Landlord threats over handworkers
Hey everyone
My boyfriend and I have lived in our apartment for 2 years. For the entire time we have had issues with the hot water and the heating. The heating went out three times in Winter, once last year and twice this year. We've had problems with the hot water for basically the entire time. The landlord each time has sent people over to fix it relatively quickly, but never to do a full fix. More of a just temporary patch up and then a month later everything's not working again. I didn't know about our right to ask for a rent decrease and we've already decided to move out so we're past that.
But one thing that's been very very frustrating is that as soon as we gave our three months notice to move out, our landlord then started sending hand workers over almost every single week to look at various things. He wants to repair the heating while we're still here, which will mean that the entire bathroom will be basically a construction site. The handworkers said they would have to take out an entire wall. He asked for an appointment for this week and I said no because I'm extremely busy at work this week. We're also going on vacation. I offered them an appointment for next Friday after I get back from vacation and after things have calmed down a bit at work. He is now threatening that any damages that incur will be 100% our responsibility. Are his threats valid? Is he allowed to demand that we should let people in whenever he wants? We are not denying access permanently. It's just that this week is extremely busy and I don't have time to be home every single day. He also sent over handworkers without asking us beforehand and it was a very awkward situation with them being here and me having to explain that I had no idea that they were coming over and them also feeling weird because they thought that I knew. We had communicated by email with them last Friday (so three days ago) saying this week doesn't work. Apparently our landlord called them today (he denied this, but who else booked the appointment?) and told them to just go over and start construction tomorrow.