Landlord wants to show around new tenants.

CYBERCIDERSAVER

Personally I have had a good relationship with all my landlords and always had the deposit returned to me in full.

This is for three reasons.

A, I do my best to leave the property in as good a state as I found it in. Obviously wear and tear will mean the landlord may have some cosmetic work to do in order to let it out again but THAT SHOULD NEVER BE A REASON TO WITHHOLD A PENNY FROM THE DEPOSIT.

B, Also I do my best to be left alone. That is, when the toilet started leaking I repaired it myself. I have not spoken to my landlord for over 2 years as a result and I expect he's happy that I don't cost him anything.

C, And most relevant to this thread. when I decide to leave a property I am as accommodating as I can be about having viewings BUT I insist on being there. I have even shown people round on a landlords behalf because he couldn't make it. The landlord is not your enemy but I think it's fair for you to want to be there and to ask for a more specific time. You can even say that it's in order to make the place as tidy as possible.


The only time I got angry was when one landlord decided to sell and left it in the hands of the estate agents to do the viewings. Among many complaints, The gentleman from Gibbins Richards left the front door open and my cat ran out onto a busy road and disappeared. (It was a mid terrace so Lola was always let out the back where it was quiet.) So when I do buy a house it won't be from them.

nej

CYBERCIDERSAVER wrote:

Personally I have had a good relationship with all my landlords and always had the deposit returned to me in full.

This is for three reasons.

A, I do my best to leave the property in as good a state as I found it in. Obviously wear and tear will mean the landlord may have some cosmetic work to do in order to let it out again but THAT SHOULD NEVER BE A REASON TO WITHHOLD A PENNY FROM THE DEPOSIT.

B, Also I do my best to be left alone. That is, when the toilet started leaking I repaired it myself. I have not spoken to my landlord for over 2 years as a result and I expect he's happy that I don't cost him anything.

C, And most relevant to this thread. when I decide to leave a property I am as accommodating as I can be about having viewings BUT I insist on being there. I have even shown people round on a landlords behalf because he couldn't make it. The landlord is not your enemy but I think it's fair for you to want to be there and to ask for a more specific time. You can even say that it's in order to make the place as tidy as possible.


The only time I got angry was when one landlord decided to sell and left it in the hands of the estate agents to do the viewings. Among many complaints, The gentleman from Gibbins Richards left the front door open and my cat ran out onto a busy road and disappeared. (It was a mid terrace so Lola was always let out the back where it was quiet.) So when I do buy a house it won't be from them.

Great post, the kind of tenant I'd like! I like the bit about "The landlord is not your enemy". Too many people think the opposite.

Can't believe it about the cat though! Incredible! This is why my BIL has me acting as his agent on his 4 flats rather than using a letting agent. The personal touch does help!

black-saturn

OK I'll give you a bad example. This is the scenario I had with the house I moved out of 5 years ago (I own my own house now):

I'm a single parent with 2 very young children. Lived in the house 1 year and in this year I had several problems with it such as the central heating breaking down (in the middle of winter with no other way of heating house - tenancy agreement says he will not permit me to use plug in heaters). So no hot water or heat for 3 weeks in a snowbound january while he "evaluates his decision". Lock on back door broken when I move in, was promised it would be fixed but was told after 3 months to "put a chair up against it". As a result a prowler got in one night and walked in my bedroom!! Got a locksmith out myself in the end for £45. Holes in the roof over the bathroom resulting in you having to walk through a foot bath every time you want to go to the bathroom. Took 2 months to fix. The pointing was coming out of the brick work in the back bedroom so every time it rained water ran down the walls. That was never fixed. All the window frames going rotten so that if you pressed on the window it felt like it would fall out, including in the children's bedroom.

After 1 year in the property he decided to sell up because the house prices have risen. I get my standard 2 months written notice.

