first time landlord - problem i hadnt enviseged!

beecher2

Eton_Rifle wrote: »

If you were a tenant, would you really want a landlord to have the power to control your private actions and behaviour?

Who would you complain to if the occupant owned his house? His mum?

Yes I would expect a landlord to intevene if my behaviour was antisocial. My building's title deeds specifically state that you shouldn't be a nuisance to other people living in the tenement.

If an occupant owned his house, I'd complain to the council about their behaviour - they have a Community Relations Unit to deal with such things.

Please note I'm talking about antisocial behaviour - the OP states that the tenant has 'loads of visitors' which in itself wouldn't be cause for complaint.

edit:Perhaps this is another area where Scotland differs from the rest of the country?

sequence

There's no legal way you can claim on the T's deposit for a wall that isn't on the inventory, part of the flat, and isn't the tenants responsibility.

beecher2

Just to reiterate the situation in Scotland - this is from the Scottish Government's factsheet on the laws which apply to all kinds of lettings

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/privaterent/landlords/management/rules/laws/Q/editmode/on/forceupdate/on

The tenant must not cause disturbance or nuisance to neighbours or other tenants.

celyn90

The tenant didn't drive into the wall, her visitor did. As it was her vistor's fault and not hers I don't see that there is anything that you can do. I don't think you would do too well trying to subtract money from her deposit on the basis of somebody elses's accident outside the property.

Why should it matter that people are coming and going from the house though? Would you complain if next doors grandkids popped in every day?

If you wish to smooth things over with your neighbours then you should either pay the damage yourself or seek recompense from the tenant's visitor; the incident should be reported. Their car insurance should cover it.

How would you have dealt with the wall if an unknown person had driven into it?

libbyc3

thanks for input from everyone - we never lived in the property, it was bought and done up purely as a BTL investment and we got talking to the neighbours while we were doing the house up and one offered to take a delivery for me.
I don't think the tenant could be responsible for the damage to the wall, and it wasn't really the initial damage that has caused the aggro - the fact that neither she or the visitor would clear, or help clear up - they just left the bricks all over the pavement, and the fact that these visitors may have been using the car park quite a lot preventing those who live there getting a space (the last bit is reading between the lines)

from what I can gather i think my mistake has been to be friendly with the neighbours (only joking, I think), but as the agents board is still outside really if we hadn't swapped numbers then maybe the agents would have had to deal with this.

think my plan of action is to clear the bricks myself, and monitor the situation. if all else fails I'll have to give notice at the end of the 6 months. feel a bit silly now for not considering this aspect of the BTL business - thought i had prepared myself as much as i could!?!

tbs624

libby - have you actually discussed any of this with your tenants, in a non-confrontational manner?

Some "owner" occupiers can have a bit of a fixation about rental properties, complaining about all manner of things that they would let go if the property was occupied by a mortgage payer. Perhaps the complainant(s) have little social life of their own and are jealous?

It could simply be that the parking is the issue. Is the communal parking area one which has designated spaces with a few extra for visitors and if yes, did you highlight this to your tenant? Does the T have a car themselves?

Get your T's version of events first and proceed from there, but do it the "right" way. Property letting is a people game - if your T ends up feeling unnecessarily "got at" by both you and the neighbours you could be the loser.

pinkshoes wrote:

By all means go round and sort the wall out, but DO NOT call round to see the tenants in person, as this is harassment.

If a LL calls in person or by phone and asks the T when would be convenient to chat about the issues that have arisen it would not constitute harassment.

mchale

tbs624 wrote: »

If a LL calls in person or by phone and asks the T when would be convenient to chat about the issues that have arisen it would not constitute harassment.

TBS for once we are in agreement :rotfl: