Is Living with your Landlord always a bad idea?

I've lived with friends and strangers before and also in the landlord's house a couple of times. I've experienced (and read online) that living with the landlord is always usually a bad idea. I have not usually had trouble living with a non landlord, and pay my rent and am tidy, but if you're a lodger the landlord ALWAYS acts weirdly in my experience. They get nosy, very dodgy and controlling/gossiping about you and fussy. Basically they start taking the piss. I've had to leave a couple of houses early bc of this :lol:

Do you think it's always the case that if you live with your landlord they start acting crazy unless you're very strict? I'm moving again soon and saw a nice place with a live in landlord.. its hard to judge till you have moved though!

Reply 1

Kvothe the Arcane

NO, it's not always the case.

Reply 2

arcenciel21

Original post by Anonymous

I was just lodging with a landlrod because I needed a place to stay for two months before I started uni and it was EXACTLY AS YOU HAVE DESCRIBED - she got nosy, dodgy, fussy and gossiped to her daughter!

If you are living with a landlord, you are basically a guest in someone else's house. You have to sort of live by their rules - they will keep track of when you clean your room and you have to keep the communal areas as they wish, different people have different standards of cleanliness and for example some people do not clean the shower daily etc...having guests over / parties in the house is different as well... of course, it could turn out well but you would have to get extremely lucky and be completely on the same wavelength as the landlord in my opinion, otherwise its just a bit awkward. I would NOT want to be a guest in someone's house again.

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

Original post by arcenciel21

Yes this was my experience! Glad to hear ur at uni now! Live in landlords always want to know your business, gossiping about what you're doing, when you go out etc. They forget you are paying them and think its free money!! Rearranged my thingsin even though Im tidy and moaning about stuff constantly. I have lived several house shares, live in landlords are a serious outlier in terms of how psycho they can get. Very controlling and weird. Also I'm not racist, I'm not "English" myself but foreign live in landlords can be double trouble.. Saying stuff in a language they don't think you understand. :rolleyes:

The law on lodgers is also in the landlords favour. :s-smilie:

Reply 4

999tigger

Original post by Anonymous

Not always (real life good friends where you dont have any issues saying it as it is), but I would say its not a good one.

The reason its not good is because they are your landlord hence its unbalanced because they have more power (ability to evict you) and its always their house which you cna be very conscious of. Unless its an amazing bargain or very temporary then I would look elsewhere.

Reply 5

arcenciel21

Original post by Anonymous

The law on lodgers is also in the landlords favour. :s-smilie:

Reply 6

arcenciel21

Original post by 999tigger

The reason its not good is because they are your landlord hence its unbalanced because they have more power

This says all basically.

And my landlord was a complete clean freak, she is that housewife sort of woman who is at home cooking and cleaning all day. So she would literally put the hoover in front of our doors (there were other lodgers) and leave us notes to clean our room, even though all of us hoovered, cleaned etc on a weekly basis, we were all tidy but it needed to be done whenever SHE wanted. She literaly hoovered the house like every other day, it was so annoying. You had to clean the shower with distilled vinegar after every use, not allowed to keep toiletries in the bathroom and so on... as I said, people have different standards of cleanliness and if your standards dont match up then you are going to have problems.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 7

Anonymous #1

Original post by arcenciel21

Oh God my landlord rearranged my stuff as well, she told me the day I moved in that she will give me a key to my room. She never gave me the key. There were 2 chairs in my room and one day I come home and suddenly theres another chair. She never asked me if she could keep her chair in my room!! She also opened my wardrobe when I wasnt there without asking because she needed to see something that needed fixing....

As you said, they completely forget that you are PAYING to occupy the room / house and as long as you are paying, they should have no right to step foot in you room unless they think you are snorting coke in there or something.

By the way, this was a really nice and 'normal' lady that I was living with, so I can imagine that most live in landlors are even more trouble.
And my landlord was a complete clean freak, she is that housewife sort of woman who is at home cooking and cleaning all day. So she would literally put the hoover in front of our doors (there were other lodgers) and leave us notes to clean our room, even though all of us hoovered, cleaned etc on a weekly basis, we were all tidy but it needed to be done whenever SHE wanted. She literaly hoovered the house like every other day, it was so annoying. You had to clean the shower with distilled vinegar after every use, not allowed to keep toiletries in the bathroom and so on... as I said, people have different standards of cleanliness and if your standards dont match up then you are going to have problems.

WTF lol. How did she even know the wardrobe need fixing?! :nope:

Yes they think its still their space! Free money for being a whiny ***** and a room they go in, no thank you!!

I was also living with two "housewife" women while I was studying, so I wasnt out all day either :lol:

One of them obviously resented me, when she and her kids were in the dining room and I walked through they would stare and shed start whispering ****. Both also were rude gossips although I knew one of em before and she seemed like a nice normal lady like you say. They definitely overstep personal boundaries and think you are like a kid and they can control u. One of them said she didnt think I could get in for a Masters and was really sulky when I mentioned it though I got a First :rolleyes:

Constantly overheard them on the phone or to their husbands like "where is OP from, whats he doing, etc." Or gossiping to me about other lodgers! (who also disliked them). They also like to be nosy and ask questions like "are your parents here" but I lied and said they lived in a city close by cuz I knew they were hoping to exploit me :rolleyes:

The clean freak thing is also definitely true. One would moan about everything (even knock on the door when my stuff was in the oven and not burning!!) and rearrange my stuff in the bathroom etc tho it was tidy. Eventually I told her I was moving out and you should have seen her face :rolleyes:

