A landlords virus situation experience that could be useful to others

Snooks2

FreeBear said:

Whilst the country may be in a state of lock down, martial law has not been imposed (yet). Going out to conduct "emergency" repairs would be a valid reason to be out of the house. As long as you and the tenant respect the social distancing guidelines, I don't see where there would be a problem.

Yes and make sure you video the reaction of the police when you them them the emergency repair is  a nail sticking out of a fence. It will be You Tube gold. 

ftsos

ProDave said:

Reading between the lines.

Is she lining this up as an excuse to not pay the rent "because you did not maintain the property" knowing you can't evict her just yet?

I would go with the gloves on and bang the bloody nail in.

I have been avoiding replying to all the comments here as some members automatically think being a landlord you must be in the wrong. I have seen it so many times online.
ProDave, this was my suspicion.
Here is an update for everyone. Since that original thread, the tenant flooded the bathroom and caused damage to the flat downstairs. The downstairs people are not my tenants. By this time we were in proper lockdown. So, I called her, and she told me it was not her. So, the only thing that I could think of was a leaking pipe under the floorboards. So, I went down during the lockdown. And we found that there was a big, and I mean big water spill and she mopped it up. She couldn't mop up the water underneath the liner, so we had to deal with it. Because I didn't want a confrontation, I paid the plumbers bill, thinking I will deal with it face to face after the virus.
Today, she called me to say the toilet is not flushing. She says I have to send a plumber. It is my responsibility apparently to go and deal with it! I have justed tried to call the NLA, I am a member. As it was 4.50, they put the phone down on me before I could speak. Someone obviously didn't want to work past 5pm. 
Can someone advise me on this? 

eddddy

If your question is... The tenant's toilet isn't working, whose responsibility is it to fix it?  The answer is it's the landlord's responsibility. 

So I guess you need to take reasonable steps to get it fixed.

tom9980

A toilet can be flushed by pouring a bucket or bowl of water down it. Not ideal but necessary until lockdown ends and a plumber or handyman can fix it.

Crashy_Time

Socajam said:

If someone can be that petty whilst we are going through a huge crisis like the corona virus, I would get rid of the tenant once things are back to normal.

Good advice.

ftsos

Crashy_Time said:

Socajam said:

If someone can be that petty whilst we are going through a huge crisis like the corona virus, I would get rid of the tenant once things are back to normal.

Good advice.

You guys have no idea what I have had to deal with regarding this tenant. I wish it was this simple. I have been down to where she lives with workmen/people 3 times now since the lockdown. Its almost as if she is getting back at me  
I have another property, where I have had a tenant for 5 years. She is a mother with 3 kids. She has called me less in 5 years then what this lady has called me in 3 months. And this is not an exaggeration.  If there were loads of issues with the property (historically) my previous tenant would have told me about it or hassled me. He did not mention any issues in 2 years and he had a wife and kid. 
My other property has a lady on benefits. She was the first person I took on who was on benefits, and until her, I always rejected benefits applicants. Which was wrong. She was so good. I then considered taking on benefits clients on the second property. I am regretting it. All the wall have writing on them. The house smells of faeces. I didn't bother complaining about the smell I just mentioned the drawing and took a few pictures, this made me a bad guy. I realised if I mentioned the smell it would become even more personal. Its people like these that will make it worse for other people on benefits. 
Anyway, I got frustrated with the multiple visits during the lockdown, so I said very politely, if you are not happy then you can leave when everything settles, and I won't hold you to contract. I wrote in block capitals that I DID NOT want her to leave and I want her to stay. She replied back saying that was a veiled threat. I thought I was giving her a choice. An option. Its always good to have choices.
The thing is, in the UK right now, everything has become black and white, good and evil. If you are a landlord you are evil. I am often reluctant to post threads like these on forums because a few that don't own a property automatically hate you for owning a property. 
There plenty of bad on all sides. However, the WORST aspect of the current system is that if a tenant is bad when they leave you are forced to give them a good or a neutral review because otherwise they won't be able to find a place and will never leave your place.
I am now on a mission to see if I can do my small bit to change that. I am going to create a website where, if possible, tenants call register bad landlords with proof, and landlords can register bad tenants with proof. Because of credit checks and all the other things, in my opinion, don't work. It will also allow good landlords and good tenants to meet over time - without any cost. Because right now many agents charge landlords as well as tenants. I hope to have this up and running within a month. I won't mention it as I will end up getting banned on here. But I am just tired of the way it is for small landlords.
If I wasn't self-employed, I would not have bought a property and then let it out. The pensions market was terrible and expensive and all over the place unless you were Wizz at reading financials. If you don't work for a big company owning a property, although not perfect, was one way of creating a pension for myself. It didn't make me rich. And there are millions of people who thought in a similar way because of the chaos of the pensions market! So, many of us didn't go out of our way to stop other people owning houses. Rent over. Feel free to attack me.

