To offer a Landlord's perspective

[RoseWay]

There's been a lot of bashing of Landlords on here of late, land-owning class etc. I thought I'd share some experiences to offer an insight into why many are so paranoid about their property.

Background: we rented a family house out whilst we worked elsewhere near jobs.

Tennant 1: 6 months until first check, hadn't used heating all winter (we know for sure from bills no gas used) to save £ and had dried clothes inside. Worse damp across the property I've ever seen, left with 2 months rent unpaid, advised not worth pursuing due to chance of getting money back as gone abroad.

No. 2: Man, partner was his carer as he couldn't walk. Constantly sabotaged property (e.g. disconnecting waste water pipe, unscrewing bits in the boiler, removing floorboards) then calling environmental health. Seemed to be linked to trying to get council house but never really understood why. Maybe another reason. Intially thought problems were genuine until plumbers etc started poiting out deliberate damage. Turned out to be working as a roofer of all things and left shortly after causing a lot of damage to ours, including removing entire outhouse roof (???) Left owing rent, not reclaimed.

no. 3: we nearly lost lease due to action from neighbours due to noise.left owing rent.

no. 4: didn't clean in entire tennacy. Kitchen in particular so sticky shoes stuck to the floor. carpets ruined. junk in cellar/ outhouse about 4 skips worth.

All left withoutpaying rent worth more than the deposit plus an average damage of £500-£1000 (when fixing ourselves, not using anyone if possible)

Now we're moving back, out of pocket due to all the repairs etc. and to a very very poor condition house which was once lovely.

Not all tennans are like this, but I'm trying to share that not all landlords are greedy scum either. It's a horrible thing to rent your own home out and know all the risks, even if you try to be a wonderful landlord.

YANBU to offer your perspective, but YABU to do it in AIBU because you are not actually asking if you are being unreasonable.

I think you are right that people judge landlords' behaviour on well I am clean and tdy and sensible without considering that there is no way for the landlord to know that, and that an unfortunately large number of people are not clean or tidy or sensible.

I never thought all landlords are greedy scum, but I do frequently go on LL threads to point out that tenants have rights, which are not always upheld by LL and agencies.

You seem to have had some bad experiences, and that is awful for you. I am sorry.

trills- I stuck it here I presume on auto-pilot as the thread that got me thinking was in AIBU.

I wish I'd had one of the thousands of decent tenants on here, I'm clean and tidy and rent myself but attract nightmares.

I have to say, I don't see why you think telling us you've had bad tenants will stop people complaining about bad landlords?

There's a vanishingly small change their landlord is you, so you cannot possibly speak for all other landlords, just as we can't speak for all other tenants. And in fact, I don't think I've seen anyone claim to speak for all other tenants - instead of defending the bad ones, we're most fed up with them making us look bad.

Yanbu, I can well believe this. I worked cleaning flats that had been let and were between tenants once. I've never seen anything more disgusting, filth and rubbish left anywhere, no respect for the flats at all. The landlord seemed nice and I felt sad that anyone would leave property like this. Once the flats were clean they were re let, often only for the new tenants to treat them with similar disdain. Not all flats were left in such an appalling way, but quite a few were. Landlord said many had left with rent owing too.

I guess it gave me paid work, sad though.

*mostly

LRD - It won't stop people complaining about bad landlords, but it might make people realise why landlords want to do regular inspections and why this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. (see above for the damage that can be caused if you wait 6 months)

You obviously need a better screening process. And monthly inspections. I have had landlords do both.

Don't blame all the landlord bashing on your bad tenants. There are some horrid landlords out there just as there are some horrid tenants.

Monthly inspections?! Tee have you seen the thread where people are complaining that 3-monthly is too often?

I agree there is a lot of LL bashing on here, much of it is unjustified. Someone complains about one random crap LL and then the thread fills with posts about how LLs are greedy as if its an actual fact that all LLs are greedy.

But it's just yet another way that MN shows its inverse snobbery. Because obviously being a LL means you set out to screw people over and it doesn't matter if you have a right to protect your own property, it's someones home don't you know?

No, I haven't seen the thread. I also have had both kinds of inspections.

It's part of renting. If you don't like it, don't rent from that person.

We're having our inspection this Friday, in fact.

