Tenant is now letting house get dirty

jayss

I'm lost now, earlier the house was mortgage free, now it's 30k negative equity?

bjbyorkshire

I've read all the new posts and yes I do agree that it is the tenants home but it's still my asset as someone said, and that is what I'm protecting. I'd be a fool to wait until they keep coal in the bath, rip out the pipework and all the other stuff posted on here. That's not going to happen, I can tell that he is not the sort to do anything like that. I am protecting my asset BEFORE it gets into the position the grease can't be removed from the walls and ceilings, have you tried painting over a ceiling when its got even a slight film on it?

Question for someone please? If and when a professional cleaning company do come in to clean at the end of the tenancy can I expect that they will be removing the fan unit above the cooker to (fettle) it - good Yorkshire expression there? Will they scrape the grease from the cupboard doors and light fittings? Will they clean the venetian blinds? 'cos they are a real bu**er to get clean when grease and dust are left on them. I know as I have had to do them and it takes ages with hot water and fairy liquid. How long do a cleaning company come in to a house for on average? and how much would the charge be likely to be? Roughly? We are in the north not the south where fees are much higher. My son just vacated his flat in London and was told he had to use professionals to clean and that they would charge £60 - it would have been more but there were no carpets to clean but that he must was the white settee cover himself. I thought that was a most reasonable rate for north London and in all honesty you aren't going to get this kitchen up to speck in under 3 hours supposing more than one person is doing it. that doesn't include the rest of the house which would be much quicker to do I'm guessing.?

BitterAndTwisted

Professional end-of-tenancy cleaners will do whatever it is that is asked of them. What the cost might be is a question you could be asking of local firms now in anticipation of needing their services next year. I would be calculating a full day for two people at the NMW as an absolute minimum. Your difficulty at the moment could be gaining access for any contractors to formulate a sensible and accurate quote.

Still, whatever the cost might be, in the end it's the tenants who will be paying for it as long as there was a full full-signed inventory undertaken at the start of this tenancy.

Mylo_The_Moggy

bjbyorkshire wrote: »

Its me again.... what a lot of childish squabbling has now been posted on this thread.

Unfortunately that's what seems to happen a lot on here, the OP tends to get left behind while 2 or 3 posters fight it out like children squabbling in a playground.

Utter shambles & very uncalled for when you are plainly asking for advice. Some posters should be ashamed of themselves..........

Voyager2002

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Professional end-of-tenancy cleaners will do whatever it is that is asked of them. What the cost might be is a question you could be asking of local firms now in anticipation of needing their services next year. I would be calculating a full day for two people at the NMW as an absolute minimum. Your difficulty at the moment could be gaining access for any contractors to formulate a sensible and accurate quote.

Still, whatever the cost might be, in the end it's the tenants who will be paying for it as long as there was a full full-signed inventory undertaken at the start of this tenancy.

We don't know how large the deposit is, and the OP has not confirmed that it was placed in a protection scheme. She is relying on the LA being professional: very foolish IMHO.

Voyager2002

bjbyorkshire wrote: »

I've read all the new posts and yes I do agree that it is the tenants home but it's still my asset as someone said, and that is what I'm protecting. I'd be a fool to wait until they keep coal in the bath, rip out the pipework and all the other stuff posted on here. That's not going to happen, I can tell that he is not the sort to do anything like that. I am protecting my asset BEFORE it gets into the position the grease can't be removed from the walls and ceilings, have you tried painting over a ceiling when its got even a slight film on it?

OK, the only problem of which you are aware is the grease in the kitchen. A letter raising the issue and explaining how to avoid the problem might well be all that is needed to solve everything.

Otherwise... by issuing the s21 notice you risk opening a can of worms, and one your tenants find that they are losing their home you can be sure that the goodwill that now exists will vanish immediately. One piece of advice: before you do anything else, make sure that the deposit is properly protected: you cannot rely on an agent to do this properly, and if anything is wrong then you, rather the agent, will pay the penalty.

BitterAndTwisted

Eh, if the deposit isn't great enough to cover an end-of-tenancy clean the landlord is entitled to claim any additional monies via the courts. That's if the tenants can be found.

I suspect now that the issue of deposit-protection has been flagged in this thread the OP will be on the agent's case about it tout ruddy suite.

bjbyorkshire

jayss wrote: »

I'm lost now, earlier the house was mortgage free, now it's 30k negative equity?

We bought on a mortgage for £129.995 in September 2007. Daughter died in July 2012 so father and I used savings to pay off the remaining mortgage so we could do as we liked without asking the building society for permission to rent. We cleaned and painted all the walls, doors, skirtings - neutralised the daughter's vivid magenta bedroom feature wall, lol (and cried buckets while doing it) then let it in early November 2012.

Estate agents valuation as at September 2012 if we were selling was £105.000, take off EA/solicitors fees and drop the price a bit as everyone always wants to pay less than asking price, so going on £100,000 as the amount we would likely get back after all fees and that's my £30k negative equity.

My thought re renting was that if we could find nice tenants like the neighbours on both sides and perhaps rent for 4-3 years then sell we might make up the shortfall then sell.

Hubby was not happy at all about renting but I could see the investment being better in renting the house than in the bank.
(How do I know that saying all the above will set off all the vitriol again???).

I know lots of folks would give their high teeth to have this kind of money to have to make any decisions about but we are not rich, just comfortably off because we have been life long careful spenders. The kids used to roll their eyes and tell their mates, "Don't look, mum actually washes and re-uses plastic freezer bags". They were most embarrassed by it. I was into re-cycling long before it was fashionable and can't stop the habits of a lifetime now.

If you are all sick of this thread we can wind it up now, if you are having fun with the updates then I will let you all know what EA says after their visit next Friday but, whatever happens, our decision is made that we will definitely be selling come spring. I might just give the tenant first option to buy if he wants to as I know mortgages are going to be a bit easier to get shortly. They are both high earners, I know what they do for a living, and are only using this property as a stop gap until they move jobs at some point. They are not your poor defenceless people on their uppers as some of you have assumed that I am taking advantage of). I think when they viewed it they could see that it was clean, part furnished, as I did leave some furniture in that I didn't want myself and I know they have used all of it as its still there. I didn't ask for any money for any of it, it was all less than 5 years old and just like brand new, they were delighted to have use of it.

Phew, I'm exhausted by all this chat, I'm off for a cuppa and a cake.

bjbyorkshire

The question re where the deposit is lodged (£525, ie one month's rent), will be raised as soon as I can get a call back from the girl who is doing the inspection. She will love me when I do get to speak to her as I have 13 questions on my piece of paper to ask her. It might just pi** her off too while I'm at it. Then I really will be on my own with it all.

Hey ho, hind sight would be a lovely gift to have.

Annabee

bjbyorkshire - just to give you some idea - I got a quote in May from a cleaning company to do an end-of-tenancy clean on my daughter's student house. House was a semi, but did have 3 floors and 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. The quote was £389 to include steam cleaning to carpets, and £269 without.

Of course this was a different area (Kent) and probably a different type of house. And I don't know if they charge more because they presume students will be dirtier, and also because they know they'll be splitting the costs? Anyway, I thinking you'll be looking at over £100, probably £200, definitely. They should clean venetian blinds, kitchen fans, especially if you point it out to them and put it in the agreement.