Tenants Rights - Stay of Eviction
Discussion
tom667 said:
I do not wish to hate on landlords. Many are hard working and treat the business seriously. But it IS a business at the end of the day, not a hobby.
You are correct in that it is a business, and with business you have to take the rough with the smooth, but it is also targeted unlike any other business by 'consumers' and government alike.The 'issue' is that the Landlord has been given far greater responsibilities than ever before and the Tenant more rights and protections than ever before.
You can add to that the fact that interest rates have gone up (only a touch, but for the ill prepared enough) Higher Rate SDLT has made getting out of it (selling up) harder and, unlike any other borrowing for any other business, tax relief on the interest element of your borrowing is going down to nothing I a few years (iirc it is 50% in TY 19/20, 25% in TY 20/21 and FA in 21/22).
I doubt that there are many Landlords that treat letting as a hobby but if you are paying £850pcm in rent I can tell you there is very little chance that your Landlord is clearing much more than £400pcm before tax and after mortgage, and then you have to take into account repairs, maintenance, redecoration.
What many also seem to forget is that without private landlords the housing market would be utterly screwed, and with the austerity issues we have had in recent years councils have taken to using landlords as free temporary housing...
Rude-boy said:
You are correct in that it is a business, and with business you have to take the rough with the smooth, but it is also targeted unlike any other business by 'consumers' and government alike.
The 'issue' is that the Landlord has been given far greater responsibilities than ever before and the Tenant more rights and protections than ever before.
You can add to that the fact that interest rates have gone up (only a touch, but for the ill prepared enough) Higher Rate SDLT has made getting out of it (selling up) harder and, unlike any other borrowing for any other business, tax relief on the interest element of your borrowing is going down to nothing I a few years (iirc it is 50% in TY 19/20, 25% in TY 20/21 and FA in 21/22).
I doubt that there are many Landlords that treat letting as a hobby but if you are paying £850pcm in rent I can tell you there is very little chance that your Landlord is clearing much more than £400pcm before tax and after mortgage, and then you have to take into account repairs, maintenance, redecoration.
What many also seem to forget is that without private landlords the housing market would be utterly screwed, and with the austerity issues we have had in recent years councils have taken to using landlords as free temporary housing...
Not true that consumer rights have strengthened more than ever before - the 1988 and 1996 acts brought in AST that have far less protection than the old assured tenancy/ leases for the tenants.The 'issue' is that the Landlord has been given far greater responsibilities than ever before and the Tenant more rights and protections than ever before.
You can add to that the fact that interest rates have gone up (only a touch, but for the ill prepared enough) Higher Rate SDLT has made getting out of it (selling up) harder and, unlike any other borrowing for any other business, tax relief on the interest element of your borrowing is going down to nothing I a few years (iirc it is 50% in TY 19/20, 25% in TY 20/21 and FA in 21/22).
I doubt that there are many Landlords that treat letting as a hobby but if you are paying £850pcm in rent I can tell you there is very little chance that your Landlord is clearing much more than £400pcm before tax and after mortgage, and then you have to take into account repairs, maintenance, redecoration.
What many also seem to forget is that without private landlords the housing market would be utterly screwed, and with the austerity issues we have had in recent years councils have taken to using landlords as free temporary housing...
I've read a lot of the horror tales from LL on here, and I do have a lot of sympathy. I know there are a lot of scummy people out there, and some of you are having to deal with them.
But you see profit in the game or you wouldn't play it.
From the perspective of a private renter, my interface with my landlord is through a letting agent... and honestly it's not an experience I'd recommend to my worst enemy. If you use a letting agent, (and most LL do?), they are your representative to your tenants. Letting agencies screw tenants. They lie about things, charge rediculous fees... I'm dreading the end of my tenency, because of stories about how my letting agent insist that the property wasn't left clean enough, and they need to get their own cleaners in; despite the tenents (claiming, i have no way to verify the stories) to have employed a professional cleaning companies. Theres exit admin fees too. I'm not renting at the bottom of the market; the people saying these things are not claiming HB.
