A letter to my landlord: Writers weigh in with firsthand experience

Dear Mr. Landlord, I feel compelled to write a letter about the poor quality of the property you rented me, last year. The ceiling was leaking, the painting was cracked, the heating did not work and the precious washing machine advertised by the agency was non-existent.  However, I want to address another message. I want to tell every student to never trust landlords if they are as greedy and unprofessional as you are.  The most disappointing moment for me was receiving the inspection report at the end of the tenancy.

You stated that the house was in a deplorable condition, and wanted half of our deposit to pay for cleaning service, painting, and even gardening.  I doubt you ever visited the house, before because the house was also left cleaner than how we found it.  There was also not a single leaf remaining in our backgarden when the last tenant left.  You tried to rip me off. Your ‘gestures of good will’ to reduce the deductions seemed disingenuous. You were disrespectful, almost insulting me in every email I exchanged with you.

 You refused to justify your prices. All you wanted was my money

You hardly replied, and when did you told me to ‘stop sending emails’ because it was too ‘time-consuming’ often replying with one-sentence replies.  You refused to justify your prices. All you wanted was my money, not a fair process of negotiations.  I hated the fact that I was so vulnerable, talking to somebody who was shut to debate and stubborn.  I only managed to reduce the deductions with the help of a professional who kindly represented me for free. Dear Mr. Landlord, making profit by ripping students off is such a lucrative business! I hope you are proud of yourself.

I live in a great house, but the landlady is a nightmare. She and her family were still living in the property when our tenancy started, and didn’t move out for nearly two weeks.  Throughout last year, she turned up unexpectedly and took the opportunity to enter our locked rooms without our knowledge or consent. Strangers repeatedly entered our garden and took things from the garage without warning, often late at night. Some of them would stare at me through my bedroom window as they passed. I felt like I had no privacy at all.

We eventually learned there was a bed made up in the garage, and suspected that someone was sleeping in there occasionally. I’ve never felt so paranoid. Builders arrived in Term 3 and started digging up the driveway. Needless to say, we weren’t told they were coming. Not only did I have to endure drilling outside my room whilst I was trying to revise, but the work wasn’t completed by the time we left.  At the end of the tenancy, they tried to take nearly a grand from our deposit. The charges were all hugely inflated- in one instance, they wanted us to pay £30 to copy a new key.

Strangers repeatedly entered our garden and took things from the garage without warning, often late at night

My advice for any students with a problem landlord is to record everything.  Write down the time and date of every violation, and make sure you’re present at the inventory and the checkout.  You have rights as a tenant, and you don’t have to tolerate a landlord who doesn’t respect you.

For first-year undergraduates moving into second year demarcates the move from on-campus halls into the local towns, with Leamington Spa being the popular location for most students.  Mid-way through first term, we all began to panic trying to look for houses. With the imminent horror of homelessness, everyone quickly scrambled together a group of people they felt they could tolerate for another year.  I thought I had lucked out with a reasonably priced house, with a massive room in a decent location. Little did I know this was the beginning of my accommodation hell.

We were promised a ‘deep clean’ but right from the start, the house was filthy. There were dust balls in the corners of my room and skid-marks in the toilets. My window was broken, so for the first two terms, I had wind gushing into my room, meaning that the room was always freezing and resulted in me having a permanent cold. Halfway through the year we had a rat infestation, so hearing little feet scuttling across my bedroom floor while I slept became the norm.

 I thought I had lucked out with a reasonably priced house, with a massive room in a decent location. Little did I know this was the beginning of my accommodation hell.

The lock on our front door broke so for a while we just did not have one. Meaning anyone could enter our house at any time. Then the door handle to my bedroom broke off with me inside the room so I was trapped there, eventually having to climb out through the fire escape.  When the happily-anticipated day of tenancy agreement termination finally came,were greeted with a mysterious £252 deducted off our deposit. Needless to say, I will be -moving into a university-managed property for my third-year.