Landlord responsibilities

[feelinlucky]

Not sure if this is the right section to post but I'm renting out my flat and managing the rental myself rather than using an agent. I'm concerned that my tenant isn't clear about her responsibilities and that she has expectations of me that aren't realistic but I've never done this before so I'm looking for some advice please? For example she rang me tonight at home, she has no electricity and expected me to sort it out. Apparently her meter ran out and she thinks the electricity company have mixed up the boards with a neighbours! I'm generally confused and tried to explain to her that she would have to take it up with the electricity company. She was very hostile and I'm fed up with her ringing me all hours! Any advice would be very gratefully received.

I really don't see what she has done that is so horrendous. Ok, she does seem a bit thick and maybe a sandwich short of a picnic but you've said she pays her rent and calls you about unnecessary things sometimes. I know she got a cat when you asked her not to, although I really don't understand wha lot of landlords are so funny about it. I'd say you don't have it too bad. Definitely get that deposit registered, and I don't agree that people can't get hold of you, what if your house was on fire etc.
Are you doing regular inspections on the property? And maybe think of it this way, what if you had a tenant that didn't call you about anything (leaks, electrical falls etc) your house would fall apart and you'd be none the wiser.

if the house is on fire you don't call the landlord immediately, you call the fire brigade.

why don't landlords like cats? scratched up carpets, urinated-on carpets, wrecked woodwork - very few deposits are big enough to fix all that. Oh, and if the cat gets fleas or the next tenant has allergies, the place will need major cleaning.

I agree that occasional inspections are a good idea for the reasons mentioned.

Poly, cheers for the enlightened post!

Thanks other helpful people. I will ensue deposit in scheme as of next week. That is the only thing outstanding. I actually let her off £200 of the deposit and allowed her to pay it instalments because I wanted to help her out. I also put furniture in because she couldn't afford that. My intentions have always been good but not at all business like. My mistake to rectify for future. I should have sought mumsnet advice before I set out.

Atbeck, you're totally right, she hasn't done anything horrendous and I have no intention of evicting her at present however, I need to make sure I'm doing everything legally and take my responsibilities seriously. My finely tuned intuition is telling me she could cause problems but I could be wrong.

I'm sorry to be harsh but even if you get the deposit protected immediately it is still late (you've missed the time limit) so your tenant has the right to claim compensation from you for three times the amount of the deposit. If she is aware of her rights then you could be made to pay her.
AND you can't evict her.

Renting a furnished house is better for you anyway, IIRC. Renting an unfurnished house provides more protection for the tenant.

I had to evict once - it took about 3 months, and I was lucky that my Dad's legal firm did it for me on the cheap. I didn't get any rent in that time. It was quite stressful, as the guy was an aggressive arsehole. He tried to attack me when he was eventually evicted, even though I had got the police to attend as a precautionary measure. (I have dined out on the story of me driving off with him clinging on to the wing mirror, then mounting the pavement to avoid hitting him as he had lain down in the middle of the road to stop me leaving - wanker ).

My advice is if you can carry on without evicting, that is the better option.

I think you need to be explicit with your tenant about what sort of stuff you can deal with, and appropriate times for contacting you about it. If she thinks the meter board is switched round, it might be an idea to check it out with the electricity supplier just in case.

Poly is right about the deposit - you have to do it within a certain period.

OP there are letting agents who operate a 24/7 helpline - the one I work for does, it helps whittle out the drunk tenants who have lost their keys at 3am from the ones who have water pouring through the ceiling.

As well as putting the deposit into the scheme, there is some prescribed information you have to give her, and you have to get her to sign a copy to say she has received it.

You really are screwed if she decides to go after you for not protecting her deposit. Sorry.

Other basics: does she have a signed tenancy agreement and inventory? Do you have a gas boiler and if so, do you have annual safety check and relevant certificates?

You legally have to give her two months notice, by the way, she only has to give you one.

Poly, what a little ray of sunshine you are :)

Beryl that really made me laugh. It's good you can see the funny side of things now.

