6 tenants share their wildest landlord stories after renting in the UK

It’s no secret that renting in the UK is a wild ride. When tenants aren’t contending with astronomical prices, they’re dealing with nightmarish flatmates, mould, or difficult landlords.

Gen Z and Millennials have collectively been dubbed ‘Generation Rent,’ and in London, people pay at least on average than anywhere else in the UK. The🔥 average is now🉐 an eyewatering £1,625 per month.

In 2024 alone, Metro has reported on a live-in landlord who timed his lodger’s showers and set a maximum limit of two minutes, as well as someone who unknowingly paid rent to a fake landlord for sixﷺ months. He only realised when the real owner showed 🍌up to evict him.

So, with that in mind, we asked our readers for their most unhinged landlord stories, from bizarre requests ꦆthat overnight 🔯guests pay £10 per stay, to a specific clause that renters weren’t allowed to use a fan in their room – even in blazing mid-summer heat.

Jess, 24

Location: London

Rent: £997 bills included

Year: 2023

‘My girlfriend and I were ඣsplitting the cost of r𒉰ent in a room in a shared house for 6 months while we looked for a more permanent alternative.

‘In my contract for the room, it was stated that fꩵans must not be used on the premi♈ses (likely due to the electric bill). If we were to use them, we’d be charged £10 a week, apparently.

‘I won’t a♌dmit whether I broke this rule or not. But we had a 30C heatwave that summer and my room turned into a sauna. I hope he enjoyed whatever he managed to buy with the tiny amount saved on electricity!’

Laura, 30

Location: London

Rent: Around £650 per month

Year: 2016

‘Once, the kitchen sink in a flat I shared with seven other people was completely blocked and spewing brown water everywhere.🍒 I tried all the usual solutions but nothing worked, so I called my landlord.

‘He was already quite a dodgy guy and used to call me late at night ‘to chat’, but I thought he’d at least do the bare minimum to help (even if just for the sake of his prꦯopertꦆy). Nope: he refused to come out or call in a professional, instead telling me to buy sulfuric acid and pour it down the plughole.

‘Given this is a highly corrosive substance that can cause burns and react𒁏s violently with water – let alone the multiple chemicals I’d already used – I said I wasn’t comfortable with his ‘solution.’

‘He then flew off the handle, told me I was use𝕴less and threatened to come round, throw away my belongings and change the locks if I didn’t leave within the next few days. I (stupidly) hadn’t signed a proper tenancy agreement so just decided to cut my losses and do a runner.

‘I later heard from one of the people who still lived there that the landlord had come round with a bottle of sulfuric acid and proceeded to blo🐬🤪w up the whole kitchen. Karma in action.’

Will, 23

Location: London

Rent: £875

Year: 2024

‘I moved into my first room in London and noticed one of my flatmates had her bo♛yfriend around all the time.

‘Wasn’t much of a deal ꧒to me as they kept to their room. We got a message from the landlord one morning saying that any guests should be preapproved by himꦛ and need to pay a fee of £10 a night.

‘I had no idea how he knew and was scared the girl would think I had blabbed but turns out h🐬e had cameras on every floor of the building staircase so could see who went into which apartment and when.’

Emma, 30

Location: Leeds

Rent: £400

Year: 2019

‘Travelled five hours up the M1 to move into my new house. Pulled u♉p outside to find a builder smoki𒁃ng a cig sat on my front step.

‘Confirmed I was actually at the right address and walked in to find the whole downstairs (kit♚chen/living room) was a building site… ‘renovations’ still📖 in progress which the landlord failed to tell us about.

‘With no kitchen, I argued with the landlord that this was (obviously) completely unliveable to which they suggested we could eat at their friend’s Chinese take꧃away for free “for the next🌳 week or so” until the kitchen was finished…

‘Obviously, we didn’t take them up on this as Chinese tak𝕴eaway for breakfast, lunch, and din𒉰ner for a week would likely have killed us.’

Rob, 37

Location: London

Rent: £1,450 for a three-bed flat

Year: 2019

‘Someone once tried to break into the flat I s🍸hared with two other people. Theyꦺ didn’t succeed, but they kicked the door to the point that it split in two and needed replacing.

‘The landlord tried to pin the cost of replacing the door on us, claiming it should come out of our co🧔ntents insurance (the overall cost for the emergency locksmith call out, new locks and door replacement came to over £3,000).

‘Once my flatmate threatened him with legal action and explained somewhat sarcastically that if we’re to pay for it we’ll all 🅷the cut the door into three pieces when we all move out, he quickly got the door fixed, but he still managed to get the locksmith to install one less lock.’

Cat, 28

Location: Hertfordshire:

Rent: £700

Year: 2023

‘To pay an extra £50 a month to park on her driveway. The driveway was part of the house and had plenty of spꦜace. Charging to⛎ use the driveway was just a way to make more money!’

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