Quick guide on how not to get ripped off by landlords

N79

sequence wrote: »

You should have left it. They could never evict you with bailiffs being sent to the wrong address :rotfl:

Someone would have got a fairly rude wake up call one morning though!:eek:

00ec25

helpthetenant wrote: »

I try to help tenants, feeling sorry for the next victims, and here we go again with a post against the tenants. It was much quicker if you said that not all landlords are dodgy and not all carpets are old. what a discovery!! You are reinventing the wheel. I hope tenants will ignore your useless post. Please, if you don't have anything clever to say, don't say anything at all.

at the top of the board is a sticky post called "a tenants guide to renting" - this is populated with accurate & (mostly) dispassionate advice which is not driven by the personal agenda which clealry comes across in your post. It would certainly have saved you re inventing the wheel on your very long post covering topics that were discovered and reported long ago

It would also have saved you from missing off important things such as the deposit protection, as referred to in my original post - clearly you consider deposit prootection to be "useless" :rotfl:

Enfieldian

So.... 5, 13, 17,18 & 19 are effectively all the same question....

Others seem to assume that you have never seen the place that you intend to rent... 9, 11, 12, 14.....

A viewing is generally advised PRIOR to occupation and signing a tenancy.....

James_N

helpthetenant wrote: »

i have been ripped off so many times, so i thought this will help you and save you months or years of pain. If you find this helpful just let know anyone, thanks to internet we tenants we can finally know what happens in this world. These problems they will pop up at night especially, or during the summer, or you will find out about them after a few weeks, so you won't see them when you pay for the rent. So before paying ask the neighbours, don't be shy, ask them what they think, if you ask the landlord or agents they will assure you there is no problem at all with the property and they will ripp you off with a big smile on their faces. After you sign the contract you might want to escape from the property (mice, insects, neighbours shouting, etc) but if you decide to run away you are going to lose the money of your deposit, this and all sort of problems happened to me, so be careful.
1) make sure you sign the tenancy agreement and receipts, many landlords avoid contracts so they don't have to declare anything and don't have to pay taxes.
2) if you see an old carpet or an old shower without a single tap for mixing hot and cold water it's always a bad sign. When the property looks old it's usually a rip off, the landlord should take care of it, he's responsible for it and there is no excuses to save some money without refurbishing everything.
3) take only wooden floor or tiles, it's much more hygienic and easier to clean. Carpet actracts insects, they thrive on it. Carpet might be ok only if you change it often but you need a lot of money for it.
4) ask if there were any mice, insects, rats or any sort of pest.
5) are the bills included in the rent?
6) is the hot water working? Is the boiler working and is it too noisy?
7) leaking water somewhere? Check carefully ceiling and walls, if they have dark spots it means there was leaking water or mould, and landlords might refuse to fix it because they want to save money or they want you to run away and break the contract and make you lose the deposit.
8) ask openly if you lose the deposit or any money if you leave before the end of the contract, or ask if they can write in the contract that you can leave before the end of the contract if there are problems.
9) is there a washing machine?
10) make sure there are no neighbours shouting and yelling like animals near your flat, don't try to ignore them, they will make your life a real nightmare.
11) is there a cooker?
12) aerial cable for tv and telephone connections.
13) is council tax included?
14) is it self-contained for real? Or the shower and the toilet are "very close" to your flat?
15) is there a window in the toilet? Make sure that you can open it.
16) don't take any top floor if there is no insulation, they might be too hot during summer. This is very important. Also rats, mice and insects normally pop up in a top floor.
17) bills for water?
18) bills for electricity?
19) bills for gas?
20) is there enough storage and space?
21) who is the landlord? Ask it openly, name and surname, don't be shy again.
22) knock at neighbours to say hi, have a chat and ask them if is a nice house etc.
24) if in the ads you read they don't accept men they are discriminating against 50% of population, for them it might be easier to deal with women, but if i were a woman i would never answer to an ad that discriminate against men. If in the ads they don't accept people on benefit that's because the landlords don't want to declare anything and avoid the taxes, and they are tarring everyone with the same brush, or they don't want to accept them because they associate people on benefit with troublemakers. There should be a law that force landlords to accept men and peope on benefit, but unfortunately there is no such a law yet.
25) if landlords continue to ignore your problems take legal action or go to a housing advice centre.

spam troll do not feed please mods attention

helpthetenant

James_N wrote: »

spam troll do not feed please mods attention

Obviously this forum is infested by trolls like you, and of course tenants are going to ignore them. Nice try anyway.

helpthetenant

00ec25 wrote: »

at the top of the board is a sticky post called "a tenants guide to renting" - this is populated with accurate & (mostly) dispassionate advice which is not driven by the personal agenda which clealry comes across in your post. It would certainly have saved you re inventing the wheel on your very long post covering topics that were discovered and reported long ago

It would also have saved you from missing off important things such as the deposit protection, as referred to in my original post - clearly you consider deposit prootection to be "useless" :rotfl:

Do you think that tenants care about you trolling here and not giving any help? You are here only to justify dodgy landlords, that means you are most likely one of them.:T

helpthetenant

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I just don't have the energy to critique it point-by-point.

Your lack of energy it's just an excuse, the fact is there is nothing inaccurate to moan about, please don't infest this thread.

Eton_Rifle

Infestation of one type or another seems to be a big factor in your life.

helpthetenant

Eton_Rifle wrote: »

Infestation of one type or another seems to be a big factor in your life.

wow, another clever useful post, who's next? I hope the moderators will take action.

Eton_Rifle

helpthetenant wrote: »

I hope the moderators will take action.

If they don't, you could try Rentokil.