To be pissed off at having just seen my tenants spending a load of cash whilst they're behind on rent?

[JennylovesRosie]

I am fed up to the back teeth.

This is the third month now where they're falling behind.

(I know them by their appearance and we have a mutual friend on a social networking site)

I have just seen them paying for a spa and no doubt it'll be up on social media next week (they like to brag and display all their newly acquired gains in Instagrammed glory.)

Next month my kids won't have the birthday parties they wanted because I'm subsidising these idiots living expenses and incurring charges as for their late/part payments.

Has anyone managed to get tenants out despite then not being 2 months late on rent. The Lettings agency have told me I'm stuck with them . Can I fine them?

They got a 12 fixed contract in January and surprise-surprise they started to default from day one of it.

I'm so upset.

The attitudes to LL on MN is fucking despicable.

Tbf theres been some dispicable LLing presented on this thread alone. Illegal evictions, online harrassment and what seems to be a bit of cyber stalking from OP (helped along by her mate apparently)

Not you wee doll, cool your jets.

Dont worry your head about it wee doll. Go talk to others, there's a pet.

FWIW, I bought my flat as a home and lived in it for several years. I tried to sell it just prior to the collapse of the property market because (now) DH and I wanted to buy a house together. I had a buyer but they were FTBers who, presumably acting on some bad advice from someone, decided to try and gazunder me on exchange day. They were told quite firmly to fuck off, and my only consolation is that their idiocy in trying to railroad me cost them their mortgage offer and legal fees.

I was approached pretty much immediately by a friend of a friend who desperately wanted to rent in the area as they were expecting a baby and had family nearby but couldn't afford most of the places on offer. Initially, I went through a letting agent but the agent was awful (mainly to the tenant) so after a year I binned them and managed it myself.

I know there's a lot of hostility towards landlords, and particularly accidental landlords like me, but not all of us are bad.

My Dh has just bought (with his brother) a house for £20,000 cash. It's a shit hole but once they clear it out and fix it up they can sell it on at a profit or rent it out for long term investment.

No borrowing here and we got it dirt cheap. Where are you getting your facts from martha ?

Remember not every LL uses it as a business, they do it because they can't sell their homes and need to move to a larger house

As soon as you let your house out you are entering a business and should treat it as such. Being accidental landlords doesn't absolve you of the responsibility of running your business proficiently.
If you buy property you run the risk of it losing value at the time you want to sell. That's a fact of the property market and not some kind of unexpected and unfair random event that therefore absolves people of any duty to act professionally and lawfully

keep going, this is amusing. Any more thoughts on life from the perspective of hands?

Cloud your DH and his brother wouldnt fall into the bracket of accidental LL.

Thanks hands . It's literatly not even got a front door! It's going to take done work!

Ahhh this old chestnut.

Only on mumsnet are people so willing to stand up for a useless tenant.

YANBU op.

Who was standing up for the tenant?

Nobody in particular, Vince. I find it a little peculiar that you've taken my comment, out of many, to have a pop.

I can't quite understand why you're taking this so personally. Are you in rental arrears yourself?

And perhaps question why you're being such an angry sillitoe because somebody has entered into a contract, which has not been honoured by the person renting their property.

Poking my naive little head in here.

I'll never understand when people who own property say they're living a hard/cut back life cause their tenants are short on rent.

Like, you own 2 houses mate ... ?

Probably because they dont own two houses. They have mortgages on two houses. Its not the same thing.

Still doing better than most

Depends how you look at it. I dont worry about not being able to pay for my DCs birthday because someone else hasnt paid their rent. Two lots of not insignificant debt, the ability to pay one of which is dependant on someone else paying it. And the ability to pay both vulnerable to the market plummetting.

Surely there is a lot of profit in being a landlord though? Private renting is eye wateringly expensive.

Would you not have like, backup funds. A honey pot of the profit you have made, so you could spare £50 for a birthday party...?

I don't own 2 properties. I sold my property, so DH and I could buy a home together. Both put in half each. We'd already moved into a rented property because we didn't want to live in the area in which I owned my property. In the meantime, I rented to a "friend" who was aware it was a 6 month rolling tenancy.

Rent payments had to be chased up increasingly when we placed my house on the market. We gave him 6 months notice. He ripped up the flooring and left the place so I had to spend a week clearing up his shit. And then another 2 days making the garden into a reasonable state.

Reasonable?

Would you not have like, backup funds

You would think so, wouldnt you.

I just don't understand why anyone needs to feel sorry for landlords.

Many years ago we lost our jobs. We ate through our savings. Things were desperate; we got jobs but not as well paid as before.

We juggled our mortgage like this for years- always late/ in arrears but deliberately staying just under the 3 month arrears position which allowed the lender to get a repossession order.

Would anyone feel sorry for the mortgage lender in that situation? Maybe, but you'd be a chump. We were advised to do this by our lawyer and used the law to keep our home. The lender should understand the law and their risk when they decide to lend. That's sensible.

As a result of the above situation we became accidental landlords. People did the same to us as the OPs tentants. I was angry beyond all belief. But i wouldn't expect anyone else to feel sorry for be and get angry on my behalf. That's ridiculous.

It's the poor old me part of these posts that gets people's back up. Not jealousy

The whole birthday party thing confuses me.
Live within your means and all that? I could throw together a pretty cracking birthday party for under £100 (for 2 children).

If you don't have that spare surely being a LL is not the right venture for you?