Constant repair issues with house, wanting to give up?

[Chips098]

I rent out a 1 bed house i previously lived in with my partner. We moved because it was too far from his workplace and it was a bit too small for us both, I owned the house for a year before I met him.

It's a 1960s house, I think the whole time living there I had 1 repair issue, maybe I got lucky? We've had a tenant in for 2 months and so far there have been 6 different issues. Prior to renting it out it was inspected by an agency, all safety checks completed and no issues flagged.

Not sure why but everything seems to be going wrong, there's a different emergency every week. We had a few quiet weeks and I thought things would improve now suddenly another £500 bill which is something the tenant has likely caused but we can't yet prove that.

I've also had a few issues with the agency, I'm fully managed with them and initially they were sending their own contractors without consulting so I couldn't claim insurance. Then they were refusing to be transparent about invoices and mark up fees so I've gone self managed now.

My partner is a lot more level headed about it and says it's normal, it's fine, it's just money. I don't understand how I lived there for a while and now suddenly fuses blowing every time, boiler issues despite recent maintenance, things like mould which never happened.

It's the risk I took but I'm unsure whether I'm cut out for this long term. I accept there has to be some sort of cost but I wasn't anticipating repairs every week or two. I'm just unsure whether im cut out for being a landlord, we don't make any profit on the house by the way. He thinks I'm being over the top and that it's only money, but I'd like some sort of stability and control, and not constant agency issues.

Am I in the wrong to consider selling? My mortgage interest is high and I've hardly made a dent in the capital as it is. It's just a high mental load and maybe I'm not resilient.

Of course you are making a profit, you have someone paying your mortgage.

Being a landlord is a big responsibility, it's not something you can just half-arse. You're providing someone's home.
If you're not cut out for it then don't do it.

You can't issue a section 21 until tenants have lived in property for 4 months. Then you'd have to issue at latest by last day of April. Failing that you can't get rid of tenants now, it's too late.

If you want to sell it then sell it I don’t understand why your partner is not letting you sell and paying for all the repairs. Does he have money for a deposit to buy a house or had he got a house already? If he’s paid for repairs does he have a claim on the property or what is his reasoning? Because yes the problems are the agency and the tenants but your partner is not allowing you to sell like you want to and you are going along with it.

Obviously sell when the tenants leave I know you can’t ask them to leave but still

I don't feel I'm half arsing it, whenever there's been a problem I've responded and got it sorted the same day and tried to make sure it won't happen again, in the current flat im in we've been waiting weeks for a repair, only a minor issue but still

What have been the issues op? It might be your tenant?

I'm a landlord (albeit accidentally - long story), but now have a couple of rentals.

Both mine are fully managed, but if repairs need doing I've told the agents that they are to contact me and I will arrange my own workmen to come in. I have a list of workmen I trust to do a good job and give me a good price for the work.

That said, I have had problems with one agent not passing on full rent, but holding on to random amounts to keep as a "float" and the other agent doesn't seem to do very much at all.

Being a landlord is hard, especially when not everyone will look after your property and despite comments from other posters about "throwing people out of their homes", they should remember it is still your property and you taking the risks and making the investment. Profit margins are very slim and likely to become even more so (and yes, I expect to make a profit, just as I'd expect to gain interest on my money if I put it into a savings account, or invested it in stocks and shares).

You can sell with tenants in situ if you need to.

At the moment it sounds like it's causing you misery. I'd be looking at least on what your options are.

I agree with you that its odd that all of a sudden these issues arise. Have they been paying rent consistently?
If its causing too much stress just give up being a landlady xx

Thank you. I've instructed the estate agent to contact the ones managing my flat to arrange access to valuation (as they still haven't responded to me) this feels like the right thing to do, I'm not forced into being a landlord and it's ok if that isn't for me.

I found myself an accidental land lord. It sounds like you have a terrible agent and terrible tennant but don’t sell it! Self managed sound better. You need the invoices to claim the tax. Do not let them get away with this.

Have you met the tenants? Have you done an inspection? Do this now. When there is an issue, they can send you photos and you can reply with a reasonable time frame.

I wouldn’t move as long term the investment in property will be worth it, even if you have to bank roll it for a bit.

Unfortunately, a house that's rented out will almost certainly need more maintenance than one you live in yourself. People with no "skin in the game" are likely to be less careful, although maybe not maliciously. But simply knowing they won't have to pay the repairs/consequences will make them less careful. Also, if they're short of money, they may have been buying second hand appliances/electrical gadgets, which are more likely to blow fuses/trip the electrics, etc simply due to age and again lack of maintenance/care from previous owner(s). Nothing you can do about "general wear and tear" even if it's more than you had when you lived in it. Best thing you can do is ensure you have a good "handyman" kind of person who you can rely on to attend to do the small things that will need doing. Another aspect is that in a house you own yourself, you (or your partner) will be more likely to do the small jobs yourself, but in a rented house, the onus is on the landlord to sort it and many tenants won't even attempt to do the small things in case they make damage worse and end up liable. Obviously, if you letting it as furnished/part furnished or with all/some kitchen appliances, there's more to go wrong, so more costs/call outs than if you were renting it as empty/unfurnished with few/if any kitchen appliances.

