new inventory law for rental property?

babe_ruth_3

ay yes, silly me. Didn't think about any new tenants. Thanks rosy, look forward to hearing from you. Ta Ruth

Dead_Eye_Jones

Its easy to say you dont have to use the inventory company put forward by the agent but in reality this isnt so easy, I found it was a choice between using them or not taking the property. But anyways we thought no probs, what can go wrong?

Well I'll tell you what went wrong! If your agent uses a guy called Nick, I suggest backing out quickly. The guy seemed to be very careful whilst going round, noting the tiniest details into his dictaphone to write up later. We particularly liked that he noted the dirty, filthy condition the landlords had left the place in, they were moving abroad hence the let. Despite promising us professional cleaning they left the house with grey walls, food stains in the fridge and we just refused to touch the dishwasher - some people ay?!

So all seemed well, we moved in, cleaned the place up (we dont like filth) and awaited the report. The doc failed to mention any of the mess, we instantly complained, but of course we had now cleaned and there was no 'evidence', so they couldnt change it. A nice scam, ay? None of the carpet stains noted, wall smudges, cup rings, etc, much of the damage missed.

But it gets worse, on checkout our good pal Nick returned. We spent a good 2 days cleaning cos we needed every penny back and didnt want to risk it, the house was cleaner than I imagine it has ever been.

It was a mucky rainy day and Nick had mucky shoes, I wasnt there alas, and my missus asked him to remove his shoes for obvious reasons. He refused. He stated that my missus would have to clean up behind him as he walked or he would report the mess. So she did, crawled behind him wiping on her hands and knees. Guess the guy has some kinda kink regarding that...?

I only wish I was there, I would have got the phone out and taken some nice video images of him getting the floor muddy, there would be a website dedicated to him and his company right now.

Of course the closing report was horribly inaccurate, and I had to deal with the landlord in the end, who agreed much of the report highlighted things that they had done before going. Although he still wanted to charge us for some dust on the dish washer! At this point I didnt want to argue so sent a sarcastic email offering him £10 to call in a cleaner thinking he'd just leave it. To my amazement he took me up on the offer and returned my deposit -10. Amusingly, the property is still empty 8 months later, some lost rent there perhaps? Well at least he got his £10 for the dusty dish washer that was left in such a minging state we never touched it....

So my advice, dont trust independant agencies, Im sure they are independent, its just that they might also be incompetant. So as a precaution, take a video camera and keep a record of them taking the inventory.