A Tenant's guide to renting

wonderman

We have just viewed a property to rent and received the LAs terms and conditions. The up front non refundable arrangement fee is 30% of one months rent + VAT + £35 per adult tenant. It strikes me as a large sum of money effectively additional commission for the LA.
Are these amounts of money normal or is there a wide variation?

GoodTenant

Dear JoeA81

About 3 months ago I rented a property and have taken your advice about trying to find out the mortgage status of the property.

This has not been easy and has taken considerable time, however I discovered a couple of weeks ago that number 2 on your list is no longer necessary.

This is because on 1st October 2010 a new law came into force giving tenants more protection even if they are in a property where the landlord does not have a buy to let mortgage.

For more information, please see:

propertypsl.co.uk/node/478

I also discovered that even if the landlord has a buy to let mortgage, he/she may not have obtained the lenders consent to rent to an individiual or group and therefore is no different to a landlord who does not have a buy to let mortgage.

To avoid wasting tenants time in the future, I would respectfully request that you remove this item from your otherwise excellent advice.

Many thanks

missminx

Can anyone tell me if it is our responsibility to put reasonable insullation in the loft, or the landlord's please?
We have a 6 month standard short hold tenancy. Trying to improve heating economy as their decrepit boiler is not economical at all!!!

etty1987

Very good post!
Can anyone help, my letting agency is all of a sudden trying to charge me a 3% charge for paying on a debit card? Can they do this?
Thanks

mrs_hsp

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie on here too.

Currently renting a house through a letting agency. The other day we had a house inspection, and the woman from the agency just kept going on about the condensation on the windows and the black on the wooden frames, (although it's not as bad as she made out!:mad:). Made me feel rubbish and that I wasn't looking after the place, although I do my best to wipe away water and clean windows when I can.

They told me in a letter that if we didn't do something about it, then we would get charged when we move out (off our deposit). I'm going to paint all the frames with anti-mould paint, but I do think that the landlady is legally responsible for sorting this problem out, so why should I have to end up having less of a deposit in the end? Has anyone had a similar problem?

Thanks

Wings

mrs_hsp wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie on here too.

Currently renting a house through a letting agency. The other day we had a house inspection, and the woman from the agency just kept going on about the condensation on the windows and the black on the wooden frames, (although it's not as bad as she made out!:mad:). Made me feel rubbish and that I wasn't looking after the place, although I do my best to wipe away water and clean windows when I can.

They told me in a letter that if we didn't do something about it, then we would get charged when we move out (off our deposit). I'm going to paint all the frames with anti-mould paint, but I do think that the landlady is legally responsible for sorting this problem out, so why should I have to end up having less of a deposit in the end? Has anyone had a similar problem?

Thanks

Mould due to damp/condensation due to lack off circulation and ventilation, so doors and windows open, move furniture slightly away from walls. Treat mould with weak soluction of household bleach. Common problem this time of the year, heating turned up and windows closed.

tbs624

etty1987 wrote: »

Very good post!
Can anyone help, my letting agency is all of a sudden trying to charge me a 3% charge for paying on a debit card? Can they do this?
Thanks

Yes, they can. They get charged for using the bank/car company infrastructure for processing the payment and can pass that card on to you. Shops don't tend to pass these charges on direct to the customer but instead build those costs into their prices.

What is it that you are you paying with your card? Do the LA office still accept cheques?

tbs624

GoodTenant wrote: »

Dear JoeA81

About 3 months ago I rented a property and have taken your advice about trying to find out the mortgage status of the property.

This has not been easy and has taken considerable time, however I discovered a couple of weeks ago that number 2 on your list is no longer necessary.

This is because on 1st October 2010 a new law came into force giving tenants more protection even if they are in a property where the landlord does not have a buy to let mortgage.

For more information, please see:

xxxxxxxxxxxx

I also discovered that even if the landlord has a buy to let mortgage, he/she may not have obtained the lenders consent to rent to an individiual or group and therefore is no different to a landlord who does not have a buy to let mortgage.

To avoid wasting tenants time in the future, I would respectfully request that you remove this item from your otherwise excellent advice.

Many thanks

Thanks for your post. Despite the Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants etc) Act 2010 it is still worthwhile a T checking out the mortgage status of the potential LL from the start. LLs who fail to have CTL are also likely to fail to meet other LL obligations. LLs seek much information on their prospective Ts and it is equally important that prospective Ts do their research.

As a newbie poster you perhaps haven't realised that you should not use the forum to promote your own website. See Forum Rules up above.

tbs624

Just a reminder to posters that they are will get a better response to specific queries if they hit the "New Thread" button top left of screen (from main HBR&S board) to create a thread of their own.

JoeA81

GoodTenant wrote: »

Dear JoeA81

About 3 months ago I rented a property and have taken your advice about trying to find out the mortgage status of the property.

This has not been easy and has taken considerable time, however I discovered a couple of weeks ago that number 2 on your list is no longer necessary.

This is because on 1st October 2010 a new law came into force giving tenants more protection even if they are in a property where the landlord does not have a buy to let mortgage.

For more information, please see:

propertypsl.co.uk/node/478

I also discovered that even if the landlord has a buy to let mortgage, he/she may not have obtained the lenders consent to rent to an individiual or group and therefore is no different to a landlord who does not have a buy to let mortgage.

To avoid wasting tenants time in the future, I would respectfully request that you remove this item from your otherwise excellent advice.

Many thanks

tbs624 wrote: »

Thanks for your post. Despite the Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants etc) Act 2010 it is still worthwhile a T checking out the mortgage status of the potential LL from the start. LLs who fail to have CTL are also likely to fail to meet other LL obligations. LLs seek much information on their prospective Ts and it is equally important that prospective Ts do their research.

As a newbie poster you perhaps haven't realised that you should not use the forum to promote your own website. See Forum Rules up above.

I think I agree with tbs624, and MissMoneypenny's long running sticky thread on the subject seem to suggest that this is still something that Tenants should be aware of.

It does however strike me that I first started this thread back in 2008, and many things have changed since then. Is there anything else that anyone has spotted in the OP that may need to be updated?