Friends of mine own a property they rent out, which is his old home before he moved into his partners house. They seem to have nothing but trouble with their past three tenants. Late payments, substantial damages etc. Their latest saga is a tenant 60 days in arrears who, hearing their tale of woe, is not going to pay up and they are having to begin eviction proceedings.
They asked my advice and I told them that if the rent was not paid on the designated date by DD I would be round within 48 hours to find out why. Face to face. Their tenant isn't responding to emails or phone calls , although is still in situ. My advice was get the tenant out ASAP , redecorate, put right any damages and sell the place. Then spend it while still on top...the rental income is just 'extra' savings that they don't do use anyway, and the situation is a huge cause of stress for them so best draw a line under it.
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Rental, and the rise in property prices is still the way to go for investment and pension reasons.*
And if you rent, you need to vet your tenants. Do they have, for example a hefty deposit to hold on to?
* I know the whole idea of having a pension is an anathema to you, but its not an idea Ii would pass on to anyone else.
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One months rental deposit. Vetted by agent.
I have no problem with pensions per se. If I had ever had a job where my employer contributed, or you could get a final salary one then fantastic. Paying into a private pension, and only affording a small monthly amount, simply was not the right course of action in my circumstances. I just took out a larger mortgage, and fortunately property prices increased so my house is my pension.
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>>Vetted by agent
Not good enough in my opinion. Even if letting through an agent (shudder, shudder...), it really is a good idea for property owners to spend some time chatting to potential tenants to see if they are giving off the right vibes.
>> you need to vet your tenants.
Too right!. The slightest doubt is a signal to move on.
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> really is a good idea for property owners to spend some time chatting to potential
>> tenants to see if they are giving off the right vibes.
>>
>> >> you need to vet your tenants.
>>
>> Too right!. The slightest doubt is a signal to move on.
>>
I think it's a good idea for the tenant as well to check out the landlord. And as above anything iffy, go rent another house.
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When I met my wife 11 years ago, she moved into my house and we let hers.
The first tenants were fine.
The second lot were not fine. They were low down, thieving, scumbags... and they had TWO HORSES and an adult child unemployed, (who could have at least got a bar job or a labourers job or something)... and after they left all their debt rolled in on the mat, inc fraud with catalogues.
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>> I think it's a good idea for the tenant as well to check out the
>> landlord. And as above anything iffy, go rent another house.
>>
I quite agree. There are good and bad in each category.
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Are the problems with tenants just as likely to occur if
1. You have gone through an agent for references, deposit, rent paid to the agent etc?
Or
2. Done it all yourself, thereby saving agents fees, commission etc?
Several years ago, I had a property which I rented out as bed-sits, an agent vetted the tenants, collected and held the deposit. I collected the rents, never any serious problems.
Do the people who have problems use the DIY system?
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>> Do the people who have problems use the DIY system?
>>
We used an agent, someone local who was recommended and who I went and saw personally before signing up.
Loads of people told us to do it ourselves, but as the house was in Devon and we were in London I went the agent route.
It still went wrong.
The agent was a very, very nice lady and was running a long established business. She could not have been more helpful to me and even changed her vetting policy after we discussed our difficulties and what checks had been done (she had done the usual, but I felt more could have been done with hindsight).
Liars and thieves, by definition, are sneaky... so you have to be well on the ball.
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>> nothing but trouble with their past three tenants.
Most landlords will now have troubles with successive governments as well.
As the voter demography changes (more renters as number of homeowners reducing) new rules will be tenant friendly and hostile to landlords.
Once the number ministers who are also landlords will fall below 50% in the parliament, observe how the LLs will suffer.
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I would have to think long an hard. One useful source of tenants around here is the MoD.
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>> As the voter demography changes (more renters as number of homeowners reducing) new rules will
>> be tenant friendly and hostile to landlords.
Wouldn't that just mean some landlords get out of the market, some potential landlords don't get into the market, rented property thus becomes scarcer and rents rise even more?
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Which is why Labour want to fix rents.
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... while nobody is thinking of fixing the underlying root cause - uncontrolled immigration
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>> ... while nobody is thinking of fixing the underlying root cause - uncontrolled immigration
Which pif course is not the root cause, the population of London, where rents are highest, has only just reached the previous high levels of previous decades.
The root cause is break up of families who used to crowd into one house.
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>> The root cause is break up of families who used to crowd into one house.
And social housing policy, net migration, foreign investors , buy-to let.
According to a recent article, in Cambridge, for new apartments £200k to £400k -
75% are purchased by investors of which
40% live in Cambridge; 40% live 10+ miles outside Cambridge; 9% from overseas
and almost all are sold off plan.
That is not healthy. It also looks more than a bit bubbly, even though the bubble could get an awful lot bigger given the number of wealthy foreign, including Chinese, investors who see UK property as a safe bank account.
goo.gl/7JT20A
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>> Which is why Labour want to fix rents.
Which will drive landlords from the market who will liquidate into the buy market and leave the renters homeless.
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We let our UK house for a couple of years when we first moved to Austria in 2009. There was no way we could manage the property from abroad, so we used Hamptons International. They vetted the tenants, and did all the property management including collecting the rent. Our tenants were, however, there for two years and we sold it after they left. They left it in reasonable condition. During their stay they wanted to make a few changes, including adding security lights and fitting different types of locks, but they paid for all of them. It may have cost us in fees, but it made the letting painless.
We have various friends here in Austria who let houses out in the UK, the majority have had good but some have had horrendous experiences, some use agents and some don't.
Presumably your friends have insurance which covers damage by tenants? And presumably the insurance company will chase them for recompense where clear guilt is established?
Last edited by: Mike H on Mon 30 Nov 15 at 12:11
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I've had no problems over the last 15 years of letting properties, but to be fair I have been lucky with tenants who have stayed for extended periods of time.
I use an agent to find and check the tenant, then take over the day to day management.
Friends had a nightmare experience- rented out through an agent to a professional couple. All looked good until they stopped paying the rent to fund their drug habit. Had to go through the full eviction process and due to the state of the house needed extensive remedial work plus specialist cleaners to deal with the discarded hypodermics. Expensive area, professional couple, so I guess sometimes you are just unlucky
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A tenant should not be asked to leave at LL's whims.
If a tenant is paying rent on time, maintaining the property in a good manner and not doing anything illegal, should be given a long notice (not just 2 months max as it stands) - at least 1 year (unless tenants wants to move earlier). This will drive out lots of "investors" from the market.
I believe it is something similar in Germany.
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If a tenant has not paid rent for two months, has no means of paying the agreed monthly payments, or ever paying the debt accrued, I would want them out ASAP.
Otoh, if you have a tenant who pays the rent on time, keeps everything neat & tidy, then under no circumstances should the tenant be asked to leave. At least until the contract is up, and never being a landlord only a tenant, I assume you would agree a new contract long before the rental period was up.
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The perils of being a landlord - Zero
