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From
February 23, 2007
It's time to make noise
Has the law tilted too much in the landlord’s favour? One tenant breaks his silence to offer a tenant’s view
THE buy-to-let sector has been the property success story of recent years. But the handsome returns sometimes enjoyed by the new breed of amateur landlords can come at the expense of their customers.
For the past year I have been the tenant of a buy-to-let landlord. In fact, he’s just terminated my lease and told me to move. I used to think the law guaranteed tenants a certain amount of security, provided they paid rent on time and didn’t swing from the curtains. In fact, all my landlord needed to do to get me out, along with my partner and my partner’s child, was give us two months’ notice. I could have dug my heels in and forced him to obtain a court order, but the result would have been the same, because I had no right to argue my case. I’d given that away in the contract I signed when I moved in.
Like most private lettings today, mine was governed by an assured shorthold tenancy agreement. After an initial guaranteed period, usually of six months, landlords are not obliged to provide a reason for not extending the tenancy.
Before the 1988 Housing Act, legislation protecting tenants had distorted the rental market. Landlords were often unable to reclaim their property, however justified their case, and rents were pegged artificially low by rent tribunals. The system cried out for reform, and the Conservative Government provided it in 1988. But that, and subsequent legislation, tipped the balance of privilege to the landlords, leaving private tenants with virtually no security of tenure.
The £120 billion buy-to-let sector, the very model of a cottage industry, is set to become corporate
We feel we were good tenants, my partner and I. We were middle-aged and middle-class. We were homeowners ourselves (renting because we could not sell our own homes), so we weren’t likely to turn into squatters. We were prepared to pay a rent that was much larger than the average mortgage repayment and quietly settled into an upstairs conversion flat in a Victorian terraced house in South London.
Or we thought we were quiet. But we hadn’t yet met our neighbour, the owner of the flat next to ours. Jane, let’s call her, was a woman of about 40, living alone. Pretty soon she began complaining about our noise to the managing estate agent. This was embarrassing, as she could have simply knocked on our door.
Still, I conceded that I might have been a little loud. I had been spoilt by many years living in family houses, first in Brixton and then Streatham, where the neighbourhood philosophy had been live and let live. My new neighbour was more sensitive. And the walls of the conversion were frail. I knew this because I could hear every noise Jane made too. The omnibus edition of The Archers became the soundtrack to our Sunday morning lie-ins. One night, even though she clearly wasn’t in, I was kept awake into the early hours, transfixed by an unfolding saga next door as a man repeatedly rang her number, leaving increasingly aggrieved messages on her answering machine.
I rationed the amount of music I played and lowered the volume of my hi-fi, but these measures weren’t sufficient for Jane, who complained again to the agent. So far he had been affable in our dealings, but the complaints appeared to be getting to him too, because his reaction was a formal and vexed letter, telling me that any (in bold, underlined) music or noise audible after 11pm was unacceptable.
I was so taken aback I wondered if I had signed away my right, so hard won all those years ago, to stay up till midnight. The conditions of a tenancy agreement are far-reaching and numerous, so it’s not unreasonable to forget one or two. One must solemnly undertake not to damage the fabric, not to permit or suffer the timbers to be maimed, not to keep pets, or make pinholes in the walls, not to smoke, not to put damp objects on the radiators, not to hang washing where it is visible through the windows . . .
I was beginning to get vexed myself. I wrote letters to my agent and my neighbours saying I was not aware of a curfew operating in the neighbourhood. I asked them if they made their dinner party guests leave their homes at 11pm. I said I would endeavour to live as quietly as possible in future, but it was impossible to live in a converted property of this kind without being overheard. Every now and then – birthdays, argument nights – a little noise was inevitable.
All this was having an uncomfortable psychological effect on us. We no longer felt welcome; we tiptoed around the flat. I was writing a book about music, but I stopped playing the stuff. In the late summer we were away from the flat for five weeks apart from two nights, but even this wasn’t quiet enough because Jane complained again, this time directly to the owner of our flat. We were in Spain when the agent called me on my mobile, at my expense, to tell me he had decided not to extend the lease. It was simply the easiest way to deal with the matter. And we didn’t have a say in it.
