Take room after rushed & restricted viewing?

DullGreyGuy

Given how the rental market is down here you are somewhat lucky to even get a viewing... many rentals have more than one over asking price offer before there has been a chance to do a viewing. In more sane times have personally done a second viewing of a place, it was a whole house so more significant a financial commitment but still wanted to double check a few things. 

I'd take online reviews with a pinch of salt. It's always easier to be negative than positive and those with a bad experienced are more motivated to post. Add to that many claimed offers in exchange for removing negative feedback could also motivate someone to overplay the negatives in the hope of a free meal or such. 

The other issues with reviews is you get those expecting a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget and so are perpetually disappointed but what they got is fair value. You then have those that just go after silly things... saw a review of a small central London B&B complaining it had no swimming pool, no where did they claim to have a pool and you'd be surprised if a 3* hotel had one in central London let alone a 3* B&B but their 1 * review stands (just as bad are the 5* product reviews on Amazon where the only thing they say is it arrived fast).


It seems you have reservations about this unit, though the long stay of the other tenants would be somewhat encouraging. I think the others suggestions of planing to spend some time in the area and be more available for a range of viewings would be helpful. You may also refine your area once you spend more time there.

Solarsystem24

I decided not to take the room. What I didn’t add was I was supposed to see a room in a different house advertised by the same person. She sent me details of a no. of rooms in the area, but got difficult when I tried to arrange a viewing and would tell me to “pick one”. She also complained to me about wasting her time showing rooms to someone else who didn’t take one. I was literally round the corner from the house when she sent me an auto-rejection on spareroom without explanation. Luckily I had other appointments so travelling over 4h there wasn’t for nothing. 

I did try to take a room advertised by someone else, but she changed the terms and I had to pull out. The person who rejected me then got back in touch about a different room. I wasn’t going to respond but was desperate as my job starts next week, and the place seemed like what I was looking for. So I put what happened behind me, and agreed to a time. After 7pm the evening before the day she changed it to 2h later because she the tenant had a conference call. In order to see the place at the new time, I had to rearrange other viewings to the day after and book a hotel to see them.

When I arrived she commented that I had been looking for sometime. I was very suspicious she trying to take advantage of my desperation by off-loading a room with 1 or more serious problems. I had this happen to me before and like this time was prevented from walking and looking around the room. Before it was by having a crowd of people in the room and covering problems with the tenant’s belongings. This time was by ordering me not to walk over an invisible line.

She sent the documents midday yesterday, but attempted to pressure me to pay the holding deposit by 6pm today, saying I could pay it before signing. She lied that she removed the ad. I didn’t expect her to before paying, but it showed her up as dishonest. Her answers to my questions about the contract had a tough of annoyance, repeatedly ending with I should use my common sense. 

I decided she is more trouble than is worth it and I would be making a legal commitment to the unknown, as I was prevented from moving in the room. All the other viewings I had in the area allowed me to have a good look at everything, even running water (as I have had brown water in 1 place I lived). Some of these people were really dodgy, but didn’t have a problem with me checking everything. The place was presented as upscale, but she clearly had something to hide.

Solarsystem24

Section62 said:

bobster2 said:

I've no idea why you want to look under a cupboard - seems weird.

The OP explained - they were concerned the gap may contain something like the boiler, water pipes, energy meters etc which could cause disturbance.

Seems completely reasonable to me.

I have lived in places with boilers, immersion heaters and a fusebox in the bedroom and these can be 24/7 loud noise. The landlady was trying to hide some kind of problem in the room. A prospective tenant should be able to examine the entire room and house if there’s nothing to hide. Preventing people from viewing parts of it and rushing are known techniques to prevent issues being noticed.

Solarsystem24

tooldle said:

Maybe the tenant was working and had confidential information on their desk / screen, or maybe they are social distancing. Lots of possible explanations, not all of which are concerning. 

Nothing to stop you asking follow up questions.

Asking questions are not the same as seeing that part of the bedroom myself. The landlady can say anything. She was quite unapproachable. In response to questions I did send her about the contract, she came across as annoyed, patronising and attempted to hurry me to send her the holding deposit.

The tenant could have just switched her computer off for 10 minutes. She left the eoom after I finished looking. The whole thing seemed like a setup to prevent me from seeing serious problems with the room.