Tenancy inspections

kudos_ni

I've lived in rented property for about 10 years now and been in my current flat for 3 years.

My current landlord doesn't do regular inspections. However, we have a very open relationship so if we spot something that needs fixing we just email him and he'll arrange a time to either come round himself or send someone round.

I'm sure when he comes himself to fix things he has a quick check. he has on occassion mentioned things like "you need to clean the skirting". I pretty much ignore his cleanliness comments as I know the flat is clean and gets a regular gutting. He has very high standards because he has a cleaner do his own house twice a week. I do full spring cleans as and when i have the time and energy.

He seems satified that we are looking after the place and will leave it in good condition if we ever move out.

I think if my landlord wanted to do 3 monthly inspections I would actually consider moving out as it is a bit of an invasion and a hassle to try and arrange times that suit all parties.

dodger1

Three and a half years now without an inspection but I wouldn't object to a six monthly one if a LL requested it.

TroubledLandlord

Just some perspective on this.

I have had 3 sets of tenants who have pretty much demolished the place by the end of their tenancy. I feel that inspections would have caught this earlier on and offered some protection. I intend to do inspections on the next tenant. It will be after 3 months, 6 months and then 6 monthly after that.

Maybe I've just been really unlucky with the 3 tenants I have had. There was such damage though that could've been reported and sorted out much earlier, examples are:

1. Fungus growing from toilet pinth where they hadn't been hitting the toilet properly
2. Having to spend days dumping road work paraphenalia from the garden, signs, lights etc
3. Massive damp stain on bathroom floor, leaking through to floor below which wasn't reported
4. Ivy on the outside of the house growing so tall that it was coming in the windows, so they wouldn't close properly
5. Massive satellite dish afixed to outside of house and then wired throughout the bedrooms with holes drilled into the walls
6. LL furniture dumped into the garden and left to rot
7. Gutter leaking, possibly roof leak, not reported

The cost of putting houses back together, at the end of each tenancy, has been astronomical and so I would definitely perform inspections in the future. It would've caught most of the issues became they became extremely expensive.

That said, in my few short years as a LL, I've noticed that if the exterior is being maintained (lawn mowed, leaves and other ditritus being sweeped up) then they house inside is probably being maintained.

I would definitely do the inspection along the lines of "checking that the property is still sound and there are no repairs that need doing" rather than "checking to see you are looking after my house properly" frame of mind.

Having said that, the previous tenants started threatening the checkout lady with violence and she was forced to leave the property. So if anything an inspection would've picked up I've got an extremely violent tenant (problem) in my property.

Maybe though, I'm just the unluckiest LL on the planet.....

franklee

That's an exceptional amount of bad luck.

However there is a line between learning from your mistakes and alienating the next good tenant. If a property is being kept well after the fist three and nine months then what's likely to change. OTOH be overbearing with a good tenant and it's clear from the responses on this thread you may lose them. I think the name of the game to to find a good tenant and then keep them