How to Deal with Our Landlord?
My partner and I have been renting a small house while we save up to make our first property investment move.
But while saving to become landlords, we ended up with landlords of our own who are difficult to deal with.
We pay rent days early every month, have always been respectful with our words and tone, and have maintained this place far nicer than we found it, undoubtedly raising market value here.
Our landlords live in the house next door (on our right) so we technically are on premises together. Before we signed the lease, they were not forthcoming about the fact that the lawn directly in front of our house is “their yard,” and that they’d be hanging out (right in front of our windows ) on that yard regularly.
They were not explicit that the shed on the complete (left) opposite side of our home from their house (we thought it was simply storage for us) is their ‘work shed’ where they congregate, repair, and ride motorcycles. So they regularly use the space to the right, left, and directly in front of our home. Isn’t this something you’d make clear to a renter?
Instead of the privacy that was implied by the rental, we are surrounded. None of this was mentioned until after we’d signed the lease and fully moved in. The lack of privacy and the hostility of the landlords has made living here stressful.
They are unprofessional, have gotten angry and yelled on more than one occasion for minor misunderstandings.
They left a dismembered car door wrapped in garbage bags in our direct line of vision in front of our house, behind their shed. We moved it about 3 feet over so it would not be the focal point of our yard from our home, thinking this would not be an issue (naive, to be sure). They moved it back, yelled at us for touching their stuff, and it has been there for months now out of spite, despite our request that it be moved out of our line of vision.
To their credit they eventually make repairs, but they don’t attempt make an appt for an agreed upon time, they just tell us vaguely when they will be there (‘I’ll come sometime after work Tuesday” etc). I think this is technically legal, as long as they give 24 hours notice? but is pretty disrespectful of our work schedules when the power needs to be cut off for repairs. (We do minor repairs ourselves whenever possible, but it’s an old house and there are issues with the electric..pretty sure the electrical system of this house is DIY, not up to code, has never been legal).
We’ve had water coming in the basement for months, and some of our storage items molded. we’ve repeatedly asked them to address this. They make life so difficult when it comes to setting up a time and are so unpleasant we haven’t pushed the issue.
We’ve considered just moving, but the rent is low enough to allow us to save up money every month, and this was the only rental house we could find with a small patch of green of our own, which accommodates our small dog. We also put so much effort into moving in and making it a home and at this pointe we’re exhausted at the prospect of moving again. We just got here in May.
Any tips on dealing with the landlords until we’ve made our move out of here?
Is it technically legal for them to not tell us that even the shed and driveway directly in front of our house would be shared and occupied by them (and their car parts and trash)?
Are they in the right for telling us when they’re coming for repairs without asking/taking our schedule into account?
You are a savvy bunch, and you’ve been on the other side of this perspective. How would you handle them?
Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this!