Have you met your Landlord?

Gillybean

We manage our rental properties ourselves so have contact with our tenants should they need anything repairing for example. I sometimes have cause to contact them, for example if we remortgage and need access to the property for valuation purposes I'll text/call, let them know whats happening so they can be in, make themselves scarce or let me know its not convenient to come over at that time.

I have as little contact as poss to be honest. My tenants know where I am, I may own the property but it is their home at the end of the day.

tiger_eyes

My landlord is a property management agency and we have minimal contact. I didn't even meet them when I first took the property as that was handled by a separate letting agent. They did an inspection at three months I think, but haven't been back since then. I like it this way - they keep their distance and I call them if I need them.

SerialRenter

I've been in five rentals so far, out of all of these I've only been in contact with one of the landlords, the communication with the others was always through a letting agent.
Quality varied quite a lot.
2/5 were bad with repairs.
3/5 let themselves in without prior notice.
2/5 tried to take deposit they were not entitled to.
the private landlord was in all three of those.

I'd recommend just leaving your tenants to get on with living, they'll contact you if they have a problem. Inspections are fine, if they're known about well in advance (before the point of signing preferably), if you want to cover yourself.
The last thing tenants want is to wake up in bed to find an estate agent poking his head through your door with 5 student trailing.
It would be funny if it hadn't happened many many times.

aileth

When we rented we never met the landlord, spoke to him on the phone though as he preferred dealing with things himself. Only met his jobsbody who kept coming to fix the boiler.

Okydoky25

8 rentals in 5 years and the only one I haven't had problems with is the private rental we had direct with our Landlord. We met them after viewing and were reassured. They were able to see we were honest people who would look after their home.

After the 1st year we were even offered a rent discount as they wished to keep us and we had put lots of our time (their money) into improving the property.

Sadly we moved on and have had nothing but trouble since from LA!

HB58

We use a LA to find tenants only, we do the ongoing management ourselves. We introduce ourselves to our tenants early on but then largely leave them to themselves. A quick inspection is done, with permission, if anyone is in to sort out repairs etc, we would only do formal inspections if that threw up any concerns.

Tenants have our mobile numbers. They can, and do, contact us if they need to.We try to respond as quickly as possible for everyone's sake.

As we have no ongoing agency involvement, there are no fees at the end of the fixed term.

anotheruser

Been in many a house without seeing LL and to be honest I sort of prefer it that way.

Now my current one visits once every 3 months, which is annoying. I wouldn't have minded if it was once every 3 months until a year, then yearly but it continues to be often, even though she has seen we are great tenants.

bjbyorkshire

I have a house which is let through LA. I have met my tenant once and spoken to him a couple of times on the phone when he needed some work done, otherwise I have left him well alone. On Wednesday morning at 8am I got a call from my tenant on his way to work saying that all the plug sockets in the house were inactive and his new freezer which was full of meat would be at risk if we didn't get the issue fixed fairly quickly. I managed with great difficulty to get someone to come and look to see what the problem was. He came within an hour of my call which is pretty darned good for plumbers/electricians. I went to the property at 9:30am with the permission of my tenant who had gone to work. I turned out that the boiler/heating had come on at 7am, the first time the heating was put on this year, and the pump in the boiler had sprung a leak which had caused the master RCD switch to trip out each time we tried to re set it. Plumber fitted a new pump within 2 hours (I am still waiting for his bill!!) I rang my tenant at work to say all was fixed and he was most grateful for such a speedy outcome. BUT.... Big problem now. I was quite horrified at the state of the house when we went in. Most of the house was just plain untidy. Not a problem there but the kitchen was very smelly (curry smells as they are ethnic professional tenants who eat that type of food). But the grease was very evident on all the kitchen cupboard doors, the kitchen windows and door between kitchen and sitting room were covered in a greasy film. I noticed a griddle on a stand of the type you would use out in the garden was in the kitchen/diner and it is obvious that they are using that as well as the cooker for their cooking. I was so shocked as when the LA did a six month inspection with photos everything was fine but the tenant has since married and his wife has moved in with him and presumably they are cooking at home more than he did as a single bloke. I have tried to contact the LA today to see why they haven't done a second six monthly check. The house has been let to same tenant for almost 12 months. I was in blissful ignorance as to the deterioration in the place since the last check by the agents on 2nd March. I really want the LA to give the tenant his notice (2 months now) and for us to try to sell the house rather than go through all the hassle of finding new tenants. I will keep you informed of progress on this one after the LA gets back to me. I have to go to the house again on Friday afternoon for the gas safety check to be done so am not sure whether to say something to the tenant about the greasy kitchen or to leave it to the agents as I am paying a management fee every month for them to manage it for me. Any advice would be welcome as to what my best course of action should be. This is my first experience of being a landlord and it was all looking good up until this week. I feel that six monthly checks may not be quite often enough as a lot of muck can be generated in that time.
Thanks

junglejim2

Brothel downstairs, cannabis farm upstairs, both run by letting agent's toy-boy.

You - yes YOU - the landlord remain legally liable for everything.. eg being sued for up to 3x deposit if it wasn't protected in time

.

Don't get what you are saying...so if your tenant has a cannabis farm in a rented property, the landlord is legally liable?

Counting_Pennies_2

I have been both tenant and now landlord

As a tenant I have had a mixed experience. The first landlord we never met. Just saw the letting agent once on arrival. Paid the money and left after 6 months agreement.

Then bought our own house, and carried on life as owners for 12 years.

We then had a 6 month gap between house purchases so rented a house. It was an introductory via an agent, then landlord management. We were stalked from day one. The landlady came round daily for the first week. Then there were issues with fridges, cookers, cupboards. Basically they had not been right at the point of our arrival, so kept needing to be fixed. She would arrange to come round to measure something up, then wander around the rest of the house. Thankfully we just had to put up with it for 6 months, but it gave me the resolve never to be like that.

We now own a few buy to lets. I aim to have each property as up to date and clean and fresh as we can before the tenants move in. We advertise ourselves for tenants, so we get to meet them and know they are the right people for the property and for us to deal with. We have an independent inventory carried out before their arrival. On arrival we meet them go through the inventory and ask them to make any changes they are not happy with. We give them a bottle of wine as a house warming, then provide them with a folder with all our details in, bank details for monthly payment, payment date. Day of bin collection, utility company details etc. We then leave them to it. If there is an issue with rent we will contact them. If there is an issue with the property they will contact us.

When a tenant leaves, we have the same inventory lady return to the property and go over the inventory. She will advise us what is any of the deposit is necessary to keep back to pay for any repairs, so far nothing has had to be kept back. We then pay the deposit back to them.

I believe it is important to try to get the right tenant in the property and to meet them and ensure you are all right for one another. Then leave them happy in a home that is up to scratch, and fingers crossed everyone will stay happy