When you say the previous tenant 'had no trouble at all', are you sure she understood that you were asking about Freeview? The aerial on the house may be just perfect for the old analogue signal, but may be completely the wrong type for Freeview.
Visit this site and give it your postcode:
http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?MAP=661,936
This will give you a whole pile of detail about the sort of aerial that should be installed on the house for Freeview. Post the results and we can take it from there.