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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Email from tenant refusing to pay rent tomorrow. AIBU to give notice by return?

299 replies

birdladyfromhomealone · 02/01/2017 22:01

Osting here for traffic also in Legal
Gave notice in September that we would be increasing rent £27 pcm. From Jan 3rd 17.
This is the first increase and they have been tenants for over three years.
Tonight we had an email that they have not signed the new contract or changed their direct debit as although they they agreed to this increase in Sept they now say they want repairs done first.
We had new DG windows fitted just before they moved in 3 years ago. They have managed to break 3 window locks in that time. The first one we replaced within the guarantee but these further two were broken in the summer.
We said they broke them so they should pay to replace them.
There was also a leak from the shower which was fixed at our expense.
We also had to have the ceiling re plastered due to the leak. We went round as planned to paint the new ceiling and the tenant a SAHM had forgotten and was out. A wasted 25mile round trip for us.
We texted and she apologised and has never come back with another convenient time so we left it.
Now they are saying they are not paying the increase tomorrow until we do the repairs.
Thoughts please

OP posts:
Baylisiana · 04/01/2017 01:43

I am too used to London prices. Sad.
Still, you might be able to get a share in use of a garage near an absolutely dire primary school for somewhere round that. Actually, probably being naive there!

charlestrenet · 04/01/2017 19:15

Jesus, drip-feed ahoy. Anyway, the advice to not just let yourself into your tenant's house when you feel like it and that it's a bit unreasonable to evict them for non payment of rent two days before the rent is due still stands.

thatdearoctopus · 04/01/2017 20:48

The school catchment part makes no difference to the rest of the points made, so snarky points about drip-feeding are immaterial. it's just a delicious irony for all those "poor destitute tenants need a roof over their heads and the mean old OP is being cruel" bods.

Stripyhoglets · 04/01/2017 21:14

You can't just let yourself in whatever the tenancy agreement says.

thatdearoctopus · 04/01/2017 21:24

The OP wasn't intending to. She had asked permission and was awaiting a reply.

charlestrenet · 04/01/2017 21:26

If the drip feeding doesn't matter then I don't understand the glee from some. Anyway, the tenant won't have instant rights of occupancy over the house she owns if there is a tenant there in situ so it would still mean her having nowhere to live if she were to be evicted for not paying rent two days before the rent was due.

londonrach · 04/01/2017 21:38

Op id still serve a section 21 after reading your update as shes tried it on and is untrustworthy. Ive rented for 10 years and never do that! (We have Finally left the rent trap)

WorkAccount · 04/01/2017 21:40

is their kid in the primary school now? are they actually wanting to move back home :)

thatdearoctopus · 04/01/2017 22:41

Well, she wouldn't have been in the position of potentially not having nowhere to live if she hadn't attempted to play silly buggers by threatening not to pay her rent (which of course was more than a threat, because she cancelled the Direct Debit).

Baylisiana · 04/01/2017 23:01

I can't see the drip feed particularly validates any perspective on this thread. Obviously you shouldn't generalise/assume too much and not all landlords are the same, it highlights that for sure. But that is obvious anyway. On the other hand just because this particular situation is different, the points made about renting and amateur landlords are no less valid in a wider context and are probably true for a majority of cases.

specialsubject · 06/01/2017 13:17

Mumsnet attitude to landlords (straight out of the guardian 'easy money ' columns) stems partly from bone headed student champagne socialism, partly from jealousy because someone may have more money and partly from those who rent from crooks and just lie there and take it, rather than exercising their rights. Also a London thing where the demand means that people will rent dumps from crooks. As long as those high rents keep getting paid, nothing will change.

There is also a tendency to forget that rachmann has been dead for decades and all his abuses are correctly now illegal. The abuse directed at landlords is not directed at others who profit from necessities - mortgage brokers, supermarkets, teachers, medical staff and so on.

The best one was some silly bimbo /himbo who wanted a landlord to give the tenants the house for free as they had paid rent for some time. There are many who think landlords got their houses for free. Clever, that.

In mn world there are no bad tenants. No rent dodgers, house wreckers, drug dealers. No system players.