By this time I have already got a mortgage agreement as I was thinking of buying my own house anyway. So I find a house I like really quickly. The man moving out can't move out until 9 days after my current landlord wants me out. I know that he hasn't sold the house because theres hardly been any viewings. So I wrote him a registered letter saying that I would be moving out of his house on X date and that I would pay the extra rent for this period.

he then starts court proceedings because I am going to be in his house for an extra 9 days. Even though I have shown him proof that I will be moving out then. By the time the case went to court I was already living in my new house for 2 months but they still let him win the case and I get a CCJ on my name and a £200 court fee. Why did they let him win when I had already moved out? He still hadn't sold the house when it went to court.

When I moved out I had to leave behind 3 items of furniture which were a bed, a sofa and a TV. The landlord kept the deposit (all £749 of it) because he said he had to pay someone to remove my furniture. However, when I went back after it had been sold to see if there was any post I peeped in and the new buyers were using the furniture he said he had to pay to get rid of. I asked for a receipt for the removal of the furniture but he said that as far as he was concerned the matter was closed.

So now can some of the landlords on this thread reply to this and also could some of the tenants relate to my experiences?

BobProperty

All I'd say it that if you knew then what you know now, you would never have let him get away with any of the things he had done, would you? He has played on your ignorance of the law and got away with it. Preventing this sort of thing happening again is why we are all on this forum, isn't it?

black-saturn

BobProperty wrote:

All I'd say it that if you knew then what you know now, you would never have let him get away with any of the things he had done, would you? He has played on your ignorance of the law and got away with it. Preventing this sort of thing happening again is why we are all on this forum, isn't it?

True, I learnt all about the lettings system while I was his tenant and also at the time I was working from home for a landlord with 6 houses doing all his paperwork. So I have learnt as I went along.

I think the words "Environmental health" are swear words to a landlord.

amboy

black-saturn wrote:

True, I learnt all about the lettings system while I was his tenant and also at the time I was working from home for a landlord with 6 houses doing all his paperwork. So I have learnt as I went along.

I think the words "Environmental health" are swear words to a landlord.

ok so you have confirmed my thoughts that you had a very bad experience in the past and as Bobproperty said your LL at the time played on your ignorance and is exactly the type of scum LL the latest legislation is aimed at.

However -

I really think that when you give advice it would be of more use to the OP if youre advice was not so harsh, assuming LL are all bad. I am the first to advice tenants who have to deal with rogue LL but I always remember that it is not me who has to face the LL when the person seeking advice has to deal with them.

david29dpo

to all the bitter tenants. if you have a good LL, why make his or her life a misery? look past the end of your noses for a minute and think of the consequences of your actions.

Phil_rich

I agree with CYBERCIDERSAVER, the landlord isn't the enemy. I have not spoken to her since we moved in as the only problem we had with the bath I fixed, so I am certainly not a bad tenant.

I do not think its unreasonble to want to be there when the people come to view, and to be told a rough time slot. Anyways, I have cleanded the house now and will put away anything valuble that could get broken or go missing and just let the LL get on with it now.

black-saturn

amboy wrote:

I really think that when you give advice it would be of more use to the OP if youre advice was not so harsh, assuming LL are all bad. I am the first to advice tenants who have to deal with rogue LL but I always remember that it is not me who has to face the LL when the person seeking advice has to deal with them.

OK but this is the first thread I've seen on here with a positive landlord experience. Every thread I've ever seen on here has been from people with landlord problems and/or not having deposits returned. So I posted what I said to keep in mind people looking for info in the future. Then it will save the board guides having to merge the threads.

Where are all these good landlords? In the time I've spent in rented houses, my friends in rented houses and with the homeworking I did for other landlords I'm yet to find a good one.

Debt_Free_Chick

black-saturn wrote:

Where are all these good landlords? In the time I've spent in rented houses, my friends in rented houses and with the homeworking I did for other landlords I'm yet to find a good one.

It's like anything else - good landlords don't create complaints for people to post on boards about. Of course this board only has stories about "bad" landlords - and bad sellers, bad buyers, bad surveyors, bad solicitors .....

Except that the complaint is not always what it seems and just sometimes, it's the person complaining who is being unreasonable