Once I put an offer in on the place I rented, the experience went down hill. By the time I moved in, my stress levels were exceedingly high. My apple watch even flashed up a warning of "high heart rate low activity" at one point while I was sitting having a cup of tea after a particularly difficult day.
After that experience, I can see why some tenants garner an incredibly cynical and confrontational attitude to renting. And while its not directly the Land lord at fault; the fact that collectively you're giving business to these letting agents does mean you can do something about it. .
But you see profit in the game or you wouldn't play it.
From the perspective of a private renter, my interface with my landlord is through a letting agent... and honestly it's not an experience I'd recommend to my worst enemy. If you use a letting agent, (and most LL do?), they are your representative to your tenants. Letting agencies screw tenants. They lie about things, charge rediculous fees... I'm dreading the end of my tenency, because of stories about how my letting agent insist that the property wasn't left clean enough, and they need to get their own cleaners in; despite the tenents (claiming, i have no way to verify the stories) to have employed a professional cleaning companies. Theres exit admin fees too. I'm not renting at the bottom of the market; the people saying these things are not claiming HB.
Once I put an offer in on the place I rented, the experience went down hill. By the time I moved in, my stress levels were exceedingly high. My apple watch even flashed up a warning of "high heart rate low activity" at one point while I was sitting having a cup of tea after a particularly difficult day.
After that experience, I can see why some tenants garner an incredibly cynical and confrontational attitude to renting. And while its not directly the Land lord at fault; the fact that collectively you're giving business to these letting agents does mean you can do something about it. .
esxste said:
I've read a lot of the horror tales from LL on here, and I do have a lot of sympathy. I know there are a lot of scummy people out there, and some of you are having to deal with them.
But you see profit in the game or you wouldn't play it.
From the perspective of a private renter, my interface with my landlord is through a letting agent... and honestly it's not an experience I'd recommend to my worst enemy. If you use a letting agent, (and most LL do?), they are your representative to your tenants. Letting agencies screw tenants. They lie about things, charge rediculous fees... I'm dreading the end of my tenency, because of stories about how my letting agent insist that the property wasn't left clean enough, and they need to get their own cleaners in; despite the tenents (claiming, i have no way to verify the stories) to have employed a professional cleaning companies. Theres exit admin fees too. I'm not renting at the bottom of the market; the people saying these things are not claiming HB.
Once I put an offer in on the place I rented, the experience went down hill. By the time I moved in, my stress levels were exceedingly high. My apple watch even flashed up a warning of "high heart rate low activity" at one point while I was sitting having a cup of tea after a particularly difficult day.
After that experience, I can see why some tenants garner an incredibly cynical and confrontational attitude to renting. And while its not directly the Land lord at fault; the fact that collectively you're giving business to these letting agents does mean you can do something about it. .
A sensible landlord wants a tenant that pays the rent on time, takes reasonable care of the property and stays forever. Simple, really.But you see profit in the game or you wouldn't play it.
From the perspective of a private renter, my interface with my landlord is through a letting agent... and honestly it's not an experience I'd recommend to my worst enemy. If you use a letting agent, (and most LL do?), they are your representative to your tenants. Letting agencies screw tenants. They lie about things, charge rediculous fees... I'm dreading the end of my tenency, because of stories about how my letting agent insist that the property wasn't left clean enough, and they need to get their own cleaners in; despite the tenents (claiming, i have no way to verify the stories) to have employed a professional cleaning companies. Theres exit admin fees too. I'm not renting at the bottom of the market; the people saying these things are not claiming HB.
Once I put an offer in on the place I rented, the experience went down hill. By the time I moved in, my stress levels were exceedingly high. My apple watch even flashed up a warning of "high heart rate low activity" at one point while I was sitting having a cup of tea after a particularly difficult day.
After that experience, I can see why some tenants garner an incredibly cynical and confrontational attitude to renting. And while its not directly the Land lord at fault; the fact that collectively you're giving business to these letting agents does mean you can do something about it. .
