Landlord Making me pay rent before move in

G_M

The more you write, the more there is to take issue with wannahouse! But briefly:

* Trying to deflect responsibility onto your agent is a cop-out. YOU are the landlord.
* Whether a tenant moves in on the tenancy start date is neither here nor there. The issue is the date the tenancy starts, and the date rent is charged from.
* the quality of the flat is also irrelevant, as is the amount of rent you choose to charge. It is the date rent is charged from that is in being questioned.
* nor do I see how your 17 rental-experiences are relevant to the legal situation : if you charge rent for a period when access to the property is denied, and in advance of the start date written on the tenancy, you are ripping off the tenant.

Simple.

Guest101

wannahouse wrote: »

thanks for that!
if you read my post below that, you would see that WE have nothing to do with finding tenants or making agreements about move in dates etc.
that is sorted and agreed between the agents and the tenants, and NO ONE signed any tenancy agreement until the day they moved in.
we were given the application forms to look at and see if we were happy with it, and told the date they were offering to take the flat from, and we pick them as tenants, out of the different application forms we were presented with.
the agents deal with the rest of it, reference them , and check them in, and we only found out after the fact, that they did not move in until a little later, so the deal was made btwn the tenants and landlord and notthing to do with us being "money grubbing greedy landlords!"

i also mentioned one of the three has been paying rent YET STILL hasn't moved in 3 months later,as she is off holidaying and doing other things, so i don't think they are obviously bothered if they have money to throw about renting a place, yet not even living in it.

your comment calling us money grubbing landlords is also out of order, as our apartment is beautifully decorated and furnished and also has a private designed outdoor roof terrace half the size of our flat, yet we charge the same rent as the other 3 bedroom flats that look like absolute dives, with awful, sparse furnishings, as we are interested in attracting the RIGHT tenants rather than just attracting top dollar, so we never have voids, and we have new tenants always lined up months in advance to rent it, when are leaving.

people can vote with their feet, if they don't like something, and i personally think that in the OP'S case, it was unfair to suggest they would charge her for rent, as she had done her part and not caused any delays.
in our case, the tenants had WEEKS to get their info in to the agent, as they were lined up 6 weeks in advance before the end of the residing residents tenancy, but were too lazy to bother sending something in , and had to be chased for everything.

we have personally rented 17 places ourselves to live in over the years in 3 different countries, and every time we have put in an application, we have been asked to specify what date we are offering to take it from, which is obviously something the landlord will consider, when reviewing the applications, as most people are not going to wait 2 months for a tenant to move in and start paying rent, when they have an applicant they can chose with an earlier date.
in every case, we have paid from the agreed date,some places we wanted to secure the property, but it was available before we were ready to move, but we negotiated the difference with the landlord, and one place we had signed the tenancy agreement and we due to move in, but weren't able to, due to a problem with the water supply to the house, and in that situation, although the tenancy had already started, we negotiated a rent free period until the problem was rectified, as the house was not habitable.

the key to successful renting/ letting, is negotiation, with both parties being happy.
we never screw anyone over, and we always get quality tenants, who pay on time, and are HAPPY.
they may not send their forms back on time, but they are happy, and they have a good deal with our flat being much nicer than they could rent in the development for the same price, so if you asked the tenants, i'm sure they would agree they are well looked after.

OP i am glad you managed to get it sorted out!

Its a complete cop out, the fact is if the tenant pays rent they should get the property. You accepted the rent, give them the property, the referencing is completely seperate, as are the agents. The tenant has no contract with the agent in regards to move in date, rental date etc.