Good or bad experiences of renting? We want to hear from you!

getmore4less

Where is crashy?

The ultimate renter.

Nature_Lover74

We sold our house before we completed on the purchase of our onward property earlier this year, so we had no choice but to look into renting.  Because we have two cocker spaniels, nowhere would take us on.  We had no family or friends who could (or would) help us out, so it caused us a great deal of stress; we literally couldn't find anywhere to live and time was running out before we had to move out.  I do appreciate we're a less popular choice of tenant because of our dogs but to discover that not one person that would take us on was incredibly worrying and affected me/us pretty deeply.   As it goes, complete strangers - and sheer chance - helped us out in the end (long story!) but to this day, I shudder to think what would have happened if they hadn't.  Our dogs are cleaner/quieter and not destructive at all, which is more than can be said for some tenants!  

ripplyuk

I was in my previous rental for around 15yrs. It was old, full of mice, no damp proof course and no insulation but the the rent was affordable (to begin with). It had an oil-fired range which leaked constantly so there was mushrooms growing out of the carpet. Eventually the landlord replaced it and the ‘new’ one took 3 days to reach 15 Celsius. That was it’s maximum temperature. It absolutely guzzled oil and could use £50- £80 in a week. I was constantly freezing which caused chronic health problems.

Fast forward many years and the roof started leaking. The landlord got a ‘mate from the pub’ to fix it, countless times. The repairs never lasted more than a few days. I had endless sleepless nights spent mopping up water. Towels and trays everywhere. Every time it rained, water would be pouring over the electric consumer unit. After 2yrs of this, I realised the landlord was never going to fix it so I told him I would need to look for another property. He was furious. All sorts of intimidation started. He refused to return my deposit but I expected that from the beginning as he insisted on having cash and wouldn’t give a receipt. He’s one of those ‘I work on trust’ types. He then removed the roof entirely and cleared off on a Mediterranean cruise. 

It proved almost impossible to find another house that was affordable. Eventually I did find another property within my budget but that fell through once I realised all the extra letting agent’s fees involved and the huge deposit. There was no way I could afford it. I had no options left so I went to the council to speak to their homelessness team and was given quite a high priority. I was offered this house soon after and I’ve been renting it for 5yrs now. The rent is cheap and the house is warm, with decent insulation. The main problem I’ve found in council housing is the repair contractors. They are paid regardless of the work done so they have no incentive to actually fix anything. Many times they turn up, take a photo, spend 15 mins chatting on their phone and then leave. They mark the job as ‘complete’ despite not having done anything. 

sam_hayes

Me and my partner rented a property for a year and have just recently purchased a property. Through out the tenancy there was no inspections and everything okay. We handed our notice period on the day of exchange. The next morning we were informed that they had booked two virtual veiwing in for the following week. Turned out they booked 5 veiwings on over the two days meaning they were in the property longer than we were made aware of. They were interrupting our time in the property when they turned up which annoyed us a lot. We hadn't told the land lady we a moving date as we were moving everything across over the tenancy period as I was suffering from a back and neck injury after a car accident. Both the land lady and letting agent assumed we were moving everything that same week. The first week of our notice period we had a set of keys taken off of us and felt like we were pushed out of the house because we completed on a house purchase. We kicked off with the letting agent for poor communication due to the landlady taking our key resulting in my partner potentially having to wait for hours before I got home for him to enter the property. They booked veiwings in without giving 24 hours notice which we politely told them to move, booked veiwings in on days we told them not to go to the property, again told them to move but not as politely. They refused for me to go to the end of tenancy checkout and told me to go back and wipe some dust in order to get my deposit back. I had to take an afternoon off, drive 1.5 hours with a painful back (I had been advised to stop taking prescription pain killers) to then clean already clean surfaces and dust that accumulated after we handed the keys back. They didn't provide the report until after I went to the property. They even flagged the carpets because they didn't look brand new, which they won't after they've been worn down a little after a year. I'm still contemplating raiding a complaint due against the letting agent as we believe they breached the tenants right to a quiet life. 

