Fellow Landlords what would you think of this

clutton_2

i always drop into prospective tenants current homes as i "forgot" a piece of info needed to complete the Tenancy Application Form - i get to see how they currently live - and i have only once refused a tenant on this basis - they lived appallingly in their home - and i figured i could find a cleaner tenant

on the other hand, i always tell prospective tenants they can have contact details for some of my current tenants if they want a reference for me - no one has ever said "yes please"

pickles110564

Benefits_Blagger wrote: »

most of my LL's have kept my deposit, but there again with most of my LL's I havn't paid the last months rent! I'm sure I have probably left a few out of pocket once "wear and tear" is taken into account.

This is what upsets me, nobody finds what BB says to be a problem yet he flaunts the fact that he does not mind breaking a contract.Yet any LL that so much has a hair out of place everyone jumps on the bandwagon.
People like BB forget that without us caring LL's where would they live in comfort in a loverly clean home.

CYBERCIDERSAVER

I truly believe that the status as a LL is now not much better than that of gutterslime... unfortunate for the very many good LLs but the opinion is not completely unfair IMO.

The biggest reason is the growth of BTL LLs AND Letting Agents. As I have said on here before the need to turn a profit vs someone's housing need is a clash not unlike Man Utd vs Man City. It could get ugly....

The need to screw every last penny out of a tenant does not come out of greed as such... more due the financial pressures that many BTL LLs find themselves under I would reckon most LLs simply cannot afford a couple of months without rent coming in. Let alone having to do repairs. (I can just imagine a LL cursing a tenant for "breaking" something that just gave up the ghost ie a central heating ecb)

Don't get me started on Letting Agents. They believe their customer is the LL, the tenant is just a necessary nuisance.

The move to a protected deposit is a great idea as it attempts to get rid of the myth that a LL has a RIGHT to any of that money. I can't imagine the rage a LL must feel when he's had a tenant in for 5+ years and has to spend money to get the property up to scratch for the next tenants YET has to give some money to the tenants for leaving!

As a tenant, the best thing I think a LL can do to show himself as a good LL is fairly straightforward. Do not act like you a the landLORD... you are providing a service much like carphonewarehouse. Be open and friendly, get to know your tenants but give them space. Be there for them when they need you and imagine what you would expect if your heating went down/ water started leaking etc...

Gingernutmeg

ali007 wrote: »

Yup, that would be the CCJ I've got on an ex-tenant who owes me £1700. Would only have been £700 if I'd just changed the locks when it was obvious he'd scarpered but I did it the 'correct' way through NSP's etc. And then he handed in his notice & scarpered when I applied for an attachment of earnings. So, yup, recourse sure does work......

I didn't say the system was perfect, but your example illustrates the fact that you DO have recourse through the law to pursue a tenant who doesn't behave properly. Your situation is no different from that of a parent pursuing an absent parent who refuses to pay maintenance - the law can say that an amount has to be paid but there's no real way of making someone pay it, it's nothing to do with LL and tenant law, it's a failing of the system in general. The fact is that a tenant who has a bad LL doesn't have the quite the same options for recourse - complain too much and you loose your home ... no great inconvenience to the LL, quite a big inconvenience to the tenant.

I would LOVE to rent from some of the LLs who post on here - like I've said before this board isn't representative of 'real life' in that a 'bad' LL isn't going to post on here and say so, and neither is a 'bad' tenant. I'm not saying that all LLs are bad, but there are a LOT of LLs out there who are completely indifferent, and hand over the management of their properties to LAs who are equally indifferent to anything other then the money they get each month. There are also a LOT of LLs out there who simply can't accept that sometimes it will cost them money to rent out their property, in repairs, maintenance etc and those costs can't always be passed on directly to the tenant. I'm in a situation at the moment where our relationship with the LL has deteriorated because we're being blamed for the £1,500 that had to be spent on repairing a leaking water tank - the leak happened when we were there so of course we were 'responsible' :rolleyes: ... regardless of the fact that the LL had left the tank leaking for a year before we moved in. As I said, I don't honestly think that all LLs are bad, I've rented from some lovely people, BUT there are bad LLs out there.

geoffky

People like BB forget that without us caring LL's where would they live in comfort in a loverly clean home.

they would be living in a cheap house if btl had not forced the prices up due to the lie to buy mortgages.......

CheeseCat

Bungarm2001 wrote: »

Perhaps we all get the LL or tenant that each of us deserves??

Not sure what you are implying here as I am a tidy tenant who always paid rent on time, always left places in the condition I have found them in etc.

Definitely don't think I deserved all those things I mentioned above!

I became like the man from Shawshank Redemption sending the LL a letter a day about these problems and he couldn't have cared less!

