jml's notebook
Rental woes
Rental woes
Attention conservation notice: This is a bit of a moan about problems I’m lucky to have.
Quick timeline:
- We start paying rent on our new flat
- We ask the landlord, via the property manager, for permission to anchor our bookshelves to the walls
- We receive permission from the property manager, on the proviso that we do not use one particular wall
- We install bookshelves
- Months pass
- The landlord visits for some other reason, with our permission
- Weeks pass
- I change a light in our bathroom, accidentally causing an electric fault. I report this the same day.
- Various other electric faults start to appear in the house
- Three weeks later, I email the property manager saying we’re going to find our own electrician
- Next day, we’re told that our property manager was sick, and that they are going to sort it out
- An electrician appears to do a quote, but fixes the problem while he was here
- Next day, we receive an urgent email from our property manager complaining about the bookshelves anchored into the bedroom wall, asking us to immediately remove them, check for hazards, and to restore the wall to its original state. It later transpires that the landlord informed them of this, having noted it on his visit some weeks previous. No reason is given for why it was not urgent then, but urgent now. Also, in future, we are to ask permission for drilling holes!
- We unanchor the bookshelves, check for damage (there’s none), and arrange a quote to get the holes filled in
- Yesterday, I got a quote for filling in the holes, etc. It’s a lot more than I want to pay.
Basically, either the landlord or the property manager screwed up when giving us permission, and is asking us to pay for it.
I don’t understand why this was not urgent and then became urgent. My most charitable explanation is that the landlord simply forgot about it, and then was reminded of it when he received the electrician’s bill.
I’m probably going to push back on this.