Bad tenants? reasonable estate agent? what is landlord's right

[Deleted User]

Even if you use a letting agent it’s not a completely passive venture. How did you come to choose the letting agent your with now? 

I don’t think they’ve been doing the inspections either.  The letting agent works for you and the tenants have a contract with you so get more involved or run the risk of the same thing happening again. If inspections are supposed to be happening every 6 months according to the contract you have with the agent put reminders in your calendar to ask for those reports. Take part in the tenant selection process and make sure the agent isn’t just letting the property to the first person who comes along. If any agent tries to say you can’t have the inspection reports or referencing documents due to DPA tell them to quote the relevant section of the act and then consider sacking them when they can’t. 

Alternatively consider managing the property yourself. If you pick the right tenants it should be relatively plain sailing. 

theoretica

What would you actually have done if 18 months ago the letting agent contact you and said all looked fine but the sofa looked rather worn?

greatcrested

I would like to find a good LA to rely on with and the income can be considered as a passive income. So far, it is not really passive income.

Running a business is almost never passive investment.

A shop owner who appoints a manager still needs to have some involvement. Or risks the manager cutting corners or worse.

And a landlord who appoints an agent still needs to have some involvement. Or risks the agent cutting corners or worse.

If you want genuinely passive hands-off zero involvement income, put your money into a broad spectrum unit trust that pays income and leave it untouched for X years.

ileven1225

Murphybear said:

Was the property let to sharers or a family?  If the latter the LL should consider letting the property unfurnished.  Most tenancies are that nowadays and it is a lot  less hassle than putting furniture in.  You might also want to consider letting the next tenants have a pet.  This will increase your tenant base as pets are very popular.  If a dog wrecks a sofa it will be theirs not yours!

Unfortunately pets are not allowed in the apartment. It depends on areas, most apartments in the area are furnished which are more popular to rent out. Yes, unfurnish will be less hassle. I probably would look at purchasing a house to rent out with unfurnished condition. 

ileven1225

greatcrested said:

• The previous tenants disagreed with the deduction, however, they still haven't put the dispute to the TDS yet and it seems there is no further response from the tenants. I would like to solve this issue/dispute as soon as possible and even there is a little money but still help. It seems we could do nothing until the tenants put formal dispute in TDS and the waiting time could be years, which I was told by the estate agent. What's the problem? Until the tenants respond they will not get their deposit, so either they WILL respond/raise a dispute, or they willlose their deposit.....

The problem is I want to solve this issue/dispute as soon as possible so no matter how much TDS would agree to give to the landlord, I prefer it to be done sooner than later. However, the tenants seem not raising the dispute to TDS and I was told by the letting agency that I could do nothing but wait. If the tenants not raising dispute, the deposit could stay within TDS for years! What the letting agency told me is as follows:

'Further to the email below, we can’t raise dispute with TDS. It is tenants responsibility to inform TDS that there are deduction from deposit and they would like to dispute it. Then Estate Agent will get invitation to submit the evidence.'

steampowered

As a landlord, you do need to budget for things like replacing the sofa every now and then.

Things like carpets, curtains, sofas, furniture etc. don't last forever. Tenants are not responsible for fair wear and tear. So if you are letting the property out for a long period of time you should be budgeting to replace items in the property every now and then. 

If the tenants damage furniture beyond fair wear and tear of course they should pay for that, but what they are paying for is the loss of life left on the item, not the whole cost of buying the item new.

Hannimal

All in all, you still made a reasonable profit from these peoples' financial situation (not being able to buy their own place). It beats me why a landlord would have any right to have an opinion about whether a tenant can have a dog or not. Sofas wear out too, they could've lounged on it a lot. Some people never lift their bums from in front of the telly. And, who on earth puts a sofa of that value in a tenanted flat? 

The bathroom damage is unreasonable and sounds like the tenants are at fault. You should fight your corner here. 

