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.

I know what you mean! I always hope to wake up one day and find I have people paying rent in a second property I did not know I had.
It is part of our culture of people not accepting responsibility for the decisions they make.

I would tell her your circumstances have changed and you will be needing to move back in in X months, and serve a section 21.

If she thinks you are moving back in and not selling she might not purposely dick about.

At the end of the day she should be paying the agreed rent, the same as anyone who has a mortgage has to pay the agreed mortgage. That's life. You don't get to pick and choose what and when you pay.

She sounds temperamental and spiteful, you sound reasonable and fair, I would tread carefully and keep records of all communication.

I absolutely would not be putting it on the market until she is long gone, she will make an already difficult process impossible.

The boiler is irrelevant really as she wouldn't have got it done any quicker if she owned the property herself, and she needs to keep paying rent.

I would give her the notice ASAP to get her out and stick to it . Your LA will be able to do this for you.

All those going on about landlord insurance. They have to have stopped paying for six months and you have to have served notices and I tell you it's not worth it! I had a tenant who stopped paying after the second month (and he only paid the second month after being reminded). I needed to sell anyway and lucky for me he was buying elsewhere so did agree to move out - I was anticipating him digging his heels in (he did do some damage before he left, plus left two balcony doors and all the windows wide open during a rainstorm when he moved out). Four months without rent costing me £5000 but no joy when I asked about that insurance I was paying for each month. It was a luxury flat kept beautifully by all the previous tenants (students, believe it or not). Bastard.
Anyway I sympathise and serve notice immediately and just suck it up if you then have a void. Better than a tenant who refuses to pay (and move out).

To all saying how invasive/annoying it is to allow viewings - I've only ever seen refusal to allow viewings on Mumsnet. Never have I refused viewings when renting a property - whether the landlord wanted to sell or I was moving on - and I haven't heard this colloquially either. I thought it was standard that you work with the lettings agent to find mutually acceptable time to allow a reasonable number of viewings

As a home-owner I don't even like workmen coming round, it is so tedious. So I don't think it's at all unreasonable to find it massively tiresome to allow viewings as a tenant. Constantly having to tidy up! No, much easier to wait until tenant has left.

This is a bit tone deaf and I'm a LL. Allowing viewings only benefits the landlords, it's a pain in the arse for tenants. They have to clean/tidy organise to be in , pay rent for somewhere they are going to be kicked out of.

I've just looked and there's absolutely nothing similar available for the same price within 5 miles. This is greater London!

Good ideas re the section 8.

I was going to hold off serving notice until after Christmas but given what a dick she's been with the rent, I might not.

Yes I do find it interesting. Owning a house is at the end of the day an investment, like all investments you are not guaranteed to make money or break even.

If you lost money on the stock market you wouldn’t expect someone to pay the difference to you, it’s the same with housing. And being a landlord is clearly very profitable otherwise no one would be one “accidental” or not, they’re clearly gaining something out of it. Pointless to pretend you’re not and you’ve been forced into a difficult situation filled with problems and no benefits. Being forced to rent because you can’t afford a property on the other hand…

Are you sure she is not paying rent on time etc because your management agency are being dicks? They are known for messing tenants about (tiotally been there believe me) and there may be stuff gone on you don't know about. Just a thought. Have you been in touch with the tenant directly or just hearing things through the agency?

When I rented we had a boiler issue too and contacted the agency prob about 4 - 5 times before anything was actually done. Turns out the landlord knew nothing about it until a few days before they decided to try and sort it, when I started getting firm with the agency. But all the landlord knew at that time was that I was being a 'problem' - not that there had been an issue for the last 6 weeks I had been attempting to try and sort with them.

Not that its an excuse not to pay, but I'd definitely check that first.

As for viewings, i'd serve notice first and then do viewings. It is their home with all their private stuff in it, and yeah most people do not want strangers trapsing through their home when its not benefitting them at all to have viewings and just causing massive inconvenience. And even more so, if the agency are being dicks. It might be your property, but its none of your personal stuff in there or your time being taken up. When you rent a property out it becomes that persons home, and that should be respected. I have allowed viewings in the past - but on my terms, and only when I am there now. No way would I want some agent letting people in to have a poke around all my stuff when I'm not there, I say this because a few places I looked at to rent where there were tenants, the agent opened literally every cupboard, even a bloody medicine cabinet, It just felt a total violation of the tenants privacy and no way I'd want that if it was me.

I think most prospective buyers would be put off by a sitting tenant, because they would be aware of the potential problems. You’d be better getting rid of the tenant, sprucing up the property and then selling.

You need to get insurance which covers non payment of rent now- it won't come into force for 3 months but if she doesn't pay and sticks around then you are covered after that.

OP "No chance of capital gains. Chance would be a fine thing."

not sure what this means. You will have to pay capital gains tax?

is it too late to avoid the incoming higher rate?

Our last landlord was a nightmare. Insisted on 24 viewings during covid, whilst I was having treatment for a serious illness and my daughter was in trauma.
We had agreed a rent reduction in exchange for access. When he sold it he did everything to get us out before our notice expired (three visits a week) and sent threatening letters.
We moved out and he stalked us (not over egging the custard, he now has a police caution and a violence against the person order). He wanted his discount money back!
Just serve notice, be pleasant and say nothing about selling. Good luck. And I don't think all landlords are bastards but we only ever had two good ones in 14 years!

