Landlords do your research BEFORE your tenant moves in

FATBALLZ

sjcollett wrote: »

It was not discrimination. No tenant should lie about their circumstances to obtain a property. That is breach of contract.

If somebody claimed to be a heroin addict on the form and turned out to be chief consultant of brain surgery UK would you be complaining about breach of contract?

sjcollett

Sorry the fact remains that any falsification for a tenancy is breach of contract.

tbs624

sjcollett wrote: »

Well the further story was that she was also considered to be a "potential risk" around children (her's had been taken away from her) and the other people in the property (it was a small development of flats) had children and so there were other issues which needed to be considered. It was not an easy one for the landlord and a situation he found himself in (due to not doing proper checks before hand).

Even if Social Services deem you incapable of looking after your own kids, it doesn't necessarily make you a risk to anyone else's.

It *was* an easy one for the LL - s/he should have joined a national LL association and read up on "how to be an effective LL" before letting any property out.

Ignorant newbie LLs are easy prey for Ts who have "been around the block", just as newbie Ts are useful fodder for LLs who have an exploitative streak and who like to ignore the various rules and regs.

sjcollett

tbs 624 I agree with you

Gingernutmeg

sjcollett wrote: »

It was not discrimination. No tenant should lie about their circumstances to obtain a property. That is breach of contract.

Neither should the landlord 'lie' to let a property. How many are renting houses out without proper permission to let? Without proper gas safety certificates? In dire financial situations and wouldn't pass the kinds of credit checks that tenants have to go through? Not bothering to protect a deposit? All of these things put tenants in a vulnerable situation and at a guess, I'd say there are probably more landlords being dishonest than there are tenants. Any half decent landlord would catch out a 'lying' tenant with even the most basic checks (which I have absolutely no objection to). Howver, tenants don't really have the opportunity to do the same kinds of checks on landlords.

sjcollett

Yes Gingernutmeg I can see your point entirely. I do think the DPS introduction has had a good impact on ironing out rogue landlords who were keeping the deposits - and of course, if a landlord has not protected the deposit, as required, you can sue for 3 x that amount. Standards do seem to be improving as tenants rightly ask for more protection and better treatment, although these changes do not happen overnight

G_M

sjcollett wrote: »

It was not discrimination. No tenant should lie about their circumstances to obtain a property. That is breach of contract.

Sorry but that is not so.
A contract can only be 'breached' after it comes into effect. Checks done before the contract is created/signed are for information only. They do not form part of the contract itself. Have you ever seen an AST that said the tenant agreed to pay the rent and be a doctor in return for the property?

Fraud, possibly. Breach of contract, no.

Not really sure what the point of the post is anyway. There are lots of things LLs need to do before their tenants move in. I await the OP's next post "Landlords get your gas safety certificate BEFORE your tenant moves in" with baited breath.

And "Landlords change your insurance BEFORE your tenant moves in", "Landlords do a full inventory BEFORE your tenant moves in".....

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dopester

sjcollett wrote: »

Medical professional tenant turned out to be heroin addict: landlords do your homework http://wp.me/pCIxO-1d

Heroin is so passe.

There is only so much vetting of a potential tenant you can do - or that a potential tenant would accept.

If you want to play landlord, then there are risks to it. Many risks.

In the same 'vein', tenants ought to do research about their potential landlords. Some are broke, not paying mortgage, and are in process of being repossessed. Some of them are plain awful and think they have the right to enter tenanted property when they please.