So, I rent my house from a property agent. They do quarterly inspections to make sure I'm looking after the place.
I don't have any problem with this TBH.

However, on the heels of their most recent inspection on the 8th of July I got a letter stating that the garden was overgrown and needed to be maintained and could I have this all done in time for the next inspection on the 14th of July. Now, I work full time and I didn't get this letter until the evening of the 12th of July so that gave me 2 evenings in which to do the work. No pressure there then. We had been having some fairly scorching weather recently in East Anglia so I'd been laying off the garden as I suspected that cutting things back when there was naff all water round wouldn't exactly do the plants much good. However, on the evenings of 12th & 13th it was raining, quite hard.

Despite the rain I managed to get out and cut back a hedge and some brambles round the back (having previously treated the paved bits with weed killer anyway) and weeded the bit at the front of the house as well and cut back some bits of a budhleia bush that were encroaching on the street.
This activity filled my council garden waste bin to the brim.

Imagine my surprise to receive another letter today saying that I'd obviously done naff all and that must maintain the garden in time for a further inspection on the 9th of August.

It's also interesting to note that the actual landlord (not the agents) has been round a few times recently and didn't say diddly squat about the garden and that was before I had done any work.

So, should I send them a snotty letter about the work that I had done, not to mention the short notice or just let it pass?
I know which one I'd like to do but I'm not sure if that won't just make the situation worse.

As a builder who has done quite a lot of work supervised by these cretinous usurers, I would tell them the story. Frankly the only way forward is the Douglas Adams space ship technique.
Seriously, don't fret it.

I suspect that the landlord is chasing the agent to get the garden sorted.

In my experience, agents usually do literally nothing until they are hounded by the landlord.

i suspect the agent has a family member who has a gardening business and will offer to get the gardening done at a certain price or bill you for any work that the agency agrees too when the gardening work has been done, thats called business …

I don't know - I got on fine with my last landlord, but my letting agent were useless. My landlord was perfectly happy with me and the way I kept the property, but I still got random snotty letters from the agents. Fools. All they did was annoy me and him.

I don't know. I was under the impression that I got on quite well with the landlord as well. The agents on the other hand are a bunch of money grabbing useless tossers.

I know the Monday after I moved out the lettings agents received annoyed phonecalls from both me and my landlord.

One of the few properties I've ever rented came with a back garden that was waist high in...... foliage (for want of a better word). I moved in on the Wednesday and by Friday I had a letter from the agents demanding I return the garden to its former glory - grass apparently. So I borrowed my mates industrial strimmer (complete with chain which was perfectly legal at the time) and set to work. This strimmer ripped the sh1t out of the 'grass' and all that was left after I had taken away the strimmings was some green stuff with a lot of brown holes in it. I didn't stay there long.....

Al

I got charge £120 to "Fix" the garden upon leaving - we had moved out 4 weeks before their check and it was midsummer - and the grass had grown

[LIFTED] [LIFTED]

Our letting agents are oxygen thieves, but our landlady is lovely. She's coming round tomorrow to check the damp that's wrecking one of the windows. I told the letting agents about it three times and they've done nothing, so I rang the landlady and told her about it. It doesn't bother me in the slightest whether it gets sorted or not, but if it was my house I'd want to know as it's structural.

I've always said, if they want to put our rent up, I'll approach the landlady about dealing direct as the letting agents are a waste of space and if ever anything needs sorting, we always sort it out between ourselves!