A
female
age
30-35,
anonymous
writes:I'm currently private renting/lodging in a house shared with the landlord and paying £300 all in for rent, on the basis that we have one of the 3 bedrooms and share the living room, bathroom, kitchen and garden. For the first 10-11 months, we didn’t use the living room, but recently we have because we got sick of being cooped up in the bedroom.I've been living here for just over a year now, on a lease for 6 months going onwards to 2 years. I used get along fine face-to-face with my landlord in the early months. We kept out of each others way, kept the house tidy and interacted very little due to his working hours, but for the past 7-8 months, I've wanted to scream at him. He's inconsiderate, loud, annoying and, I've come to the conclusion, very blooming stupid.He works nights so he sleep during the day. Not a problem as, in his words, he sleeps like the dead and during the weekdays we get a peaceful nights sleep (a point he proves daily when his surround sound alarm goes off and it still takes him 10 minutes to wake up), but during the weekends he keeps to his normal routine and royally pisses me off because he has no consideration for anyone at all. He slams doors, cupboards and drawers. Clangs pots and pans, clatters plates and scrapes his chair on the floor so loud that it actually scares the crap out of me. When I go downstairs in the morning, I realize that the reason I could hear every word of all the shows he watched was because the TV volume was set to 30 (we have it on 10 or 11 during the day because the sound system is pretty good and low volume is loud). He always plays his dog up and actually tries to get him to bark by tapping on the doors and walls and going "What's that?!". And then of course there’s the fact that his “quiet voice” is so loud that our neighbours knock on OUR bedroom wall and shout for him to talk a little quieter!For exactly 9 months, he hasn't so much as looked at the vacuum, let alone thought about doing any cleaning. I clean the house from top to bottom every 2 days because he doesn't do anything at all and I hate living in a dirty space. Recently, it's gotten worse because he'll bring down the dishes and bowls he's used in his room and just pile them on the side for me to load into the dishwasher... even though it's directly under where he piled his shit in the first place! He also pees in the shower, takes a crap and then doesn't bother to flush and on more than one occasion, I've found his "wank wipe"'s stuffed down the side of the sofa. Now, that is disgusting. Considering it's his house and we're good tenants, I really don't think it's fair on me that I have to clean his house. I've asked him before if he could tidy up and he agreed to do something, but all he does is wipe over the chopping board BEFORE he uses it and then leaves his mess on it after! He even has the cheek to take our washing out of the machine and just dump it on the side so he can wash his, and usually doesn’t tell us so by the time I’ve come home and realised, everything needs to be washed again.He also has a dog. We have a Border Collie cross and he has an Akita cross. We both got them from the same rescue at roughly the same time (we got our Collie a few days before). I don't understand why he got his dog. He walks him once a month, if that, hasn't bothered to train him (even though he was told he NEEDED to train him) and feeds him whenever he likes. This past weekend, I've had to feed him because my landlord hasn't bothered getting out of bed because he has a few extra days off of work. This is a regular occurrence in which he seems to think that it's fine to let your dog starve just because you can't be bothered to get out of bed to feed them. And then, as idiotic as he is, when he does feed him he’ll immediately play with him and get him excited, and wonders why the poor thing throws up!! The same goes for his cats, that I clean up after, feed and let out of the cat house daily. I don't think he's even seen them for over a month.Now I've been ranting so much that I've ranted myself dry and can't be bothered to continue with all of the astonishing stupidity that is my landlord, but what I want to know is what can we do to make our lives easier? He clearly isn't up to owning pets, but I can't call the RSPCA or anyone that could help because he could very well turn around and tell us to get rid of our dog. Asking him to clean up is like talking to a brick wall (and he blames his ex for the reason they broke up! She was "demanding and nagging" he said...)I've actually calculated how much I would be paid if it was my job to clean his house for the past 6 months (starting in the New Year). I have earned £1,020, based on NMW.Something has got to give. I’ve been suffering from depression since early December and cleaning up after a 36 year old man and looking after his pets isn’t helping me in the slightest. My partner is on the verge of snapping. Can someone please help? We’re good tenants, we always pay our rent on time and the only time we’ve ever really gotten in our landlords way is when we’re in the living room watching TV, as for some reason he thinks that he can’t join us and sits in his room...
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Fancy yourself as an agony aunt? Add your answer to this question! A
female
reader, oldbag +, writes (4 June 2012):
 Hi
Bad situation but you have a bargain, £300 all in and you can have a dog. Thats excellent rates and your landlord knows it. If your not working and he is, then cleaning up isn't really an issue is it. I would ask him to clean the bathroom after hes been in and wash his own dishes though.
He wants the rent and at that price he would easily replace you, perhaps thats what he wants to do, drive you out?
If you have a tenency agreement and secure deposit you can seek help or advice for free, try the Shelter website or Citizens Advice. At the end of the day it IS your home and you pay to live there so as a tenant you have rights.
If your unemployed you may get a government loan for a deposit for a flat but living in one will be alot more expensive than where you are.
A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (4 June 2012): Hi, I'm the OP. I probably should have mentioned in my first post, but both my partner and I were laid off in the beginning of the year, otherwise we would willingly move. But even on benefits, where else are we going to find a place as cheap as £300 all in? My family are a few hundred miles away from me and none of them have the space for us, and his family are struggling, too. We would leave if we could, but it's simply not an option right now.
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A
female
reader, So_Very_Confused  +, writes (4 June 2012):
 is there a reason you can't move?
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