Question about quality of rental properties

aliasojo

sooz wrote: »

you don't have to be rude
thank them for their time & comment the state of the properties, listing the reasons. Then ask what else they have on their books.

Yes, I realise that and honestly I can be diplomatic when required.

However, when we viewed one property (listed as unfurnished), the owner's stuff was still in all the storage areas and the sheds and garage were full. We commented that this wasn't ideal as we needed storage space ourselves and we were deemed to be a tad awkward for asking if it was possible to have these emptied. Granted that was a private LL not an agency but it put us off making any further requests or comments.

So far, my view is that people just seem to want to let bad things for good money imo and unfortunately the present economic climate is helping them do so.

The other thing is that 2 of these properties were not previous rentals, so you can't blame previous tenants. They were private family homes up until very recently. One person died, the other went abroad to work for 2 years. So the state of the places were as they were when the owners lived in them. I would have expected them/their families/a paid handyman to put in a little effort with a paintbrush or some polyfilla first before putting them on the market.

nearlyrich

I think a lot of people have got into the property business and have no idea what being a LL entails, it's not acceptable to pay over the odds for a scruffy hovel filled with the LL's junk. A good cleaner would give the place a spruce up for a day's pay say £80 (at a tenner per hour) painting and making good where needed maybe £600 so less than a month's rent would have it shipshape and lettable.

Callie22

Eton_Rifle wrote: »

Bear in mind that the dirt and damage you mention was caused by tenants, just like you.

The deposit never seems to cover the real cost of the cleanup and damage repair and that's providing the tenants aren't dishonourable enough to evade the last month's rent and force you to use the deposit to cover it.

I can also tell you, from personal experience, that it soon gets pretty dispiriting for a landlord to clean up and repair damage out of his own pocket and restore the place to immaculate condition for the next tenants ... only to find that they leave it in an equally bad state.

I make everything perfect again because I'm a decent, good person and very much believe in "do as you would be done by" but sometimes I feel like throwing in the towel and thinking "let the next set of pigs live in it"

The dirt and damage may have been caused by 'people like me', but it wasn't actually caused be me, so I shouldn't have to live with it, or clean it up. I've worked in business for a long time, and I've experienced some very, very bad customers. However, my professionalism means that I don't treat every customer like dirt, just because a few have been unpleasant to me. The reality is that if I did that, I'd be out of a job pretty quickly. I don't see why it's any different for LLs? My feeling is that if LLs rent out a hole, then maybe they're making a rod for their own back because they're telling the tenants that that's the level of cleanliness/maintenance they expect?

I've left every property I've ever lived in in an immaculate state. I've never lost a single penny from a deposit - I've had bad LLs, but even they've not even tried to keep any money from me for 'cleaning' or 'repairs' because they've known they haven't got a leg to stand on. Not all tenants are dirty.

And I actually found your last sentence really offensive. If you think your customers are 'pigs', maybe you ought to find another way of making money?

Humphrey10

The places I viewed before renting this one were all fine, but that could have been luck - 2 of the 3 had just been redecorated, the 3rd (which I am now renting) looked like it had been redecorated just before the previous set of tenants.

There was some defects with the 3rd place, the estate agent pointed them out and said the landlord would fix them before I moved in, and he did.

I don't think you are unreasonable in wanting the landlord's stuff to be moved out.

Some people do genuinely consider a room to be a double room if a double bed could be squeezed in there with no other furniture.

BitterAndTwisted

I would be absolutely candid with the agents if the proposed rentals you've been shown were shabby and dirty. It shows a complete lack of concern by both parties and it's also rather insulting. By making your thoughts known you could be saving yourselves a lot of time and effort by avoiding being shown properties which are completely unacceptable. There's absolutely nothing wrong with showing that you have reasonable standards. Expecting a property to be in a decent and clean condition is not unreasonable.

dancingfairy

Personally I'm not worried about the decor being top-notch fashionable etc but I would expect it to be clean and tidy and in good condition. As has been said it depends on the area and how much demand there is but also we looked at some things that were a lot more expensive but in a very poor condition than things that were cheaper (we're talking an extra 100 to 200 more a month with smashed glass panes etc) - I guess you have to do a lot of viewings - I think we've done 6 or 7 to find somewhere nice. Perhaps explain to the letting agents and see if they think the budget is unreasonable or what?
df

hcb42

I am amazed you can get a 4 bed rental for £500 in Scotland. Obviously you dont say where, but I lived there for 13 years, friend rented a (large) 4 bed, in a nice sought after area just outside Glasgow - and it was over £1K back in 1998-1998!

I guess you can, but this is the quality you are finding.. unless you are in a very rural area...although we lived in Ayrshire in a rural village and I doubt we could have found one there either.

aliasojo

hcb42 wrote: »

I guess you can, but this is the quality you are finding.. ..

But we're not looking at the £500 bracket (I only mentioned that to illustrate that prices in Scotland can be that low), we're looking at around the £900 mark. I really would have thought there would have been at least a decent 3 if not 4 bed for that.

Maybe all the decent properties have all been snapped up and we're left looking at the not so good ones. There doesn't seem to have been anything new coming on the market recently so not much change in what's available.

BitterAndTwisted

If some of these properties might be acceptable if they were cleared of the LL's carp and cleaned properly you should insist on getting the LL's undertaking to carry these out IN WRITING before you agree to consider renting. Arrange a second viewing to ensure they have been carried out before you go on to sign any agreement.

ruggedtoast

Currently there is a rental boom. The place we rented last year we called within one hour of it appearing on rightmove and had to basically beg them to let us give them a holding deposit. When we moved in the place was filthy. When we complained the agent had lied to us about the contract and tried to renegotiate on renewal we immediately got a section 21.

When they remarketed the first woman to see it put down a deposit straight away.

She moved into a house that had not had a lick of paint or a carpet cleaned in 7 years. But what incentive is there for the landlady to clean up? None at all.