I'll get everything sorted. I've been incredibly naive but I learn quickly. I'm not making any money on the property, in fact it's costing me but I've lost so much since the beginning of the recession it's more cost effective for me to hold on to it. My son and I out grew it and he started secondary school. As I'm a lone parent I wanted him to be near the school so I made the decision to move. If I don't get rent obey I would struggle hugely to live but it's not entirely undoable. Thanks so much everyone for your really helpful replies.

It's probable she will be a niggly tenant and probably won't do anything major. If that was the case no property owner would ever rent out their properties on the 'just in case.'

Have you got a tenancy agreement drawn up and signed? I'm assuming you have based on other posts.

Just thinking out loud, would you be able to buy your tenant out. My parents have done this with few of theirs. Then maybe you can start afresh with correct documents and tenancy agreement etc?

Unexpected, yes, she has a signed agreement. There's no gas on the block. I had the boiler checked before I moved out. I stupidly didn't do an inventory but I'm not really too bothered about that. I provided all the white goods, a sofa and wardrobes. I guess the deposit scheme has been my one big error but I'll rectify that. I doubt she will sue me because she will hopefully not give me reason to keep hold of the deposit. I'm not an unreasonable person. I will do what I can from my end but I can't be responsible for other people so fingers crossed she will not cause any bother.

one check with the furniture - does it meet the fire regulations? If it is less than about 20 years old, it almost certainly does, but if it was second-hand/vintage it should not be in a rented property if you, the landlord, provided it.

no inventory means if she wrecks or steals your stuff, you've no comeback. So hopefully she won't!

I doubt she will sue me because she will hopefully not give me reason to keep hold of the deposit. Whether you need to retain the deposit or not is not relevant, you seem to be assuming she won't realise that you haven't acted in accordance with the law, even if you were to put it in a scheme now.

feelinlucky - I have been a tenant for 30 years and frankly if I were vindictive (I am not) I could steal all your furniture, trash your house, refuse to pay rent and then legally claim 3 x my deposit from you.

No inventory and no deposit in an approved scheme and you are a sitting duck as a landlord.

You say you had the boiler 'checked'. Did you have a certificate made out and given to the tenant by the boiler engineer and is it less than a year old? If your boiler is faulty and someone dies and you don't have a certificate you go to prison.

I had to spell that fact out very clearly to an agent once. He did not give me a gas certificate. I walked into the shop called the owner of the agency down from his office and told him if I died in the flat due to carbon monoxide poisoning my insurance company would pursue him for the value of my life insurance and he would go to prison for killing me and he would be bankrupted and his wife and children would be homeless.

I got the certificate that day.

the OP has said that there is no gas at the property. The rules morebeta mentions are for gas appliances.

it is indeed an offence not to supply a current gas certificate. As it should be.

I really don't think the OP tenant is that bad. She pays the rent and complies with the law. Renting a property gives you a good income for relatively little work. I think you have to accept the occassional dopey call from a tenant. I find it shocking the suggestion of not allow a tenant to call you in an absolute emergency.

I try to have a constructive and business relationship with my tenants. They know I will get stuff fixed and they don't take the piss. I have only ever had one really bad tenant who got carted off to Pentenville for stabbing her boyfriend during a row.

I feel the OP would be better getting an ALRA registered letting agent to manage her property. The ALRA agent would make sure the OP was acting within the law and sort out annoying niggles.

I reiterate that there is no emergency for which the landlord is first point of contact. The emergency services are for that. Fire, flood, burglary - emergency services. Sure, let the landlord know but he/she isn't first point of call.

you cannot expect a landlord to jump, instantly, 24/7. And you are in cloud cuckoo land if you expect mobiles (or indeed landlines) to work all the time, even if the landlord has the phone surgically attached to their body. Mobiles are not reliable forms of communication.

next morning is fine. The landlord can't get a plumber or electrician in the middle of the night even if you do contact them!

Renting a property gives you a good income for relatively little work.

hahahahaha. Here comes the 'rich evil landlord' stuff again.

returns on most rental properties are 3% before tax.

