Renting. Went to see 2 houses today. Both disgustingly filthy. Are they all?

shadow81

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stevetodd

I think your problem might be because you are looking at property that accepts pets. My properties are prestine but I would not allow tenants with pets

dealornodeal_3

Propably left like it from previous tenants

You want to have seen a property I had to have cleaned up some years ago.. There was oil in the lounge from a motor bike!

Gingernutmeg

We spent much of the summer looking at properties and they were almost all filthy. It wasn't just 'rental' properties either, a lot were owner-occupied and they were disguting too. I really, really don't know how some houses get so bad ... some smelt so bad that I nearly retched, and I banned OH from opening the fridges as we both retched after one particularly nasty one. If we can, we try not to take houses that aren't 'move-into-able' with just a good minor clean - it's not always possible but from experience, letting agents (and some landlords) DON'T clean properties before you move in, whatever they promise.

We asked for the house we eventually chose to be cleaned - normally we 'overlap' rental periods so that we can clean ourselves before we move in (regardless of the condition, my 'clean' isn't the same as other people's lol), but in this case the distances prevented us from doing that. On the day we moved in the house was disgusting, and the LA had the nerve to walk around with us insisting that they'd had 'Molly Maids' in, but they 'hadn't done a very good job'. Eventually (after the landlord arrived and asked him why they hadn't cleaned) he agreed that he was lying and we got the house cleaned, but after we'd moved in which was really inconvenient, especially as the carpets needed cleaning. I think next time we'll do the overlap thing again and I'll do it myself ... But you're right, considering the money it costs to move I don't think a basically clean house is too much to ask. Personally, if I were a landlord I think I'd be pleased that a tenant wanted a clean house as it'd show that they had some kind of standards!

LittleMissAspie

Pets have nothing to do with it. A slob is a slob whether they own a pet or not.

You're not expecting too much Donna but some people do have horribly low standards for themselves. Keep looking, you'll find something.

dancingfairy

we saw a couple of properties that nearly made me cry - dank,dog smelly kind of carpets, windows held together with tape - rotting window sills etc. Then we saw this house - got water included in rent, mananged to negotiate on the price as well - it's beautiful, clean, heated towel rails ,tastfully decorated, 'fully' furnished- even down to the garlic press, it's warm etc, etc. You really do need to view as many properties as possible. Oh and find out whether negotiating is the done thing in your area - here we negotiate - Guildford but down South it can be insulting so do check as otherwise you might be paying an overinflated price. Also register with loads of agencies and once you see a place you like you need to move quickly - we even asked for a second viewing the next day so we could make sure everything would fit in.
I personally couldn't believe the difference in standards and prices.

Debt_Free_Chick

If the property is still occupied, you need to "look through" the mess and work out whether the LL is a slob or if it's just the tenant. Any decent LL will have a property clean, at least, to let again. But they need to wait for the current tenant to move out first.

It's difficult to tell what state the property will be in when it's ready to let again. Having said that, don't expect the property to resemble a new build. Many LLs don't repaint in between tenants, especially if the decor just shows signs of normal wear & tear. After all, that's how most of us live (even my lounge, decorated 3 months ago shows W&T already!!)

olly300

Rule of thumb is that you always get to see the disgusting houses first. If it's clean and reasonably priced then it will go quickly.

Pssst

They are probably social tenant type BTLs. I mean,if they had been inhabited by your average working couple,they would be of a different standard. I guess theres plentyo f BTL landlords out there trying to relet slums.

One thing to remember,never sign a contract on the back of a promise to do something i.e we'll fix this or that,we'llredecorate etc. If they had a will to present a decent property,theyd have done it before hnading it off to the agent.

They are just hoping to rent out a dump and get money in for minimal outlay

carolt

You can ALWAYS negotiate on the rent. The worst they can say is 'no'.

Beware of landlords saying they will clean up before you move in - one landlord claimed they would repair a (largish) hole in the wall and repaint before we moved in.

When we moved in, having not viewed in the meantime (it was some way away) it had NOT been done. I think we negotiated a small discount to do it ourself? and stuck a big picture over it.

On the other hand, don't blame the tenants for the state of properties. Landlords tend to decorate between tenancies if at all, but few decorate during tenancies, even lengthy ones. We've been here coming up for 5 years and our house certainly doesn't look as pristine as it did the day we moved in, but then it has (understandably) had nearly 5 years of wear and tear. We've redecorated a tiny bit, but it's not worth our while to do much, as we'd be paying for it and without guaranteed security we could stay, it's not worth it (even assuming our landlord would be happy with us redecorating, which many aren't).

A good landlord - my MIL has one, so I know they do exist! - will redecorate after you move in, to keep their tenants happy, and preserve their properties.

stevetodd

carolt wrote: »

A good landlord - my MIL has one, so I know they do exist! - will redecorate after you move in, to keep their tenants happy, and preserve their properties.

To be honest only a silly LL would decorate after you move in, think about it, which is easier to decorate a property free of all clutter and miscellaneous smaller items of tenant's furniture or a property empty of personal possessions.

It's so easy to put dust covers down, push all the furniture into the middle of the room and cover it with more dust covers then paint the room. If tenant's are living there you have to move around their stuff. In the past I have had so many arguements when contractors have rang me and said sorry we have had to move tenants things and so we have to charge more, or just walked away and refused to do it.

Now I always decorate between tenancies and usually start the viewings after we have started, typically I will finish the lounge first so they have a 'show room' although sometimes tenants have viewed just as it's started. I think every 4-5 years is about right. If tenants want to decorate themselves I will of course buy/provide everything they need to do it (paint, dust covers, brushes, rollers, sugar soap, ets etc) some have done this, in fact one tenant did this because they didn't like the nuetral colours (I always paing the walls magnolia), they wanted their own colour scheme despite it had only been painted a 18 months earlier.