To achieve that the landlord has to treat the tenant properly. Fix problems in a timely manner, charge a fair rent and appreciate a good tenant.
If both landlord and tenant are reasonable, then it works and the piss taker agents get weeded out.
tom667 said:
MB140:
You seem to believe the system wants to f**k landlords over.
I must be mistaken because I believe being a landlord is running a business and so involves an element of risk. Like many businesses there is a risk that your customer will not pay.
And, there are a variety of insurance policies out there, that will cover rent arrears.
However, I suspect because so many landlords are mortgaged to the hilt, being principally on buy-to-let mortgages or interest-only mortgages, that they cannot afford the possibility of a substantial loss and must blame the Government or other people for their loss.
If you don't fancy this loss, sell your property, and let someone buy it to LIVE in it, not just rent it out.
Myself, I am in favour of tenants having more rights than landlords, because tenants are more vulnerable generally.
I do not wish to hate on landlords. Many are hard working and treat the business seriously. But it IS a business at the end of the day, not a hobby.
Not necessarily. My brother had a contract come up in Cambridge, likely duration of two years.You seem to believe the system wants to f**k landlords over.
I must be mistaken because I believe being a landlord is running a business and so involves an element of risk. Like many businesses there is a risk that your customer will not pay.
And, there are a variety of insurance policies out there, that will cover rent arrears.
However, I suspect because so many landlords are mortgaged to the hilt, being principally on buy-to-let mortgages or interest-only mortgages, that they cannot afford the possibility of a substantial loss and must blame the Government or other people for their loss.
If you don't fancy this loss, sell your property, and let someone buy it to LIVE in it, not just rent it out.
Myself, I am in favour of tenants having more rights than landlords, because tenants are more vulnerable generally.
I do not wish to hate on landlords. Many are hard working and treat the business seriously. But it IS a business at the end of the day, not a hobby.
Not practicable to commute so he and family moved there, renting a house and renting out their property - so very much not a business.
Rented his property to a nice lady (30s) with a young daughter. Good job in the City. Did this via an agency, so fully checked out.
Fast forward 18 months - no rent being paid. My brother went to check on property, locks changed, back garden full of bin bags etc
He went to see the agency; useless, hadn't done an inspection for 6 months as 'they couldn't enter the property as locks had been changed'.
When they did gain entry the place stank of smoke - she was supposed to be a non-smoker. The agent in charge says when he had been in there he hadn't noticed it as he was himself a smoker.
6 months of arrears until they could get her out. My brother then pursued her for the rent. Her father is a high powered Barrister and basically brought down a lot of legal stuff on my brother to ensure she could not be pursued for the rent. If he made any further contact with her it would be deemed harassment etc. All letters from his firm.
In the end my brother did manage to get back some money from the agency as he threatened to embarrass them - they are a local agency of 20+ years standing - re not carrying out inspections etc. Took him and his family a good weekend of work to today the place up, plus a lot of money on repainting rooms and repairs.
Edited by jdw100 on Saturday 9th February 02:45
jdw100 said:
Not necessarily. My brother had a contract come up in Cambridge, likely duration of two years.
Not practicable to commute so he and family moved there, renting a house and renting out their property - so very much not a business.
Rented his property to a nice lady (30s) with a young daughter. Good job in the City. Did this via an agency, so fully checked out.
Fast forward 18 months - no rent being paid. My brother went to check on property, locks changed, back garden full of bin bags etc
He went to see the agency; useless, hadn't done an inspection for 6 months as 'they couldn't enter the property as locks had been changed'.
When they did gain entry the place stank of smoke - she was supposed to be a non-smoker. The agent in charge says when he had been in there he hadn't noticed it as he was himself a smoker.
6 months of arrears until they could get her out. My brother then pursued her for the rent. Her father is a high powered Barrister and basically brought down a lot of legal stuff on my brother to ensure she could not be pursued for the rent. If he made any further contact with her it would be deemed harassment etc. All letters from his firm.