You seem quite sure you won't be paying CGT OP, are you intending to sell at a loss?

Sorry, but you just don’t sound professional.

Late payments are part and parcel of being a LL. it’s not what anyone wants but you have to deal with it and to be able to financially bear it. Don’t take it all personally or start making comments about choosing the timing of giving motive as some kind of spiteful revenge.

Think it through in terms of the legalities. Talk to your agent and get some advice.

To be honest, with 2 weeks to go until Christmas, you really might as well wait now and try to lower your own blood pressure. Start the new year with the notice. Then you will just have to wait and see to find out if she will or won’t pay and will or won’t vacate at the point the notice specifies. If she doesn’t do either you just have to follow the legal processes. They are what you signed up to when you became a LL.

As others say, the things you want in terms of viewings all benefit you. Think about it from a tenant view. You have to tidy up, either be out, or out up with people traipsing round your house….of course it’s invasive and there is zero gain to you. Of course, an uninterrupted tenancy is better. So why would you agree to something you don’t have to? I certainly wouldn’t if Inwere a tenant and I’m a LL who has had tenants refuse to allow viewings and actually now would never even ask. I think it’s entirely unreasonable.

Too many people say ‘it’s the LLs property and they should be able to sell when they want or get their home back’ - well they can sell or get their home back WITHIN the legally laid out time frameworks. The trouble is, people don’t understand them or somehow think that being the legal owner means any rights a tenant might have can instantly be swept away with the trump card of ‘it’s mine and I can have it whenever I want’. Wrong. Rightly, there are legalities to all of it. And of course this is good for all concerned as everyone has protections. And if you don’t like the legalities, you simply don’t get into it in the first place.

OP you sound like an amateur, unable to cope with a fairly typical scenario that most LLs face at some point if non-payment, and woefully unaware of the legal timeframes and responsibilities. Even a tenant who doesn’t pay on time deserves people who understand the law. Hopefully your agent are clued and will advice you well and stop you taking action that can actually further delay you getting vacant possession by infringing the legal process.

It is possible not to make a profit selling property. If you don't make a gain, there's no capital gains tax to pay.

Oh I'm the first to admit I'm not professional. It's why I pay the LAs to manage the property.

I would be shocked if I get more for the flat than I paid, given current market - hence no CGT. Happy to break even. I've made a bit renting it out and I just want to get the property sold so I can buy somewhere to live in with my babies.

Oh do pipe down!!! Your in a remarkably privileged position to be able to afford multiple properties.
I was one of those tenants who had to refuse to leave. It was the only way I might have ever been offered accommodation by the council. I applied for every affordable private rental in commutable distance of my work. Barely got 5 viewings and never progressed beyond that.
The vast majority of landlords are arseholes. Mine forced me out having done bugger all wrong despite being in the middle of cancer treatment. I can't get a mortgage. I'm now homeless and living in a cold caravan.

Things might be tough for you but I bet you anything they are not as tough as for your poor tenant your about to make homeless.

"They have to clean/tidy organise to be in , pay rent for somewhere they are going to be kicked out of."

LOL, they don`t have to clean/tidy or organise to be in, they can change the locks and not allow you access, or they can leave the place a tip and tell everyone who views how bad the neighbours are etc. Best bet is to serve notice before you sell, but there is no such thing as "accidental", the OP previously chose not to sell and now they have this situation, that is deliberate not accidental, and with interest rate rises their losses could be even bigger than the "no garden, no buy!" mania that swept the country, and looks absolutely bloody ridiculous now!

So your thought process is:

Oh look, my tenant will probably never be able to find another flat in the area.

Guess I'll evict her before Christmas.

To all saying how invasive/annoying it is to allow viewings - I've only ever seen refusal to allow viewings on Mumsnet. Never have I refused viewings when renting a property - whether the landlord wanted to sell or I was moving on - and I haven't heard this colloquially either. I thought it was standard that you work with the lettings agent to find mutually acceptable time to allow a reasonable number of viewings.

I'm surprised you've never "seen" this, it's a fundamental right in property law. Who really wants people tramping round their home, disturbing their privacy and disrupting their downtime?

I used to work in homeless prevention, and the first thing we told tenants whose LLs wanted to sell was that they don't have to agree to grant access to potential buyers. The second thing was that they have the right to remain in the property until a S21 had been issued and expired, and that they could not be made to leave until a possession order had been issued and expired. I'm pretty sure that Shelter, CAB etc would give similar advice.

@Bookworm20 that's a good point actually. The management agents may have been slow - I've found them a bit rubbish myself. I asked for quotes for the boiler and had to really push for a response - so perhaps you're right and the agent has made them wait. Perhaps a direct conversation would be helpful - I'm sure I can find her email address on previous correspondence with the agent - but I don't want the tenant to feel ambushed.

This is pathetic. When you're a homeowner and you meet a new partner who lives a distance away and decide you want to try living together, or you're made redundant and the only work you can get is the other side of the country, it doesn't make sense to sell your home. Would you rather people leave their homes empty when others need somewhere to live?

@dreamingbohemian no. Thought process is my tenant has been difficult for the past 3 months for no reason. I'm almost certain she's going to continue being difficult and probably stop paying rent when I serve notice legally. So why am I being nice and delaying getting my property vacant to sell.

Just curious OP, when did you buy?

some people in my block are doom mongering about sale prices but I am way older than them so bought a lot earlier than they did.