If you are a Landlord/landlady, how much money do you spend on the property you are letting?

[Gorionine]

I was just wondering. We have ben tenants for about 6 years and we have not asked for anything to our landlord. He does pay for the yearly gas appliance check but that is about the extent of it.

There are numerous problems in the kitchen (basically started to fall appart a few month after we moved in). The estate agent is aware of the problem because we remind him of it on each inspection (about 3 inspections a year).

I was just wondering if our landlord just does not care or if is common practice to do nothing until we leave and then maybe install a knew kitchen for the next tenants?

For goodness photograph all problems and post them recorded delivery to the estate agent otherwise the only person who will be buying a new kitchen for that house will be you out of the deposit.
Has he made notes on the inspection too, in fact forget that ours "lost the notes" when it got to court.

Sorrento makes a good point there - you say it started to fall apart after you moved in?

That's not great from your point of view with regards to the deposit. Presumably you have a pre-tenancy inspection that you signed?

Yes, but the estate agent has not only taken notes he has assured us that the damage can not been blamed on us. The covering is peeling off from the cupboard arround the oven and on top of cooking hobs, unless I stop cooking altogether the problem cannot be avoided..

We have a lot of photos of other things that where wrong when we moved in. The kitchen was recent, but has probably been fited by the landlords children IYSWIM. There are gaps everywhere and none of the cupboard actually close properly (from before we moved in).

Posted to fast, sorry, Sorrento has your estate agent said that the notes had been lost? how terrible for you. how did it end up (if it has yet)?

It ended with us paying £2,600 for an ancient carpet to be replaced even though the agent noted in the inventory that it was old and frayed.
I would just keep the photo's safe as the agents work for the landlord not you if it goes to court.

From personal experience there is sometimes a large gap in communication between what the tenant asks the estate agent for and what information is actually passed on to the landlord.
The inspection reports received by the landlord probably just list the wear and tear. Unless you actually ask for the work to be carried out the landlord will probably just file the report, as far as he/she is concerned the agent has done the job by conducting the inspection.
Six years is a long time, it would be perfectly reasonable to repairs etc carried out. You need to make sure the request is actually getting to the landlord and ask to see the reply in writing. You presumably have the landlords contact details on your lease, I know you must go through the agent but have you actually written a letter or is this all based on the inspection reports?

So far only based on inspections reports. Are you a landlady/lord yourself verylapsedrunner?

Yes, and also been a tenant abroad at same time as house let out in the UK. I just know how easy it is for the whole thing to become "out of sight, out of mind", especially when you are paying an agent commission on the rental income to manage it for you.
We never took action on a routine inspection report but we did when it was a specific request for something IYSWIM.

Thank you very much all of you, it has openend my eyes on a few issues that need to be settled, it is really nice to have the experiences from both sides.

I am Sorrento, I always was told that landlords could not ask for old things to be repaced by new ones. For example that if a twelve year old cooker needs to be repaced because you broke it it has to be replaced by another 12 year old cooker that works, not a new one. Is that just a myth then? We were told that by the Citizen Advice Bureau once (not related to this matter).

There is a difference between diliberate damage and general wear and tear. If a 12 year old cooker breaks then I doult the landlord can make a claim against the tenant unless the tenant had done something exceptionally stupid to break the cooker.

On our rental property we spend at least 10% to 20% of the rent each on maintaince. This year it has been more as we installed a kitchen at the tenant's request, but we have cleverly managed to spread the cost over two financial years. (Ie. we paid the kitchen fitter in March and next month we will pay the bill from Homebase)

If you do not spend a reasonable amount of maintaince then it is impossible to keep decent tenants. At the moment the rental market in the UK is a tenant's market as lots of people are renting out properties instead of selling as house prices have fallen.

With rent desposit schemes the landlord has to make a case to deduct money from your desposit. Its not so easy for a dishonest landlord to grab your desposit.

We thought the same hence why we said see you in court, when we got there the onus was on us prove the carpets were as old and tatty as we said as we didn't deny the accidental damage, but he got a new for old replacement and to say they upgraded was an understatement, I would have told them to shove it but DH didn't want a CCJ which we got anyway because the landlord didn't tell the court we'd paid him, so that's on our record too

I am a landlord - don't use an agency but our tenant contacts us direct if anything is wrong and we sort it out asap as we want to keep her! - just paid to fix the boiler last month.
We did take photos of the house before she went in but expect normal wear & tear.
Gorionine - I would detail all issues in writing with a copy each recorded delivery to the agent and the landlord asking for a confirmed plan of action. Did you take pics when you moved in?
Sorrento for you - we are not all like that I promise.

Yes, I should add that we have agreed to everything any tenant has ever requested as all have been reasonable requests (new white goods, pump to improve water pressure, new imersion heater etc). Also in between tenants have redecorated, replaced carpets, dry cleaned curtains etc.