In the end my brother did manage to get back some money from the agency as he threatened to embarrass them - they are a local agency of 20+ years standing - re not carrying out inspections etc. Took him and his family a good weekend of work to today the place up, plus a lot of money on repainting rooms and repairs.
That's not a good story - I'm sorry to hear it. However for every horror story about a terrible agent there is a horror story about a terrible landlord and yet another horror story about a terrible tenant. Not practicable to commute so he and family moved there, renting a house and renting out their property - so very much not a business.
Rented his property to a nice lady (30s) with a young daughter. Good job in the City. Did this via an agency, so fully checked out.
Fast forward 18 months - no rent being paid. My brother went to check on property, locks changed, back garden full of bin bags etc
He went to see the agency; useless, hadn't done an inspection for 6 months as 'they couldn't enter the property as locks had been changed'.
When they did gain entry the place stank of smoke - she was supposed to be a non-smoker. The agent in charge says when he had been in there he hadn't noticed it as he was himself a smoker.
6 months of arrears until they could get her out. My brother then pursued her for the rent. Her father is a high powered Barrister and basically brought down a lot of legal stuff on my brother to ensure she could not be pursued for the rent. If he made any further contact with her it would be deemed harassment etc. All letters from his firm.
In the end my brother did manage to get back some money from the agency as he threatened to embarrass them - they are a local agency of 20+ years standing - re not carrying out inspections etc. Took him and his family a good weekend of work to today the place up, plus a lot of money on repainting rooms and repairs.
I'm an agent and my job this week has been to protect a group of three tenants from a landlord who was being wholly unreasonable about witholdings from the deposit. I know the tenants are very grateful and I know that I will lose the landlord's business from this point on. Please take care who you tar with that very broad brush.
Wow, as someone about to rent a property out for the first time, threads like this make me nervous!
I was just going to deal with it myself but I’m wondering if I should use an agent now.
I wonder if any of you “in the know” types might be able to point me in the direction of some websites or information that would be helpful, as I embark on this adventure!
Rom
I was just going to deal with it myself but I’m wondering if I should use an agent now.
I wonder if any of you “in the know” types might be able to point me in the direction of some websites or information that would be helpful, as I embark on this adventure!
Rom
Romcom said:
Wow, as someone about to rent a property out for the first time, threads like this make me nervous!
I was just going to deal with it myself but I’m wondering if I should use an agent now.
I wonder if any of you “in the know” types might be able to point me in the direction of some websites or information that would be helpful, as I embark on this adventure!
Rom
Need a good agent too.I was just going to deal with it myself but I’m wondering if I should use an agent now.
I wonder if any of you “in the know” types might be able to point me in the direction of some websites or information that would be helpful, as I embark on this adventure!
Rom
Our son and his wife had a property rented through an agent. They wanted to move into the house and end tennancy.
Then found the agent hadn't even put the deposit in an assured scheme required by law !
The tennatnt in theory could take them to court over it, despite it being the agents 'fault
Almost a nightmare.
Romcom said:
Wow, as someone about to rent a property out for the first time, threads like this make me nervous!
I was just going to deal with it myself but I’m wondering if I should use an agent now.
I wonder if any of you “in the know” types might be able to point me in the direction of some websites or information that would be helpful, as I embark on this adventure!
Rom
I’d strongly suggest a good agent, check their references carefully first though,there are good and bad ones.I was just going to deal with it myself but I’m wondering if I should use an agent now.
I wonder if any of you “in the know” types might be able to point me in the direction of some websites or information that would be helpful, as I embark on this adventure!
Rom
Find a good one and you’ll avoid the vast majority of problems. And the 2am calls saying there has been a power cut...
Romcom said:
Wow, as someone about to rent a property out for the first time, threads like this make me nervous!
I was just going to deal with it myself but I’m wondering if I should use an agent now.
I wonder if any of you “in the know” types might be able to point me in the direction of some websites or information that would be helpful, as I embark on this adventure!