At the end of the day, being a landlord is a business and you have to provide for the almost constant "niggling" jobs that may need doing, both in terms of the financial cost, but also having the tradespersons in place to do the maintenance (or go in to do it yourself). I'm an accountant and have quite a few landlords on my books, and there's nearly always lots of small maintenance type costs in their "books" every year for most of them, typically lots of small "call outs" for plumbers and electricians for small things, and then replacement carpets/redecorating every few years.

The agency have told the tenant that im the former tenant not the landlord, apparently that's a thing?

I've asked several times for proof of warranty and invoices but they won't send them. They claimed their contactor still hadn't sent an invoice after 6 weeks, is that likely? I've had works done this morning and the invoice was sent immediately after..

Because I make £0 profit on the flat, bankrolling it is tough. And whilst I can accept some level of wear and tear and maintenance, an emergency repair being needed every 1-2 weeks is not normal, as a tenant I've never needed anywhere near that much in almost 20 years of living in rental properties.

The mould is annoying, I can give them dehumidifiers and advise them to ventilate but I can't police it, they didn't report it until quite an amount of mould was present in every room. It's been removed but if it comes back in a few months I know I'm going to have to pay for another clean and so on.
I'm sure if I try to claim costs they will argue that it's not caused by them.

If you don't mind me asking how often are these landlords getting call outs? As I've had 6 in 2 months which i don't feel is normal.

I woul definitely sell it, You became an accidental landlord and really it's a long term job for the committed.
It appears that your partner sees it as an investment for himself and not just you so you need to stop muddying the waters by his money going on repairs if this is the case.

There are lots of hoops to jump through when getting a property tenant free to sell so expect a lengthy process for this

Thanks, I'm looking into selling it tenanted, I've arranged the valuation now just want it sorted ASAP. I don't know anyone who's only breaking even who's then expected to fork out any random amount the agency throws at them every 10 days with zero transparency on invoices, warranty etc

@Chips098 being an accidental landlord is not fun. A 1 bedroom property is not going to have a good enough rental margin to cover frequent repairs and leave enough left over after costs to make the admin and mental load worthwhile.
Timing is everything here. Understand that, after May 1 your current contract is null and void, your tenants will have a rolling contract and you have to give 4 months notice to end it. And the only grounds for that are to sell or move back in yourself (unless they don't pay the rent for 2 months, evidenced abuse of the property or evidenced anti social behaviour).
Selling may not be a quick solution in the current market, especially tenanted. However, in the meantime I'd suggest you don't react instantly to these repair demands unless it's something that will cause them or the property harm. That may discourage them from raising petty issues they could fix themselves much quicker. And carry out regular inspections to monitor the mould which is almost certainly down to them. No guarantees they'll use the dehumidifier as that will cost them electricity🙄.

Sell.

Some tenants are great. Many are awful and cost you thousands.

On mumsnet, all landlords are bastards of course.

I’m an unplanned landlord because of inheritance (mum left her half of their house to me, dad bought a retirement flat and we rented out their large property. He died so I’m responsible for it all).
OP your managing agents don’t really seem to be on your side? My experience is that there’s a flurry of small issues needing action then a quiet period. You don’t have to action them all if they don’t affect the property.
My agents just email and ask whether to go ahead with fixing something. They have in house contractors who are very reasonable.
They do six monthly inspections and I get a report; last time they told me the tenants had reported a broken tile in the kitchen but the agent thought they’d just dropped something on it.
I pay them 10% and they just get on with it.
Have you looked at changing your agent?

You need to change the agent managing it for you pronto.

I have rented out old house for 18 months and had two call outs for the boiler.

Your agents are shit and the tenant is a muppet, clearly.

Fire the agent immediately and go self managed.

You can push back on things that are common sense, e.g. an appliance randomly stops working then it is reasonable to expect a tenant to change the fuse as a first port of call.

I was lucky in some ways when I rented my old house out, tenant was a tradesman and would have never dreamed of bothering me for that.

If you lived there for years and had no issues with mould then it is overwhelmingly likely that they are doing something to cause the problem.

You send them a dehumidifier and written instructions on how to prevent mould build up. Then ignore.

You can be a decent landlord without pandering to muppet behaviour.

If you decide to rent it out again when this one leaves, use openrent for tenant search, deposit handling, contracts and escrow then self manage from that point on. Agents are a complete waste of time IMHO.

I think these sort of things come in batches, and there's probably a large variation on what tenants will just sort themselves

In the past 6 weeks or so we (rented) have:
Needed the boiler looked at
Needed the grill element replaced
Asked for the gutters to be cleared (tall house, too tall to do ourselves) as one side of the house is getting damp
Lost a roof tile

This is after years of generally not needing much, we've had a replacement oven and shower and a few other minor things

But we do most stuff ourselves, we've changed leaky taps, replaced the shower pull switch, replaced oven elements (they bought the replacements). Our rent is very very reasonable so we don't like costing them money and generally only call on them if it's something that is/could cause damage or its unlivable long term like no oven/shower

This. Good advice.