I hate renting - absolutely bloody hate it hate it HATE IT

[stripeymama]

I hate living with the knowledge that we could have to leave our home with only two months notice. I think that private tenancy rules suck and that tenancies should be for longer with substantially more notice to quit needed.

I hate not being allowed to decorate, and the way it doesn't seem worth doing things like growing vegetables or carpetting the stairs, in case we have to move out.

I hate the fact that my landlady is too tight to pay the letting agent to manage the property, so when things need doing/fixing/sorting out, I have to get in touch with the landlady.

Who lives in sodding Japan.

I hate the way she never does anything anyway, and our kitchen roof has been leaking for the last year.

I hate the fact that even if I were to get a job tomorrow, I'd only earn the minimum wage, which would not be enough to get any mortgage, even on a teeny tiny crappy house, anyway.

Blimey Sheik - 7 weeks!
We were without hot water and heating for a week a couple of years ago. It was over Christmas and my DS was just under 2 months old.
We lived in a flat in a very old building, with single glazed windows. Freeeeeeeeeezing!
That was in a housing association place in Bromley. That's as far as I shall go to naming them, but anyone in that area will probably know who they are! Atrocious landlord to have.

So weird that I posted on this thread yesterday

We just had a call from our landlord saying he is coming tomorrow to see us! Don't they have to give notice or something? He has also just told me that the housing benefit has been paying £30 less than they are supposed to every month for the last year so our deposit is all eaten up

Fuck fuck fuck, now we have to get the house immaculate, hide DS (landlord doesn't know that we have a new baby or about the fact we had him at home lol), fix DD's door plus DD has her first day at preschool tomorrow so I was stressed enough anyway.

Didn't you get a letter about the HB shortfall? I get letters telling me how much is being paid. Just make sure he is not trying anything funny.

The Housing benefit is payed every 4 weeks, ask for receipts from him and Housing benefit. He is trying to con you. So if your rent is (making these figures very simple O.K.) £150 per calender month.

£150 per cal month X 12 months = £1800.

Which is 52weeks X £34.62 (rounded up).

Now HB pay 4 weekly which means they pay 13 times in the year not 12.

4 X £34.62 = £138.48 a significant difference in one month only.

But 4 X 13 weeks = 52 weeks

So 13 lots of £138.48 = £1800.24 (I said I had rounded up but the council will give an adjusted amount) so you havn't been shortchanged by the council, unles you were supposed to be paying an amount yourself.

If the shortchanging had gone on as long as he says then surely the landlord would have told you. Call his bluff and ask about the exact payments and how many he has received.

Also once you are in a place there has never been a clause on any tenancy agreements that say you can't have a baby. Whats he going to do? sit at the end of your bed each night and make sure you take your pill, or demand an abortion.

landlords also have to give a reasonable amount of notice to the tenant that they are visiting, in other words they have to make an appointment that is suitable for you. You could have refused to see him tomorrow by saying that you need more notice, you will be doing a/b/c and d. Or that you are busy/ away whatever. We have usually been given a weeks notice, crikey even my Mum gives me more than a day to get the mess shifted into seperate piles.

Thanks for the replies, going for a run will get back to you soon

OK have to be quick because I have to get on with the cleaning

Our hb has been up and down all year, basically DP and I get

Industrial Injuries Benefit DP
Incapacity Benefit DP
Child Tax Credit Me
Child Benefit Me

Becaust the IIB had to be backdated 6 months we owed HB, then they worked that out wrong and we owed another amount. Then they lost our file and we had to totally reapply, then we had DS and the CTC changed so they paid a different amount, which then had a domino affect on the all the other benefits so it is all a big mess and they never pay the same amount each month . I have to work out how much they are paying each month by looking at our online benefit account and then pay our amount accordingly.

Our landlord says we are short £36 a month, which coincidentally is the same as our invoiced overpayment that they are supposed to claw back from the rent each month before they give me the number they are paying that month

What a mess

I swear if DP and I ever find ourselves on benefits again it will be a cold day in hell before I go cap in hand to the housing benefit office, it has been nothing but stress for the last year from them.

Ok, got a query (still no news on whether or not we are being evicted, sigh). If One is impoverished and has an erratic income but has a Kind Friend who is prepared to pay the rent from his bank account as long as I give him the money (and who can cope with some of it being a day or two late) how big a deal is that to letting agents, ie if the person whose account the rent comes out of is not the person actually living in the place. ANyone know, or is it going to depend on individual agents?

Hmm i think they may insist his name is on the tenancy is well as he will be paying the rent from his bank account, they can also do bank checks (which the one i am applying to now is doing) to see how he runs his account & if he can afford the rent on what he has coming into his bank.

all agents can be different though so i think it depends on there rules as individuals.

I don't think they would be bothered really. I have a friend who does this as her partner has a ccj and they wouldn't let him be on the tenancy so they just take the rent out of her parents account and she pays them I think.

My landlord came today and he was lovely

He said the house looked fab he loved what we had done with it and he wanted to move in! Then he said not really he was sodding off back to Thailand for another year and when did he think we would want to leave because he was quite happy for us to rent for the next 5 YEARS . Then he said we could put a bath in if we wanted (DP is a plumber type so can do it himself) and do what we wanted to with the garden, so happy happy happy days for us.

To madamez:
a Kind Friend of that sort could be asked to act as a guarantor, and name goes on the tenancy in that way only.
ie s/he is guaranteeing the rent will be paid but has no other involvement with the tenancy.

this can be very attractive to some landlords because there is someone with some cash they could chase if they had to.

So glad for you Sherby. Now pin him down to a 5 year tenancy.
We have already had our tenancy extended to 2010 (only been in 6 months), because we have gotten on top of the maintenance and billed the landlady.

has anyone got a contract for longer than 12 months? not an extended one after you've already lived there but from the off iyswim?

I think it's worth asking if you can get a 12 month (or longer) contract. The tenant before our current one asked us if we would be prepared to negotiate a lower rent in return for him agreeing to commit to staying at least 12 months, which we did as for us it was better to know for certain that we had a tenant for longer.

That said, he did in fact leave after 8 months anyway (although we agreed that he, rather than us would pay the fee the agency charged for finding new tenants as he left before the agreed 12 months).

I hate it too. Just been EMAILED by my letting agent/Landlord to tell us she is selling up. Just when we've finally got the place looking the way we want it. We have two children who are settled in school and we are great friends with my next door neighbour and her children. I can't stand the thought of moving again. All the costs involved and the fact we can't afford it....and it could just happen again when a landlord decides they want to turf you out. No chance of a council house as we 'earn too much' (that's a bloody joke - our rent here is £950pcm and we STRUGGLE to pay that!). I just don't know what to do. We just can't afford this and our hand is being forced! AAARGH!

It's awful. DC rents and so far, has had to move three times in as many years due to landlords selling up. They are good tenants - ll always comment on the good state of the place at check out, but that's no help to DC! In this area, DC is very unlikely to ever be able to buy, so this is going to be his life until we die, when he'll have a share of the house - assuming it's not been accounted for in care home fees of course.