Tenant is now letting house get dirty

john539

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

________________________________________________________

Easy peesy lemon squeezy, got a dictionary yet ! :EasterBun

bjbyorkshire

Its me again.... what a lot of childish squabbling has now been posted on this thread. I have got my "tough hide suit" on now. I had my melt down about DD's lovely little house on Wednesday and had a sleepless night thinking/worrying about it. I have now shed my last tears over the kitchen grease issue so here for anyone interested is the latest update.

We went this afternoon to let the gas service engineer in to do the Landlord gas checks in case the tenant hadn't arrived home from work in time. Totally with his permission. When we got there tenant had already arrived. He welcomed me in and offered me a cup of tea (see, we do have a good relationship). I said thanks but no thanks as we had come prepared to do a bit of work outside while waiting for the gas man if that was ok with him. He said yes that's great as I don't have any gardening tools. There really is no garden as such but the bushes which have begun to overgrow a banking are in danger of stopping him getting any TV reception as the sky dish needs this gap to pick up a reception. He seemed happy for us to get on with this. Hubby is nearly 70 and was mountaineering on rocks cutting back foliage for above an hour while I hoed around the clothes post and swept up leaves and debris round the back door and filled his green bin with a pile of soggy cardboard which was stacked up at the back of his car parking space. Packaging left from new dining room table and chairs/beds that this poor rent paying couple have bought (I don't want a medal.... just sayin....)

Gas man came and got on with the safety checks. He found tenant had removed the artificial coals from the gas fire and thrown them away as he said they had been smoking a lot??? They are just artificial nuggets of coal. Gas man told him that actually they do need to be there as they are integral to the heat/flame so gas man rang round to find out where he could purchase some more and tenant promised to go get some. (We will wait and see).

The griddle which I was concerned about is still in the kitchen but I did notice a flex dangling from the stand so I am now fairly happy that it's not gas powered and a fire hazard. It must be the using of this for grilling meat that has caused the grease and steam problem as the extractor hood which is positioned over the cooker/hob will not be sufficient to remove the residue from any distance away. If they opened the windows a bit or pulled on the external wall extractor while cooking that would certainly help. (My lips are still sealed though).

You will be pleased to know that I didn't mention a word about any of this to him. I was just "Pleasant Mrs Landlord" who got on with the gardening with my mouth tightly buttoned as was suggested. I let the gas man get on with his job and tenant get on with whatever it was he was getting on with....... Are you all keeping up with this bedtime story?

Hubby also replaced the battery into the doorbell chime which we found on the floor under a pile of leaves. Tenant did not even know it had come off the door frame till we picked it up and he had no idea where the chiming mechanism was sited in the kitchen till we showed him and said that actually that might need a battery installing as he has been there a year now.

We left with a smile and a handshake and tenant said he had heard from the LA that they are coming next Friday to do the 6 monthly inspection. HURRAH! I will await with interest their report.

Hubby and I have now decided that we will let things be until the New Year and will only speak to them if they contact us. After that we can ask the EA to give then the required 2 months notice then try to sell the house in early Spring, hoping that the housing market is a bit more buoyant by then. It is a lovely little first time buyers property but unfortunately DD and her dad started to buy it at the very top of the housing bubble in September 2007. We are now in £30,000 of negative equity from our original buying price. I had thought that by renting it for a few years that we may get back to what we paid for it and then sell but I now think neither of us are tough enough to be Landlords. We are kind, considerate elderly folks who could never be horrible to anyone.

I wish I had seen the post by John539 before it had been deleted, now I am curious as to what he actually said.

It has all been a huge learning curve for us both. My thanks go to all the posters who were supportive/helpful and also to those who told me off. I realise now that I have to toughen up a lot although at 66 years old I think I may have left it a bit late to do that now.

I look forward to the next round of "chat" and will let you know what the EA report says after next Friday's visit if you want me to.

bjbyorkshire and her old man.

Yorkie1

Well done

Emmylou_2

Just a quick note that if you are looking to sell in Spring, you will probably want to serve the s21 notice now-ish.

The s21 does not mean that the Tenant must leave the property, just that you (as Landlord) will apply to Court to get an order meaning that they must. It may be four or six months until you get the property back, and that's if your paperwork is all in order.

Just a quick question: If you took a deposit, you did protect it and send the tenant the Prescribed Information at the start of the tenancy? If not, you need to return this to the tenant before you can start the section 21 process.

bjbyorkshire

Emmylou, I didn't do the original let myself. It was done through a well known LA in our town. I feel certain that they will have done things correctly as they are a long established form. I pay them 12 and a half per cent commission per month for their services but I wanted the tenant to contact me in the first instance if there were an problems to fix as I have heard stories that tradesmen's charges and workmanship can be less than fair/good if they think agents are involved and we do know lots of local tradesmen who we trust not to charge us excessively for work carried out.

I am pretty nervous that if I ask EA to serve the notice now that the tenant may be really shocked and maybe the good relationship we have now will suffer badly. I thought that maybe early January, 7th of each month is their rent day, would perhaps be the best time to serve it for repossession hopefully in early March. Am I now being overly optimistic????

Blackpool_Saver

bjbyorkshire wrote: »

Its me again.... what a lot of childish squabbling has now been posted on this thread. I have got my "tough hide suit" on now. I had my melt down about DD's lovely little house on Wednesday and had a sleepless night thinking/worrying about it. I have now shed my last tears over the kitchen grease issue so here for anyone interested is the latest update.

