hi all. Really strung up at the moment so thought I'd post here and see what you thought. We rent out our old house, currently to three postgraduates whose contract runs out in June but who might want to extend. I was rung this morning by a guy wanting to rent the house as he was doing a course at the theological college from Sept, and wanted to get his kids into the local school. I explained I couldn't guarantee it would be free, but he could have next say on it after the current tenants. To be nice (I know from these boards how fraught getting school places is ) i said he was welcome to use the address. Fine.
I then rang my tenants to say if they got any letters from the LEA, who to pass them on to. At which point they said they had had a letter with that name on it 10 days ago, and had rung the LEA to say 'not at this address'. So clearly he'd only rung me because the LEA had got onto him about this!! I know its stressful getting places, but this takes the mickey - he only rung me when he got turned down. I suspect he doesn't want to rent it at all, just wants me to say the right things to the LEA. He kept saying he'd pay a deposit and didn't mind not gettin it back if he didn't move in, and he hadn't seen round the inside of the house but didn't seem bothered, just desparate to clinch the deal. I now suspect he doesn't actually want to rent it at all, but is prepared to lose the deposit to get the school place. I'm certainly going to now demand the deposit, which I didn't before, and make it quite clear its non-refundable! But I'm wondering how normal this is or whether it is evidence of total non-trustworthiness (in which case I don't want him as a tenant even if he is legit). I'm sympathetic to the school place thing, but is this normal stressed parent behaviour, or con man behaviour? What do you think?
Sorry, v. long- I'm stressed, I've got to talk to this guy about this soon!!