Our subsequent move to Balham, also in South London, at a time when we least wanted to move, was expensive and exhausting, but we’ve done it. We’ve signed another long tenancy agreement. Shortly after moving in we had a call from our new managing estate agency to say that two safety officers from Wandsworth council needed to make a routine inspection of the flat. The owner of the agency would bring them round himself. The first we saw of him was when he came through the front door after unlocking it with his own key, ushering in the inspectors after him and stating abruptly: “I did knock.” The inspectors expressed the deference of polite intruders, but he didn’t give us another word or glance as he led them round the flat.
It didn’t feel like a home, it felt like his pitch. While there is a shortage of affordable housing, the buy-to-let market gets bigger and the landlords and their agents fatter. And tenants are a growing disadvantaged group.
Still, the new flat has a generous feel about it and not a soul has complained about us. One Saturday night, soon after we moved in, a party geared up next door. A good party, by the sound of it. We lay in bed listening to people whooping and laughing and singing along to Shane MacGowan and The Pogues. It was music to my ears.
TENANCY DEPOSIT SCHEME
The Tenancy Deposit Scheme will apply to assured shorthold tenancies only. Deposits taken by landlords must be placed in a tenancy deposit protection scheme within 14 days of payment.
The scheme, due to come into force on April 6, should ensure more deposits are returned to tenants and fewer disputes. Further information is available at www.communities.gov.uk/tenancydeposit
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Without the '88 Act we simply would not have the huge number of properties available to let. At least if an 'amateur' landlord kicks you out with 2 months notice you can be assured there are legions of other landlords looking for good long term tenants. And the market is still well regulated: landlords cannot simply make up one-sided T&Cs because these will in all probability be totally unenforceable.
Richard, London, England
I completely agree with this article. My partner and rent from a 'reputable' agency and pay almost £1000 per month - and yet we still have been left in a flat that has mould growing on the walls and the landlord will do nothing about this. We have no say in how the flat looks, and we can't even change the curtains or put a picture up without asking permission, despite the fact that we are good tenants. We keep the flat clean, we've carried out hundreds of minor repairs and made small improvements (new lampshades etc, which we will leave when we move), we respect out neighbours by not using the hoover, washing machine or playing music after 7pm, and yet we can't call the place we live home or settle down because, like the article says, all the landlord needs to do it give us two months notice and we're out. It feels like we're being punished just because we can't afford a home.
Emma, London ,
In any other industry the people paying the money are viewed as the client because if the job is not not kept to the specification money can be withheld. For some reason this is not true for tenants if we withhold money we can be evicted, there should be some form of protection for the tenant in a similar way to the deposit with the landlord.
John, Guildford,
I agree with your neighbour. Music after 11pm is inconsiderate - some of us have to be up at 6am for work and being kept awake until midnight (or beyond) just isn't on. No one was saying you couldn't stay up till midnight, but why did she have to be kept up as well? Other people's noise can be very intrusive and takes away the feeling of 'home' as much as having a landlord barge in. Yes she could have spoken to you but she may have found the idea intimidating (I would) so preferred to go through formal channels, as opposed to airing her grievances in a national newspaper under the guise of complaining about landlords.
Jemima, London,
Struck a chord with me too. The home my partner and I share, is rented from a private landlord. Meanwhile, my own house is now let to a tenant. So I have personal experience from both sides and I totally agree that "feeling like home" is important. As far as I'm concerned, the rent my tenant pays me, makes the house my bricks and mortar, but her home and her space, and I try my best to respect that. Our landlord doesn't, and it leaves a bad taste feeling like you're on someone else's turf the whole time. Little courtesies like knocking & waiting to be invited in, asking if it's OK to use the bathroom, getting the tenant's views on paint colour before redecorating, might seem unimportant, compared to things like rent being paid on time and repairs being done... but you sure miss them when they're not offered.
