To think no it's not my business what does on in our buy to let

[Shapesandshops]

Sorry need opinions please.

Hubby is mainly in charge of this but I just wanted to canvas opinions.

We are in the lucky position of owning a couple of buy to lets. Mainly they run themselves really and I have nothing to do with them.

We were recently able to buy a new home and rent our old one out. As we used to live there I feel some sense of responsibility to my old neighbours but no real friendships. The letting agent has found us Tennant's and we are happy. Hubby deals with the letting agent. I have been receiving messages from old neighbours telling me the new tennants are anti social and they have had to call the police etc. Hubby says to ignore, block if necessary and tell them to get in touch with the letting agent as necessary. New tennants have a good credit history and paid first month's rent fine.

Am I being unreasonable to want nothing to do with it? Ie we have moved out of the area, don't intent to return as kids grown up etc. At the end of the day, if they are not in breach of our contract I mainly agree with hubby that it's none of our business and do not feel we should serve notice because our old neighbours can't get on with the new ones.

OK so its one neighbor that does not like the new tennents, some bad parking and daring to talk outside after 10:30.

Ok the parking can be annoying if the tennents are parking somewhere they should not be rather than your old neighbors favorite spot ( I have seen this "its MY spot I always park there" on a public street ) and talking outside is not anti social. I don't know the details here but if only one person is having a problem with your new tennants then it could be the neighbor that has the problem. I would keep an eye on the situation but I would not act unless there was something more serous then a single complaining neighbour.

We had this. House next door to us rented out. Tenants became increasingly anti social with their behaviour. We phoned the landlord and letting agent multiple times but they weren't interested. Finally the landlord put the phone down on my husband after telling him it was none of our fucking business what the tenants did.

Few weeks later we heard banging and crashing at 1 am. Looked out and saw the tenants loading belongings into a van. Next day we noticed all of the windows were wide open. This was in the winter during a week of very heavy rain. Over a week the windows were left wide open.

Eventually the landlord came over and all hell broke loose. Apparently the tenants had done a bunk after trashing the house and there was now damage due to rain getting in.

He came to ask us when the tenants had left so we told him. He asked us if they had left the windows open. Yes, we told him. Well why hadn't we informed him? Took great delight in telling him that it was none of our fucking business as we shut the door in his face.

Be careful OP. What comes around, goes around.

TENANTS.

TENANTS.

T E N A N T S

@jimmyhill

U ok hun?

LordWheresMyShoes

I think jimmy is referring to the misspelling in the OP!

YABU. You are the owners, you are responsible for who your rent to and for their behaviour.

It's enough to drive you to drink. I'll have s pint of Tenants.

There is a difference between getting involved and kicking your tenants out because of a few complaints.

When people say get involved that doesn't mean, necessarily, serving notice. It means letting the tenants know that you expect them to behave reasonably. It means listening to the neighbour's complaints and reassuring them that you expect your tenants to act reasonably. But it also means listening to your tenants and not giving too much credence to a neighbour who is always complaining and, if appropriate, telling neighbours who harass your tenants that you won't act on specious complaints. You can do this through your letting agent (indeed, you should do this through your letting agent in the first instance) but you have to remember the ball stops with you, not the agent, so you'll want to keep an appropriate eye on it, ensure you approve of the agent's actions and, potentially, get fresh eyes on the situation if it seems like the agent isn't doing their job properly. You have a lot to lose if you end up with formal complaints that have to be declared or legal action against you so you need to take it seriously and not just hide away from it.

The most likely course of action for you, if your tenants are anti-social, is that you send appropriate warnings through the year, mollify your neighbours as much as possible and then serve notice and refuse to renew the lease at the end of their year.

This will be the tip of the iceberg so if, as you said, you don't want the hassle it might be best for the neighbours to sell.

if you can't be bothered to actually manage your rental then don't be property owners.
yes in my books it's your responsibility to ensure your choice of tenants are peaceful and law abiding.

I wonder how forgiving you'd be of your new tenants if you actually had to live next to them yourself ... 🙄

Did your neighbours phone the police when you moved in?

No?
Thought not...

they say it was an aggressive fight now folks feeling unsafe.

People don’t pull this from the air these tenants sound like nightmares and blocking people in is the worst!

But you and your husband keep on keeping on, just ignore it and keep cashing the cheques.

Frankly I hope in the fullness of time the new tenants give you the same amount of grief they are currently causing the old neighbours. (Which according to you is very very minor)

Yea, I would at least keep an eye on the property as well. Got to look after it after all.

The police were called, did the police actually attend?

I lived next door to a group of students some years ago who would hold noisy parties - think loud drum and bass with an overwhelming stink of weed - roughly four nights a week after they got home from whichever club they'd been to. They would bring a crowd of 'friends' home with them and the parties would frequently spill onto the street.

