This may turn into a long rant, please bear with me...
We have rented out our house in UK for past 7yrs as we moved abroad for work, so accidental landlords you'd say, we don't have a pension, so kept it, and were not supposed to be away this long. We have a property manager (PM) who manages 100s of properties and is also known to us personally as a friend.
We have not increased the rent in all those 7yrs. Tenant often pays late, we just juggle around a few things to ensure mortgage is paid on time every month and don't hassle them, they catch it up the next month generally. I have asked PM to increase the rent a couple of times before, and he has always said no, things are tight, tenant will leave.
So how often does your rent increase and by what margin? And how much of a % increase would make you leave?
This has come to a head as a few months ago, bathroom need retiling and some other things, we got those fixed. Now without any consultation, apparently taps are all broken, and the bathroom needs completely gutting, and downstairs loo also needs replacing. I got told this week, please send a cheque, here is the quote, work being done next week. No input from us about what we want in it, no warning about it. And totally wasted money on the retiling that was done a couple of mths ago. The type of problem, in my mind, doesn't happen over night. This is something that builds up over a while, so literally 3mths ago, this problem should have been seen and addressed surely!?
This leads me to think that the tenant is not informing PM of issues in a timely manner. I thought this was one of their responsibilities? Any thoughts on that? FIL has been around to have a look and a chat as PM is not computer savvy so will not send pics or email us etc... Bathroom has been leaking into kitchen, and downstairs loo into hallway. I hate to think how long this has been happening, and what other damage is done that will need to be fixed.
Now they're saying the fridge is on the blink, told this to FIL and it's the first we've heard of it.
I've asked PM to put up the rent by 50quid (currently 600), and stagger it so they can budget it, half after bathroom done, and the other half beg of 2016. He is saying don't do it. She'll move out, lots of things to do before another can move in, cost you thousands. Yes, cutting our nose for 50quid, but I'm at the end of my rope (due to lots of other things in our life, and this is just one more thing on the list to grind us down) His other argument being, she's paid x thousands of rent and you've had little maintenance issues (yep, but she's storing up trouble for us IMO, I'd rather pay a few hundred here and there over the months to keep things in good order, than be stuck with thousands, possibly tens of, with zero warning). My argument is they've had a nice, quiet time for 7yrs, no hassle from us, haven't had to move every 6/12mths, and you know, they're paying for a roof over their head. I've checked right move and there is NOTHING for rent in our area at all. The next closest property is in a less nice part of town, is terraced and is on for 700quid/mth.
Not sure what to do or think tbh. Latest is apparently they have been telling PM about issues, but nothing has been done....
Any advice for us before I email PM back?
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52 replies
HerRoyalNotness · 23/04/2015 14:39
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