To take down ‘let’ sign

[TeasndToast]

As soon as we move in?

We are moving into a rented property this weekend. Having been on MN for a long time I’m acutely aware of how much stigma surrounds renting. Once we move in I really do not want it being advertised to visitors that we rent. Most of our friends don’t even know.

Once we are in we are paying for the use of that property so don’t see that we should have to put up with a great big board letting randoms know our situation for weeks while we wait for someone to collect it.

I can’t find anything on line. Would we be within our rights to take it down and store it until someone organised its collection?

Every time somebody posts a thread about a neighbour doing anything even slightly wrong people jump in with "tell their landlord", like you would tattle to the teacher

This, so much!

Thank you clumsy that means a lot.

Oh, and take the sign down OP! And enjoy your new home

As if it was as simple for everyone as cutting down in lattes and avocado toast hmm

"pig but why would I care what those kinds of people thought? If they don't want to be friends with me because of some perceived stigma, they're doing me a favour, because I wouldn't want to befriend them and then find out they are a snobby twat."

I think those who can rise above stigma and get on with life are very laudable, but it requires a bit of courage, strength and a kind of resilience that not everyone has, all of the time.

Imagine, for a second, that this was not about class (renting v property ownership) but about race. I would hope that we wouldn't rush to tell someone who was suffering racially-based exclusion that they weren't 'really' suffering any detriment, and that they didn't want to be friends with racists anyway. I would like to think that we would recognise the hurtful, pervasive, insidious and abusive nature of such behaviour on the victim.

Class-based exclusion is really not that different - it is not victimless, and it does cause hurt. Yet we don't "see" it on this site in the same way that we see gender-based exclusion or race-based exclusion. In fact, there are often comments that make me wince for their insensitivity and snobbery.

Why not just ring the lettingagents and tell them you want it gone the day you move in.
Let them take it down!

When we sold our last house 2 years ago the EA told us that the majority of our town had Rightmove alerts for the place so that they could see what was coming up for sale etc.

The days of people being secretive about this sort of thing is long gone! You can find out the pricing pattern of a particular house and also what the house eventually sold for. More useful for some is that you can see what the sellers paid for it in the majority of cases. It doesn't take into account of course that a house could be a real project and then be completely overhauled (like ours was!).

Ignoring the stigma nonsense -

Of course you should take it down - as soon as you move in and no you do not have to 'ask' the agents! YOU are renting the property - it is now your home, and they have absolutely no right to leave their property on/in your home without your permission. If you are kind, you will store their sign somewhere where it won't get stolen for firewood.

When/if they return for it, the slightest intimation that you 'should not' have removed it would be met with a very strong eyeballing from me and a request for them to confirm exactly what law specified that they had the right to display signage on a property currently legally the home of someone else. Or simply a laugh and a 'No, I've every right to take it down as well you know, in fact I didn't even have to store it for you. But you should be pleased I did, it means you're getting it back rather than someone having stolen it weeks ago.'

There is stigma around D rented properties because they often attract rather antisocial tenants like students for example. But I would say there is a sigma against renting in and of it self. We've rented big Naice family homes. Neighbours always seemed glad to have a new family move in. I'm sure that once your neighbours realise that you are a nice, quiet family and not a bunch of lads on a houseshare it won't make any difference whether you own or rent.

why not ask the letting agent? Sometimes there's an agreement to have the sign up for X weeks, after all it is advertising for them.
Or ask when are they going to take it down, you can stash it discreetly and pop it back up when they collect it.

Unless you’re in a court of law, you never, ever, ever have to explain or justify yourself to others OP. Certainly not because of the things you’ve detailed here

I wouldn't take it down without checking with the letting agent because as apples says, sometimes it's part of the agreement that it stays up for a certain amount of time to advertise their company.

You really do need to start taking Mumsnet with a large pinch of salt though.

The opinions of people here are not the be all and end all and often they don't represent anything like real, everyday life.

I feel for you renting when you dont want to. Rent down here for us was £250 more than our mortgage, and that was us shopping round for a rental we could afford. It was impossible to save for a deposit. Eventually my dad gifted us a deposit after receiving two months notice AGAIN. I feel guilty because I know for others there is no escape and it's not fair. This is a very low income area, too - I love in Cornwall and the rents and house prices are sky high because of the second home and holiday let markets. I hate those fucking foreigners pricing the people that really live here out.

Op, take it down. The agents might have boards through a separate company though - I regularly see a van picking up or staking boards for more than one estate agent round our way.

As for the stigma around renting, I honestly think social housing and stereotyping has a lot to do with this. Our old neighbours were on benefits and if you didn't know, you would never have guessed. Because they treated that house like their castle and their landlady was happy with everything they did, as long as there was no damage.

We now rent and have a lovely landlord. I've met him and his son. We love our home and tbh I find it easier to look after as I'm conscious in the back of my head that it belongs to someone else. Repair jobs in our old home would take ages to be done. Now we have quarterly inspections so repairs have to be done ASAP. We can't just leave the cupboard door hanging off for example. I take more pride in it because I don't want talk to get back that the 'lawn needs cutting' or 'there's boxes left by the bins'. So the stigma of renting has affected us, but in a positive way. We are definitely tidied!! (Helps we have more rooms and space though)

The opinions of people here are not the be all and end all and often they don't represent anything like real, everyday life.

