Hey everyone, I know there are a lot of great landlords out there but unfortunately I got stuck with one that is pretty much been harassing me since day one. She treats me like a child even though we are the same age, always monitoring what I do, and flies off the handle if I try to explain any of my reasonable rights to space and privacy no matter how kindly or fairly I speak to her.
Right now I’m dealing with her wanting to come and “inspect” my gardens and home. I’ve only lived here three months and she lives upstairs in a separate home and entrance so she can look into my gardens and really my home at any time. It seems like she may be doing this just harass me and maybe even trying to lay the groundwork for not returning my deposit. And the only reason she brought it up was in retaliation to another issue where I had to ask her to please respect my right to privacy. She’s already stated a list of things I am doing “wrong” like not opening the windows (which I do and I also have a dehumidifier because she never installed a proper extractor fan for the bathroom) and not maintaining the gardens (which I’ve been doing and documenting) and also she never did any proper maintenance when she lived here the year before. She’s said if don’t take care of things then “it will be harder for her to get them back to their original condition” therefore she needs to come inspect which makes me wonder if she is up to something with my deposit or who knows. However she never registered the deposit like she was supposed to as far as I can tell. I want to break the lease and move because not only has this disrupted my studies and my mental health, I keep having to look over my shoulder and I’m afraid to move my things in because she will freak out so I’ve been sleeping on an air mattress.
But first I need to respond to her email asap about coming to inspect this weekend. Im genuinely not free at the times she’s proposed but honestly I think giving her access would be like giving her free reign to harass and humiliate me in addition to try do whatever she is up to. And I don’t know what to say to her that won’t cause her to retaliate and loose her temper. For example when I asked her to put the smoke detector in that’s what happened (I still don’t have one.) Okay sorry that was a ridiculously long message. Its really been a rough few months. P.S. A lot of our conversations have been in writing and I have been keeping an account/record of her harassment. I have a one year assured leasehold tenancy with no break clause. But firstly I’m just trying to figure what to do about the “inspection”. Thank you!