19lottie82 · 06/01/2017 13:28

Starting to think I was a right mug as a tenant.

We paid £50 extra per month for a one bed furnished flat but that didn't include a microwave, vacuum cleaner, kettle, toaster etc.

A furnished flat doesn't have to include this sort of stuff. I wouldn't assume it would be included unless it was an HMO.

The pigeons made a right mess of the balcony meaning we couldn't set foot in it for months. Should I have insisted on a reduction in the rent for the 4 months that balcony was unusable?

Was it like this when you moved in? If not, then I'd expect you to maintain it's cleanliness yourself.

I also paid £150 for the flat to be professionally cleaned on departure.
Pretty normal. A professional clean isn't legally required at the end of a tenancy (despite what a lease says), but what you must do is return it in the same state that you acquired it in.
If the flat had been professionally cleaned before you moved in, then it must be of the same standard when you had it back. That's not saying you have to have it professionally cleaned, but you might find it hard to reach the same level doing it yourself.

GilMartin · 06/01/2017 13:31

In mn world there are no bad tenants. No rent dodgers, house wreckers, drug dealers. No system players.

Special, what are you going to feed the horses with, now you put together that massive strawman.

Basicbrown · 06/01/2017 14:38

In mn world there are no bad tenants. No rent dodgers, house wreckers, drug dealers. No system players.

OK one of my first points is that the OP by evicting the tenants would be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. The tenants OK are a bit entitled and cheeky but there are far, far worse out there.

M0stlyHet · 06/01/2017 14:50

FWIW, OP, back in the days when I was renting I always tried to look for landlords like you - ones who kept the property in good nick, did the repairs quickly and without fuss, were decent people. And in return I tried to keep the place clean and well maintained and report faults. I rarely had any nightmare tenancies.

There are private landlords out there who are a nightmare, and there are also good ones. The country doesn't have enough housing in the places it's actually needed, and the current government certainly isn't going to build any social housing, no matter how sensible that would be, so we need to encourage the good landlords, not vilify them.

Baylisiana · 06/01/2017 19:13

In mn world there are no bad tenants. No rent dodgers, house wreckers, drug dealers. No system players.

special this is just not true. There are very many posters, not just within MN world but within this very thread, who have a balanced and fair view, one that acknowledges the variety of situations that can arise. I am a tenant, and below is something I wrote on this thread which covers pretty much exactly the categories you claim MN denies....

no guarantee that the next tenants will not be far worse. My DM used to let a flat and it seemed like every tenant was determined to outdo the last in terms of their actions, from leaving blocked loos and scattered syringes all over the floor to absconding owing several months' rent. There were also the memorable tenants who thought a fun game would be jumping from the first floor window.

Please stop trying to pretend that some kind of bias exists where is does not.

KnittedBlanketHoles · 08/01/2017 03:25

So it all got sorted with communication and without the need to evict the tenant?

KnittedBlanketHoles · 08/01/2017 03:28

Some earlier posters seem to have gone a bit quiet now...

Posters have a life beyond checking on threads...

Original poster
birdladyfromhomealone · 08/01/2017 19:32

KnittedBlanketHoles
There was NO communication, the tenant emailed to say that she was withholding the rent and increase.
Then radio silence.
We sent a reply saying if they with held the rent we would have no choice but to issue two months notice.
No reply.
So we issued the sec 21
14 hours later the money was transferred in full and an email saying they had forgotten to pay??????

OP posts:
PidgeyfinderGeneral · 08/01/2017 19:49

OK, so they were calling your bluff and have backed down.

I think I'd let the S21 stand. They sound like cheeky entitled fuckers and I wouldn't be surprised if you have further trouble with them.

Hissy · 08/01/2017 19:52

I agree. Let them leave.

Jim02 · 13/09/2023 20:30

I think you should sell the house and enjoy the money

raynedeer · 13/09/2023 20:44

YANBU, but I think in general landlords should try and treat tenants like it's their home - I know being a landlord isn't easy but it is also a privilege.

EstrellaPequena · 13/09/2023 20:52

ZOMBIE THREAD - this is from 2017!

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