We spoke to Sian, who has been a tenant for many years, and asked her for experiences.
“I’d recently split up with a boyfriend and moved out of his flat and had to get a place of my own quickly. I thought I’d lucked out when I found my new flat. It’s was a pretty little flat. Light, airy and in a good area. I really liked it.
The landlord was alright. Nothing odd about him. But I started to get suspicious a few weeks later. I just became suspicious that someone had been in my flat. It started as a suspicion and I then once I was certain I hadn’t left the hallway light on but I dismissed it as silly. It happened a few more times and I just had this feeling that someone had been in the flat.
And then, on another occasion, I came home during the day to find him coming down the stairs. He only owned my flat in the block, so I was suspicious. When I went into my flat I was certain he’d been in it. So I confronted him immediately. I said that I thought he had been in my flat and he readily said he had. He said he was just checking that the boiler was working alright. I was really angry and also a bit scared because it didn’t seem to me a normal thing to do. He apologised and said he would tell me in the future if he entered the flat.
I don’t know whether he ever came into the flat again. I don’t think he did, but it was so upsetting and I never really felt totally at home in the place thinking he could be snooping around. I know the law says that he wrong to do what he did, but what good is that? I probably should have made more of it in retrospect but as many tenants know, you don’t like to rock the boat in case it makes it difficult to get another flat. I moved out six months later, at the earliest opportunity, into a shared flat with a friend.”
