To come down like a tonne of bricks

[thisisasurvivor]

Hello all

So I rent a house out

Semi reliable tenants

Xmas rent late by ten days
All they could pay was half
So I said fine
Pay half no probs

Now - rent late
So they can only pay half this month

I have been very fair
Rent is 200 less than market value as I don't want to put any pressure on them

Say nothing and hope it won't happen again?

They have been there 3 years so only some issues since dec 22

Plus everyone is struggling financially now :(

Yes you can.

If it hasn’t been mentioned already, I think you should join the Landlords association, it’s about £80 Pa and it gives you all up to date legislation, templates for any paperwork and access to property solicitors all included because in the nicest way possible you haven’t got a clue what you’re doing and you could potentially get into bigger problems that this. The law regarding servicing section 21 notices changed yesterday so you can’t issue a no fault eviction anymore.
why do you think so many small time landlords are selling up and there’s lack of rental properties?

The tenant has to be 2 full months in arrears for a section 8

Hi, we had a tenant who did the same. Problem was we gave an inch they took a mile. We eventually moved to evict after they got to £2000 in arrears. Now they know they can pay less they will continue to do so.

The law hasn’t changed yet.

The bill was tabled yesterday but still has a way to go before becoming law.

This is why, I would suggest, that if you become a landlord by accident or circumstances, only have one property, you pay out for a good, reputable, management company. They are professionals, they know the legal business and tenants can’t appeal to you direct as LL through emotional blackmail (ok, even if it is legitimate reason which it is likely to be). Make sure you charge fair rent, work with agent to make any rental increases fair and reflective of actual need to increase vw what you can get away with. Ok, you’ll loose some money on it due to fees, but a good agent will mean you aren’t dealing with this sort of stuff and less stress.

At the very least you need to have a DD set up as part of tenancy so they can’t be late unless they cancel dd.

Op, you’re already running it at a loss. You should be putting money aside into a maintenance pot . With tenants you’ll need to redecorate more often, and what about repairs and on going surfaces like clearing gutters, boiler servicing, the regular safety certificates, accidents breakage etc etc…we spent on average £1500 a year on maintenance alone over the 10 years we had the property. You then need to add in admin costs- travel to property, doing inspections, legal tenancies to draw up. You are being a bit naive to think all you need to do is cover mortgage and insurance.

you aren’t making enough to cover costs in long term. You will get into arrears with mortgage and end up in a dreadful situation financially as that’ll affect credit rating at the very least.

you need a serious discussion with your sister . Say that you are now running the property at a loss, even if the tennents could afford to continue to pay regularly, which it appears they can’t. Either you both have to step up to properly running this as a bus8ness to cover all your costs or please, just sell up.

imhe, renting is a mugs game. All the stress and worry about having a house over which you have no real control as to damage and depreciation, all the guilt of being a potentially bad landlord when you need to put rent up, and all the blame when things wrong, and a lot of shit form people who think all landlords are greedy bastards. I was LL, because my ex refused to sell an inherited property, we never made any profit on it as HMRC can contest as he’d also spent money on refurishing it. We had some shit tenants, and 1 really good ne. We eventually got a really good agent, but even then it was still a source of stress and unnecessary work on top of normal careers. The irony is that when we divorced, ex had to sell this property and got hit with a capital gains tax he really hated paying , serves him right for not just selling the damned thing when he inherited it,

Either that or you need to properly educate yourself on how it works.

I went on a day course to learn my responsibilities, tenants rights, landlord rights etc as there are no decent agents round here (which I only discovered after my highly rated agent cocked up massively).

You make it plain that Xmas was a one off, goodwill gesture, not to be repeated. But have a proper discussion with them about it, as you say we all find it difficult at the moment but they have a commitment to pay you in full at the due date.

Discuss alternative payment options such as fortnightly or weekly if this helps them to budget.

Try and sort it out between yourselves before involving and paying solicitors but if they are not playing ball then make it plain they will have to find somewhere else.

Great idea thank you

She paid

Two days late but all gone through now

Let's hope she has just been have a few bad months and we are back on track !!!!!!

I know how foolish I have been

Do I regret taking half rent at Xmas?
No
Not at all

But I live and learn now going forward and thanks all (apart from those who said I'm too greedy haha def not the case 🙄👎👎

Fortnightly is a much. Better idea right?

Depends when they get their money.

This!

Food/Rent/Mortgage should always be the first things to pay

I have plenty of empathy

Been in bad positions and my rent was always paid

They are already paying 200 pounds less per month than other houses same size in that area

@YetMoreNewBeginnings lots of assumptions there now

Luckily doesn't bother me in the slightest

Everything in the house is above Board

I even pay a gardener to come from April to Oct

They pay far less compared to other houses on the area

They have a house in a good area
Fully furnished
New carpets when they moved in and freshly painted

So any words from nasty posters do not faze me

I posted to find out more about what is fair in this instance

Why are you charging less than market value and letting them default on that.

You are running on a loss, even before the announcement of the gardener. You're a landlord with a mortgage to pay not a charity.

This is what was in place when my sister asked to step in

Will need to take a close look at the figures now and see what next

Wonderful advice on here

To the haters
Get. A. Life !!!!!!

I thought that was a deposit was for in addition to damage.

Very worried about some of your questions TBH as it’s clear you are self managing and have not much legal understanding which is very worrying as that can bite you very hard.

You can’t charge a ‘late fee’, you can apply interest, but only if this is written into your tenancy agreement. What you charge in interest must comply with the Tenant Fees Act.

Section 21/Form 6a gives the tenant 2 months notice to vacate (add 3 days to allow for service) and you just use the prescribed form. If the tenant doesn’t vacate you will then be required to apply to the courts for and order for vacant possession.

You will be unable to issue a Section 21 Notice if you were not legally compliant in protecting the tenants deposit and issuing the prescribed information pertaining to this. Equally you will have need to make sure you issued the relevant compliance documentation (and have evidence of having done so), it is belt and braces to issue this alongside the notice also.

Please please please speak to a legal expert before taking any action!