We went this afternoon to let the gas service engineer in to do the Landlord gas checks in case the tenant hadn't arrived home from work in time. Totally with his permission. When we got there tenant had already arrived. He welcomed me in and offered me a cup of tea (see, we do have a good relationship). I said thanks but no thanks as we had come prepared to do a bit of work outside while waiting for the gas man if that was ok with him. He said yes that's great as I don't have any gardening tools. There really is no garden as such but the bushes which have begun to overgrow a banking are in danger of stopping him getting any TV reception as the sky dish needs this gap to pick up a reception. He seemed happy for us to get on with this. Hubby is nearly 70 and was mountaineering on rocks cutting back foliage for above an hour while I hoed around the clothes post and swept up leaves and debris round the back door and filled his green bin with a pile of soggy cardboard which was stacked up at the back of his car parking space. Packaging left from new dining room table and chairs/beds that this poor rent paying couple have bought (I don't want a medal.... just sayin....)

Gas man came and got on with the safety checks. He found tenant had removed the artificial coals from the gas fire and thrown them away as he said they had been smoking a lot??? They are just artificial nuggets of coal. Gas man told him that actually they do need to be there as they are integral to the heat/flame so gas man rang round to find out where he could purchase some more and tenant promised to go get some. (We will wait and see).

The griddle which I was concerned about is still in the kitchen but I did notice a flex dangling from the stand so I am now fairly happy that it's not gas powered and a fire hazard. It must be the using of this for grilling meat that has caused the grease and steam problem as the extractor hood which is positioned over the cooker/hob will not be sufficient to remove the residue from any distance away. If they opened the windows a bit or pulled on the external wall extractor while cooking that would certainly help. (My lips are still sealed though).

You will be pleased to know that I didn't mention a word about any of this to him. I was just "Pleasant Mrs Landlord" who got on with the gardening with my mouth tightly buttoned as was suggested. I let the gas man get on with his job and tenant get on with whatever it was he was getting on with....... Are you all keeping up with this bedtime story?

Hubby also replaced the battery into the doorbell chime which we found on the floor under a pile of leaves. Tenant did not even know it had come off the door frame till we picked it up and he had no idea where the chiming mechanism was sited in the kitchen till we showed him and said that actually that might need a battery installing as he has been there a year now.

We left with a smile and a handshake and tenant said he had heard from the LA that they are coming next Friday to do the 6 monthly inspection. HURRAH! I will await with interest their report.

Hubby and I have now decided that we will let things be until the New Year and will only speak to them if they contact us. After that we can ask the EA to give then the required 2 months notice then try to sell the house in early Spring, hoping that the housing market is a bit more buoyant by then. It is a lovely little first time buyers property but unfortunately DD and her dad started to buy it at the very top of the housing bubble in September 2007. We are now in £30,000 of negative equity from our original buying price. I had thought that by renting it for a few years that we may get back to what we paid for it and then sell but I now think neither of us are tough enough to be Landlords. We are kind, considerate elderly folks who could never be horrible to anyone.

I wish I had seen the post by John539 before it had been deleted, now I am curious as to what he actually said.

It has all been a huge learning curve for us both. My thanks go to all the posters who were supportive/helpful and also to those who told me off. I realise now that I have to toughen up a lot although at 66 years old I think I may have left it a bit late to do that now.

I look forward to the next round of "chat" and will let you know what the EA report says after next Friday's visit if you want me to.

bjbyorkshire and her old man.

You just don't get it do you, quiet enjoyment means not poking your nose in and interfering with the garden. This makes me angry, you have no right to be embarrassing the tenant by treating them like a child in that way, showing them batteries and cardboard etc, YOU MAY BE RIGHT and I would have not needed at 3rd party to do that for me BUT if my landlord came round and did all that I would feel sick and want to leave......you are so in the wrong to do all that UNLESS it is in the contract which the tenant signed that YOU provide a gardener...is it?

Yorkie1

Actually, I wouldn't serve the s.21 right now, just because it will expire just into the New Year (assuming the rent day is the same as the start of each monthly tenancy period). The tenants haven't done anything particularly wrong, and it seems harsh to make them try to find something over Christmas and move at that point. It's bound to add extra stress to their Christmas period.

Yes, they may stay put, but (and I have no evidence to support this) I bet that the vast majority of tenants do in fact move out on the expiry of the s.21 notice.

If you served it at New Year (by 2 Jan at very latest if by first class post & with free certificate of posting, otherwise by 6 Jan in person with a witness) then the s.21 will expire on or after 6 March.

Entirely up to you; just thought I'd flag up the dates implications.

verulamium

Lovely story by bjbyorkshire. We used to be tenants and if we had a landlord like the OP who actually cared about the property, we would be happy.

Blackpool_Saver

verulamium wrote: »

Lovely story by bjbyorkshire. We used to be tenants and if we had a landlord like the OP who actually cared about the property, we would be happy.

Yes it is all well intentioned but it's not right. A tenant is a tenant not a child to be supervised and taught. Why pay and agency to do inspections etc, and why be there when the gas check is done, way too emotionally involved. Time to take the house back and either live in it or sell. I don't mean to be hurtful OP but what next, will you go in and clean the oven?

bjbyorkshire

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

Yes it is all well intentioned but it's not right. A tenant is a tenant not a child to be supervised and taught. Why pay and agency to do inspections etc, and why be there when the gas check is done, way too emotionally involved. Time to take the house back and either live in it or sell. I don't mean to be hurtful OP but what next, will you go in and clean the oven?

Yes I would do willingly, they both work long hours and I have time to spare but I do know that would be a step too far.