Durban

There is a good website for landlords called Property Tribes. Lots of good advice and all from landlords themselves , some very experienced.  No one there will think that you're an evil landlord

ftsos

Durban said:

There is a good website for landlords called Property Tribes. Lots of good advice and all from landlords themselves , some very experienced.  No one there will think that you're an evil landlord

Thank you. I have not heard of that website before. I am going to take a look at it. 
I am hoping there must be a better way of doing things. I had some great tenants. Genuinely great people. There must be a way to connect both sides and get them talking. Until the government steps in and starts providing homes for people, small landlords will fill that gap, so its best if they can help each other, rather then this us vs them scenario that seems to be in the background at the moment. Anyway, thank you.

martindow

Tenancy agreements impose rights and responsibilities on landlords and tenants and unfortunately both can fail to live up to these at times.  I don't think there is very much landlord beating or tenant beating on this board although there are sometimes accusations of one or the other.
Some threads deal with terrible tenants and others with terrible landlords and generally practical advice is offered to deal with the situation.  There are other forums that are much more aggressive and fierce than this.

snowcat75

ftsos said:

Crashy_Time said:

Socajam said:

If someone can be that petty whilst we are going through a huge crisis like the corona virus, I would get rid of the tenant once things are back to normal.

Good advice.

You guys have no idea what I have had to deal with regarding this tenant. I wish it was this simple. I have been down to where she lives with workmen/people 3 times now since the lockdown. Its almost as if she is getting back at me  
I have another property, where I have had a tenant for 5 years. She is a mother with 3 kids. She has called me less in 5 years then what this lady has called me in 3 months. And this is not an exaggeration.  If there were loads of issues with the property (historically) my previous tenant would have told me about it or hassled me. He did not mention any issues in 2 years and he had a wife and kid. 
My other property has a lady on benefits. She was the first person I took on who was on benefits, and until her, I always rejected benefits applicants. Which was wrong. She was so good. I then considered taking on benefits clients on the second property. I am regretting it. All the wall have writing on them. The house smells of faeces. I didn't bother complaining about the smell I just mentioned the drawing and took a few pictures, this made me a bad guy. I realised if I mentioned the smell it would become even more personal. Its people like these that will make it worse for other people on benefits. 
Anyway, I got frustrated with the multiple visits during the lockdown, so I said very politely, if you are not happy then you can leave when everything settles, and I won't hold you to contract. I wrote in block capitals that I DID NOT want her to leave and I want her to stay. She replied back saying that was a veiled threat. I thought I was giving her a choice. An option. Its always good to have choices.
The thing is, in the UK right now, everything has become black and white, good and evil. If you are a landlord you are evil. I am often reluctant to post threads like these on forums because a few that don't own a property automatically hate you for owning a property. 
There plenty of bad on all sides. However, the WORST aspect of the current system is that if a tenant is bad when they leave you are forced to give them a good or a neutral review because otherwise they won't be able to find a place and will never leave your place.
I am now on a mission to see if I can do my small bit to change that. I am going to create a website where, if possible, tenants call register bad landlords with proof, and landlords can register bad tenants with proof. Because of credit checks and all the other things, in my opinion, don't work. It will also allow good landlords and good tenants to meet over time - without any cost. Because right now many agents charge landlords as well as tenants. I hope to have this up and running within a month. I won't mention it as I will end up getting banned on here. But I am just tired of the way it is for small landlords.
If I wasn't self-employed, I would not have bought a property and then let it out. The pensions market was terrible and expensive and all over the place unless you were Wizz at reading financials. If you don't work for a big company owning a property, although not perfect, was one way of creating a pension for myself. It didn't make me rich. And there are millions of people who thought in a similar way because of the chaos of the pensions market! So, many of us didn't go out of our way to stop other people owning houses. Rent over. Feel free to attack me.

I do feel your pain somewhat, The general perception is of a Rich LL exploiting there tenants.
Over the years iv had a mixed bag of tenants I myself have always like to think that the property has been handed over immaculate and any work needed has been done, and the tenants treated fairly, It tends to be 50/50 if the same curtsey is given back. 
I had one particular Tennent, phone me at 7pm Sunday to say the dishwasher hadn't cleaned all her dishes properly!, The same tenant would be a complete jackal and Hyde, depending if it was something they expected you to do, or it was an issue that they needed to do. I once received the most vile email from her, with accusations of forcing her to live in a cold house with no CH upstairs and giving her children health issues..... It was the first I heard of the issue and when I offered to go around first thing the next morning she refused entry saying I wasn't gas safe, The nearest gas to the property was 5 miles away!!!.

Once I evicted them it was evident why I had been refused entry because they had failed to report a leaking upstairs rad (only a drip) and allowed it to continue so long that it had taken out the downstairs ceiling, the whole system didn't work because the leek had filled everything with air.

The place needed a lot of work when she left, and had I not been capable of carrying out repairs it would have been in the order of £10k.

I did learn a few things,

Trust no one on face value,
Reference, reference and reference again,
People don't improve if S21 bad tenants quickly 
Be professional polite and approachable, but never too obliging, 
Do everything by the book, and put any important information in writing.
Never argue with the tenant a bad one wants a row it all adds fuel to there fire.
and the golden rule never let to anyone you know/ friends and family.


I also started using an agent as it took the first contact element away. My last tenant left in March not bad not good, bust still left the house far from the condition they went into, I'm not going to bother anymore and even if the place lies empty for 12 months until there's a better market then so be it.

Good luck iv known plenty who get long term tenants who look after a place as if it was there own, unfortunately its always both the bad LL and bad tenants that make headlines, and also stick in all our minds.