Tiny violins out - private landlord having trouble

[roarfeckingroarr]

I own a flat that I rent out because it no longer suits my needs to live there and I couldn't find a buyer without making a substantial loss during Covid (due to no private outdoor space).

I try to not be a dick - e.g. I charge under market rate, I don't increase the rent unless in between tenants, I get everything fixed as soon as I can (via management agency), I allow pets/children etc. All things that should be standard but too often are not.

Anyway, I have a tenant who is playing games. Every month for the last three she has had a problem paying the rent. First of all she wanted to move the payment date (fine, circs change, but she was a week after the agreed date), then she was late again, then she decided unilaterally she didn't have to pay because the boiler had broken and I couldn't get a new one installed over night. I reimbursed her for heaters to keep warm and had it replaced as soon as a reputable tradesman could install one - about a week in total. I get this isn't ideal and I offered a £100 discount as a goodwill gesture. She eventually paid.

I hate being a landlord and I am v shortly going on maternity leave with my second child so I need to sell especially as the income is now unreliable to use the equity to buy us a family home.

But I'm scared to put it on the market in case she takes that as free reign to stop paying altogether.

Does anyone have any advice that doesn't include "private landlords" and "scum of the earth" in the same sentence? I wouldn't expect her to let people traipse through her home at short notice and would hope to arrange maybe two open house mornings in Jan to minimise inconvenience - but I also expect her to stick to her side of the contract and pay the agreed rent during this time.

@Goodgrief82 Why an earth would you reply like that? Welcome to see my country. I lived in yours for 16 years. God bless you.

@Goodgrief82 "Finland is in the top position in the world happiness report in 2022. Followed by Denmark and Iceland in second and third place. Switzerland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Israel and New Zealand, were among the top 10 'happiest' countries in the world [1]."

No thank you. Far far too cold for me.

It was in response to your smug I am so lucky to get my family out of Britain seven years ago. Back to Finland where greed is not good.

Just my take on it. Not saying I'm right but just my pov.

Thatcher sold off council houses, which had the potential to be good, but should've used the money raised to build more council or social housing.

Successive governments have actively encouraged market increases as most of them are landlords.

Blair/Brown removed regulation from the banks, leading to 7x salary multiples on mortgages and self cert. So instead of limiting borrowing capacity and in turn house prices, they escalated to almost unobtainable levels. Labour also promoted BTL. No surprise given he and Cherie own hundreds of properties.

I'm sure there's more but I think governments do have an impact on the housing market. None of them have made a concerted effort to promote or undertake more building, especially of social housing to protect the poor, or people who don't have £300k for the average home.

You're right. I've not written to my local MP but it's not like they can't see the devastating effects of house prices on society.

Yep. He told me in the car when he was driving me to the viewing- I am going to have to tell the tenant that you are an investor as the seller doesn't want to lose her tenant. I told him- i don't think you should do that and anyway its not believable, i don't look like an investor, i look too young. The agent said- he was told to do that and anyway the tenants can't assume anything about your financial circumstances!

@roarfeckingroarr BloodAndFire ok so you weren't actually even paying your own rent - taxpayers were

You genuinely don't realise how this sounds, do you?

Yes. My then-boyfriend was receiving sickness benefit and housing benefit because he was riddled with cancer in his early 20s, and had to spend a year having four gruelling courses of chemotherapy, involving losing all his hair, becoming skeletal, vomiting and diarrhoea, peripheral neuropathy, and days and days spent in hospital (just as a few examples) a few months after losing his mum in a traumatic, sudden way. And you object to 'taxpayers' funding him to stay alive (have seen you on other threads saying you think taxes are far too high). Wow.

FWIW, I'm now fortunate enough now to be a homeowner and to pay a high rate of tax. And i have never, ever, once, thought that the people on the bones of their arses claiming benefits are spending 'my' money.

You genuinely don't grasp, at all, what it's like not to have any money or any choices in life, do you?

I just don’t have a blame mentality. Particularly when it was very very clear from the outset your LL was renting out a short term let property

@SamanthaCaine

You're right. I've not written to my local MP but it's not like they can't see the devastating effects of house prices on society.

If enough people made noises that they would vote for a party that were not in favour of high house price inflation then that's what we would have got.

But nobody did that because the majority were in favour of high house price inflation. Hence neither party came out and said that's what they stand for.

1. It wasn't clear from the outset that it was a short term let. Quite the reverse. You're literally just making that up. You weren't there. I was. Just like you're also telling another poster @socialmedia23 that she's making things up or wrong about her own life. So weird.
2. You do have 'a blame mentality.' You're just blaming the wrong person.
3. You are weirdly sexist in your continual insistence that it was 'the landlord and his wife' and referring to the landlord as 'he'.
4. You don't seem to have the faintest understanding of what it's like to be poor, sick, reliant on benefits, and not to have any choice.