Rom
As a LL of some 30 years I totally agree with 2Btoo post, and I quote "However for every horror story about a terrible agent there is a horror story about a terrible landlord and yet another horror story about a terrible tenant.".I was just going to deal with it myself but I’m wondering if I should use an agent now.
I wonder if any of you “in the know” types might be able to point me in the direction of some websites or information that would be helpful, as I embark on this adventure!
Rom
Within your local area there may well be a Landlords Association, the same that will hold various open meetings, that by attending and talking to local landlords, agents etc., will possibly gain you some local knowledge of local agents, trade persons, rental market etc. etc.
Nationally and online there is the Residential Landlords Association, with it's online chat forum, telephone legal helpline, tenancy agreements, advice etc. etc. www.rla.org.uk/
I also agree in part with what Rude-boy was implying, that there is very little net profit from rental income, particularly if one/LL can not self manage, and has to employ an agent, contractors to carry out repairs, mortgage etc. etc.
Where I do disagree with Rude-boy, is that OP's/LL's like yourself, with one or two rental properties, are deemed to be operating a business, and fortunately neither does HMR&C, Consumer Association and the Law Society.
In some ways its right, but if you or your agent make a mistake in the basics, then eviction becomes really difficult. For example, if a gas safety certificate isnt issued within 30 days of a tenant signing the assured shorthold lease, a section 21 eviction becomes invalid and I have no idea how you could sort that out !
Gary C said:
In some ways its right, but if you or your agent make a mistake in the basics, then eviction becomes really difficult. For example, if a gas safety certificate isnt issued within 30 days of a tenant signing the assured shorthold lease, a section 21 eviction becomes invalid and I have no idea how you could sort that out !
One escape route for the owner/LL would be to put the property up for sale.Romcom said:
Wow, as someone about to rent a property out for the first time, threads like this make me nervous!
I was just going to deal with it myself but I’m wondering if I should use an agent now.
I wonder if any of you “in the know” types might be able to point me in the direction of some websites or information that would be helpful, as I embark on this adventure!
If you are moderately capable, intelligent and have a few people skills then you will be able to do a perfectly fine job yourself. There is no need for an agent; if you fancy learning something new then save the cash and do it yourself. Letting a house or flat is easy, it's just that there are some very hard and very fast rules which you need to keep to and if you don't then things have the potential to go badly awry. Giving tenants a copy of the Gas Safety Certificate and protecting the deposit are two examples of such rules, but they are easy to adhere to and only need to be done once. I was just going to deal with it myself but I’m wondering if I should use an agent now.
I wonder if any of you “in the know” types might be able to point me in the direction of some websites or information that would be helpful, as I embark on this adventure!
Good advice? Head over to LandLord Zone (https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/) and spend half a day reading what you can on there. Sign up for the forums and either look for a thread from someone in your situation (i.e. starting out as a first time landlord) or start a thread for yourself, and read the answers on there carefully. The place does have a bit of a culture which can be slightly pedantic and stand-offish but you will get good advice, for free. Learn the law (it's not hard), pay for a good tenancy agreement (RudeBoy on here will sell you one - he's a lawyer) and know the way the game works before you start to play it.
Best advice? Very simply put, keep on good terms with your tenants. If your tenants know you are trustworthy and reliable and genuinely want to help them then you are much less likely to fall foul of them, the rules or the law. This will sound like a boast (OK, it is!) but my plumber said to me the other day "Every time I go to a property with you and there is a tenant there then I know it will take ages because we will be offered tea and biscuits and everything will take much longer than it should." Tenants will put up with all sorts of grief if they think they are being looked after by someone who cares for them and maintaining a good relationship with them is worth more than you could possibly realise.
2Btoo said:
Best advice? Very simply put, keep on good terms with your tenants. If your tenants know you are trustworthy and reliable and genuinely want to help them then you are much less likely to fall foul of them, the rules or the law. This will sound like a boast (OK, it is!) but my plumber said to me the other day "Every time I go to a property with you and there is a tenant there then I know it will take ages because we will be offered tea and biscuits and everything will take much longer than it should." Tenants will put up with all sorts of grief if they think they are being looked after by someone who cares for them and maintaining a good relationship with them is worth more than you could possibly realise.