Kirbimcwoo

We have rented this property for 3 years. EPC rated C (done shortly before we moved in)
From Day 1 it was freezing! Even having the heating on and burning through £10-£12 a day on heating it is so cold. Damp/mould is bad throughout and lost so many possessions. Had to redecorate numerous times and buy products like dehumidifier pots, vac bags, cleaners etc. We run a dehumidifier. Agents said it is how we live initially!

Fast forward, Council involved with temperature monitors and confirmed it is excessively cold and heat is lost through the floor (suspended concrete floor above open garage not insulated)
Freeholders are insulating the basement next Spring. 
Council wanted an EPC redone as there were discrepancies (as we had been saying for over 2yrs) and it has come back as an F! No insulation in the walls or basement which 75% of the flat is external walls.
So now landlady is looking at installing 3 Storage Heaters in ADDITION to our current electric central heating. It has been over a month and nothing has happened.
The difference in costs/affordability between a C and F is crazy and we have funded that as we pay the bills! We would never have rented if we knew it was an E or an F! 
We have sought help through the Council, Shelter, Justice for Tenants and we get nowhere. We feel it is unfair and are due some form of compensation! 

There is not enough help for tenants at all. It is all good quoting sections from the Tenant Act, Home Act etc but when you cant enforce it that is disheartening. 
Why do renters get held to such high standards renting someone elses home and keeping it all nice to save their deposits when me personally has spent/lost way above my deposit due to mould and damp! Literally have us all by the goolies!

Ameliaaa7

Honestly I think i hit gold with my first and current rented property. My landlord is absolutely fantastic, any issues someone is usually here within a couple days. She makes sure annual Gas checks are done in November every year to make sure everyone is going to be okay for Christmas. She phoned all her tenants at the start of covid and anyone who was on furlough and struggling only had to pay 80% rent. Tenants only leave her when they're buying or moving to another of her properties. She was so supportive when i split from my partner, my rent is incredibly fair and very low as not gone up since I moved in. If I did have to move I couldn't afford a private rental in the current market anymore so consider myself very lucky!

catylulu89

Until we moved back to Scotland we only had bad experiences of renting in the south of England.
One landlord/agent took our whole deposit when they said we had caused damage to the bathtub. They claimed we put a hole in the bath so they had to replace the entire bathroom suite, even though our deposit was protected because we couldn’t prove we hadn’t damaged the bath they gave all our money to the agents. This was after they had evicted us because we requested work to be done on house as a huge crack appeared and we had an enormous leak, instead of fixing they chucked us out claiming they wanted to live in the house again but then swiftly put it back in the market - same photos as before not showing this supposed new bathroom!
The last house we were in before we moved back to Scotland we were in for 4 years, there was no heating in at all and it was so damp and mouldy we were constantly sick. We slept under 2 duvets for 4 years and lived in hats and multiple layers. The oven was broken and had no temperature gauge on it, it was just on or off. We couldn’t move due to being priced out of our local area but needed to stay for access to our work. It was the most horrendous place to live and I still get nightmares that I will wake up there! 

Now we live in a lovely rented house, great area, great neighbourhood and if we have an issue it is fixed straight away!

ss2020jd

I would say the worst aspects of our rental was the landlord’s constant interruptions to go to their (abandoned) land at the back of our house beyond our garden. Including getting teenagers in to burn all the wet green waste there while we were in the house. Not to mention their attempt to build a house there which they stated would entail bricking up our side windows and losing some of our parking.

Overall, though, the most disappointing thing is the general feeling of being treated as if we were inconsequential to the property and somehow being lesser people for renting than the millionaire landlord with a clutch of properties and an £80,000 sports car. 

