Would you ever pay to do up your landlord's property?

Eliza_2

ellie27 wrote: »

Would I ever pay to do up my Landlords property?

No chance - I am spending enough money on the rent! Rent is money you will never get back .

... but it buys you a roof over your head in the same way as if you were paying a mortgage. Every month I pay out £390. Presumably anyone buying their own house would pay out a similar amount too on mortgage - including a load of interest of course. Houses are only ours during the time we live in them, only on loan, so we might as well make them our homes -whether bought or rented. Lots of people don't get the money back from houses they own either, in fact often lose on them!

However, short term rentals for a few months, such as yours, would of course not be worth putting new kitchens in etc, in the same way as if you bought a house for 6 months you wouldn't spend money making it homely for yourself.

It's a shame that clark24's landlord wants to sell but that's the risk you take. If that happened to me I would ensure I knew my rights in terms of notice needed to give me time to look around and find somewhere else. It's not a major risk and to me it's worth taking for the freedom I get in return. After all, it takes longer than a month to sell a house, and often a load of grief, but if I wanted to move, that's all I need to give and I'm off to pastures new.


...and if anyone lives in rural Lincolnshire Wolds and knows of a little farm cottage to let (scruffy is good, I'm happy to do-up) - let me know, I actually quite fancy a change!!

James_Morgan_McGill

clark24 wrote: »

We were on a 6 month fixed tenancy, which went onto rolling for a year but we felt that didn't give us the security of knowing we wouldn't be definitely staying here and the landlady wanted the security of knowing we would definitely be staying here (and it also gave all of us time to prove ourselves to each other) so we just signed a new fixed term tenancy for another year. Now we can all relax and get on with mutually improving the place knowing we are here for at least the next year and she doesn't have to worry that we are going to be leaving anytime soon.

I would be much less inclined to spend money on the place knowing I could be asked to leave within the next few weeks, and therefore not get the benefit of our labour.

clark24 wrote: »

Funnily enough (not funny haha but funny aarrggghhhhh) we got a phonecall from our landlady this morning to say she is selling the cottage to our next door neighbours as they want to knock them through into one big property.

So all the money and time we have spent on improvements will not be enjoyed by us for much longer.

Ho hum that's life (insert many very profane swear words here!)

Do you mean she plans to sell it now, or in one year's time?

Since you have just signed a new one year AST, the landlady could only sell the property with you as the tenant. The new owners will simply become your new landlords, and you are under no obligation to accept any rent increase, let alone move out! If they don't like it, they would have to take a lengthy process to regain possession.

I don't think you should feel any particular obligation to make things easy for your landlady, unless you are totally dependent on her reference.

Is there a break clause in the agreement?

James_Morgan_McGill

I do think the below thread is a bit of a cautionary tale about how these kind of long term, low-rent, treat-the-property-as-your-own kind of tenancies can go wrong:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5182800

The tenants live in the property for such a long time, and take such care of it, that they feel like they own it. But when the landlord's situation changes and they need to raise the rents to a market level, the tenant has a sense of entitlement and ownership, and either can't afford or simply won't agree to pay the increase.

This isn't to say such agreements will always end sourly, but there should always be a solid contract to back them up. The landlord needs to protect themselves for when they do need to increase the rent or reclaim their property.

The tenants also should keep sight that they are still tenants, and try to do something useful with the money they might be saving. Or if they decide they don't need to work so many hours because their rent is low, that's all well and good, but they should have a plan for how they'll survive when they have to move somewhere else and pay market rent.

clark24

James_Morgan_McGill wrote: »

Do you mean she plans to sell it now, or in one year's time?

Since you have just signed a new one year AST, the landlady could only sell the property with you as the tenant. The new owners will simply become your new landlords, and you are under no obligation to accept any rent increase, let alone move out! If they don't like it, they would have to take a lengthy process to regain possession.

I don't think you should feel any particular obligation to make things easy for your landlady, unless you are totally dependent on her reference.

Is there a break clause in the agreement?

She is selling it now due to a relationship breakdown and needing the money, and they made her an offer she couldn't refuse. We've talked it over with them and they want us to stay on as tenants at least for 2 more years, they want to buy it now before anyone else does (which could mean they never get another chance) but can't afford to do all the work yet, so are thinking of knocking through and refurbishing in 2017 or thereabouts. On the plus side we get on very well with these people, and are friends as well as neighbours but it's going to be a bit awkward having them as landlords, although I may be just thinking of the worse case scenario. As it is they have told us to not worry, that we don't have to think of going anywhere for a couple of years but who knows, maybe once they have the keys things will change, we are very glad we signed that contract though, I just hope it doesn't sour the good relationship we have with them as they are our only neighbours so getting on with them is extra important lol