Gorionine, I am a landlady too and so far this year I have replaced a fridge, put a new hob in the kitchen, sorted out some tiling in the bathroom, had an electrician to sort out some lighting and had the whole property painted (whilst inbetween tenants, this last one). Basically, I want to keep the property nice and retain nice tenants. It seems to work. If you let a property get rundown, then the tenants are going to be less likely to a) want to rent it, and b) look after it.

My tenants have my telephone number and ring me when they have a problem. I would rather deal with them direct, than go through the agents as it saves misunderstandings occuring.

Blimey our landlord has spent pretty much nothing. He did replace the catch on the ancient washing machine (it broke but took agent over 2 weeks and 3 phone calls to do it) then he replaced the seal on the cooker which had been broken since we moved in. We've been hassling him about our 10 month ovedue gas check to no avail.

You have to do the gas safety check annually. 'Tis the law. Your landlord/lady is in big trouble if they haven't...

Your landlord could go to jail for not doing safety checks.

It seems a pity that bad landlords and bad tenants can't be matched.

We are lucky in that we have a good tenant. We are using an agency as I have a small baby and I can't always give her the instant attention she has paid for.

our agent lets us know what needs doing, organises it and then takes the relevant amount off our monthly rental deposit. we usually redecorate in between tenants if necessary.

we've had tenants where tbh they do nothing but complain (an american couple immediately spring to mind, but i suspect the 'water is too hot' thing was largely to do with them not understanding the (simple) english plumbing and the thermostat...) but we still forked out £60 for a plumber to tell them to turn the dial lol. it was irritating at the time though - particularly as we'd lived in that property ourselves!

we have a contract so that our gas safety checks are done annually in any case, and because we are on contract get a reduced rate for any call-outs/ repairs...

we always use an agent as are rarely in the same country as the property lol. way too much hassle to deal with it!

We have just installed an entirely new shower (shower, base, tiling to walls), replaced freezer, and redecorated throughout. In the near future we will have to replace carpets, and probably the cooker.

We are quite happy to do this, as we would rather have a good tenant with whom we get on and I cannot bear the idea of someone living in a place we are responsible for, in conditions which I would find unacceptable.

Isn't there talk of a new law whereby landlords will have to have a licence? This is to ensure that they keep their properties up to a minimum standard. Your landlord obviously wouldn't get one.

Yes, I read this in a

Times article

£50 a pop

I often read posts by the MN landlords and it's just a different world to the rental market where I live. 20 plus year old kitchens, bathrooms flooring and paint work is the norm here. Anything that is not an immediate threat to life or limb is not considered worthy of attention. Agents seem to treat me as bolshy or unrealistic if I point out a property could do with a lick of paint and a new carpet before re-let.
Double glazing that is so shot and full of condensation that you can't see out seems commonplace. What is the point of a window you can't see through ffs?

There are still rental properties here which do not have central heating. This is not a ghetto - it's actually thought of as rather a nice area.

Sorrento - that is both shocking and deeply depressing. Decent regulation is desperately needed to protect both parties.

Reallytired - like the idea of bad tenants and bad landlords being matched, can I add bad agents in there too please

I let out my old flat and manage a house for a friend who has gone back to the States. I have very good tenants in both and agree that the more you look after somewhere the more chance you have of getting decent tenants who in turn will look after it.

Over the past 12 months in my flat I have replaced the washing machine, the toilet seat and the doorbell and had a plumber in to sort out a leaky radiator. In my friend's house we have replaced the shower and are just about to replace the boiler.

I would echo putting things in writing to both the agent AND landlord, ask for copies of inspection reports if possible (or follow up the inspection in writing) and take lots of photos that you date (even better if you have one of those irritating 'date on photo' things on your camera)

1dilemma - annual gas safety check is the law as others have said. Your landlord/lady is acting illegally by not having a valid CP12 Landlord's Gas Safety Certificate. Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. You should also be given a copy of the certificate when it is issued.

Liberal - I've lived in that rental market too and swore I wouldn't be that sort of landlady.
The sooner bad landlord's are chased off the better for everyone.

Sorrento - that is an appalling story

Thank you everybody!

Pesto, The landlord has done the anual gas appliance checks , that is all that has been done by him in the last 6 years.
(, what happened to the word thread, has anyone started a new one yet?)

Jackstini, we have pics of the things that were wrong in the kitchen when we moved in (ill fiited cupboard doors, ill fitted lino, general misfitting of kitchen units) but the cover of the doors that started peeling of after we moved in only has been "witnessed" by the estate agent and supposidly noted by him but I will make sure we tell them again in writting after your good advice.

From what I am gathering, we have not been tooo demanding so I might just have the courage to ask for something about the cupboards doors to be done, maybe, if I dare...