Personally, if I were you, I'd concentrate on the profit I've made from people less fortunate than myself rather than moan about £400 of damage to a toilet seat. I'd also rent properties unfurnished as that is fairer for the tenants and safer for you.

jon81uk

ileven1225 said:

greatcrested said:

• The previous tenants disagreed with the deduction, however, they still haven't put the dispute to the TDS yet and it seems there is no further response from the tenants. I would like to solve this issue/dispute as soon as possible and even there is a little money but still help. It seems we could do nothing until the tenants put formal dispute in TDS and the waiting time could be years, which I was told by the estate agent. What's the problem? Until the tenants respond they will not get their deposit, so either they WILL respond/raise a dispute, or they willlose their deposit.....

The problem is I want to solve this issue/dispute as soon as possible so no matter how much TDS would agree to give to the landlord, I prefer it to be done sooner than later. However, the tenants seem not raising the dispute to TDS and I was told by the letting agency that I could do nothing but wait. If the tenants not raising dispute, the deposit could stay within TDS for years! What the letting agency told me is as follows:

'Further to the email below, we can’t raise dispute with TDS. It is tenants responsibility to inform TDS that there are deduction from deposit and they would like to dispute it. Then Estate Agent will get invitation to submit the evidence.'

I rented out a property for a while when we were unable to sell it. We had issues with tenants and kept the deposit. I just had to provide evidence to the deposit protection scheme of what we spent the deposit on (in this case flooring so I sent a copy of the receipt) and the tenants then could dispute it. They didn't reply to the emails from the deposit protection within the timeframe so I got the money.

greatcrested

ileven1225 said:

greatcrested said:

• The previous tenants disagreed with the deduction, however, they still haven't put the dispute to the TDS yet and it seems there is no further response from the tenants. I would like to solve this issue/dispute as soon as possible and even there is a little money but still help. It seems we could do nothing until the tenants put formal dispute in TDS and the waiting time could be years, which I was told by the estate agent. What's the problem? Until the tenants respond they will not get their deposit, so either they WILL respond/raise a dispute, or they willlose their deposit.....

The problem is I want to solve this issue/dispute as soon as possible so no matter how much TDS would agree to give to the landlord, I prefer it to be done sooner than later. However, the tenants seem not raising the dispute to TDS and I was told by the letting agency that I could do nothing but wait. If the tenants not raising dispute, the deposit could stay within TDS for years! What the letting agency told me is as follows:

'Further to the email below, we can’t raise dispute with TDS. It is tenants responsibility to inform TDS that there are deduction from deposit and they would like to dispute it. Then Estate Agent will get invitation to submit the evidence.'

you've been advised several times to stop relying on what the agents say and start acting as a landlord. Have you, for example, as advised, read the scheme's process for retaining the deposit? Or contacted the scheme yet?

ileven1225

jon81uk said:

ileven1225 said:

greatcrested said:

• The previous tenants disagreed with the deduction, however, they still haven't put the dispute to the TDS yet and it seems there is no further response from the tenants. I would like to solve this issue/dispute as soon as possible and even there is a little money but still help. It seems we could do nothing until the tenants put formal dispute in TDS and the waiting time could be years, which I was told by the estate agent. What's the problem? Until the tenants respond they will not get their deposit, so either they WILL respond/raise a dispute, or they willlose their deposit.....

The problem is I want to solve this issue/dispute as soon as possible so no matter how much TDS would agree to give to the landlord, I prefer it to be done sooner than later. However, the tenants seem not raising the dispute to TDS and I was told by the letting agency that I could do nothing but wait. If the tenants not raising dispute, the deposit could stay within TDS for years! What the letting agency told me is as follows:

'Further to the email below, we can’t raise dispute with TDS. It is tenants responsibility to inform TDS that there are deduction from deposit and they would like to dispute it. Then Estate Agent will get invitation to submit the evidence.'

I rented out a property for a while when we were unable to sell it. We had issues with tenants and kept the deposit. I just had to provide evidence to the deposit protection scheme of what we spent the deposit on (in this case flooring so I sent a copy of the receipt) and the tenants then could dispute it. They didn't reply to the emails from the deposit protection within the timeframe so I got the money.

What is the timeframe? It would be important information for me