We have looked after the property immaculately, always paid our rent on time and complied with rent increases and access requests. Now we are leaving to move into a home we have purchased, we have had pressure put on us to allow agent access for photos in the midst of packing, so that the property doesn’t have to be empty for for more than a couple of days after we leave. This has been particularly distressing, stressful and upsetting as I have been recovering from a serious operation and did explain the situation, but in the end, after a not very pleasant-toned email from the landlord, we relented. None of the reassurances were adhered to about the agent not touching items as they removed them for photos. We are powerless to say anything as the landlord clearly does not care and we are just part of the commodity. Whilst I understand it is a business transaction, human beings are involved, not just bricks and mortar. 

newsgroupmonkey_

We rented 3 different family properties over 13 years, so have a bit of previous.

Firstly, renting property whilst you have a family is very different from sharing a 2 bed flat with a friend. There's a lot of considerations, particularly with children. They're not old enough sometimes to understand the implications of drawing on the walls or some of the nastier habits that the pubescent male of the species has! There are also gardens and outbuildings often to be tended to. I remember the first time I rented a house privately many years ago and every time the letting agent came round, he proudly used to remind me that keeping the garden in check was in the contract, despite it basically needing mowing from time to time which I did.

So bad points? The first house we rented was from a wonderful family. They couldn't do enough for us and were genuinely letting us rent their family home as they had decided to move to NI temporarily (which became permanent). However, the letting agents were useless. We were warned before we moved in that they were a terrible agent with a reputation, but nothing got us ready for the nonsense they put us through. Lying about contracts, lying about sending people in to fix things, lying about the landlord asking for the rent to be increased (they didn't). At the end of the contract, the LL came round and did their own inspection with us before the Letting Agent did theirs. The Letting agent tried to charge us £500+ fees for damage we'd done to the house (which was either there before we moved in or wasn't our fault and notified). They threatened to take us to court until the LL said that they would be on our side. The LA didn't seem to understand that our contract was in fact with the LL and not them.

This landlord used to give us an S21 every time we signed a new contract (which they insisted on charging £85 for the privilege, every 12 months)

Oh and the LL felt terrible that they had to sell the property (as they'd made their move permanent) and offered it us with a 20% discount. We weren't in a position to buy so sadly had to decline.

We were in this property for over 5 years

So if anyone ever wants to rent in Leighton Buzzard, ping me a PM. I was warned and didn't listen. We deliberately didn't buy a house because we found out they were the agents. We told the owners why we weren't buying their house.

Good points? The last place we rented. The LA was so completely opposite and the LL was brilliant. Back story; the LL's family lived on the same street and she bought the house not only as an investment but a future home for when she retired. She was new to being a LL but treated us with respect. The LA was also amazing. Couldn't do enough for us. When they came round for inspections (which they quickly moved to being annual), their comments were always along the lines of "We're not looking to see if you've dusted properly, we can see it's a family home, we just want to ensure that everything is up to standard and if you have any issues".

We lost our heating one afternoon. The LL had someone round the same afternoon, parts were ordered and fitted the following day. Stuff like that. When we eventually left as we were buying, we had a lovely letter from her wishing us all the best and a card from the LA congratulating us for the new home. We have left them a lengthy review on a couple of sites with evidence of good service. We were there 6 years.

It may or may not be pertinent to note that of the 3 homes we've rented, we've never had a penny deducted from deposits.

youth_leader

I had an excellent experience renting while house hunting because the rental agent and landlord were very quick to respond to queries/problems.

I was selling my house at auction so moved into the property the month before, February 2020.  The rental agency supplied me with the Inventory very shortly afterwards.  I lived there for just over a year and in that time the landlord paid for a wasp's nest to be removed, came to fix the dishwasher, and cut back the huge tree which was banging against the lounge window.  As it was during lockdown the rental agency allowed me to do the six month inspections, I sent photos and videos in of the smoke alarm etc.

When I purchased my bungalow I was on a rolling monthly contract, and the landlord agreed to me giving 5 weeks notice as my completion date was a week out of tenancy.

A happy experience for me, and a happy one for the landlord when I left as an older couple moved in, and they don't intend purchasing anywhere.