@Goodgrief82 I think I give up on you dear. Your response to my general post about this thread is that my home Finland is not worth a visit because it is "far far too cold" for you. Furthermore you immediately googled something negative about a country you do not know. According to the sentences you pasted here we Finnish are mental. Mind you, I rather be mental than greedy :) About coldness, here in beautiful Lapland we have -27 degrees outside now. +24 inside. Amazing landlords we have. Also, sorry if I sounded "smug" about being happy I do not live in a capitalist country anymore. English is my third language.

Fair enough, but it seems quite obvious to me that unaffordable house prices aren't good for anyone except for the banks and stamp duty. Governments are supposed to act in our best interests (but realise that's a dream!).

Both labour and conservatives are in favour of escalating house prices and to be honest, don't think either know how to reduce them, or are interested. Being cynical it's likely because their interests lie with the banks.

Definitely best to sell when vacant.
I was a photographer for an estate agents, and remember going to photograph a house with tenants. They stuck to their side of the bargain and let me in no problem, but hadn't tidied or anything. The place was an absolute pigsty. I tried my best with the editing but it was not easy and.nondoubt put people off.

YOU said there was “never any question of negotiation” on the tenancy length.

and the tenancy was 6 months

Clear. As. Day.

Any LL unwilling to extend beyond 6 months is either
a) skeptical about financial position of tenant. And indeed given the agent knew you’d poured your life savings into the deposit and first month’s rent and didn’t have a penny spare - he was correct to be skeptical

b) has no intention of continuing to let the property after 6 months

he didn’t mislead you. You took a risk In the hope he would extend the tenancy

Fairly common knowledge that Finland has a very high suicide rate and depression rate 🤷‍♀️

Thatcher sold off council houses, which had the potential to be good, but should've used the money raised to build more council or social housing

It's actually a bit more nuanced that that: fullfact.org/economy/who-built-more-council-houses-margaret-thatcher-or-new-labour/

... but let's not forget successive governments carried right on selling the social housing, and as already mentioned tenants went right on buying them, even some who'd moaned bitterly about Thatcher allowing it to happen

According to your post, this country is full of greed.

So I countered that your country holds the record for high mental illness rate, so not exactly the beacon of shining light you presented it as such

It seems quite obvious to me that unaffordable house prices aren't good for anyone except for the banks and stamp duty

You'd think so wouldn't you? But at one time the forum was absolutely stuffed with folk crowing "The market's RED HOT!!" and "Everyone's having to pay over asking price or they don't stand a chance" as if that was a desirable state of affairs

Funny how things turn out isn't it?

As a renter who has been for nearly a decade you sound like a fantastic and ethical landlord. Times are hard. I hope most landlords are like you but I know they are not.

You’ll have to serve a section 21 notice to evict them on a form 6a. I recommend spending £35 for a year subscription to simply docs website. All the forms and advice for landlords are on their site under the property section. You can’t serve the notice within the first 4 months of a tenancy. You must’ve kept their deposit in a safety scheme, given them the how to rent guide from the Gov website (which also has advice on what to do when evicted), had an energy performance certificate & given them a copy, had a yearly gas safety certificate & given them a copy & had a 5yr electrical safety check and given them a copy. If all of the above allies give her the form 6a detailing that you’re evicting due to selling. This gives her 2 months. If she continues to be behind with rent consider a section 8 eviction which is automatic for rent arrears. This gives 21 days notice to leave. Her tenancy agreement should include terms that state that she should allow for viewings for either the next tenant or if you sell. If she fails to comply to those conditions she’s again in breech (as with arrears) & you could evict with section 8 giving 21 days. I appreciate the above will inflame the landlord bashing. As a landlord I haven’t evicted anyone, have in fact been burnt once with a cannabis farm costing £10k+ to get the house back to rentable condition & because it was criminal damage it wasn’t covered on insurance. I’ve had two tenants abscond without paying 6+ months of rent and just leave the property when eviction proceedings started. Like you I haven’t put rent up, look after the properties & tenants so the bashing does wind me up when people jump on “grabby landlord” bandwagon. Good luck.

I stand corrected. Thanks, as that's quite interesting how these pictures were painted.

Could you not sell it as a rental property with a tennant in situ?

@Goodgrief82 Your country is absolutely beautiful. I went to Uni there in 1990s, worked in London in 2000s and raised my kids in London. London especially will always be my hometown. It is just that I now from distance realise how harsh it was for my family there in terms of home (read: property:).

Washington Post 2022: "For the fifth year in a row, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world by the United Nations -sponsored World Happiness Report."

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to know that my house (bought in 2000) is now worth 4 times as much. But in all honesty I'd give it all up if it meant that housing was affordable again. It's ultimately meaningless to me as I'm not going anywhere but means everything to my kids who can't even consider moving out.

It's too late now though as there'd be too many casualties if a 4 bed in the south east was suddenly £100k again!