Who'd Be A Landlord

[mgread1200 141]

My Daughter owns a property in the next village and about three years ago decided to rent it out as she went to live nearer to where she works in Northhamptonshire. The tenant moved out about a month ago and my daughter decided to rent it through an agency, imagine the shock when they rang to tell her that the house would have to be cleaned and redecorated because of the state the tenant had left it in. It is costing several hundreds of pounds to put things right and I look like spending a week over there sorting out the back Garden. I used to feel sorry for tenants who lost their deposits with agencies through paltry trumped up claims of damage but after this I will look on it in a different light.

[... 1,411]

When we had the shop we sub let the flat over,after assurances from the housing department we decided to let it to what it thought was people down on their luck,I struggled to get my rent after someone in government thought it a good idea to pay the tennant not the landlord,the idea was to make them more responsible,I'm afraid some people you just can't help,lazy freeloaders.

[catfan 14,793]

Two sides of the coin here, my son's G/F was given two weeks to vacate her rented house. She was never late with the rent & was a model tenant by all accounts.

The landlord rented the house to a friend of a friend & my son's G/F is still waiting to get her deposit back.

As well as scum tenants there are scum landlords as well.

mgread 1200, I do not for one minute imply your daughter is a scum landlord.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

These days there seems to be more bad tenants than good tenants. My wife manages property for owners, amazing how many do a moonlight flit, leaving behind one hell of a mess and damage behind.

What really gets me is we live in a small area, very few rentals are available around here, they just don't seem to care these days.

Most seem to have their priorities upside down, spend all their money on expensive things for the kids, satellite TV or Cable, expensive furnishings and cannot afford the rent!

She deals with the government HUD agency, tenants using HUD are a little different, they keep a place clean, pay on time, and give notice before they leave and leave the place clean and tidy, or forfiet all government rental aid... That's a good incentive....

[mgread1200 141]

My Daughter dropped the rent when this guy was down on his luck and on benefits something I did not agree with at the time, but having been a student and living in rented accomodation herself she took a different attitude. You Live and Learn!!!

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

When we first moved down here from California, the wife and I used to "trash out" repode houses and also trash out houses from evicted tenants, it's remarkable what they leave behind!!!

One house we trashed out, cleaned redecorated did the yards was a VA house, (Veteran Affairs mortgage) The old feller had died, his Son had been around and taken what he wanted, then it was classed as vacant and everything in it trash... We recovered dozens of brand new bath towels, hald a dozen pairs of Levi trousers, brand new, never worn, a large TV, didn't appear very old, but did have a simple fault I repaired, while in it I found the TV was three months old!!!

Silver coins, silver bullion...List goes on and on, took us a couple of weeks to get the house and shed emptied, a lot went to charity shops.

Another house we trashed out, banl repo, the lady had left dozens of bags of expensive ladies clothes!! Most of her two boys toys, electric golf cart, a shop full of craft items!! Fridge/freezer, washing machine, dryer, light fittings, bed clothes, linen.. Basement full of Christmas ornaments, expensive electric power tools.

Another one we cleared out had loads of useful timber left behind, books and other useful items.

Tenants from her managed house, leave hundreds of dollars worth of clothes, radio's stereos, linen, towels, most of the kids clothes and toys, dvd's cd's.

It's just unbelievable... My tool chest has doubled since we moved down here from re po'd houses!! I have three spare 7.5 inch circular saws, several jig saws, socket sets, ratchets ectensions hammers hand saws..List goes on and on...LOL

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

Up until he retired in 1986, my dad was the maintenance manager for Metropolitan housing in Nottingham. This included houses with district heating on Brewsters Road in St. Annes. He used to phone me when anyone left leaving all their furniture. I stocked up on quality tools and beautiful pieces of furniture like display cabinets. However, some vacated houses had carpets that were literally jumping up and down by themselves due to the flea population. One house off Brewsters road was vacated and they took everything. The kitchen units, the radiators, the water tanks and even all the tiny bits of underfloor heating pipes.