@999tigger I agree completely. How many of your friends have been with live in landlords? Cuz mine have all been ****, but (no racist) they have mostl been from different cultures, not English, so maybe thought it OK to act like that to a young perso

Reply 8

Hill1983

I’ve had two live in land lords. 1st was really messy and left me to clear up after him and so I moved out after 5 months and 2nd is controlling and patronising. So to start with he gave me a tour of the house, this took what seemed like forever. I mean he was showing me how to pull up a blind and even switch on a kettle (really basic stuff for a 34yr old who has lived on my own since I was 16).It’s not to hard to try and avoid him however he leaves notes out for me to do/not do things and today I had no choice but to see him in the kitchen and he had created a list for which he wanted to discuss with me. So 1. Don’t pull the plug sockets out as I pulled out the bread maker plug by mistake so I could use my blender as their were no spare plugs. Unfortunately I didn’t realise he had put the bread on a cycle and unplugging it stopped this.2. My washing powder is kept behind the bin in the cluboard meaning I need to take the bin out to get it every time I need it. He asked me to keep the lid on the cardboard box because it makes the house smell. I’ve yet to notice the smell and being in a bin cupboard I would see that as a positive.3. Don’t use his sugar (his assumed I gather that I use his sugar but I don’t take sugar so not sure why he mentioned it although he was keen to say it was expensive sugar).4. Check the washing mashine after use as one of my socks was court between the drum and the door. You would not see this unless you ran your hands around the rim so that was unavoidable. 5. Don’t leave tea spoons on the side as it leaves puddles of tea. I can assure you I wouldn’t dare leave puddles of tea with him around so this is false and just something to moan about. I leave one on the side because I drink tea like a fish and don’t see why I need to wash it up every time)When I first moved in I put it down to him being a teacher and let him get it out his system however its now dawning on me that his always like this and I try and avoid him at all costs. We have a new lodger moving in this month and I wonder if he’ll be like this with her (she’s a doctor) so he might see her as maybe more intelligent (my assumption based on the fact he treats me like a retarded adolescent)

Reply 9

Elisabetta.92

Hello everybody. I have been living in Southampton with a landlady for a month and half and everything seemed allright. I could see some strange little things like passive aggressive but I thought that nobody is perfect you know. Then a Spanish girl arrived (I am Italian) we went out a couple of time and we begin to be friends. The landlady (more thant55 years old) she would not look at me in the eyes, never ask me anything only to her.q. and so started. One night she screamed that she was upset because I went out with this girl that invited me out with another Spanish girl. She said "I want to be your friend not just a landlady". In the end after little things happened she had the idea of going dancing salsa all of us. When arrived she said to the teacher that they would have gone to 3rd level and I to the beginner (was only for a night). My friend said "I ll co.e with you in the beginner class, I don't want to leave you alone. The landlady said "are you happy now she is coming with you!!" **** off...(screaming) Then when I said "no more, not anymore" she replied "you are so rude..." Bah! I could talk about this for many minutes more. She called me ***** when I tried to talk to her about leaving the house. And in the end she hugged me and said "it's ok darling" like saying( the fault of all this mess is your, but I forgive you) . Guys be aware of landlords, especially if the price is good for the house you are interested in, just be sure that you can move away. I felt like a duty to write this, I hope it will be helpful.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 10

Studentikovich

One has to be rather furtive with the copulations.

Reply 11

Mmg52988

I lived with a landlord for 7 months and it was terrible. She imposed all of these rules that caused me so much anxiety. She constantly listened to the tap and shower running while I was in the bathroom. Then she’d then tell me off for being too long and using too much water. She also only allowed me to wash my clothes on a 30-minute quick setting and I wasn’t allowed visitors. It was really unpleasant living like that, so if you could, i’d Advise to find somewhere with a live-out landlord.

Reply 12

MrZero93

Hi I'm a landlord who shares the property with housemates, I read all this before I started opening my door to new people and this advice has really halped me understand where the boundaries are between us all in the house, I am currently unemplyed which means I am home a lot so I do a lot of cleaning myself but I keep to myself and I never get involved in my housemates business unless I am invited to chill with them in the living room for Netflix and socialising, I have to admit sometimes I do ask my house mates in circulation if they can clean the stove, or mop the kitchen floor or hoover the staircase when they are free and able but majority of the time I do this since I don't have much to do due to unemployment, I organise the fridge from time to time when it gets hard to see whats in it, also housemates have there own cupboards and storage area 😊

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 13

Jowes59

Original post by Anonymous #1

I've lived with friends and strangers before and also in the landlord's house a couple of times. I've experienced (and read online) that living with the landlord is always usually a bad idea. I have not usually had trouble living with a non landlord, and pay my rent and am tidy, but if you're a lodger the landlord ALWAYS acts weirdly in my experience. They get nosy, very dodgy and controlling/gossiping about you and fussy. Basically they start taking the ****. I've had to leave a couple of houses early bc of this :lol:

My god this sounds very much like the experience I had. It was dreadful. The live in landlord started off ok as they do then he became very intrusive. He wanted to go everywhere I went. Shopping etc. I was also a member of the local gym and he wanted me to get him free passes just so he could tag along with me. It was so very embarrassing it was like I was his property. I left suddenly which was over 4½ years ago now and I've never been in contact with him since. Very weird bloke and he would tell lies to other people about me also. There are some really twisted and sick live in landlords about.