Private Landlords

gary83

rubble2 said:

When the landlord visited to 'inspect' the oven and the damp problems they mentioned the wall again as they are quite worried about it - his response was ' I have only been here ten minutes and I have already spent £500, we will look at the wall later'

I know this sounds massively pedantic but if you have a problem don’t just mention it in passing, how does the contract say all faults should be reported? In writing to the address given on the contract? If you follow the procedure to the letter, Best case scenario it gets fixed, worse case scenario & it doesn’t get fixed it’s much harder for the landlord to claim he was unaware of the damage during the check out If it comes to an argument over the deposit 

sweetsand

rubble2 said:

I have no direct experience of landlords/renting as I have always been an owner/occupier but my daughter and her family are in a private rented property. It is an old house (maybe 1920's build) they have been there over 18 months both working and rent paid promptly every month but getting the landlord to carry out any repairs is a nightmare. They have just this week had the oven replaced which hadn't worked properly since they moved in. The land lord is also 'promising' to address the damp issues they have which up to now he has always blamed on their 'Lifestyle'
When they first moved in they reported that the outside wall to the rear of the property was unstable and in danger of falling - it is the boundary with the pavement so lots of pedestrians passing by, again this has been promised to be looked at but nothing has happened.

When the landlord visited to 'inspect' the oven and the damp problems they mentioned the wall again as they are quite worried about it - his response was ' I have only been here ten minutes and I have already spent £500, we will look at the wall later'

Hi
Just shows not every LL is great just like every T and you will agree with that
You may be aware we have a few properties we rent out for our pensions
We buy a realtivel new house 1950's to 1960's if poss as they are very solid.
Re damp - report to environmental health as it loos as though
your daughter has given the LL a good chance E-Health is next step.

As you may be aware, we have our T's vetted and we tell the letting people who we want and who we don't withoin the law - no smoking, no pets 100% cert about that
If your daughter moves - tell her to check property properly signs of damp, taps work, boiler works, bath shower and genral condition - if the place looks really nice inc CH, eletrics, gardens well kept etc, more often than not its a sign of a good LL like me and the family. 
FYI =  in the apermtnet a few years ago the eletric hob that had a glass top, not sure how but it got cracked - we had our doubts but we had it rpalced  A-Sap doubts were the T had lied before and we got the T with the aparment when we bought it it was our decison - they left 9 mnths later.  In one of the houses a plastic bath cracked just a young professional couple there - we wondered how but plastic bath is just that, we had a full bathroom refurb over 4 days  - cost us loads as we live in london, T happy. We also had the hallways repainted as there were a few marks by the door we noted and the T's thanked us. Out T's aare aware if they are honest with us we will treat them better a lot better than the law demands. We have not raised rents for over two years but we are not a charity but we are aware we are dealing with real people hence our stance.

So if your daughter moves to naother privated rented, look at the place and if well mainted, clean and all that no excuses, then often the LL's are decent people like us.

ATB

nicechap

Anyone who discriminates against the disabled by refusing to let to benefit claimants is not a decent landlord.

ess0two

Grumpy_chap said:

sweetsand said:

we  were busy spending too much on cars 

It is good that you realised spending vast amounts on cars is not good "money saving" sense.  I just wonder what cars you had before you came to your senses and got the boring, sensible cars you have now?
Golf R
Range Rover
911
Mercedes S Class

You forgot the rolls royce of that list, walter mitty springs to mind

mattyprice4004

Galloglass said:

Why should the landlord have to take on more risk? 

If you go back to the link that @Jeremy535897 provided and if you read it, you will see that the so-called avoidance of risk (benefits claimants) opens you up to another risk - that of indirect discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.

Being a professional landlord means being professional and either keep up with the legislation or have you agent do it for you.

Of course - but if my insurance company wouldn't provide the cover I needed then I'd have to choose a tenant that met the underwriting criteria of my chosen insurance package. 

As I've said though, it's not an issue - I've rented to benefits claimants before and have no issues with this, but if presented with a range of tenants and found that (for whatever reasons, not just benefits etc) my insurance company wouldn't cover me I'd have to remove anyone the insurers wouldn't cover from the group I'd rent to. 

Jeremy535897

One good example of the need for landlords to keep up to date:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/domestic-private-rented-property-minimum-energy-efficiency-standard-landlord-guidance

jfinnie

sweetsand said:

In one of the houses a plastic bath cracked just a young professional couple there - we wondered how but plastic bath is just that, we had a full bathroom refurb over 4 days  - cost us loads as we live in london, T happy. 

Wow you keep going on about suspicions on this plastic bath, must have mentioned it 5 times in this thread already.  Guess what, they do break, especially the cheap tat a lot of folk put in.  I had mine break while I was in the shower one day in my own (owned) house, foot almost went straight through.  Not doing any bathroom acrobatics or anything...

Grumpy_chap

Yes, plastic baths can and do break on occasion.  Had this happen to us, and never really understood why or how.  It is just life that sometimes things break.

sweetsand

Jeremy535897 said:

One good example of the need for landlords to keep up to date:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/domestic-private-rented-property-minimum-energy-efficiency-standard-landlord-guidance

Exactly why we only let via a good letting agent and use them to fully manage but always get consulted when things go wrong.

mattyprice4004

I'm over 20 stone - you don't want to know how many 'near end of life' baths I've accidentally finished off!