I hear you, but people on here are real people so I tend to think that although people in RL don’t express the same views all the time, the online world is a true representation of people’s REAL thoughts.

If you check the agreement and it stipulates that the board is to be left up for x time, I'd take it down, get rid of it and tell them it was nicked.

It's now your home. They can get fucked.

I have little patience with letting agencies, can you tell.

I agree with you, there does seem to be a stigma - but the bottom line is, your neighbours are going to find out you're decent people who live considerately, and that's all the matters ultimately. They might be a bit sniffy to start with, but if you are pleasant and go on being so, they should come to realise it doesn't matter.

I rented for a while and was in receipt of housing benefit for part of that time, and I can tell you the prejudice against people getting housing benefit is far worse than a mere "renter"

tothappy

"I hate those fucking foreigners pricing the people that really live here out."

Wowzers. Was with you up until then. Is it fine if English people do it then? Just those dirty foreigners you're not keen on?

MN really isn’t largely representative of the general public though OP. It really just isn’t.

I rent in a very affluent SE area and have done for the best part of a decade. Never have I ever encountered the kind of snobs we’re talking about outside of MN.

It's not really people looking down on renters round here. Our street was previously very very close knit but recently every house that's come up onto the market has been snapped up by a buy-to-let landlord. The houses change occupancy much more frequently than the owner-occupied ones - that's just part of the nature of renting really... and people are always a bit on edge when a van full of the latest arrival's furniture comes down the street because you never know who's going to be moving in next and we're all always a bit fearful of getting into a nightmare neighbour type scenario. That's natural - and we're equally wary when new home owners move in until you suss out who the "new guy" is.

The street's actually a genuinely warm and friendly place but because it's so close-knit there's always an element of "who's that" until you put a house number to the face really. Hell we started off renting here and then ended up buying a house a couple of doors down the street. The people who've been here longer DO know each other better - that's inevitable though.

We're the kind of street people rent in for a couple of years while deposit saving so they move on in that direction.

How bizarre. People worry about new neighbours coming in and whether it's a rental or not, you worry that it'll be people who party all night. Rentals have a higher turnover, that's all. I have had nightmare neighbours in the rented flat next door but I certainly don't look down on them for renting. I just wish they'd stop smoking weed and shouting. As for thinking any less of someone who rented, that's just insane and anyone who thought like that wouldn't be a friend of mine.

I dont understand why OP is having a hard time. I rent property in London and in a smug affluent town on the south coast. It is astonishing down there, at least for a Londoner, how much things like car, personalised number-plate, golf club membership and property seem to matter. (Its funny really as I manage a couple of seriously expensive properties for DM and I am sure previous tenants pretended they owned. Then they treated me as a tradesman because I rocked up in a 12 year old car to let the plumber in.) One block has an awful man who claims to be a barrister with a main home in Chelsea (and personalised number plates on both his cars, one of which is routinely parked in the visitor space.) I dread bumping into him as he will have a long litany of complaints about tenants going back years and often nothing to do with the property I manage. He is equally beastly to my tenants. I finally refused to go to leaseholders AGM because I could not see the point of travelling down from London to receive abuse. Don't worry said the building management, he is a tenant so wont be there.

So OP dont worry. I would always prefer neighbours who are pleasant and who dont cause problems, regardless of their tenure. If other people are snobby that is their problem. At the moment I have good tenants in the most awkward properties (though unfortunately did not manage to let to the very polite Premiership football player who viewed). Property prices will probably fall, there and in Central London, so given transaction costs, sensible people are renting.

The problem does not seem to happen at all in Central London. My four boy sharers were invited to share a Christmas dinner with their affluent and senior, but single mum, neighbour. She loves having helpful and supportive neighbours. The lovely French African nanny of my French tenants is much appreciated by the neighbour trying to keep up her conversational French and the elderly neighbour next door is only to happy to have the children in to play with her grandchildren's toys, whilst my Spanish tenant says neighbours regularly invite her to their parties.

Oh an, as per my earlier post, just ditch the sign. If anyone asks, which they won't, just say it blew down.

Oh my nosy neighbour three doors down made it her business to know we rented and cooed how she thought we would have been the owners 😩

Take the sign down, I did as soon as the agents stuck it outside once we had let our house. I wasn’t impressed as nosy mare down the road seemed to gloat.

teasandtoast
I didn't understand your anguish about renting as it is very common where I live and no one bats an eye.
What I do suggest is that you follow the old adage of fake it till you make it ! If any one says anything about you renting I think you should put on a big smile and say 'it suits my lifestyle for now!'.
I would even suggest when your friends come round you say something like 'welcome to my rented abide, it's not bad is it!' and get it out the way other wise you are going to worry all the time if they know case what you say just in case you slip up.

You missed a trick there tink
You should have said ' well I thought about it but heard the neighbours weren't that great and wanted to know your business. I thought I'd see how I got on first!!