If my tenant has negotiated a lower rent because she is a single mum of 2 she should not move in her entire extended family?

[QuintessentialShadows]

She negotiated her rent down, as she was just her and her two kids. Ideal quiet tenant, long term let.

So, a whole gang of people surprised my dh at the house when he went to London to have a final look prior to tenant moving in.

My other neighbour down the road got talking to them ( same ethnicity) and they said they were ALL moving in. Mum and her two children, her husband, her brother, her mum and her dad.... Only mum is named on the contract and the contract stays that nobody else can live there aside from named tenant.

Where do I stand? Can I demand higher rent bearing in mind wear and tear of appliances etc? With three working grown ups living there, surely they can afford it?

Squiffy, I spoke to her previous agent. It is a well known surrey estate agency, I googled the name rather than phoning the number on the reference form. So, I have no worries there.

cool. so you are done and dusted. Relax, switch off and chill.

Squiffy, can you remind me of the white wine you recommended for starters when we went for dinner at this fab restaurant with the intercourse on the menu and the sexually explicit picture in the lavatory you nearly took home??

(hoping no pedant will point out that it would be impossible for Squiffy to take the lavatory home...)

Hi QS,
i have been lurking here, good it seems you have resolved this.
i think i am eating tonight in said fab restaurant as DH and i are going to be in the area!
Hope you are missing us over here though the description of the brook and the forest and the snow capped mountains.....i doubt it!

Hi there! I envy you that meal! It is quite emotional to think back. Because I was standing on that corner waiting for you guys, pondering london life and the past 15 years, and just soaking up the atmosphere, thinking back to working up in Finsbury Square just after finnishing Uni, etc. But, I try not to think about London too much. I have beautiful scenery, but at the moment it is too cold to really enjoy it. I am about to go out and plant 30 more strawberries! Enojoy your meal. Can you remember the first wine we drank?

QS sounds a lot more sorted well done

remember London is not all it's cracked up to be, think squashed on tube, think not even being able to get onto packed tube, think polluted air, think no one talking to you or pushing you/your dcs out of the way

Enjoy your view/strawberries

Yeah. Think rubbish everywhere, think graffiti, think rip-off prices....

LOL, no grafitti where I used to live, no tube, no crowds, just quaint streets, wimbledon common, richmond park, the river....
never mind!

Thank you so much for all constructive advise this past week, having you lot as a sounding board has kept me sane!

I hope it all sorts itself out now!

Hey QS I am fairly sure the wine was a gewurtztraminer (pronounced approximately as gur-vert-stramina) which is a grape variety from Alsace. New Zealand & Oz do really good wines with this grape as well.

There's an outside chance it might have been a viognier, which is a french grape and also good-ish with spicey stuff.

And despite all the good stuff about London, I do seem to recall that those state-owned Scandinavian get-in-the-queue-on-a-Friday-night places also happen to give the most brilliant value for money if you're buying decent wine? Much better than here in London without a doubt if you're splashing out. Good for cutting your stress levels if told your kids are too noisy (or better still, cut out the middleman and give it to those who are stressed by the noise, that way they'll stop noticing...)

Well, the deed is done, the agreement is signed and faxed. Fingers crossed, and again, thank you for help and a dose of sanity!

Squiffy, great, I will look out for it here.
How did your Spa day at Squiffy's turn out?

Glad it's sorted to your satisfaction, QS. Now I can stop obsessing about it!

Hopefully I can too!

Officially I am now a landlady! Tenant moving in today.

Again to all who helped me through this long drawn out and "labour".

erm THANKS (posted too soon)

Glad it's all sorted Quinty!

Hope she turns out to be the perfect tenant after all the shenanigans. Who is officially on the tenancy agreement in the end?

Just her. With a clause that she has to notify me in writing and get my permission to move any other person in, in which case the contract will be renegotiated and his name will be added to the contract. I am happy with this.

I am pleased it is working out for you.