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 😂😂

b) is bullshit made up by @Goodgrief82 who has repeatedly said this even though they just made it up. The landlords said the exact opposite of that. Not sure why you are going with something made up by someone who wasn't there as opposed to, you know, the person who it actually happened to.

c) It was my life savings built up from when I was a child, from birthday money and part-time jobs worked as a teenager. A few hundred quid in all. In what way was that not my money ? If you're trying to have yet another go at anyone who claims benefits, you're barking up the wrong tree.

actually @roarfeckingroarr the more you post, the clearer it is that you genuinely think that state support of any kind is wrong. You're an extremely wealthy person who thinks that poverty is a joke ("hahaha as if I could live on SMP"), revels in kicking people while they're down, and doesn't think that people should be able to claim housing benefit. I feel for your tenant and hope that she finds a better landlord in the future. I'm hiding this thread and I'm out.

Eh?! I fully support a welfare state!!! And you said you used HB not your birthday money. You keep changing your story

Read my posts. I said I emptied my building society account to pay the deposit and the first months' rent. I had to close the account so I could take all of the cash out in one day.

If you knew anything at all about housing benefit, you'd know you can't get it in advance, before you've moved into the property.

I have not changed my story at all.

You, on the other hand, said on another thread that you want lower taxes and a small state, and that you object to the current government for having in your view too-high taxes and a 'large state'. You've also said on this thread that you are proud of yourself for not having taken 'taxpayers' money' during your maternity leave. You don't support a welfare state at all. Total bullshit.

I joked about SMP because it's a national disgrace that it's so low. Nobody can live off £156 per week. Anyone who does is in receipt of other support - be it their own savings, a partner, a parent or the state. I have savings, a small portion came from my rental income, most came from my day job. What should happen is that the government values a mother's contribution to her child's first year of life and provides a stipend they can live off comfortably. Bit me thinking this doesn't fit your narrative does it?

I don't know why I'm defending myself when you have a clear agenda and an ever changing story.

No one who 'fully supports a welfare state' keeps using the phrase 'taxpayers' money' to talk about benefits to support those in poverty, or those who are ill or disabled. At least have the decency to own your own views and don't talk bollocks when it's all there for anyone to see.

Xenia · 01/12/2022 13:18
Take what you are entitled to take. If the system is wrong we should change it (and I would rather much lower taxes and a small state personally)

roarfeckingroarr · 01/12/2022 13:26
@Xenia as would I, but we now have a large-state pro-spending Conservative Party so little chance of getting lower taxes any time soon.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4689023-to-be-shocked-at-universal-credit-amount?page=11&reply=121952296

I can support a low tax economy in theory while accepting the economic reality we are in whereby people need a reliable welfare state to live? In fact, I think most people would agree.

You're lying. I didn't change my story.

Here's my post from yesterday afternoon:

BloodAndFire · Yesterday 15:14
Goodgrief82 · Yesterday 15:09
If the landlord is only offering a 6 month tenancy agreement and refuses to budge… it does sort of give an indication as to his intentions surely?
I think you're reading a lot into this story that I haven't said.
First of all it wasn't a 'him'. It was a married couple with a kid who had previously lived in the flat themselves and had tried to sell it and failed, so decided to rent it themselves. We didn't know any of that at the time we rented it.
I don't know where you're getting this 'only offering a 6 month tenancy and refuses to budge' from. There was no question of us trying to negotiate a longer tenancy agreement.
Not sure if you have read my posts, but it was an absolutely desperate situation. My boyfriend had cancer and was travelling to hospital multiple days per week. He was on benefits with no savings. I was 17 and unable to earn anywhere near enough to support us even if I worked more than full time, so was tacked onto his benefit claim. We had been evicted from the previous place - a houseshare with two of my bf's friends - for the same reason - landlord wanted to sell the house. In that case we were not lucky, and everyone had to move out (separately).
We needed to find somewhere that would accept housing benefit, and somewhere cheap enough that we could raise the month's rent in advance and the deposit. It was a real struggle, I quite literally emptied the building society savings account I'd had my whole life (a few hundred quid).
Not sure why you are so determined to pick holes in a story.
a) It's true
b) You weren't there
c) I was

I know this is true because it's my life, ffs. There is no 'changing the story'.

Now I've taken the time to copy and paste the post to show that, will you apologise for lying?

Ever considered a career as a politician? They do about as good a job as you do of trying to bluster and pretend that two completely opposed statements somehow mean the same thing.

No one, NO ONE, who 'fully supports the welfare state' makes repeated statements about how it's 'taxpayers' money' and not 'your money'. Absolutely no one. It's the clearest possible dead giveaway of what you actually think. As is being 'proud' of not claiming your SMP. Because you think it makes you a better person than those who do. Because you think it's not 'their money'. Which you have said over and over again.

You can't just say things and then pretend you didn't. It's there in black and white.

I'm realistic. The money comes from taxpayers. I very much support a welfare state, especially one that values the contribution of raising children.

