BTL blacklist

macaque_2

On my last move, the letting agent charged me over £400 in arrangement fees. This was much more than their true costs but I was forced to pay because I needed a roof over my head. What if I had pulled because I discovered that the landlord had a bad history? The answer is, I would have lost the money and been faced with moving the family into temporary accomodation.

Finding rented accomodation is pot luck. In some months, the agents books are bulging with properties and in other months there is very little around. The problem is that the renter has no choice over timing. When your LL gives notice, you have a maximum of two months to find a place and make all the arrangements.

The law on letting is currently hopelessly slewed in favour of the landlord and needs to change. This idea by Consumer Focus is a small start but welcome nevertheless.

Consumer Focus said most people renting in the private sector had little information available to them before they signed a tenancy agreement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12586203

Jowo_2

So are you proposing a tenant blacklist so that landlords can easily weed out those with a history of damaging the property, anti social behaviour and rent arrears?

abaxas

Jowo wrote: »

So are you proposing a tenant blacklist so that landlords can easily weed out those with a history of damaging the property, anti social behaviour and rent arrears?

Why not both?

Plenty of poor LLs and tenants out there.

ILW

I would just buy a place, It's much less stressful.

Generali

abaxas wrote: »

Why not both?

Plenty of poor LLs and tenants out there.

Libel/slander (I never did understand the difference) laws I guess.

When I run a country (unelected) I'll give tenants that are up-to-date with their rent better security of tenure but give those behind on their rent less.

Hereward

Generali wrote: »

Libel/slander (I never did understand the difference) laws I guess.
<Snip>

Libel is written; slander is spoken.

macaque_2

Jowo wrote: »

So are you proposing a tenant blacklist so that landlords can easily weed out those with a history of damaging the property, anti social behaviour and rent arrears?

There are bad tenants but landlords (and letting agents) employ a raft of checks to filter them out (which the tenants pay for).

The idea that someone with alcohol problems, credit problems, a history of violence or a bad record with tenants is legally entitled to keep a duplicate key to my home strikes me as crazy. It also concerns me that a landlord may simply be using me to cover his/her overheads whilst they flip a property (moving home is expensive for tenants).

If landlords object to voluntary disclosure schemes, perhaps it is time to introduce a proper licensing scheme for landlords. I say that with regret since I hate tape.

[Deleted User]

Generali wrote: »

Libel/slander (I never did understand the difference) laws I guess.

When I run a country (unelected) I'll give tenants that are up-to-date with their rent better security of tenure but give those behind on their rent less.

Yes there have been times when I have refused to give a reference when I would really have liked to have given a full account of the tenant's behaviour.

I don't think the proposed system would be of much benefit to anyone other than solicitors.

Long term contracts are not equivalent to ebay purchases and sometimes they're not clear cut either. They're too complex and there would be two sides to any dispute and as a third party how would you weigh up who's right or wrong.

Can you imagine characters like The_Fox giving a fair opinion of any landlord? With all the references to reptiles you'd think he'd stayed in a zoo.

[Deleted User]

macaque wrote: »

There are bad tenants but landlords (and letting agents) employ a raft of checks to filter them out (which the tenants pay for).

The idea that someone with alcohol problems, credit problems, a history of violence or a bad record with tenants is legally entitled to keep a duplicate key to my home strikes me as crazy. It also concerns me that a landlord may simply be using me to cover his/her overheads whilst they flip a property (moving home is expensive for tenants).

If landlords object to voluntary disclosure schemes, perhaps it is time to introduce a proper licensing scheme for landlords. I say that with regret since I hate tape.

That's still not perfect. For example I have a seemingly nice person staying in one of my properties. She's has contacted me about moving and given decent notice. No problem there.

However in this time she managed to wreck a sofa put it in a shed because she bought another one. It got moldy and she has agreed to replace it. As we get close to the end of the tenancy she now wants her deposit refunding before she's left and I've done an inspection. Doesn't want it by cheque just cash.

I explained that I will issue a cheque and send it to her new address thereby having proof of a forwarding address and an audit trail after the inspection. This seems to cause a lot of anger and now she is refusing to speak to me so I have her boyfriend on the phone being all friendly and helpful even offering to pick me up from home to do the inspection and take me back a 40/50 mile round trip.

In the time I have known her she has let on that he has hit her. She claims to have deliberately prevoked this! She also believes him when he claims to have been in the SAS. Whenever I hear SAS claim it seems to come from a thug trying to big himself up with a bit of BS. I must have met the whole regiment by now.

Technically they have done nothing wrong so far. The boyfriend isn't even a tenant. Nothing you could put in a reference nor would appear in a credit check (tragically I already gave a reference before all of this). But would you want to deal with them?

Jowo_2

macaque wrote: »

There are bad tenants but landlords (and letting agents) employ a raft of checks to filter them out (which the tenants pay for).

.

Previous landlord references are notoriously unreliable - a landlord who has a bad tenant may provide a good reference so they are no longer stuck with them.

My friend had a tenant who passed all the comprehensive checks - unfortunately, these aren't fool proof and therefore she unwittingly leashed a woman with alcohol problems who antagonised the other tenants when drunk, couldn't hold down her long-term job any longer.

Then there are really sophisticated tenants who have fake ID.

Heyman_2

There are no simple solutions as it is a complicated area.

Don't discount the role of letting/managing agents either, they generally don't give a s**t once they've filled the property and they're getting their monthly commission. Had an absolute nightmare getting a boiler repaired with them, once we managed to actually speak to the Landlord it was sorted - he was furious as they hadn't communicated anything to him!