated.

As for the sweep,hope he turns up on the next appointment..
We had to pay for our chimney sweeping ourselves.

" I don't believe it " :-0 :-0

I ended my last post with a possible little grumble about outside doors not being replaced with promised new ones (that was well over a year or two ago when measured up for them)

Guess what?...
A chappie from the council is at this very moment downstairs measuring up for the new doors yet again.
:-D :-D :-D

Ha ha Budgie :-D
His boss must be reading the boards. Ask him if he knows who the RR'r is ;-) :-D

~~~~~~~~~ waves to~~~~~~~~~ Island. Coo eeeeeeeeeeeee


He,he. that's a thought sweetie. :-D :-D :-D