I know there are some nice LL's out there, just like there are nice tenants and bad tenants (we had a lovely LL in the previous house and would have stayed if it wasn't for the area and all the damage that was done to my car :mad: )

brummybloke

geoffky wrote: »

People like BB forget that without us caring LL's where would they live in comfort in a loverly clean home.

they would be living in a cheap house if btl had not forced the prices up due to the lie to buy mortgages.......

?

landlords purchased houses that none landlords were not allowed to buy?

houses were there to be purchased, if someone couldnt afford to buy one when the landlord got it, what should everyone do? leave the house as it is and wait until you have enough money to buy it?

and what about the person selling the house? should they wait and refuse to sell it to anyone who already has a house?

i only have 1 house, it is my home and has been for several years, i have been a tennant, i have had rubbish landlords and good landlords, i havent stayed long where there have been rubbish landlords.

3plus1

My landlord has a BTL mortgage on my flat, as well as on two others. He is a genuinely lovely bloke, and I don't see why having a BTL mortgage automatically makes someone a 'scumbag'.

Two days before we were due to move in, our landlord called me to say that our deposit cheque had bounced. He wasn't angry or upset - more concerned that he had made a mistake and cashed the cheque too far in advance of my payday! What had actually happened, was that my bank had accidentally cancelled my chequebook and as such, the cheque couldn't be processed. It's the sort of thing that could happen to anyone, but if I was a landlord myself, I don't think I would have been nearly as understanding!

Our landlord handed over keys on moving in day as well as housewarming gifts and not a single penny of ours had hit his account. When I found out that the cheque hadn't cleared, I wired money to his account straight away, but it didn't reach his account until a few days after we'd moved in. How was he to know for sure he'd ever see any money and we weren't bad tenants? He just thought we were decent people and took a chance on us. The actions of a scumbag? I think not.

He has also stated repeated that the flat is our home whilst we live there and we can do anything we want to it (as long as we don't trash it, obviously). He said we could get a pet if we wanted to - many landlords are very against animals.

Before we moved in, I mentioned that we didn't have enough storage space or a proper freezer, so our landlord went out and bought us another freezer, a wardrobe and two chests of drawers, just to make living in the flat easier for us.

My landlord before this guy was a married couple, also BTLers. They were lovely too. Every time something major went wrong with the house, they didn't accuse us of anything, get angry or get upset... They called a professional out and got things fixed. When the radiator in my room broke over winter and they couldn't get a plumber out because of it being such a busy season for plumbers, they bought me a heater to stick in my room so I didn't die of the cold. They also bought us a card and Christmas present every year.

From my experiences, if you act like a normal human being, people are going to treat you that way too. In my last house, my landlady used to call the house phone relatively often and say she was in the area and could she pop round in five minutes' time? If I was at home and didn't have to rush off anywhere, of course I didn't say "no, I have a right to quiet enjoyment, come round in 24 hours at 4.15pm precisely".

Whilst we were living in her house, the washing machine broke and the shower leaked into the kitchen, but she didn't act like a 'scumbag' and take this off our deposit. These things do happen and she didn't blame us for it. The only things she deducted from our deposit were unpaid bills that arrived a few weeks after we left. You can't be more reasonable than that.

I can't afford to buy right now. I'm also not in a place where I want to be responsible for necessary property repairs and maintenance!! I'm quite happy renting thank you very much, and I don't feel the need to tar all landlords with one brush and call them all scumbags.

robpw2

OUr landlord is great and couldn wish for a better one .
Thought i have had lls in past who are only intrested in rent money and no prepared to do any work thats required and turned up and entered house without warning till i threw him out and pointed out the contract goes both ways he never came again

CheeseCat

3plus1 wrote: »

He has also stated repeated that the flat is our home whilst we live there and we can do anything we want to it (as long as we don't trash it, obviously). He said we could get a pet if we wanted to - many landlords are very against animals.

Your landlord does sound really nice and like someone who actually likes being a landlord and not just the rent cheques

Our last landlord (the one I mentioned that was fab but we moved because of the area/vandalism) said the same, its our house and we can decorate, put shelves up etc as long as we made sure that when we moved out we left it in the standard it was in when we moved in.

We have three cats and they were lovely about that too! I kept saying to them that if they had a house elsewhere we would have moved into it to stay with them. They even lent us ladders, tools etc and said just to ask if we needed anything.

Where we are now is managed by an estate agent (who are quite unorganised and rubbish! the day before we moved in they suddenly decided we hadnt filled out the right forms and of course that was our fault) and they suddenly decided we had moved out in January and started telling the utilities (and passing on my partners parents address for final bills!) that was all a bit confusing but the house is nice enough that we put up with it for now :rolleyes: