In my previous posts I have hinted at how my first place was pretty ridiculous. You might have wondered why I continued suffering in a house, that I don’t own, but I was legally bound to stay in it for 12 months.
My landlord was very shady with his contract. I had no power to leave (without losing a hefty amount of money), and he had no clause that said he had to repair all issues, within a set amount of time. There were even a few clauses that I thought might have been breached on his part, but the lettings agent wouldn’t have it. So, when I was ready to move out by the end of November, 1 month after my tenancy started, you can imagine the shock I felt, when going over my contract and seeing that early termination would result in me having to pay up my total rent upfront. I calculated that to be £6545. Hell. No.
But how did I know I was ready to leave? I lost trust in the company who I thought valued me as a customer.
The landlord and lettings agent are a company, and they needed my money as the customer, to make the most out of the product they invested in. I give businesses 3 chances and after that, the bond is broken and I refuse to continue being involved.
The first chance was blown on the viewing. They called me to book my viewing date and we confirmed it 5 days in advanced. Why did I receive a call when I was 15 minutes away, that they had the wrong keys? It was incredibly unprofessional. If I wasn’t so desperate for a house, I would have used that as the reason to not pursue that property.
Second chance was blown within 15 minutes of trying to move in. There was no fridge, even though it was described to have a fridge on the website, and the landlord had run all the meters into serious debt, that the provider had shut them all down. This left me spending my first day trying to get a gas and electric source into the property.
Last chance happened when we were hit by a serious storm. I have known that West Cumbria gets some bad storms from time to time. Thankfully, my place was on a hill, so flooding wasn’t an issue for me. However, the sell for this house was that it was recently modernised. So, 3 weeks in the new place we have our first storm. Serious floods happened in the area, but my place wasn’t affected. That was until I walked into my bedroom and saw a wet patch from the ceiling. I contacted the agent straight away, and they responded, “yeah that’s an issue with the roof, we’ll send someone over”. That was Oct 2021. Right now, its May 2022, still no one has come to look at it, and the patch got worse with each storm we had and every time it rained. It now has a little sibling a few centimetres away, and cousins all the way down my windows. They form a cute family, they should be the next tenants.
A bunch of other things happened throughout my tenancy. Broken fences (due to weather), issues with my thermostat; there were issues raised during my boiler inspection due to installation of products. None of which have ever been resolved, and they expected me to continue staying in this property regardless. What constantly ran through my head was ‘If something more serious were to happen, how can I trust that they will respond appropriately?’ And I had completely lost all that trust in them.
I was stuck in that house for the majority of the 12-month tenancy. But I saved up 6 months’ worth of rent money, so then I could leave that contract early and put that BS behind me. I took a hit on my financial goals, but it meant that I didn’t have to suffer mentally for the full 12 months. And that was a sacrifice worth making for myself.
Morals of my story:
- Have some boundaries– Don’t let these people bully you into taking their business. I have lost a lot of money, because I let them cross my non-existent boundaries
- Know what’s important to you– For me, at first finances were important to me, but when this house showed me more issues than I could cope with, then I chose my mental health as a priority, and that meant I decided to sacrifice my finances.
- Get out as soon as you possibly can– If you hate it, then get out as soon as you can, but don’t just stop paying rent, unless its confirmed, because they will have ammunition against you then.