Helen Wheeler, Wiltshire, UK
I think that if you want to be able to turn your music up, you find a place to live with thick walls. My sideways neighbours and I don't hear each other, but my upstairs neighbours and I do. I don't use my washing machine (which has a noisy spin) or tumble dryer after 11 pm, and late at night I listen to music on a personal stereo. My neighbours keep their noise down except for the occasional party. It's simple. The only problem I haven't yet resolved is one neighbour's apparent inability to go through a door without slamming it.
Quiet-as-a-mouse, Birmingham, UK
The Plimmers are obviously ideal tenants - they just had a neurotic neighbour. It would be interesting to know how the next tenants fare.
As a landlord with about 10 properties locally that I manage myself, I am fed up with the assumption that the landlord is a rich selfish baddie. Yes, the law should be tightened up but not in just the interest of teh tenants. Yes, landlords should be business like but so should tenants! How many businesses are available at 24/7 to their 'customers' who virtually expect their landlords to change lightbulbs. And if I don't pay my mortgage on time, I get a bad credit rating and am charged by the lender; tenants often seem to think they can pay when it suits them, despite having agreed in their tenancy agreemnt when and how they will pay the rent!
Renting is a two way thing - and needs tolerance and sometimes humour on both sides!
Kate
Kate Partridge, London, England
I have had noisy neighbours quite a few times as the house next door to me was rented out but mine was bought. My life was made a misery by the parties of my neighbours every weekend but that wasn,t the worse bit it was when they put their music on all the time, after work, in the morning all the time, loud enough for everyone in the street to hear, have these people not heard of head phones! As for the parties i don't like the attitude of the article writer live and let live but in the majorty of housing we all have to live together in a confined space and if everyone made lots of noise all of the time when they wanted it would he chaos.
I couldn,t just move as i would have to sell and couldn't afford to move my life was hell. I think that people should be more considerate of their neighbours and stop acting like spolilt children saying i should be able to do as i want and don't tell me what to do.
samantha bingly, corby,
Noisy neighbours are as big a scourge to ones sanity as the hooded waifs running amok in our streets. Having suffered from the gross inconsiderate 2am disco world one former neighbour seemed to inhabit I am sensitive to the noise I may generate myself and always endeavour to be a good, quiet neighbour. Unlike the b@stard downstairs who seems to have a hobby juggling bowling balls in the early hours.
Advice to renters: Lease property from decent agents. My property is leased through a solicitor/leasing agent, they have a reputation to uphold, they service and maintain the property on my behalf as and when needed and the well being of the occupants come first. Renting privately is asking for trouble.
John Smith, London, UK
I don't understand what the point of this article is. It is already against the law for a landlord to enter a property without permission except for very specific reasons to do with safety etc. It seems as if the writer wasn't very happy in his apartment anyway - he already said it felt like psychological torture. The landlord may have suspected that it was only a matter of time before he was handed notice from him and so decided to end the contract at its natural conclusion. It is nice to hear about a landlord who was prepared to act to support the single female living downstairs. Often single people are left alone to deal with noisy and frequently unpleasant neighbours. It is all very well to say that the lady should have spoken to you directly but given your response even after being asked by the landlord it doesn't seem very likely it would have achieved a very positive response for her and she may well have been afraid to do so.
Michele Brenton, Wales,
This struck a chord with me. I have been renting a property for a few years, and as such it should feel like my home. However my landlord has on 3 occasions thought it reasonable to come in without any prior notice, to carry out minor repairs. Being at work at the time, I felt like I was going mad to arrive home and see that things had been moved. I know that this is against the law but it's a lovely flat otherwise and the rent is excellent, so I don't want to rock the boat by complaining to the authorities. He actually said to me, "if I don't like it, I can always leave." !!!!! I will of course take action if it happens again, but it's a shame I can't feel 100% at home there.
emma t, plymouth,
If I'm honest, I think I can see where Jane was coming from - loud music at 11pm? You're not allowed to honk your horn between 11pm and 7am, so I dont see why it should be unreasonable to ask for quiet from your neighbours thereafter, also.
C22, Leeds,