This in trumps. I've got one set of tenants of 4 years standing who, over Christmas 2017, went without heating and hot water until 27th December ' because they didn't want to disturb my Christmas'.The irony was that one of them inadvertently switched the boiler off at the mains isolator on Christmas Eve (i'm sure alcohol wasn't involved
)caiss4 said:
2Btoo said:
Best advice? Very simply put, keep on good terms with your tenants. If your tenants know you are trustworthy and reliable and genuinely want to help them then you are much less likely to fall foul of them, the rules or the law. This will sound like a boast (OK, it is!) but my plumber said to me the other day "Every time I go to a property with you and there is a tenant there then I know it will take ages because we will be offered tea and biscuits and everything will take much longer than it should." Tenants will put up with all sorts of grief if they think they are being looked after by someone who cares for them and maintaining a good relationship with them is worth more than you could possibly realise.
This in trumps. I've got one set of tenants of 4 years standing who, over Christmas 2017, went without heating and hot water until 27th December ' because they didn't want to disturb my Christmas'.The irony was that one of them inadvertently switched the boiler off at the mains isolator on Christmas Eve (i'm sure alcohol wasn't involved
)I've fixed a couple of tap washers, but had to call out his plumber a couple of times as I know my limits. Repairs were carried out asap. The year before last he forgot to get the gas boiler checked until it was several months out of date, but no worries it was working fine, and now we have a regular date for boiler servicing.
I dare say we have almost the perfect landlord tenant relationship, I treat the house like I would if it was my own, he charges me rent at below market value because he values me as a tenant and don't cause him any grief.
2Btoo said:
jdw100 said:
Not necessarily. My brother had a contract come up in Cambridge, likely duration of two years.
Not practicable to commute so he and family moved there, renting a house and renting out their property - so very much not a business.
Rented his property to a nice lady (30s) with a young daughter. Good job in the City. Did this via an agency, so fully checked out.
Fast forward 18 months - no rent being paid. My brother went to check on property, locks changed, back garden full of bin bags etc
He went to see the agency; useless, hadn't done an inspection for 6 months as 'they couldn't enter the property as locks had been changed'.
When they did gain entry the place stank of smoke - she was supposed to be a non-smoker. The agent in charge says when he had been in there he hadn't noticed it as he was himself a smoker.
6 months of arrears until they could get her out. My brother then pursued her for the rent. Her father is a high powered Barrister and basically brought down a lot of legal stuff on my brother to ensure she could not be pursued for the rent. If he made any further contact with her it would be deemed harassment etc. All letters from his firm.
In the end my brother did manage to get back some money from the agency as he threatened to embarrass them - they are a local agency of 20+ years standing - re not carrying out inspections etc. Took him and his family a good weekend of work to today the place up, plus a lot of money on repainting rooms and repairs.
That's not a good story - I'm sorry to hear it. However for every horror story about a terrible agent there is a horror story about a terrible landlord and yet another horror story about a terrible tenant. Not practicable to commute so he and family moved there, renting a house and renting out their property - so very much not a business.
Rented his property to a nice lady (30s) with a young daughter. Good job in the City. Did this via an agency, so fully checked out.
Fast forward 18 months - no rent being paid. My brother went to check on property, locks changed, back garden full of bin bags etc
He went to see the agency; useless, hadn't done an inspection for 6 months as 'they couldn't enter the property as locks had been changed'.
When they did gain entry the place stank of smoke - she was supposed to be a non-smoker. The agent in charge says when he had been in there he hadn't noticed it as he was himself a smoker.
6 months of arrears until they could get her out. My brother then pursued her for the rent. Her father is a high powered Barrister and basically brought down a lot of legal stuff on my brother to ensure she could not be pursued for the rent. If he made any further contact with her it would be deemed harassment etc. All letters from his firm.
