Fellow Landlords what would you think of this

MissMoneypenny

LLs have the courts to go to for any loss.

Although the councils now have private housing departments who take LLs to court for disrepair orders, there is no protection for the tenant as the LL could then throw them out of the house.

The UK should adopt laws like they have in Germany and France where they have professional LLs.

Someone on these boards said that France had 3 year contracts to protect the tenant. The tenant can leave during those 3 years, but the LL has to keep to the 3 year contract. When a German poster posted on these forums about getting compensation from the LL because of the noise, some of the UK LLs on these boards nearly wet themselves at the thought of it.

My plumber is going to live in Austria for a year and will rent his house out while he is gone. He said that they have low, set rents in Austria, with all the bills included in the rent. Not sure if that is how it works in France and Germany too.

jaype

brummybloke wrote: »

?

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?

No, but the scales were unfairly weighted in landlords' favour. They could offset the interest on their mortgage payments against rental income for tax purposes (unlike FTBs), hence could afford more, and also, banks would often lend them more through borrowing against their existing home (expected somehow to increase in price perpetually, somehow). So they could bid more and outbid first time buyers. That's why the system sucked and why banks now asking for higher BTL deposits is a good thing - the market is going back to being the preserve of the professional rather than a get rich quick scheme for anyone who wants to screw every penny out of it rather than running a proper business involving proper business relationships. I agree with one of the former posters, BTW - it should all be regulated properly. Also, any witholding of deposits should be a criminal offence and treated like embezzlement or similar. Major damage to the house therefore should be charged as criminal damage. The present court system doesn't work as it's all to easy to pretend you don't have any money or hide from the baliff

PasturesNew

Landlords get an allowance yearly on their books for wear and tear.
If they had half a clue about what they're doing they'd know that and know they've already been "paid" for it, without thieving from the tenant.... in fact the original rent they set would have taken account of wear and tear on their spreadsheet. So it will have been calculated in before they bought the property, or they've gambled and not invested.

In effect, many landlords are therefore stealing from their tenants to finance their gambling debts.

Bungarm2001

"My plumber is going to live in Austria for a year and will rent his house out while he is gone. He said that they have low, set rents in Austria, with all the bills included in the rent. Not sure if that is how it works in France and Germany too."

hhhmmmm..interesting.

Do the LL's over there have to pay licensing fees, comply with HMO and HHSRS rules, pay the council tax in certain HMO's, provide long and very detailed inventories, be held responsible for their tenants' and their visitors conduct at all times, do electricity and gas safety checks, insure the building and contents (at higher rates calculated per type of tenant) and put up with daft requests like 'can you come round and replace a duff light bulb for us please??'

All that and comparitively low rents? If so, then I wish them all the best of luck.

As for including utilities in the rent? :eek: From my experience, if a LL in this country did that, the tenant would royally take the pi$$.

We had a tenant who's bills were paid by us and she never did grasp the fact that leaving the central heating on 24/7 with the windows open was not only not inducive to a good LL and tenant relationship, but also not exactly environmentally friendly.

chappers

CheeseCat wrote: »

Sadly too many people are Landlords for the money purely and don't give a damn about their tenants! Funnily enough this sounds about the same, seeing as you don't want just your money back, you want to make even more of a profit out of them. :rolleyes:

It's about mutual respect , i would go out of my way to help and keep agood tenant, ie someone who respects the place they live in and pays their rent on time, is open and honest when they have problems rather than making feeble excuses/lies. In return they get things fixed quickly and in return treated with respect.
Tenants who trash the place and are consistently behind/late with their rents don't get respect and deserve to be hit in their pockets.

I too would happily live in the house I rent out, and in all honesty would be happy if I was my own landlord.

Benefits_Blagger

Bungarm2001 wrote: »

As for including utilities in the rent? :eek: From my experience, if a LL in this country did that, the tenant would royally take the pi$$.

.

lol that reminds once of a place i lived, the so called "flats" wernt separatly billed for the elecky, but billed centrally to the LL, so the LL had meters in everyones flats. I found a way for my meter to give me free electricity, after 3 months he came round to empty the meter and there was a solitary 50p rattling about the tin.looking puzzled he asked me why there was only one 50p in the tin, thought i was done for, told him I hadn't been around the place much. he said in that case i might aswell let you have it for free and removed the tin from the meter. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Oh happy days! :beer:

another time I subletted a m8's flat, he told me not to worry about the elecky as it had been taken care of. then one day someone from the elcky company came round and informed me that my meter reading was less than the last reading. it transpired my friend had messed about with the electrics to give free elecky but it was causing the meter to run backwards! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Benefits_Blagger

Bungarm2001 wrote: »

Do the LL's over there have to pay licensing fees, comply with HMO and HHSRS rules, pay the council tax in certain HMO's, provide long and very detailed inventories, be held responsible for their tenants' and their visitors conduct at all times, do electricity and gas safety checks, insure the building and contents (at higher rates calculated per type of tenant) and put up with daft requests like 'can you come round and replace a duff light bulb for us please??'

.

if LL's didn't treat their tenants like scum there wouldn't need for these regulations.

given the chance a lot of LL's beleive leaving a boiler unfixed is more important than than someones life

Gingernutmeg

Benefits_Blagger wrote: »

given the chance a lot of LL's beleive leaving a boiler unfixed is more important than than someones life

Got to agree with that one ... I've just spent two weeks fighting with my LL/LA to get someone out to mend our dripping boiler. As it wasn't a 'serious' problem, it couldn't be 'prioritised' and someone would be out 'in due course', and no, we couldn't get it fixed ourselves. A few daily phone calls later, we got someone out to fix the boiler (after being referred to a 'whinging' by the receptionist at the LA). Turns out it was quite a serious problem and the boiler had been leaking carbon monoxide for at least a month. OH and I had put down our headaches, dizziness, nausea and stomach cramps to a bug ...

So, a word to the wise, for god's sake buy a carbon monoxide detector when you move into a rented property. I'm lucky to be alive, no thanks to my LL or my LA.

jaype

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

Got to agree with that one ... I've just spent two weeks fighting with my LL/LA to get someone out to mend our dripping boiler. As it wasn't a 'serious' problem, it couldn't be 'prioritised' and someone would be out 'in due course', and no, we couldn't get it fixed ourselves. A few daily phone calls later, we got someone out to fix the boiler (after being referred to a 'whinging' by the receptionist at the LA). Turns out it was quite a serious problem and the boiler had been leaking carbon monoxide for at least a month. OH and I had put down our headaches, dizziness, nausea and stomach cramps to a bug ...

So, a word to the wise, for god's sake buy a carbon monoxide detector when you move into a rented property. I'm lucky to be alive, no thanks to my LL or my LA.

Isn't there someone you can report them to? This is horrific. Anyone have any advice? Did they have a current gas certificate for the period? Make sure you demand to see it if you don't have it - they can be prosecuted and bloomin' well should be if they don't. I hope the LA is also aware.

vetfred

We sold up in December and moved into rental - the first thing we did was to buy a carbon monoxide monitor and put all new batteries in the smoke alarms and test them. The LL has a reponsibility but there's no responsibility like the one you carry for your own life or your family's and, where you can take simple steps, you definitely should because there are just too many bad stories relating to these things. I don't think anyone should ever leave such things in the hands of people they don't actually trust their lives with.