My son now rents his house out in Aspley. Many of his tenants left without paying rent which he had to partly recoup by selling the furniture they left behind on Ebay. But as I've said in other topics, these are all human beings. Landlords and tenants alike. The law is stacked against the landlord. He can't escape. Unlike some tenants who abuse all they see.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

I can't speak for all states as laws differ from state to state, but here, once served with eviction notice, you have to move out or face criminal traspass charges. A landlord cannot evict you here without reasonable notice or excuse, none payment of rent is a valid excuse, not maintaining the yards, or violating the tenantcy agreement, which is a valid legal contract signed by the tenant, is another legal excuse to evict.

Tenants under my wife's contracts cannot sub let either, ie rent to someone else, all people who will be living at the rented house have to be listed on the agreement, ie husband and wife and two children, or renter and G/F...There are legal reasons for these provisions.

[Compo 10,328]

In ten years of renting I had one good tennant. I had two lots that stripped the house of all its fittings, including knocking a hole in the wall to remove the boiler. and one lot that had a rottweiller that shit all over the place and ate the internal doors. in the end I gave up.

[benjamin1945 16,139]

That sounds like an ex wife as well compo'

[Compo 10,328]

Fecking DSS tenants! One of them had a burst pipe in the ground floor. Instead of letting the agent know, he moved upstairs . The first I knew of it was when the neighbour phoned me to tell me that he was putting in an insurance claim against me for flooding his house! I mean....What a f*cking tw*t!

[LizzieM 9,507]

When our eldest son was at Loughborough University he spent the first year in halls and then he and his mates wanted to move to a private rented house, like most students do. We decided to buy a 5 bed 3 storey house rather than pay rent to a landlord. All went fairly well for the years our son was there and then we handed over responsibility to the University for a few more years. We usually had to re-carpet every year, buy new beds every year (don't know what these students get up to in their bedrooms!), and buy new (actually secondhand) cooker, fridge-freezer and microwave every year before the next group of students moved in. We'd had to put in hard-wired smoke alarm and fire doors too. Then after a few years a new law came about where houses of multiple occupancy with 5 or more bedrooms and/or 3 storeys had to make a special tax payment and install a fire escape. Too much hassle so we took it off the University books and got a local letting agent to manage the house. They managed to rent it out almost 100% of the next 2 or 3 years but any little problem or repair was costing us the earth because the company had a list of contractors they used who seemed to charge just what they liked. In the end, about 3 years ago, we decided to sell at the end of a tenancy. We then had a bill from Eon for £2000+ for unpaid electricity and gas. This was all due to the letting agents not going into the property to read the meters. I refused to pay despite getting dozens of phone calls from a debt collecting agency working for Eon. In the end I just got so pi$$ed of with the threatening calls that I settled with them but only paid £600. The house sold fairly quickly and we made a lot of money on it, as well as getting rent for many years. Don't think we'd buy another property to rent out, not a house anyway.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Over here the tenant is responsible for electricity, gas or propane, they have to have it switched on in their name, the utilities cann't claim off the landlord or management agency as it's not in their name. Was the same in Australia.

When I was renting, I always tried to leave a place as I found it or cleaner, again in Australia, you have to place a bond, usually one full months rent, If my memory recalls correctly, that is held until an inspection is made after the renter leaves, and if all is OK, the agency/landlord notify's the Bond Board, state government agency, and they release the bond to the renter.

I only had one hassle with one management agency, I'd left the place clean, cleaned all the insect screens and left the place as I found it. They didn't examine it until a few weeks after I'd vacated the place, so the fly screens were dusty, some dead flies were in the windows, to be expected, but they told me I had to come and clean everything up or no bond release.

As I lived over 180Kms from Wollongong now, I cut my losses and said screw them, a few weeks went by and a cheque for my full bond was in the mail box..So either they were BSing me, and trying it on...Who knows..

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

I have my own small business working as a contractor in the private domestic rental sector and recognise everything posted above. There are shite tenants but equally there are shite landlords and letting agents to.

If ever you are thinking of renting out a property get yourself a good letting agency. Anyone can set up as a letting agent and some have little or no idea what their responsibilities are so you need to check their qualifications. You might have to pay a little more for their services but at the end of the day they will do their best to look after tour interests.