In the end my brother did manage to get back some money from the agency as he threatened to embarrass them - they are a local agency of 20+ years standing - re not carrying out inspections etc. Took him and his family a good weekend of work to today the place up, plus a lot of money on repainting rooms and repairs.
I'm an agent and my job this week has been to protect a group of three tenants from a landlord who was being wholly unreasonable about witholdings from the deposit. I know the tenants are very grateful and I know that I will lose the landlord's business from this point on. Please take care who you tar with that very broad brush.
My brother was also a good landlord in the fact he passed on the management of his own family home to a professional agency of many years standing.
They were prepared to accept his money but then did not fulfil their part of the agreement - managing the property on his behalf.
Years ago when I lived in London my partner and I rented a nice flat in Muswell Hill via Foxtons. In the first two years they didn't inspect it once, despite taking £150 a month (as I recall...) from the flat's owner. We had an issue with the oven - in that it stopped working - took weeks of calling them before we could get a response; then they failed to send someone to repair.
In the end I managed to get the email address for the owner (with whom we had no contact with at all at this point) and sent him a message. He arrived the next day with a bottle of wine and profuse apologies. Oven repaired the day after. He was appalled to hear that no inspections had happened and I also mentioned that we had never been given an inventory to sign.
There had been other issues as well that he was unaware of and was not a happy man. We decided that he would lower our rent by half the fee Foxtons were taking and he would save himself the other half and we deal directly with him. Lovely chap, in fact we are still in touch, many years later
He went to Foxtons to cancel the contract and they went ballistic. Threatened him with legal action, told him if he sold the flat in the next year (something he was thinking about) then the contract stated they would get 20% of the value of the sale etc...
He refused to back down and said they were in breach of contract. They were unable to supply the inventory, show they had inspected the property, provide records of our complaints (seems no one had bothered to record much of anything) and then the icing on the cake....an email they did forward to him which was one of the ones from me to them, asking them to please return one of the multiple messages I had left re the broken oven.
Below it was an exchange of emails between the person 'managing' our flat and a colleague in response to the first email I had sent.
It was along the lines of 'they had no maintenance contractor as the last guy had ditched them because of late payments, how they should tell me to f*** off and eat takeaways, how can I string this prick along for three weeks?" Plus some other nasty stuff about a couple that must have gone it to see them about renting a property...pretty much racist.
Landlord and I went down to see them on the Saturday morning, when they were nice and busy in their fancy office on the Broadway. Manager couldn't cancel the agreement quick enough to get us out of there.
Another one: bought a house in a nice cul de sac. Lady next door moved away and rented hers to two young lads, Nice enough guys but noisy as hell, upset both sides with cars blaring out music, arriving late at night then music starting loudly from the house, friends using the back garden all summer (shirts off, swearing loudly) etc. I ended up a few times after 02:00 banging on their door and they would always be apologetic...they just hadn't been brought up well; didn't understand about being a decent neighbour.
Found out who they were renting through and made contact. Agency literally could not care less "nothing we can do, not our problem". My other neighbour took to phoning the agent's mobile every time these lads disturbed him - he was making phone calls at 03:00 on a Sunday morning. Nothing..never got back to us once.
Again, found the landlord - made contact, presented a bit of a log disturbances. Agent sacked and lads given notice to leave.
I own a property in a newly converted factory up North, I now wouldn't trust the lady I deal with further than I could throw her...having learnt from the above experiences I'm well set up with prompts in my diary for inspections etc. Every times its "oh yeah we're just doing that one today"...really, are you really? .....only because I just emailed you and why didn't you do it a week ago when due?
Also she just cannot seen to grasp that I'm eight hours ahead of the UK. I'm convinced she has no idea re or concept of time zones...
Few examples for you, just anecdotes...broad brush stroke?
Edited by jdw100 on Monday 11th February 01:50
Edited by jdw100 on Monday 11th February 01:57
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