Landlord asking why we don’t have emergency funds

[JustDrained48]

We’ve rented the same property for 2 years.
We’ve always paid bang on date.
I’ve recently changed jobs which meant a change to my pay dates for the first month.
I immediately emailed our landlord to tell him this monthly rent would be a day late but would follow the original date here after.
Obviously I said I was sorry & hoped this was ok.
He sent a v long email by return stating that we needed to explain to him why we didn’t have emergency funds to cover these one off occurrences.
Should I even grace him with an answer?

payday loan maybe they should offer to pay the 12 hours or so interest on it to appease this seemingly rational landlord.

Yeah, work out a day's interest on the rent and add that onto the payment.

Say the rent is £1000 pm and they pay 8% pa interest (this is the rate used when calculating debts etc in court), that would make the interest for one day to be about 22 pence.

Shouldn't HE have an emergency fund to cover this kind of thing?

So many CFs

If you order someone to give you a payday loan then that person has the right to be pissed off and point out that you should have the means to look after yourself!

The OP has no business doing this. But she has gone ahead and done it anyway.

I'm sure the landlord can afford to cover this for one day but why on earth should he have to?

Again, all this 'he should be able to cover it' misses the point. Of course he should and probably can. That is his business, not ours, not OP's.

He is responsible for his financial commitments, OP is responsible for hers.

OP is now (in a small way) passing her responsibility on to him. It may be small (and in the circs I wouldn't be concerned, if asked nicely) but, as it should never happen, it is ringing alarm bells. This has caused him concern, which he is expressing.

I think he sounds like a busybody. Your 'emergency funds' are none of his business.

And I'd question the business acumen of a landlord who couldn't handle people's rent possibly being a tiny bit late.

I'd ignore this message.

don't see notably different behaviours in my DC generation but for them, rent as a proportion of income, is much higher for often poor quality properties and little security. The money isn't going on avocado toast its going on paying rent, bills and hideous transport costs to commute long distances to work.

You're preaching to the converted or rather the informed.

Both my DCs are generation rent and one in London, whose had the commute etc. However, both are careful and managing to save. They have always had at least 3-6 months income in savings to cover emergencies.

I have no idea of the OP's circumstances, but I make the point that unless they are in very poorly paid jobs, most people can save something and rents outside of the SE and London are not sky high- in fact landlords often struggle to find tenants.

As a former landlord, I wouldn't be impressed with a late payer either tbh (and it was certainly the start of something in our case!).

We've had 2 or 3 sets of tenants like this. It is mainly where one tenant is the lead tenant but the others are paying us directly and each of them seems to think the payment date is optional and to be decided by them.

I'd be wanting an assurance (and proof in coming months) that this wasn't going to keep happening, as every time it has happened once to us it has happened multiple times.

So the LL is a business. So is Sainsburys. You wouldn't get to the till with your food as then say 'oh actually I'm going to pay you tomorrow but I'm taking the food now', would you?

You have no intrinsic right to pay a day late. You are 'purchasing' something from him so you need to pay on the date you have agreed. You should at least have asked him if it was ok rather than telling him.

think it was very rude to tell instead of ask

I think this is ridiculous and over complicating things.

OP -‘Is it ok if I’m one day late with the rent?’
LL - ‘No’
OP -‘Oh well tough, I don’t have it so it will be’

Surely that’s ruder?

Asking a question to which there is only one answer you can possibly accept (rightly or wrongly) is pointless and would piss me off no end.

Politely advising that the rent will unfortunately be a day late is better imo.

he'll get his greedy mits on your money the next day

Why is it greedy to expect to be paid in accordance with a legally binding agreement, @Boysey45? Are people expecting to be paid their salaries on time also greedy?

The OP posted about her finances earlier this month in another thread and they are in a terrible state with a bad history. Maybe she ought to have explained it all so this thread is in context of all of that. If the landlord knows or has access to this, it explains his reaction.

"Say the rent is £1000 pm and they pay 8% pa interest (this is the rate used when calculating debts etc in court), that would make the interest for one day to be about 22 pence."

Amid the hyperbole I think Cosmoplease has it right:

"I can see both sides, but he's gone too far. .

I would reply that you are genuinely very sorry and stress the fact that this is a one off and not a sign of things to come. Ignore his request. I'm pretty sure that legally, you don't have to supply this information."

In the first place you could perhaps have shown willing by offering to pay some of it on time. 20/20 hindsight and all that. But honestly I would expect my previous LLs to have just replied "ok, thanks for letting me know".

That's interesting jingling

Looks like the landlord is right to be concerned. OP is in desperate need of a loan, her partner is refusing to take any responsibility and his "plans" will take at least a year to come to fruition.

I wouldn't be renewing this tenancy agreement

My landlord charges 10% fee every day rent is late. They'll only accept payment 1st of month, on those days when 1st falls on a week end/bank holiday people are charged for it being late. I pay mine early and in person to avoid this.

I've been late once during my tenancy. When I was admitted to hospital as an emergency. I was late by two days and, yes, they charged me - almost £100. I rang to let them know and to confirm fee and they still had a go at me for not sorting something out.

