To be suspicious of many people living in my house?

[Pineau]

I rent out my house via an agent, original guy who worked for agent who I dealt with was sacked for some reason, anyway rental was for a small family, parents and one child.
Soon after they moved in, fridge was reported broke so I ordered a new one for next day delivery.
Some months later agent did an inspection, old and new fridge in photos. Apparently the fridge started working again.
Then the new washing machine broke.
Agent said all in order,
Then they wanted a cooker hood installed as lots of condensation from cooking..
Now water pouring through ceiling from shower.
Plumbers there have said there were a lot of people in the house, four adults and three kids..
Anyway have the agent going to see tomorrow.

[Batteriesallgone]

That's true re HMO. And you could only know about it after someone gets hurt. There's a reason HMO laws are what they are - fire risk is much higher in a HMO for a start.

Also someone might correct me but even when you have a tenant managing the property isn't the landlord still on the hook?

You could phone the local council, express your concerns and ask them to go round. I have heard that local housing officers are generally quite amenable and want to work with landlords, not be adversarial. You may find them a huge help in getting rid of agent and tenants so you can start afresh.

Assuming, that is, that you do have a problem.

[Batteriesallgone]

*agent managing the property that should have said

[Vvlgari]

I would go and check it out. I rent my flat and my tenants told me that there were a lot of people coming and going in the next door flat. It turned out the landlord had rented it to two guys and they had moved six of their friends into a two bed flat.

[Pineau]

I'm not in the country till end of August. I pay the agent to find and mangage.
Plumber has been tonight and said he saw four adults.

[ChardonnayKnickertonSmythe]

How many bedrooms, Pineau?

[Pineau]

Good idea, batteries.
That's terrible, Vvlgari, this is what I think has happened to me.
I will see what agent says tomorrow .

[Pineau]

Three double bedrooms, living and dining room, large kitchen, one shower room.

[ChardonnayKnickertonSmythe]

Lots of bedrooms, I wouldn't be surprised if there were more than four adults there, hope not though.
Get your agent round.

[LIZS]

We let to a company, who moved 5 contractors in using 4 bedrooms plus dining room as bedroom. Wear and tear on bathroom was particularly bad, floor needed replacing as it rotted. Did agent ID check the tenants and get a list of residents. Could it now be an extended family?

[PersianCatLady]

You need to get this sorted ASAP.

If more people are living there than the tenancy agreement allows you could possibly have problems with both your mortgage lender (if you have one) and your landlord insurer as I am sure that you probably let the house as a single dwelling house.

If there are multiple families the house could be classed as an HMO and then you might even be breaking the law as well.

An assured shorthold tenancy (AST) agreement should usually state who is permitted to live there over the age of 18 by name (the tenants). It is standard for any children of the tenants to also be permitted to live there. The AST will usually state that the children of the tenants, who are at the beginning of the tenancy under 18 can stay for the duration of the tenancy. This covers you for teenagers who become adults during the life of the tenancy.

Did you use a standard AST?

If you did there will be a clause in it stating that the tenants are not allowed to sublet and if they have done so they have breached the AST.

[PersianCatLady]

Could it now be an extended family?
To be honest it doesn't really matter if they are family or not, if they are adults and they aren't on the AST and the LL hasn't given her permission to allow the tenants to sublet then they shouldn't be there.

[Pollaidh]

Sounds dodgy and like rubbish agents.

When we were renting the upstairs neighbour had a leak resulting in water damage in our kitchen. Neighbour happy to pay for it, covered by her house insurance. We had to alert letting agents to damage, and they just said don't worry about the insurance, they'll do the repairs and charge the landlord (who lived in the Bahamas or something)! Let's just say, when we let out a BTL we're going to buy, it won't be with that agency.

[LBOCS2]

As an ex agent, the best trick to working out how many units of people are living in a property is how many open cartons of milk there are in the fridge. If you've got more than one open milk, then chances are there are two families/couples etc living in there.

And yes, this falls into HMO territory. I'd get your local HO involved at this point so that they're on board with you, rather than trying to apply penalties if (for example) the neighbours get pissed off and report you.

[Pineau]

The agent did all the vetting, I stressed no large families, no house sharers, just a couple or a small family as I have had problems with my bathroom in the past when I lived there and rented out by room, and as the bathroom was small, I did not want professionals sharing as I felt too much stress in the morning with all the showers - they often would forget to use extractor fan or open the window so just wanted a small family.
On the tenency it only lists the lead tenant...

[WeekendAway]

Are there Four adults on the tenancy agreement?

If your tenancy agreement is just between two adults and their under 18 children then that is all who should be living there.

[Pineau]

And all the floorboards in bathroom are rotten, so need new floor plus the rest.
One 'broken' fridge which miraculously worked again when another fridge arrived,
Wanted another washing machine as new one broken.
Want cooker hood/ extractor thing as too much condensation in kitchen when cooking.

Good thing about the milk, will ask agent to check the fridges....

[Pineau]

Weekend away, it just has one tenants name on the ast.

[WeekendAway]

Sorry yes just saw that.

[WeekendAway]

I might be wrong but I thought anyone living in the house including children had to be named on it and anyone over 18 including young adult children had to sign the agreement?

[PersianCatLady]

Weekend away, it just has one tenants name on the ast.
If that is the case and the other adults are living there you are well within
your rights to start eviction proceedings under Section 8.

Also a lot of landlords don't provide white goods in properties any more and you are under no obligation to. There have been cases of absent landlords providing replacement white goods during tenancies and then the new white goods disappearing along with the tenants at the end of the tenancy.

[PersianCatLady]

I might be wrong but I thought anyone living in the house including children had to be named on it and anyone over 18 including young adult children had to sign the agreement?

A good AST will include list the tenants, they are the people who are bound by the AST, for example to pay the rent.

Adult children are usually then given "permitted occupier" status so they are permitted to live there but are not bound by the AST.

There will then be a clause stating that the tenant’s children or dependants who are under 18 years of age at the start of the tenancy are also permitted to live there. This clause also means that a 17 year old child who turns 18 during the lifetime of the tenancy can continue to live there without a new AST being drafted.

[RandomMess]

I would be utterly fuming. I don't know anyone who is actually happy with the service provided by the letting agents they use. Sometimes I wonder how often it is the agents that give the Landlords a bad name...

[Sillybillybonker]

Phone the Council for advice. They are probably used to this sort of thing and might even know if the agent is dodgy.

[Pineau]

Well the other day the agent said he was stressed with them ringing him about the bathroom and kitchen and could I call the tenant!
I told him that that was what he was being paid for each month! Most of the year he's had nothing to do but got paid each month..