We live in a rented property in a block of flats: My wife suffers with many allergies, specifically plants and wheat. She has documentation from her hospital consultant. Recently she asked the gardeners, who come maybe once a month, to trim a shrub near our window. One of the buildings Directors was present but made no comment to the gardener. A few days later we receive a strongly worded letter from our Managing Agents forbidding us to speak to the gardeners, and also threatening that should we touch any plants ourselves this would be criminal damage and we might be evicted.
Since then the Directors have deliberately planted at least 6 new plants/bushes immediately outside of our bedroom and lounge windows, we are ground floor
Today they have even installed a cctv camera outside our window, presumably to watch guard over the plants. This bullying is having a toll on our anxiety and will make it difficult to have the windows open during the summer. My wife has lived here for more than 15 years and nothing has been planted before her innocent request to the gardeners
Well the garden is the responsibility of the managing agents not a tenant. So if there is anything about the garden you are unhappy with you do need to go through the managing agent. The gardener isnt paid by you.
You can contact the Landlord directly explaining the concerns you have with the managing agent’s behaviour and/or use the managing agent’s formal complaints procedure but dont hold out too much hope.
You can request cutting back or removal of the new plants citing the Landlord 's duty of care to tenants (there is legislation re health, @David122 may be able to quote, but again unlikely to be successful they will just say close the windows if it’s an issue - tho you can say unreasonable and unrealistic as that harms need for ventilation and reduces the facilities available.
The cctv may be an intrusion of privacy and certainly is affecting your right to 'quiet enjoyment ’ - ask for it to be removed
Keep a written contemporaneous record of all incidents and communications in case you need to make a claim based on harassment. There may be some no win no fee lawyers willing to take it on or if you call the council their enforcement people can order the landlord to sort it out. .
I think @David240 idea of treating it as a medical issue is potentially a good one. If you can get a note from your gp about the allergy and send it to the Directors with a request to move the plants on medical grounds, they would be very foolish not to take legal advice on the matter, which should be more objective.
The gardener was outside our flat, the Director lives next door and was talking to the gardener about something
As the gardener was there and it was going to take around 2 minutes, politely asking seemed obvious. If the Director or the gardener had suggested that they were not happy with the request then we would have asked the managing agents.
Our managing agents have always been polite and professional. We have had limited history dealing directly with our LL, he seems fair and honest. The Director is a bully who has had confrontations with most of those who rent, he owns his flat. However being two faced, as in this instance he said nothing at the time, but wrote a letter of complaint to our managing agents
Not until they received the Director’s complaint, which they have accepted at face value. Then they sent a letter threatening shat our tenancy will be at risk should we, or anyone we know! touch the plants
I know this may seen trivial and childish but the above is truthfully what happened
Thanks. So is the director the Director of a managing Co which maintains the block on behalf of the freeholder, including the garden. Is the Director also the leaseholder for your flat and your Landlord, or is that someone else? And just to check the agents you mention work for your landlord?
Thank you again David, yes he is Director of a block management company. He is NOT our landlord nor anything to do with the lease on our flat.
The agents work for our landlord, whom I believe owns half of the 36 flats. As far as I know only a handful of the flats are lived in by owner/occupiers
@trefor1959 hmm well this Director may like throwing his weight around but doesn’t have any rights to evict you.
Sounds like someone to avoid dealing with direct if you can. May have had issues with renters in the past or just thinks tenants have fewer rights/less likely to stand up to him than lesseholders but not a reason to get managing agents to threaten you
At most he can ask leaseholder (your landlord or the managing agents acting for LL) to ask you not to deal with the gardener and not to touch plants/garden. The Director (or rather the freeholder and block management co which he is Director of) can’t tell your landlord whom to rent to, and if there were any breaches of the lease they would legally have to deal with the leaseholder/your landlord but a dispute over the placement of some garden plants is unlikely to result in anyone being evicted- leave them well alone.
The block management co on behalf of the freeholder do still have a duty of care to residents (so eg are responsible for fire risk assessments in any communal area)
Of course your landlord wants to keep the block mgt company happy as they rely on them to manage the garden, carry out repairs to the exterior etc. But you can still write to your landlord (via the letting agents) to highlight the health issues, remind them that they and the block management co have a duty of care, and request removal of the plants and cctv. You may also choose to mention (perhaps) the bullying behaviour and loss of quiet enjoyment due to cctv installation. Include your account of the facts/timeline with no emotional language. You can mention that you don’t want to get the Council involved but are aware they have enforcement powers if the landlord/block management company do not take suitable action. The managing agents and your LL will then hopefully consider your request and decide whether to follow up with the block co. (Not ideal the managing agents took Director complaint at face value and issued a letter without talking/getting your side of story first but not worth complaining about at this stage)