I called the police and they refused to come out as they said noise wasn't something they dealt with.

I think you're being incredibly naive if you think that your neighbours getting the police involved is something you shouldn't be bothered about nor get involved in.

Do you really think that the fact the tenant payed their first months rent is an indication that they're going to be an okay tenant?

I'm a landlord. One of my tenants paid the rent the whole time they were in the house. That money came from a small crowd of people they were subletting my property to and they place was left trashed.

Another tenant paid their deposit and their first month's rent and then nothing more; took me six months to get them out through the courts. Again the place was trashed.

Stop sticking your head in the sand and get involved. Even if you don't care what state they leave your property in, I was going to say, you owe it to the people they live near, but clearly you think you don't.

Frankly if you don't have the decency to think about your tenant's neighbours and how they are being affected by your tenant's behavour then you deserve everything you get if your property is trashed.

I'm a bit shocked by the vitriol of the responses here. Vipers nest indeed! Hubby says we can't serve notice as they haven't breached the contract and the letting agents have done a full check. They even say that the chap wasn't even in on the day of the alleged incident so I'm a bit . Yes police attended three times cause they couldn't get hold of tenants. Old ndn has messaged saying she will call 999 if she is distresed again, as she is concerned about safeguarding. so we shall see if this turns into vexatious complaints, as the letting agent told hubby can happen, when neighbours take a dislike. Not much more I can do really. If it's still bad in a year we can not do another fixed term contract and in the meantime the letting agent will do quarterly checks. I honestly don't see what else I can do. Thanks for some of the responses they were helpful.

The tenants contract will - or bloody should - include a clause about reasonable behaviour, not causing a nuisance etc. Unreasonable behaviour is a breach of that, which allows the contract to be terminated and notice served. I suggest you speak to your letting agent and/or a solicitor rather than your ‘hubby’, who seems as clueless as you.

If you can’t understand the vitriol towards landlords who have the attitude you do, then you absolutely shouldn’t be a landlord.

Oh, and the letting agent having ‘done a check’ means nothing other than the tenant being good for the money at the time the contact was signed. And I’m not surprised the letting agent wants to write this off as a vexatious complaint - they’d have to deal with the problem if they accepted there was one.

It's not vitriol it's reasonable responses to your complete and total lack of responsibility, since you only care about money, then I really hope that your house is trashed, or that you have urgent work that needs doing on the house that requires your neighbours' cooperation and that they refuse it or that they sue you for disrupting their 'quiet enjoyment' they may not win but at least it will cost you money and it seems that's all you care about. I lived next door to people like this and a useless landlord their house was trashed, their fencing broken, their furniture stolen. If you fail to set limits or act on complaints you are sending the message that your tenants can get away with things and if they are as irresponsible as they sound they will. I really hope you reap what you sow. Difficult neighbours can cause terrible mental health or other problems for those who have to endure you. People like you are loathsome, you deserve the worst possible outcome as it seems that personal consequences are all you care about.

Also if there are disputes on records that will impact on your future house sale, even if as you claim neighbours are too fussy then that will be off-putting to future buyers.

Your neighbours are your eyes and ears regarding your house. Personally I wouldn't be so quick to alienate them.

Had the ll of the house next to us not been such a prize arsehole, we would have told him immediately his neighbours did a moonlight flit leaving the property insecure.

As it was, he had told us that it was none of our business so we made sure to keep our noses out and left it until he found out for himself.

What kind of “check” did your agents do?!

In my experience the majority of agents are useless. They charge a ridiculous amount and do very little for their commission.

Does your neighbour have a habit of taking a dislike to people?

I'm a landlord and I ensured that the contract stated about anti social behaviour. The responses are not vitriol, I think they're actually very sensible. Being a landlord is not as easy as people think. It can actually be quite hard work. If you think it's going to be easy then think again.

I don't have an agent, I do everything myself as at least I know it's been done. I've also informed our tenants of their rights and our responsibilities to them. Sitting back and expecting the money to roll in is unrealistic.

I think the vitriol was because you worded it wrong - if you had said am I unreasonable is passing this off to the letting agency to do their job and deal with it and say so to the neighbour I think it would be different responses.

Because as a landlord it is your responsibility but you can delegate to the agents. Your role is just to monitor and ensure that they are because it is your business to make sure they keep an eye on it. If they are problematic the letting agency needs to keep an eye out and if the neighbour is being vexatious to support your tenants

This is what you pay the letting agency for. End of.

You are bad landlords. Your letting agent is your agent

You do not deserve to own and let properties. Take responsibility for sorting your tenants out.