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.

Ask the mgmt company to ask her permission to get in touch directly. Some agents are dire, you might find there's a lot of misinformation going round.

No advice, but I really feel your pain. We rented out our old house when we moved abroad. We had one really horrible tenant. Towards the end of the tenancy he refused to let a contractor into the garage, not even the house! He also stole a mirror from the house when he moved out and left it dirty, then disputed the deduction from the deposit (we got it back eventually). I would try and get it sold as soon as possible and you will feel so relieved when it's done. Good luck.

I sometimes wish i had the funds to be an accidental landlord as it would mean that it is much less stressful buying a new home. few people can afford their forever home as a first time buyer and even if they did, circumstances can change. So they would have to move and it would be either be in a chain (not ideal and more likely to fall apart), sell and move to rental (really expensive) or renting our the first property and remortgaging. The last option is now not very attractive due to situations like the OP. And its not just having the equity to remortgage, its also having the funds to deal with future problems like non payment etc.

The whole thing just makes moving difficult; so many people i know who moved successfully did so as they rented out the first property instead of selling straight away. But yet there may be long term problems with doing that.

Or perhaps you might possibly consider that she might be really up against it financially?!! You know like lots of people are ESPECIALLY renters who not only have to factor in the dramatic cost of living increases but are also expected to be able to up and move homes at a moments notice! You do realise it will cost her thousands of pounds to move don't you!!!

You seriously have no idea how hideous it is to be treated the way you are about to treat your tenant. To have their whole life disrupted on your whim. No control over you home!

I'm in a similar situation, @roarfeckingroarr I have a real attachment to the house I let out (another 'accidental' landlord) but I'm coming to realise I won't be moving back there even on retirement. I have a good tenant at the moment (although the list of small damaged stuff every couple of months makes me wonder - they seem very careless!). I reduced the rent when they were on furlough, I try to get stuff fixed asap, they've been there 4 years & I haven't raised the rent - it was let at the top of the market & I've just let the rent stay there. They pay on the button, so no complaints there. But I'm thinking of selling, or all sorts of reasons, and don't want to put them out. So your plan to have a couple of viewing days is a sound one.

I would hope that as I've tried to be a good landlord, there might be some understanding, but I don't expect so. You can tell by responses on MN how much some people resent & despise landlords, even the good ones. I can't blame them I suppose, the system here is not set up for long-tern security of renters.

However, I think you're much more likely to sell with vacant possession, unless your estate agent advises that a sale with a sitting tenant would attract buyers. It really depends on the local market & how much you trust an estate agent to advise you.

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.

Its very common.

I haven’t used agents for years as so many of them are shit, but I was told by more than one when I started out not to assume that viewings would happen as most tenants refuse.

"Renting costs more than a mortgage, so and have legally protected rights that they are paying this premium for."

Nah, mortgages are getting way expensive now, and you can`t just walk away from a mortgage the way you can a rental and get a cheaper one.

If you look at it from a tenant's perspective, she has been a good and decent tenant and paid her rent (income for you) for a year and a half. I think the relationship soured when you left her with no gas/heating/hot water for 10 days. For that 'inconvenience', you gave her £100 off her rent.

You're the one who started playing hard-ball. It's Christmas in 12 days time. You very kindly say that you allow pets and children. Therefore I assume that this single mother has pets and children. You now want to sell her home out from under her ass with less than two weeks left until Christmas.

I wouldn't be nice to you either.

You can walk away from a tenancy and find a cheaper one? Wow, on what planet?

'for no reason'

How do you know there's no reason?

Are you living under a rock, you do know there's a massive economic crisis right now, right?

That is not to excuse late rent and of course you have the right to evict. But all this haughtiness about not allowing viewings, evicting right before Christmas, it's not a good look OP. Just suck it up and be glad you have a massively overvalued asset to give you that home for your babies. Your tenant will probably be homeless.

That is a good point actually.

Would the fact that the property market is about to crash have any input into your sudden urgency with selling your asset?

Get her out first, an empty flat is far more saleable (even on the BTL market.

Many people won't risk offering on a tenant-occupied property they want to live in , because if the tenant refuses to leave that will completely wreck the buyer's timescale for mortgage, removal, chain, etc.

Remember that you have to declare any disputes to buyers.

