Letting a flat to an east european.

silvercar

Treat them as you would treat anyone else. If there is littl point in credit checking, as they have no history, then agree 6 months rent up front with the next lot of 6 months rent to come at the end of month 4 or they get given notice.

TBeckett100

dont do it. get someone with good references and a stable job history. dont feel bad, its business not charity. a house is a massive investment after all and warrants care

HugoSP

Lavendyr wrote: »

Actually, my points were in relation to personal experiences of living next door to a particular group of Eastern Europeans, and actually did happen to me - over a year of hassle, about which I can now be slightly tongue-in-cheek. I don't believe my post looks or, indeed, *is* racist in the slightest, especially when taken in context with the first post I made to this thread where I clearly stated that I know and have worked with other Eastern Europeans in this country who are perfectly nice, polite people. But for clarity, I have edited the post to emphasise that it is not intended as a generalisation.

Agree. Its a cultural thing. There is no racism in this entire thread

There are huge cultural differences between the eastern europeans and the brits. It's where the culture clashes that problems arise, especially if there are language barriers. Lavendyrs post was probably the best example of this.

The best advice I could give to the OP if he does take this chap on, is to try and find a local eastern european contact who may be willing to act as a go between to iron any issues out.

However he may be able to speak to his employer and maybe, persuade the prospective tenant to ask his employer to pay the rent directly out of his wages. It can be done if all 3 parties agree to it. If the tenant is genuine he may be willing to do that. After all, finding a place to live won't be easy for our eastern european friend.

However I would be prepared for a load of them to occupy the place. That is the way they tend to organise themselves over here. They maximise the profit from their stay here and then live it up back home. Nothing wrong in that, provided they leave the place in a fit state, and don't upset anyone.

robby-01

Curv wrote: »

Blimey robby... and Lavendyr! Fair enough if you don't want to let to the guy, but this post was pushing the boundaries of racism, IMO. Also, I wondered if you'd be so casually racist as to post a thread titled 'Letting a flat to a Pakistani' and go on to list which curries you didn't want in the fridge and the fact that saris couldn't be hung on the line.

I'm sure you meant no harm by what you posted but wanted to point out how your post looks to other people..

No that would never happen as i would never consider doing it.I will not engage in haggling over rent .
How can you sutley accuse me of being racist .The fact that i am considering letting a flat to this guy proves i am not.I welcome applications from people from all ethnic backgrounds,whether or not said applications are successful will of course depend soley on the individual merits of the applicant.
I hope that clears that up.

pinkshoes

Could you not put a clause in the contract stating that whoever signs the contract is the ONLY person that can live in the house?

Evee2000

silvercar wrote: »

Treat them as you would treat anyone else. If there is littl point in credit checking, as they have no history, then agree 6 months rent up front with the next lot of 6 months rent to come at the end of month 4 or they get given notice.

Funnily enough, this is exactly what I did with a lovely young asian couple who asked to rent out my property. This was the result:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7102566.stm

HugoSP

pinkshoes wrote: »

Could you not put a clause in the contract stating that whoever signs the contract is the ONLY person that can live in the house?

In practice, this will not stop people doing this if they want to. Some people, regardless of background, think that all they have to do is pay the rent on time.

I have an excellent tenant who I would not replace for the world but he has technically contrevened the AST at least twice. Once when they got a cat without our permission (pets after permission clause), and once when he went abroard for a few months and let someone else live in the house during that time.

In practice neither breach caused any problems, but I do wonder when he last read the AST.

I think he thinks that so long as he pays the rent on time these things shouldn't be a problem. However they are there to protect the LLs interests.

Lavendyr

Wow, one of my posts was deleted :S First time that's happened! Quite frankly amazed, since I did clarify it was based on personal experiences, not a generalisation. Shame.

As Hugo said, you can put as many clauses in the contract as you like, but it doesn't mean people will listen to it. I've no doubt that similar clauses were in the contract for our ex-neighbours - surely they should not have been sub-letting, which it was almost certain that they were - and still you had new people in there every fortnight. I had no idea who was actually renting the house and who was just crashing there.

Debt_Free_Chick

It seems to me that both the question and pretty much all the replies apply to any potential tenant and are not unique to "Eastern Europeans" or any other "group" ethnic, or otherwise.

Is it just me? Or do we seem to have seen an increase in stereotyping recently? There are some threads that have veered wildly off topic, ranting about neighbours/tenants that are poor or deprived or receiving Housing Benefit or foreign or with children or with dogs ..... you name it!

If you're a LL then it's a business. Of course you are perfectly entitled to choose your customers .... but go too far and you are trying to sell/let to a niche market. Great if you have a niche product, if not then you will surely stare failure in the face at some point in time.

If you're not a LL then I accept you might have had a bad experience (once!) with someone who could labelled in a particular way. But to suggest that their behaviour is a direct result of the label you attach is plainly ridiculous. There are good and bad amongst all "labelled" groups and sweeping generalisations are neither fair nor a good reflection on society generally.

It's all rather depressing

Yours ....

Single
Female
Heterosexual (to the best of my knowledge )
Middle-aged
Childless
Dog owner
Country Dweller
British Citizen of mixed parentage (Mother Irish, Father English)
Smoker
Drinker
MSEer (!!!!!!!!!!!)
Paying tax, but
Receiving no benefits
Without Plasma TV
With Broadband
No debt
Mortgage
But also a tenant
Savings (including pension)

Notlob

Stereotypical discrimination.

Do the refs, meet up with the prospective tenants. Basically, satisfy yourself as to the suitability of any possible tenant, and as long as you do this, why give a F--- about where they were born!

Just my opinion but I just don't see the relevance.