Stronger Rights For Tenants, Please vote

lynzpower

pickles110564 wrote: »

I do not understand why any LL's would not do the above because all this would do is cost them more money in the future. ( no it doesnt, not really. Surely many want to keep thier own money in the bank until they absolutely have to - and who makes them - no one- possibly environmental health, but even then thats pushing it)

When we were doing our last renovation we had to rent. We paid by direct debit and treated the place like our home. On moving out we had all the carpets cleaned and made sure the toilets and bathroom's were spotless.
That is why I can not understand why on the whole tenant's don't keep the places they rent clean and tidy? Perhaps it is because they have no self respect.

or perhaps its because they treat the property as they would thier own home, which they are legaly entitled to do.

my parents, for example, have not paid for a carpet cleaner in years. they just hoover, never wear shoes indoors and after 2 years tend to replace. Likewise in this house, as soon as we moved in, we had to wear shoes indoors, the carpets were literally filthy. Why should I pay 100-200 quid to get them cleaned. when I know im going to be billed for it at checkout. Might as well wait and just do it then.

what is your standard of living is not everyone elses. and its also not your business.

Maybe people think well why should I clean it cos the LL is only going to kepp my deposit anyhow so they might as well have reason to do so. Certainly its crossed my mind, after the last time whne I took a week off work with y other housemates to clean and the LL charged me for among other things , us not leaving a full loo roll, and a dead plant in the garden ( grand and a halfs worth of damage? I think not.)

if you think that every ll is like you you are living in some sort of dreamworld

pickles110564

lynzpower wrote: »

Maybe people think well why should I clean it cos the LL is only going to kepp my deposit anyhow so they might as well have reason to do so. Certainly its crossed my mind, after the last time whne I took a week off work with y other housemates to clean and the LL charged me for among other things , us not leaving a full loo roll, and a dead plant in the garden ( grand and a halfs worth of damage? I think not.)

if you think that every ll is like you you are living in some sort of dreamworld

When the deposits are held by a third party surely this will help you in the future.
I think you are wrong people should leave my properties how they are presented to them, like I said I would not accept anything less

lynzpower

pickles110564 wrote: »

When the deposits are held by a third party surely this will help you in the future.
I think you are wrong people should leave my properties how they are presented to them, like I said I would not accept anything less

you mean apart from fair wear and tear :rolleyes:

pickles110564

lynzpower wrote: »

you mean apart from fair wear and tear :rolleyes:

yes apart from that

litaus

As a tenant who feels that owning property is overpriced at the moment, I find it difficult to hear people assuming that we are lazy and unemployed. My DH, working 60+ hours a week in the City of London on a good salary, and myself, running a home with a baby and toddler while writing a book, running a business, moving house twice in the last year (due to the first landlord being totaly unreasonable, second one was fine although estate agent is now withholdin £250 of our deposit illegally, moved into unsuitable property due to pregnancy and urgency requiring a fast resolution), it sticks in my throat to be accused of being lazy and poor (who isn't poor these days, but that's another thread).

I think the problem is that bad landlords (i.e. those who never maintain - the property we are in at the moment looked lovely and costs a packet, however once you move in you are stuck, especially with a family and a desire not to break the law, but no maintenance on the property was done when we moved in including cleaning, gas safety cert [they did it a week after we started paying rent, and when we moved in we were without heating or hot water for 3 days at the end of November, and still have issues from that first week]) have tenants who move out frequently, and bad tenants (most people would agree these are the ones who don't pay their rent on time, mess up the property etc) are moved on after 6 months, so they frustrate a larger percentage of good tenants/landlords, thus perpetuating the idea amongst the rest of us that everyone out there is out to get the most from us for the least input.

Sorry this is a bit muddled, but I am doing this one handed while sorting out laundry, writing reports for clients, trying to convince my 2 year old to go to bed and eat my dinner, having just hoovered downstairs as I do every evening due to a nearly crawling baby and messy toddler.

We are good tenants, and our landlord from 2003-2006 told us so, we were there 2.5 years and did our own maintenance, had a weekly cleaner, installed smoke detectors etc. We had a baby while living there (and conceived another 2, one of which died) and paid every month on time by standing order, never running even a day late. Our estate agents tried to increase our rent by a phenomenal £250 a month. When we negotiated, due to lack of decorating and maintenance issues from flooding etc not being sorted, we were kicked out (I was pregnant) as soon as the rental increase went through and our LL retained our deposit for 6 months, then gave us only 1/4 of it, we are currently taking her to court, 15 months later.

