Top five things that stop you renting a place...

Penelopa.Pitstop

1. single glazing
2. conversion flat
3. low standard/bad condition
4. noisy street
5. no tube/train (Greater London)

My criteria list is long but these 5 points would guarante I won't be interested in flat regardless of the price.

Catblue

1. Any visible signs of disrepair
2. Storage heaters
3. Traffic congested street
4. Anything above a takeaway, restaurant or pub
5. No access to public transport

mummyfrugal

hmmmm well after renting what I thought was a lovely flat when I first saw it, what would put me off is:

1. An escort living upstairs. Cant tell you how many times I woke up cos she brought someone home and was having sex upstairs...some of the things I heard still make me shudder; ewwwwwww

2. Not a ground floor flat cos if you open your windows someone can easily pinch stuff off your windowsill or even worse get in and in summer its awful; and really nosey people look in at you (not that Im up to no good ;-) so you have to buy those thick granny net curtains.

3. Usual stuff like it to be reasonably clean n tidy - dont like a years worth of sunday dinners all crusted up in the oven and other peoples body hairs all over bathroom...ewww

4. Noise - when u live on main road you get loadsa traffic and where I was loads of teenagers used to congregate so we had to make sure we got the cat in about 4 o clock or he was just a target.

5. Price... at time we paid too much for what we were renting but its even worse now....

sandra_nz

My top five:

1. Kitchen too small or outdated
2. Condition of the bathroom ie mould, peeling paint
3. Size of living space - can it fit all my stuff?
4. Area and amenities eg is there a corner shop in walking distance, how far to train station etc
5. Overall appearance - we chose our current terraced cottage over a semi-detached because the decor was so horrible in the semi-detached with one bedroom painted electric blue and one bedroom painted purple - urgh!

baileysbattlebus

I haven't rented for donkey's years, but what would put me off renting again;

1 no security of tenure.
2 size of place -
3 not being able to treat it as my own
4 parking -
5 noise

Sammy_Girl

Hopefully my renting days are over. The top 5 things that put me off renting are:

1: Letting Agent "Inspections" every 3 months
2: Letting Agent's "Final Inspection" - you spend a whole day scrubbing the place clean so you get your full deposit back only to be told it's not clean enough and you have the money dedcuted anyway
3: Paper thin walls and ceilings. I too could hear the lady above peeing and "doing the business"
4: Neighbours complaining about you to the LA. I'm not some neighbour from hell, but said lady upstairs took great exception to my dog and reported every barking incident to the LA, but would tell me how lovely my dog was everytime I saw her
5: Electric storage heaters. Urgh

Crikey, I really hope that I don't have to rent again

lostinrates

sooz wrote: »

Seems a shame as you'd exclude many lovely flats, which would be more secure than the ground floor, & generally warmer. I love ground floor flats with pretty gardens, but also top floor flats with no-one above you, free underfloor heating from downstairs & an attic for storage.
Either find somewhere with running water , or have your shopping delivered.

I agree! We lived in a fourth and fifth floor walk up and our views were wonderful and I got free exercise evrytime I went out! We've lived in other flats with lifts and stairs and although I tried to take the stairs evrytime the lift can be to tempting...its a slippery slope!

Gingernutmeg

I think I can find more than five lol ... But the main things that would put me off are:

1. Bad windows - I once lived in a flat which had the original single glazed windows (30+ years old) which they'd supplemented with secondary glazing which slid along the windowsills on tracks. Those windows were a pain - filthy, hard to clean, draughty, cold and they absolutely dripped with condensation. So ... I always check the windows, if they're old and mouldy then it'll definitely put me off!

2. A house that's dirty when I go to view. I don't mean ordinary living messy, I mean filthy, stinking and dirty. If a landlord or agent can't even be bothered to get a property clean and tidy to 'impress' a potential tenant, then I think that it speaks volumes about the kind of service they'll offer once you're in the house. I also don't believe it when an agent says 'it will be cleaned before you move in'. From experience, that's never true.

3. An agency who shows you round a place when it's obvious you're there without the tenant's permission. I've had this happen to me a couple of times and I HATE it. I feel so, so uncomfortable looking round someone's home knowing that they don't know I'm there, and I wouldn't go near an agency that's prepared to do it, as I wouldn't want to live wondering 'who's been in my house today?' Recently OH and I were shown round a house and it was blatantly obvious that they didn't have the owner's permission for that viewing. The current resident had left the house in a mess, with the TV on and the bed not made - all of the doors were shut and it was extremely uncomfortable to see the agent knocking on the doors and peering round to see if anyone was there before we were allowed to see each room. The householder was also a publican and had left that week's takings on the kitchen table ... there must have been thousands of pounds there and I doubt that he'd have done that if he'd known we were coming. Thank heavens OH and I are honest people ... Horrible, horrible and it'll definitely put me off a property, no matter how nice it is.

4. This is kind of like points one and two, but general signs of poor maintenance - a damp smell, a generally 'tatty' house and obvious evidence of poor workmanship. Again, I think it speaks volumes about what the landlord is like, and about the kinds of properties the agency is willing to rent (and about the kinds of people they expect to get in ...)

5. And the main thing that puts me off a property at the moment is a landlord who wants any kind of rent in advance, beyond the usual month + deposit. In the current climate, when I as a tenant can't know ANYTHING about whether a landlord is financially stable, I think it's absolute insanity for landlords to ask for three/six months in advance. Prove to me that you'll still own the house in six months time and I'll pay up ...

olly300

Before I even get into the house:
1. Bad kerb appeal - If I walk up to a property and it has rotten looking windows, things growing out of the roof, furniture in the front garden and if it's a flat a filthy hall way then there is no point in looking inside.
2. Neighbourhood - Bad street lighting and if I feel like I'm going to be hassled or harassed in the area then I won't even look.
3. Distance from a train or tube station. If it's more than my 10 minutes walk away then it's not worth it. I don't care if there is a bus stop outside the door living in London means that there are lots of times of the day when traffic doesn't move so the turn around on buses means you can wait a good hour for a bus.
4. Difficulty parking on the road, no parking spaces due to double yellow lines or only one allocated parked space. Means I can't have any visitors or deliveries. I don't care if there is permit parking but as long as there are less permits given out than parking spaces.
5. Utilities - Access for telephone, broadband, cable etc. Easy to check out by getting the postcode of the property.

chewmylegoff

1) any flat with an advert which says "first to see will take".

2) decrepit looking boiler

3) "contemporary" open plan living room/kitchen.

4) pushchair left in communal entrance hall by people from upstairs flat

and 5) my personal favourite; flat advertised as "amazing", you take the afternoon off to see it, when you arrive the entire building is gutted, polish builders are living in the shell whilst they build the flats inside, you can see them smoking on the landing, and the flat isn't due to be finished for another month.