I have before needed to use credit cards and charities to help me pay my rent because of benefit issues, because of the charge they levy. And risk of being evicted if I don't pay, I've nowhere else and no one to go guarantor (even housing association now requires guarantor here).

When my benefits were stopped (because someone reported me for supposed fraud) I was told not to worry about paying for food/rent/bills etc because I'd get the money back when I provided proof needed. No one would listen to me saying things like I couldn't go to get food and ask to pay later. That was sometime ago and it was CAB who flippantly told me I was fretting unnecessarily. I ended up living off a credit card as I needed to pay for things and am still in debt from that time.

They have always had at least 3-6 months income in savings to cover emergencies.

So do mine but they are in graduate professions, not average or minimum wage jobs or in the growing percentage of young people on zero hours contracts. They ave a much smaller proportion of their income as disposable than I did, their friends on average incomes really struggle. It only takes one enforced move by a landlord to eat up whatever savings they may have.

Two of them have also rented in Europe and I was reminded how different is the relationship between landlord and tenant. Landlords they dealt with considered their properties and tenants to be long term relationships where both need to benefit.

Landlords they have dealt with in the UK were focused on short term returns and excessive cost minimising - that is a bad business model and bad for the maintenance of the property. They have better experience with old fashioned commercial letting companies who own blocks of properties and run it as an actual business. The worst problems tend to come from LLs who only own one or two properties and don't operate as a proper business.

I've gone without lots of things people regard as 'necessities' (newer cars, holidays, clothes, meals out, newest phones)

So have I! And for a long time I still couldn't afford to save anything - I went without those things so that I could afford to eat. I think you're underestimating the cost of living now for a lot of people trapped in private renting. It's nice to be able to believe that most people could still manage financial stability if only they didn't spend £800 on a new iPhone every year but that is unfortunately a myth.

Tenants have to pay large deposits and high rents and often agency fees - I can fully see why they might not have savings as well. Some people are spectacularly narrow minded when it comes to understanding that other people lead different lives and don't share their own personal circumstances!
There's no point in asking for something that you cannot deliver. You've kept him in the loop and been polite and since everything will go back to normal next month I think the LL is being a berk.

I'd also love to know where all these cheaper rents and higher paying jobs are that people can just walk into. Some of the attitudes on here are skin to Victorians blaming the poor for ending up in the workhouse, with no grasp (or inclination to care) that the behaviour of the wealthiest in society puts them there!

blimey, a bit of an overreaction on HIS part, but then again, I wouldn't have been arsed to let him know my rent will be a DAY LATE. That's really nothing. Any landlord who is that precious or panicked about the tenant paying the rent 24 hours late, should not be a landlord. If anything HE should have 'emergency funds' for when tenants pay late!

Agree with this.

What do people pay rent in advance for on top of the deposit? Should be covered.

My landlord charges 10% fee every day rent is late. They'll only accept payment 1st of month, on those days when 1st falls on a week end/bank holiday people are charged for it being late. I pay mine early and in person to avoid this.

Sounds like a dick tbh.

He sounds like does have an emergency fund though. Which he is having to use to fund OP's job change.

Of course it's his business whether or not she can afford the rent, it literally is his business.

This is ridiculous.

I have a tenant who is often a couple of days late. Believe me, it is fine. What isn’t fine is when people don’t pay at all (which has happened in the past!)

It sounds to me that LL was reasonable. He has not kicked up a huge fuss about rent which IS going to be late and has asked a reasonable question without being rude.

Regardless of whether OP or anyone else thinks rents are too high, the OP has voluntarily entered into an agreement to consume a service which is being provided and payment on time is part of the deal. It is good that she has always paid on time. That is something to be expected not something to be congratulated on, nor something which then means it's okay to be late. Paying on time isnot doing the LL a favour, as some seem to think.

As many have said, once a tenant pays late once, it is very likely it will happen again. That's just a statistical fact, so you can see why LL is a bit short and enquiring to see if it is likely again.

Op, definitely reply. Be polite, apologise briefly and confirm that this is due to a change of job and pay date....and ensure you pay on time henceforth. Of course,nit would be good too to try to build an emergency buffer fund.

The LL will receive a little reassurance from your reply and also a sense of you being willing to engage and communicate....and that counts for a lot,nshes t enacts often go to ground and refuse to communicate or put their heads in the sand.

In the end, what has happened isn't ideal and isn't acceptable, but you have communicated in advance and now need to ensure further good communication plus paying on time every time in future and trying to set yourself up so this doesn't happen again. Tennessee do need to take the view that paying late is unacceptable not just something that happens and cannot expect LLs to be pleased or accepting of late payment. If this genuinely is a one-off, it won't be the end of the world, but taking the view that the LL should just have to bear the inconvenience and possibly costs isn't right. If I were a LL I would have a late payment clause in the contract and I think that would be entirely reasonable. As other tenants on here have said, when they face that,B they ensure they pay on time to avoid incurring it. Unfortunately, many people need that consequence to decide that they will pay on time rather than just think it's okay for the land look to get paid late.