I agree that LLs ought to be able to remove tenants forcibly if they don't pay rent - say once it's a month overdue. I also think that apart from that overprotection of the 'wrong sort' of tenant (some people just lose their job or get sick), law abiding tenants have little recourse if they want things fixed, or their deposit back (it takes too long, and for the smaller amount of our most recent landlord, it is hardly worth it considering the hassle) or to be treated as respectable, responsible adults - which we are.

One last point, it was mentioned that if you don't want that sort of LL then don't take on that sort of property, as illustrated above, often you don't know whether a LL will be trouble or not until you leave. I was going to say something about if you don't want unemployed or lazy tenants then meet them and interview them yourself, but then again, the first sentence of this paragraph applies to both sides, doesn't it.

Just IMO

Gorgeous_George

lynzpower wrote: »

or perhaps its because they treat the property as they would thier own home, which they are legaly entitled to do.

Disagree on that one. Just because someone would trash their own property does not give them a right to trash mine.

Try taking a hire car back in a poor condition and see how reasonable Hertz/Avis etc., are. The contract should detail the condition that the property will be returned in, whether it be as received, as received minuis fair w&t or better than received. Sign the contract, agree the terms.



GG

betterlatethannever

I'm a tenant and have been forced to move twice in two years by landords who have decided the time is right to sell up.
Each move has cost me in excess of £300 (and i do the removals myself bringing in family and friends) plus i have to take leave from work, then theres the general hassle of change of address, phone numbers etc.
I have my own furniture and its hard sometimes to find a place at short notice thats unfurnished so at times i've had to move to furnished and sell off my stuff (some of it before its even paid for) then buy new again when i move to unfurnished.
This is dam unfair on me. I have always paid my rent on time and always look after my home.
With the threat of an increase in interest rates and the housing marketing collapsing my present landlord might just do the same. Its a constant worry and one i could do without.

jyonda

betterlatethannever wrote: »

I'm a tenant and have been forced to move twice in two years by landords who have decided the time is right to sell up.
Each move has cost me in excess of £300 (and i do the removals myself bringing in family and friends) plus i have to take leave from work, then theres the general hassle of change of address, phone numbers etc.
I have my own furniture and its hard sometimes to find a place at short notice thats unfurnished so at times i've had to move to furnished and sell off my stuff (some of it before its even paid for) then buy new again when i move to unfurnished.
This is dam unfair on me. I have always paid my rent on time and always look after my home.
With the threat of an increase in interest rates and the housing marketing collapsing my present landlord might just do the same. Its a constant worry and one i could do without.

I agree. I think we will see a lot more of this as IR's rise and BTL LL's with narrow margins decide to offload a potentially decreasing asset. There would be some justice to it if their tenants would be able to buy them at a reasonable price but naturally the LL will want the full market value which I suspect most tenants willing to buy wouldn't have. For this reason we have tried to make sure the people we rent from are not BTL newbies.
If it wasn't so easy to get out of being a LL then I think a lot less people would be getting into it.

Guy_Montag

How would this grab you all landlords & tenants:

Upon repossession by a bank, the bank takes over the tenancy & must allow the tenant to stay on for the duration of the tenancy - subject to the usual caveats.

I'm looking forward to compulsory registration of landlords throughout the country - it's already happened in Scotland.

lynzpower

Guy_Montag wrote: »

How would this grab you all landlords & tenants:

Upon repossession by a bank, the bank takes over the tenancy & must allow the tenant to stay on for the duration of the tenancy - subject to the usual caveats.

I'm looking forward to compulsory registration of landlords throughout the country - it's already happened in Scotland.

grabs me. I was thinking only the same last nigt.

What id like is a brokerage system where theres a panel of inspectors, I reckon run by the government.

If you report a broken boiler to your LL ( in writing, cc in the brokers) your LL has X amount of days to get the problem resolved.

If they dont, then the brokerage panel should come & inspect, and repair on the spot and charge the LL.

then at the very least, the work is done.

The panel would then be able to intervene and prosecute landlords who habitually neglect thier properties.