to question my landlord/letting agent???

[mum2taylor]

I have been in the property for over a year now and have only just received a letter from them saying they wish to carry out an inspection...they have said this is common practice once you have been in the property for 6-8 weeks I sent them an email saying I had been in the property for over a year but if they wanted to carry out an inspection that would be fine. I have had a response saying they are now going to be carrying out inspections every couple of months....is it just me or does that seem a bit much...I would have thought every six months would have been fine!!! Am I being unreasonable in querying them on this?

We have a flat which we let, and it is inspected monthly I think.

We haven't put in a cat flap - I just spend a large amount of time opening the front door for Sir Terrence to come and go.

Lol!!! at all the cat hiders!

I made sure he agreed in writing to our 'one family pet' before we signed as I was told he hated cats and we couldn't get rid of her (though I feel tempted sometimes!)

He agreed, and now he comes round and sits on the sofa and makes a fuss of her whilst telling me how beautiful I am and asking if I will have an affair with him

Our agents come round every 6 months I think. They are very thorough and make tutting noises a lot

Landlord is wonderful though...so I just take the agents with a pinch of salt.

Also speaking as a Landlord, I rented my flat out to one person for almost 5 years. The letting agent inspected every year but when she moved out and I went to the property it was in an awful state. The toilet had been leaking as was the connection under the sink in the kitchen, neither had been reported and so now the problem is ten times worse with damp walls, cupboard etc. If I had known about these things I could have repaired them a lot sooner. If you have nothing to hide then there shouldn't be a problem, I think.

Mind you the place was a tip when we got it and is very cheap, and I have forked out for new carpets and floors etc so they should count themselves bloody lucky really!

What a nightmare, BenFMsmum. But we do have something to hide - the cats!!!

My tennant tried to hide her cat too but I saw it sitting on the window ledge inside!! I didn't mind the cat though, depends what is in you agreement. I think its been said before that it is more the "structure" of the place that is important not whether you have dishes in the sink or not made your bed!! Perhaps your landlord has got another place that they rent out and has just had a bad experience so wants to check up on you, just in case?

If I was your tenant I would have said 'What cat? I can't see a cat!'

My house is let whilst we are abroad, and the agents visit every month. It gives me peace of mind that the tenants are looking after the place, and gives them an opportunity to raise little repairs, which the agents then fix. Mainly for me it's about making sure the tenants aren't smoking to be honest, as when dh rented ho hid the fact that he smoked, started off smoking outside only, and then graduated to the kitchen. If I had been his landlord I would have been furious, and wanted him out, but the agents didn't inspect there at all.

She was hiding her partner too as she only had single person occupancy from the council tax too!! When I asked the agent about it he said maybe the cat is visiting with the boyfriend!!!

Now that is cheeky!

Mmm!! Could be worse I suppose - she could have decked the place out with bunk beds and had a whole load of people in there!! As for the original post, I'd say inspections should be every 3/4 months or so.

Here in Canada they inspect in case a grow-up (pot farm) has been put in! Apparently the wet conditions needed for the pot are very bad for the woodwork! The plus of this is that as a family we have been welcomed in the rental market (children obviously cause less damage than plants )

Speaking as a landlord the paranoia about pets is because of the damage they can do. Some people aren't so careful about cleaning up accidents, cats can really damage carpets by scratching, I've seen skirting boards and door frames chewed up by a dog (not in my property thankfully). It's quite hard to get money from tenants to pay for stuff once they move out. We've had two lots of tenants who didn't pay all their rent in the last few months of tenancy to the point where we were left out of pocket even holding on to the deposit. To add insult to injury we had to replace the carpets after one lot because of the cigarette burns (they weren't supposed to smoke).

Our agents do a quarterly inspection which seems reasonable to me.

We do have one bit of carpet that smells a bit of cat wee

Perty - I understand that. But we've been living in our house now for nearly two years. We've paid on time every single month without fail. We have highlighted problems in the property well before they become huge issues - eg the leaking bath causing damp on the lounge ceiling below. The place is kept clean and well maintained at all times. We have in fact improved it - painting and sorting out the bathroom, efforts into the garden, cleaning all the internal walls that were filthy when we moved in etc.

We also have a deposit with them of £2300!!! I feel therefore that our request to have a cat, and our reassurance that we would look after the property and take responsibility for any issues that arose as a result of the cat should be at least considered?

Hi
We had a woof of a landlady in our last house. It was rented through an agency who inspected every 6 months.
It had no central heating and no double glazing, at first it was fine but we started to have trouble with condenstation on the windows and big puddles on the window sills through winter. we wiped the windows on a daily basis and the agency reported it to the L/L after every inspection. We were there for nearly 3 years so as time went on the woodern windows started to rot. Out of the blue our L/L came round, we,d never seen her before, and started painting over the rot then accused us of disrespecting her property and 12hours later served us our eviction notice!!!!!
12 months on we live in a much better house with C/H and D/D for the same money and we are still waiting for our bond back...

I've also posted this in legal, and would add that as I am abroad it is really helpful to have quarterly inspections as it means I can get repairs sorted over the year, rather than in the 7 days I am back in UK in the summer.

My letting agent does quarterly inspections of my property. This is great as it highlights any problems that the tenants may have, and that I can get fixed, or the letting agent can, asap.

I laugh every time she does one, and tells me that the house isn't very tidy (it wasn't when I lived there, and won't be when I move back), but it picks up on things like the tree needing cutting back, and any roof tiles in high winds etc. I'm not worried about the tidiness of the house; but the actual physical state of it...like the windows if they need redoing etc.