Look I get it, you're very invested in painting this narrative about me because I'm a landlord and joked about serving notice after a lot of worry and frustration. I'm not the thread police, that's your call if you want to spend your time advance searching people on Mumsnet and wishing ill on their families, but I don't, and this is clearly triggering past trauma for you so
I would prefer to not engage further with your posts. Best of luck and a merry Christmas to you and yours.

But you haven't even talked to her, you have no idea what her situation is.

She paid rent on time, no problem, for 15 months. The last three months there have been issues, coincidentally during the biggest financial crunch in years, coincidentally when heating starts to be needed.

But you've just decided she is being a dick (your words) for no reason.

That's about what I'd expect from someone 'proud not to take taxpayers money' I mean what a weird thing to be proud of. Maybe just consider yourself fortunate enough to not need extra support.

Should the OP ever get behind with her mortgage the bank will bend over backwards to structure a repayment plan.

But in this case the tenant doesn't even warrant a phone call to find out what's going on. They're a dick who's 'playing games'

Glad I don't have to deal with these people.

Now this conversation got close to home. I live in a country with the world's most advanced and comprehensive welfare system. Funnily we Finns generally do not complain that we pay up to 60% income tax. :) We certainly do not look down on people who are on benefits as we have chosen our social democratic system. We pay taxes happily because we can see around us; the great, free schools with excellent teachers and on site cooks to feed every child, very good free health care for all, great care for the elderly, long maternity leaves (up to three years), paternity leaves also (our current president took a paternity leave a couple of few years ago when his youngest son was born), the list goes on.

I don't think we have many private landlords as homes are considered necessities and it wouldn't be ethical to move people in and out of their homes according to landlord's personal changing family needs. My family has lived in our current home for 5 years now, this is a quite lovely complex of 30 flats in a small city center. Our "landlord" has changed twice during this time and for us tenants the change has been a new welcome letter with assurance for continuing service. And service it has been! A few weeks ago I called the estate manager if they could possibly put some more insulation to our fridge-freezer to save electricy. They send a service within an hour, the guy looked at the fridge and told me it is quite old, made a quick phone call on the spot to order a new one and the brand new fridge-freezer was delivered the next morning. Years ago it was very different experience in London. Once we had no working fridge-freezer for more than two weeks, I had two babies (one newborn) and the estate agent told us we have to understand they need to first reach the landlord who is very hard to reach because in lives in Australia. To think now that we considered this normal for 15 years (paid 2200 pounds monthly). :)

Furthermore the welfare state means we have people who are on benefits for whatever personal reasons living with us who happen to be able to pay rent ourselves for now. No council houses for "poor" people. I took me 25 years abroad to appreciate all this.

The housing market in the UK is broken but I am not sure comparing us to Finland helo. Finland is tiny, it's population is smaller than London's!

@Ginmonkeyagain Helo:) You are absolutely right, one might argue welfare state only works because we a small country. Comparing and contrasting is still interesting to me because I experienced both for decades and other posters here brought up things like council housing, welfare state, willingness to pay taxes, rich vs. poor and private landlords.

@dreamingbohemian - I’ve asked OP the same thing. Why is her tenant ‘a sick’ when they’ve paid their rent. Albeit late but still paid form what I’m reading. Unless I haven’t understood the posts.

I remember many years ago my husband and I would never pay our mortgage on the date due as we were in such financial difficulties that we would pay it about three weeks late. Mortgage company reached out and we said to them that this is how we can pay at the moment. At least we weren’t not paying. That was that. We carried on like this for a year until our jobs picked up. Reading these threads I’m so glad I wasn’t renting.

@HotChoxs, if a tenant can't pay the rent surely it is up to them to approach their LL and apologise and explain how they will catch rent up. LL should not have to spend time chasing them for late payment or indeed no payment.

I'm not aware they have to catch rent up? Just that they've paid late the last 3 months and have withheld when the boiler was broken.

The LL doesn't have to ring up, but why on earth wouldn't you?

@HotChoxs "The LL doesn't have to ring up, but why on earth wouldn't you?" This. ❤

The LL doesn't have to ring up, but why on earth wouldn't you?

I do think it’s abit odd for a tenant not to let their LL know if they need to pay late. I had to do that a couple of times, just sent a text explaining that I needed to wait for a payment to go in first. It wasn’t an issue, because the LL knew what was going on. Communication is generally the best approach.

i also rent out a flat due to personal circumstances, have had great tenants for over 20 years minus one who we had to evict (section 21) non payment of rent, among other issues. Let’s say they were a v unpleasant character and it was incredibly stressful.
We are much more careful now, have landlord insurance, vet potential tenants etc.
Can you evict and then sell?

@HamBone I agree with you on communication being the best approach. Also understand your point: "I do think it’s a bit odd for a tenant not to let their LL know if they need to pay late." Especially when you in a similar situation did exactly that with a mutually convenient result. However, we do not know the situation of the tenant here; do they possibly feel ashamed that they would have to tell about their financial struggle to someone clearly not in friendly terms with them, would they see their LL as a threat laughing about possible poverty. Do they know their LL sees them as a penis which should be gotten rid off asap behind the penis's back.

@finnmum It's definitely embarrassing when you can't pay bills on time, but I've always found it best to be upfront about it. Most people are reasonable when you are...there's always exceptions, of course.

❤