I guess OP that people are worried that she might realise that because the deposit went into the scheme late, she could get 3x that value because of your mistake. She might think that, in these cash strapped times, it would be a handy little bonus to have in recompense for your error.

Another way of looking at it: Unfortunately nice doesn't come into it - she might be the nicest tenant in the world but how many people would turn down money that they were entitled to just because they were nice?

It sounds more like if you don't have to pay her then you have gotten lucky rather than her getting lucky if you do have to pay her!

There's absolutely nothing I can do now about being late paying into the deposit scheme. I get it!!! She could try to get 3 x the amount. I made a mistake. If I could give blood or choppy head off I would!!! I get it (I'm screaming at the screen now). I have nothing else to say. The sofa I left her is only a couple of years old and has the fire safety label on it. I will say it again. There is no gas! I've now stopped being nice and learned my lesson. I'm making a loss on the rental but needed more space as my son grows and we're nearer to his school so I feel safer knowing it's a shorter distance for him to travel, although he still insists I pick him up :) thanks all. I really do appreciate the tips and advice and feel worried but less anxious.

Ordinarily I would suggest that you get a good letting agent, as a good one will act as a buffer and ensure that all your obligations are met on your behalf, do inspections etc which is worth 10% of the monthly rent, but as you are making a loss then it is probably a bit too much.

"
hahahahaha. Here comes the 'rich evil landlord' stuff again.

returns on most rental properties are 3% before tax."

Obviously you have not chosen the right property to rent. I have two properties and have a much better yield, (inspite of me allowing one month's rent per year on maintaince). Yields vary a lot around the country but there are plenty of places where you can get a yield of about 5%.

The yield increases with time. The tenant pays your mortgage. Over the course of 25 years you get a far bigger yield than 3%. A landlord gains rather appreciation of the asset as well as rental income. Rents go up with inflation, but the mortage payments only go up if interest rates go up. If you have a repayment mortgage then you become less vunerable to interest rate rises as you pay the catpical off.

feelinlucky

Its not too late. You can put her desposit into a property desposit scheme NOW over the internet. I have just bought a flat with a tenant in and the prevoius landlord had not bothered with a desposit scheme. The first thing I did on taking over ownership the property was to put the money in the scheme.

www.depositprotection.com/landlord-info

A tenant would have to take you to court to get the money. Most tenants just want their desposit back.

This checklist gives you an idea of your responsiblities.

[[www.depositprotection.com/landlord-info]]

terribly sorry, I will arrange to have my rental property moved to London as that is clearly the only place where anyone should live.

Property prices where I am are not increasing although they are stable. I wouldn't be doing this except that inflation is very high and savings rates very low. BTW I worked for years to earn the money to buy the property, for all those who seem to think that landlords are given houses for free.

The gross yield IS about 5%, but I then knock off agents fees, insurances, gas safety etc.

If it was not profitable to be a landlord then you would quickly sell up. I believe it makes business sense to treat the tenant as a human being and look after them. I provide my tenant with a service and she pays me rent.

"Property prices where I am are not increasing although they are stable. I wouldn't be doing this except that inflation is very high and savings rates very low. BTW I worked for years to earn the money to buy the property, for all those who seem to think that landlords are given houses for free."

In most cases the tenant pays for the mortgage. You aren't being given the house for free. A good landlord provides the tenant with a home in return for rent. The rent pays for the property which ultimately buys the house.

You have been lucky. Not everyone can get on the property ladder. Often rents cost more than having a mortgage, but it is difficult to get a desposit together. I was once tenant caught in the rent trap. I worked for years paying someone else's mortgage.

My lucky break was getting married. The two of us were able to get enough money together to get a desposit for our first property. I was lucky enough that my marriage has not ended in divorce. I am lucky that I have never experienced serious illness.

I have two excellent tenants. One of them is an immigrant and he cannot get a mortgage because he is only in the UK temporarily. My other tenant cannot get a mortgage as she was repocessed in the past (through bad luck NOT laziness!). If they need to ring me about a maintaince problem then that is fine. I will do my best to help them.