But, trills, I don't see any evidence people don't realize why LL want to do regular inspections. It is reasonable to want to do regular inspections.

However, it is not a legal right for LL to do them, and they can be refused access by tenants. Sometimes, tenants are also reasonable to do this.

Do people genuinely not understand how I'm saying this?

Complaining about bad tenants is very unlikely to make any tenant think 'ooh, best change my mind about those inspections!', because most good tenants don't care about inspections, and will only refuse for good reasons. Most bad tenants simply don't care.

I don't see what it achieves to go on about LL's perspectives on it, since however reasonable they may be and however entitled they may feel, they still actually have to obey the law.

Ah, right.

I think that this thread is mainly in response to people complaining about having regular inspections. Not people complaining about actual bad landlords who fail to do repairs etc.

Here we go.

I hadn't seen that thread, Trills.

But I have had inspections that were that detailed. It's, sometimes, part of renting.

If you can see why the landlord would want to do inspections and understand what they are looking for then you'll feel less like "they are checking up on my housekeeping" and more like "this is a perfectly reasonable thing for them to do and I have nothing to worry about" and you can all have a much better relationship.

If, as a tenant, you don't understand why they want to do inspections, then you may (as the OP of that other thread) feel "got at", and want to refuse (which you are within your rights to do) which will lead to the landlord thinking you have something to hide, and possibly your tenancy ending for no good reason at all.

So you have to move, and the landlord might lose a perfectly good tenant, all because you didn't understand each other.

I think it is outrageous that a tenant can refuse an inspection. Obviously the LL can't just turn up and demand to be let in, but a properly planned inspection should be the legal right of the landlord.

But a monthly inspection is very intrusive. Would you like to have someone coming round to your house every month, so you have to take a day off work, clean massively, wait in for them, keep the kids out of their way?

Tennants seem to have far more rights than LLs do. I think it's very unfair.

trills, honestly, I'm really sure that people understand why LL want to do inspections. Certainly the OP on that thread does.

It's not hard to understand.

It's not hard to understand that, if you refuse, likely scenario is the LL will refuse to renew tenancy.

Having said, I've often refused inspections on a particular day, and that has worked absolutely fine, and my LL have seldom thought it was a problem at all. So it's not always completely absurd to refuse.

Ali - maybe, but it currently isn't the legal right. And LL and agents should abide by this.

I think a good LL or agent doing an inspection can be no hassle at all.

But hassle does happen - I wouldn't like someone in my home when I'm not there, so I refuse inspections when I'm not there. It works fine. A friend of mine can't have men in her home when her DH isn't there (religious reasons), so they refuse unless he can be home. And I refused my landlady when she wanted to inspect my room every few days, but that was part of a long list of strange things she did.

I do think it is really awful that LL can be screwed out of money if a tenant wrecks a flat or goes off without paying the rent. There should be really heavy sanctions against that to prevent that person from doing it.

But otherwise, tenants do not have many rights and so it actually matters that what rights tenants have under law, don't get pushed aside by LL and agents.

I have only ever had awful landlords. The last one blacklisted me because I didn't pay his FORECASTED use of two months water and electricity when we would already have moved OUT of the house.

This one "lost" our deposit and we now have no flushing toilet in our flat in Canary Wharf. They can't fix it because the toilet cistern is "built in". We pay (on time) 1300 a month for the privledge of renting here.

I went to another and viewed the property and when asked what woudl happen with my deposit, he sit it would sit in his bank account. When I asked about the deposit tenancy scheme, he told me it was only suggestive and that it wasn't safe anyway.

So where are we ever going to have a LL or an agent that doesn't rip us off? There was no inventory taken on this place when we moved in and EVERYTHING was broken or damaged.

I'm not completely convinced that people do understand. (certainly not everyone)

And I think things would be better if we all understood each other better. :)

You seem to have had a lot of bad tenants, OP. Both my parents and husband are "accidental landlords" (parents have a flat my granparents used to live in and can't sell and hubby has the flat he used to live in before we were married that he can't sell). My parents have had one bad experience over about 20 years (tenant claimed housing benefit she wasn't entitled to and the benefits folks reclaimed the money from my parents rather than the tenant so she lived there for free). Touch wood, my husband seems to have done alright with his tenants so far.