Another landlord looking to buy your property is going to vet existing tenants; and will be put off by the unpaid rent issues.

Quite.

The only way I can see that it's possible to become a LL by accident is if you inherit a property that's already tenanted. And if that happens, you can sell it as an investment property with the tenant in situ if you don't want to be a LL.

Get her out?

What the fuck is she? Vermin?

"and be glad you have a massively overvalued asset to give you that home for your babies."

That asset is dropping in value with every rate rise, best to sell it quick IMO, while there are still some buyers about.

Cream as much money off the top as you possible can. Wonderful.

You can downsize/move to a cheaper area. with only a few months notice. You can even move back to parents. You can't really do that with something you own as stamp duty and transaction costs will cost tens of thousands. Plus it can take months to sell.

You could rent out your home and then rent a smaller place but after taxes and costs, I doubt you would break even. I guess another alternative is renting out rooms which could work but most people wouldn't have the space.

Can't you just move back with your parents until your property sells? 😉

I can’t see that you are ‘being nice’.

The reality is that sometime soon you’re going to serve notice and the tenant will find they have to upsticks and find somewhere else to live. You acknowledge yourself that rents have risen and they will have to pay more. So what you’re going to be doing isn’t ‘nice’, but you are totally legally entitled to serve legal notice.

It’s odd that you haven’t communicated with your agent to find out a bit more about why they haven’t paid,the boiler and what the agent is doing to chase rent/understand why they haven’t paid. You seem very short of information but considering serving notice before you even get this info.

This isn’t tit for tat. It’s someone’s life, as well as providing you with some income and seemingly a deposit for a bigger house for you. There shouldn’t be a sense of ‘shall I be mean and time giving notice to be really nasty just before Christmas’ - why would you do that? What will you gain.

To be honest, any sensible LL would have thought this throught and if needing to give notice (2 months minimum) would have done it so the tenant could be out and elsewhere by the end of Nov, or delay doing it so they will hopefully be going at the end of Feb. Sensible business people don’t start looking into it mid Dec and decide they are annoyed and might just serve notice this week as they don’t feel ‘kind’. This shouldn’t be an emotional decision.

Get in touch with the agent and get it the bottom of what’s going on. Discuss giving notice and timing. Discuss the issue of rent not being paid.

Then decide if you do want to sell. If you do, serve notice in the New Year. And then you’ll have to suck up what happens…rent payment or non-payment, then vacating or not. You might have an empty property by March. You might have all your rent. Or you might need to go through the courts for a possession order and to chase unpaid rent. You might not have your property vacant until mid year or much later even. It’s not fully in your control. That’s the nature of it.

Once it’s vacant you can do any jobs needed and then market it. Perhaps a cash buyer or investor will be interested and you’ll get a speedy sale, especially if you price it right. It’s only worth what the market says it’s worth and people will pay. Perhaps you’ll make a loss or some money you’ll pay capital gains tax on. As a PP says, there’s no guarantees with investments. We do know the trajectory of house prices at the moment is down though. Perhaps your timing isn’t good and having to wait for vacant possession means it will sell for less than now. Who knows? But you bought into the timescales when you chose to become a Landlord and like other investments, the warning ‘the value of your investment can rise as well as fall’ is valid.

Good luck. I hope you get the information you need to make sensible businesslike decisions and that you are able to offload the property and vacate this market which you don’t like. I also hope that this tenant, who after all is a person with a life, is also able to move on smoothly and you’re both able to work together. If it’s not smooth, the legal process is there and you will get your property back…it just might take considerable time.

This, just write it off as a business loss.

Another accidental landlord here too. I once had to ask a tenant to leave, there were so many complaints about him from the neighbours, and he did a bunk owing several months rent. I was furious but the money spent on a solicitor to try and chase him was wasted frankly.

It's very frustrating but she sounds like a troublesome tenant and it's just not worth the hassle.

I do wonder about this thread. It’s so tone deaf and blinkered, that one wonders…

Op

What does your tenancy actually stipulate re viewings?

So 1.5 years of always paying on time and no issues whatever and maintained property well?

I probably wouldn’t jump straight to eviction after 3 months of hassle, I’d probably give it another 2 months.

Not entirely out of the goodness of my heart

More the hassle of finding and setting up another tenant

About what?