Austin and Wyatt High Charges on Missed Appointments

propertyman

I mentioned the benefit to the landlord. Any benefit to a tenant is incidental.

But from what you have posted, there is no give on your side either

Emergency contacts are a regular rant, but in the average tenancy how many are actual emergencies that cannot wait until the morning?
How many are emergencies that cannot be dealt with until the next day how many are in a landlord's control, and how often are they matters which are only an emergency because of our expectations?

It's 3 a year, 3 in residence and 4 is checkout. And it's 2 days out of 20 when you would most likely be sitting around or pottering about at home anyway.

It's a fact of life when renting and just selfish to expect that someone gives up family and personal life in favour of "mine".

Sales staff do it because they are paid and earn accordingly, admin staff are not, efficient and effective work is done on a planned basis, otherwise their fees go up, and then we would complain about that being unfair......

" More for less for me" a bespoke service at primark prices.

People shouldn't be surprised when companies respond accordingly by being rigid and charge for wasted time.

girl_withno_name

There is give from our side - we've allowed workmen into the house to carry out maintenance work (as far as I could tell) to the loft and the roof, while we hadn't even noticed anything might be "wrong" (i.e. not for our benefit). This work meant them being in the house while we were in work, "unsupervised", on unspecified days for nearly a fortnight. We arranged to start work later so we could let the workmen in, but they didn't turn up on time. We also took time off work to attend the check-in at their convenience, and I suspect we'll have to do the same at check-out also.

We also realise that we cannot always be there for inspections (and as I said before I prefer not to be, it'll probably mean a disruption to my study time), so allow these to be carried out while we're in work (although I won't break my back to scrub the place clean if I've got exams within the coming couple of weeks). I even usually drop them an email to say that we won't be in, so they'll need to ensure they have their key.

But my patience is bound to be stretched when there's no flexibility from them...

I'm not sure how it can be "3 a year, 3 in residence and 4 is checkout" when we're on a rolling monthly contract and regardless of whether we move out at the end of the year or not, there'll be 4 of them!

As for the emergency number, we called on Saturday morning because the back garden wall had fallen down - not an emergency but it got me thinking that they'd mentioned there would be a number available out of hours and I just thought "what if this was an emergency?"

Personally, I very rarely use holidays to sit around the house, that seems like a waste of time! Oh, and your suggestions above (of taking holidays) is surely "giving up family and personal life" in favour of the LAs?

propertyman

All of which are examples of life as a renter. Would you prefer the landlord terminate your monthly holding over to do work to the roof?

When the wall fell down what could the agent do or have to do that could not wait until Monday? If it took part of the house with it again what could the agent do

The vast majority of incidents classed as emergencies aren't.

But annual leave is for doing things you need to do ( as the EA staff have to do for their own personal obligations) not just your chosen activities, in this case as a renter, waiting in for an inspection.

Or as an owner taking annual leave finding builders to come and quote for the roof and having to deal with them during the day drinking your tea and making up excuses.

I am sitting at the flat waiting for a plumber to fix a loo that won't flush since Tuesday and while I could have chap here in an hour or so I have used a bucket ( to flush !) until I had the time this morning. Thankfully Mrs PM is at home ( not at the flat) as she would be in hysterics by now.

And he just turned up and its the owner who realised it was my name on the ticket and he wants to keep the work coming- he will be arguing about taking payment!

zappahey

propertyman wrote: »

All of which are examples of life as a renter.

I prefer to see myself as the customer, the one whose presence puts food on the table of landlords and agents and, ergo, the one who should be accommodated where practical.

I have been through this argument with the LA. I won and I'm still in the house.

propertyman

I am glad for you but your view is not reflection of any of that, it is about "power" and a mish mash of people's values and experience.

In a strong market there are plenty more of you, in a weaker market not so much.

In a recession where an Agent might ill afford to have someone pinging back and forth on inspections and need x done in a day and therefore planned, they can afford to upset a few people and make charges that are a pain to challenge.
They stop when it has a commercial impact not because of your self affected status as a customer.

Unrealistic expectations and customer rights beyond published or statutory ones are largely a delusion, and the sooner understood and you know where the "power" is the better for you.

Annabee

4 inspections are year are excessive. And they are primarily for the landlord's benefit, not the tenant's. Actually, you do have the right to refuse them, although this might ultimately result in being given your notice.

Could you suggest to the agency that every 6 months would be more reasonable? At the very least, they should be arranging an agreed time with you, not dictating when they will come and then charging you £30 if you're not there. Outrageous!

DizzyDasher

I work in a service industry with normal working hours of around 9.30 to 6.30. But I have clients. If they want a meeting or call at 7am or 10pm then unless I have a prior engagement I do it. I admit, if it was 2am or 5am I would probably say no (luckily I have never been asked for this except once, when I was in the US and a client wanted to do a call at 10am on a Saturday - i.e 5am US time: I had only just got there, so it was no big deal to wake up at that time).

Nobody expects infinite flexibility, but clients should expect people they are paying (and the people THOSE people are paying) to have some consideration and flexibility.

Property letting agents (and their inspectors) have voluntarily entered a service industry, and it is not unreasonable for their client's client to expect some flexibility and helpfulness on their part.

Obviously if you can't make an appointment you should say: but equally it is not appropriate for your landlord's agent (i.e. your service provider's agent, who is their representative) to simply impose a meeting time rather than finding one that is mutually convenient. These people are service providers, not prison warders or police officers. That is not how you treat clients!

DizzyDasher

propertyman wrote: »

Inspections are a fact of renting life,
-you use a half day or
-arrange it around other things you need time off to do.
-or take a sickie
-lie say the boiler went bang
-ask the employer to come in late/go early and make up the time
-work from home

You do realise that 2 of your 6 suggestions involve stealing from your employer? And two of the others involve some flexibility from the agent in agreeing a time for the inspection, which is exactly what posters here are not being offered.

So if you have a job that doesn't allow working from home, your only option is to take holiday. Why is it unreasonable to expect a service provider to operate in such a way that you can avoid wasting half a day's valuable holiday on a half hour meeting that is not to your benefit anyway?

Why is this more morally acceptable than expecting people who work for a letting agency to work on contracts that are slightly outside the normal working day (e.g. 8-4 or 11-7) to allow for some meetings/inspections outside normal working hours? I just don't see that this is such an unreasonable expectation.

zappahey

propertyman wrote: »

I am glad for you but your view is not reflection of any of that, it is about "power" and a mish mash of people's values and experience.

...

Unrealistic expectations and customer rights beyond published or statutory ones are largely a delusion, and the sooner understood and you know where the "power" is the better for you.

See, this is where you are completely wrong, I don't see it as about power, I see it as being about customer service in what is basically a service industry.

However, if you want to see it as power, then there must be some power in being a reliable tenant, who always pays on time and looks after the house as if it were my own.

I'm happy to take the risk that a landlord would see sense rather than lose a good tenant due to an arsey agent. It's not like there's a shortage of family houses available if necessary.

Seeing it as a power game, and "what do you expect if you're a renter", may go a long way to explaining the common perception around these parts that landlords, and their agents, are lower than a snake's belly.

marliepanda

Landlords and letting agents have zero right to dictate a tenants life. I do not see where you are coming from propertman. Take a half day for an inspection or face a fine?? It's laughable.

You seem to think tenants should be grateful for the privilege of renting. In the same vein landlords should be grateful for the rent. He does not have the right to dictate when his tenant is home.