Imagine deciding to move out of your apartment when your lease ends. Would you be willing to let the landlord and maintenance people enter your apartment and do the repairs during the last month of your lease, or would you want them to wait until after you move out?

In this story, one woman is in this situation, and she wants the landlady to wait to do the repairs until after she moves out; however, her coworker thinks she’s just being petty and refusing to let the landlady do the repairs now to get back at her.

While the landlady was awful, I don’t think it’s asking too much to not have repairs done to your apartment while you’re still living there.

Keep reading to see if you agree.

AITAH for denying my landlord into my empty studio?

Buckle up guys and get some green tea, if you’ve ever rented from a nasty AH, your blood pressure is about to rise.

So my landlady is known as the Wicked Witch of Pulborough.

She has her own Facebook hate page, for great reason.

It has 81 people following it (including myself) which shows you all the people who have rented from her, worked for her or done work on her behalf, hating her so hard they’ve come together to share stories of her controlling and bullying nonsense.

It seemed like a good deal at first.

I started renting from her on the 5th of November 2021, her studio to rent seemed too good to be true.

She lives 10 feet from the studio, but I didn’t mind because I’m a quiet person whose hobby is crochet, so I figured we would get along.

Fast forward 2 months and the controlling begins.

The landlady sounds awfully controlling.

I wasn’t allowed to put my trash out unless she said I could.

I wasn’t allowed to get my own bins despite paying council tax (which is my legal right)

I had to turn out all the lights in the studio at 10PM because otherwise they would keep my landlady up (it’s not my fault she designed the studio to emulate a giant window, but I digress)

If I didn’t turn off my lights, she had a switch located outside my door that she could turn them off for me

It gets worse.

I got nasty handwritten notes on my car, in my postbox and on my doormat

I was only allowed to park in the driveway if I backed in first, so the front is shown first, like a car dealership. This was difficult as the driveway is very narrow, so I tried parking down the road on the public land and she threw a fit at me (she doesn’t like cars parked on the public road because it attracts dog walkers to park there. On the public road. Which they’ve allowed to do)

I wasn’t allowed people over, not friends, not my parents, nobody

I was screamed at in the face if I ever stepped a toe over her line, which was constantly changing.

Yikes! This is unacceptable!

That’s just a fraction of what she did to control me, but the straw that broke the camel’s back is when she began letting herself into my studio, whether I was there or not.

She would critique how I placed my furniture. She would order me to move certain rugs.

I asked the lettings agent who brought me to this hell to ask her to leave me alone and they did, but this meant she just hung around outside my front door for when I would let my dog out, then she would pounce and bully me.

She harassed me, stalked me and bullied me for months. The lettings agent wouldn’t do anything.

Her mental health suffered.

I ended up going to therapy for my declining mental health.

I also found out this studio was totally illegal and shouldn’t have been rented out: my landlady never put in planning permission!

So when I moved out a month early, practically bankrupting myself in the process because I HAD to get out of there, my landlady has no choice but to try renting her illegal property on her own.

This is asking way too much!

She wanted to finally do the repairs I’ve been waiting for her to fix all year in the month I’m not going to be living there, letting herself in and inspecting all sorts of things while some of my stuff is still in the studio, not giving me any warning as usual.

The leaking taps in the bathroom, the shower that doesn’t work, the oven that turns itself off randomly, the wiring in the bedroom that doesn’t allow me to safely change the lightbulb, etc.

She wants to do the repairs in the month I’m still giving her money for it so she can get a tenant in there (again, illegally) right as I hand the keys over.

I decided that this time, no. No, she will not be doing repairs after 11 months of my begging for them, as I’m leaving, on my dime. I decided I wasn’t going to let her walk all over me yet again.

The landlady didn’t listen.

Now I’ve brushed up on the law and she’s done so much illegal stuff while I’ve been living there, I could easily take her to court, but at this point, I just want to teach her that she can’t control everything. So I’ve used my right to deny anyone’s entry while my tenancy is still active.

Needless to say, she’s mad.

Turns out she let herself in once again and half took the bathtub out of the place while I was out, so I told her in no uncertain terms that if she sets foot in the studio before the 4th of November, I will be calling the police and taking her to court.

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This seemed to get through to her.

She’s wondering if she should back off.

I was telling a co-worker the other day about this feeling like a small win for all the crap she’s pulled with me, and they said I was being petty, and I should rise above her, completely ignoring that I’ve been rising above her through countless bullying and harassments all of this year.

There’s only so much one human can take before they bite back.

I’m not even biting, I’m just denying her to control everything anymore, but it’s made me question if I’m being an AH for not letting her into the studio when it’s now empty.

Am I teaching her a lesson to maybe be not such an AH to others or am I the AH for doing this?

Her coworker is crazy. She’s not being petty. I wouldn’t want someone repairing my apartment while I’m trying to pack to move.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

A landlord weighs in.

Another person agrees that the coworker is wrong.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a couple who is sick and tired of their neighbor’s kids dumping trash on their patio.

This person has a question.

Her landlady will just have to wait and do the repairs when OP moves out. That’s not asking or expecting too much. If she had done the repairs when they needed to be done instead of trying to do them all right away to get a new tenant, that would’ve been different and she wouldn’t be in this situation.

OP should totally report the landlady for having an illegal rental unit. That would be the ultimate revenge. What she’s doing isn’t revenge at all.