Bastard Landlords Part II

[theclaud]

An utter shower, the lot of them. With the usual two Exceptions on Grounds of Shameless Favouritism™

Some of you will remember that I was recently evicted for the reasons of the landlord's personal convenience. My new house is very nice, although too expensive for me in various ways. My new landlord is of a very different character to my previous one: casual, sloppy and hands-off as opposed to cautious, pernickety and over-attentive. Both are likeable enough individuals to meet in other circumstances. I won't bore you with the details this time, but once again we are back to a protracted, unnecessary and exhausting battle just to get the f**kwit to behave like a decent human being towards us. So, condensing years of experience into a short representative example based on my two most recent landlords, we're back to the question of how the fact of being a landlord almost inevitably requires a person of whatever character to behave in a selfish, exploitative fashion towards his or her tenants. Whatever personality type is required to baulk this overwhelming structural tendency, it is clearly vanishingly rare. So, Landlords, don't give me the same old wounded howls about what a nice landlord you are, and how troublesome bad tenants can be, because I don't give a monkey's. If renting property out is so tough, stop doing it.

That's the ranty bit. If anyone wants a serious discussion, can it be about how to transform rent law and culture to end the systemic exploitation of obligate tenants by the parasitic landlord classes, please?

 

[theclaud]

Sorry I thought I'd posted this in The Boozer. Feel free to move it, Moderators, if the Landlords start kicking off...

 

[Brains]

Landlords don't like unhappy tenants.

In defence of Landlords you are borrowing a bit of kit that costs upwards of quarter of a million quid, as a landlord I expect you to look after my bit of kit and treat it with the respect it deserves, as the owner I'll fix what I need to to keep the value up, but don't expect me to turn out of bed at 3am because you have blocked the loo with nappies (again)

The house may be too expensive but you don't like the price of the beer, drink elsewhere. The Landlords are running a business and will get what the market will pay. Private house or Public house, Rent or Beer, same rules apply

Now what was the issue ? Perhaps we can help

 

[theclaud]

Landlords don't like unhappy tenants.

In defence of Landlords you are borrowing a bit of kit that costs upwards of quarter of a million quid, as a landlord I expect you to look after my bit of kit and treat it with the respect it deserves, as the owner I'll fix what I need to to keep the value up, but don't expect me to turn out of bed at 3am because you have blocked the loo with nappies (again)

The house may be too expensive but you don't like the price of the beer, drink elsewhere. The Landlords are running a business and will get what the market will pay. Private house or Public house, Rent or Beer, same rules apply

Now what was the issue ? Perhaps we can help

I'm not requesting practical advice, or making a complaint about the rent on this particular property - the fact that I had to move recently to somewhere more expensive is background. And you obviously missed the bit about me not being interested in Landlords' complaints.

 

[User482]

Landlords don't like unhappy tenants.

In defence of Landlords you are borrowing a bit of kit that costs upwards of quarter of a million quid, as a landlord I expect you to look after my bit of kit and treat it with the respect it deserves, as the owner I'll fix what I need to to keep the value up, but don't expect me to turn out of bed at 3am because you have blocked the loo with nappies (again)

The house may be too expensive but you don't like the price of the beer, drink elsewhere. The Landlords are running a business and will get what the market will pay. Private house or Public house, Rent or Beer, same rules apply

Now what was the issue ? Perhaps we can help

Well, as a (former) tenant, I'd expect you to fix the cooker because it's broken, not what's good for market value. And if the heating packs up in December because you're too cheap to fit a decent boiler, yes I would expect you to get round sharpish rather than leaving us to freeze.

A couple of small examples from a landlord who only started maintaining our house once he'd given us notice and put it on the market. He then had the cheek to ask us to keep it tidy for viewings. Naturally, we didn't get our deposit back.

 

[Dan B]

Landlords don't like unhappy tenants.

There is no financial or economic incentive for landlords to care about how cheerful their tenants are, unless tenants are so unhappy that they are going to (a) trash the place, (b) move out. (Unless you have a string of properties it's not as though you care whether they'd recommend you to their friends, is it?) As 98% of normal people would not usually consider the former, and the latter is usually rated in the top ten most stressful life events, the average tenant will put up with a fair amount of shoot before the landlord even hears about it, never mind is materially affected by it

 

[Gromit]

I used to rent a really love flat not too far from the city centre here in York. The landlords were a lovely couple who I got on really well with until they got flashing pound signs in front of their eyes when they realised they could get upwards of £600 pm from their studio flat. I got kicked out.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

funny how they're keen to make sure you fulfil your side of the bargain (pay the rent etc) but when it comes to fulfilling theirs (expensive jobs like roof repairs and maintaining leylandii trees), you get promises and excuses rather than action…

 

[Archie_tect]

An utter shower, the lot of them. With the usual two Exceptions on Grounds of Shameless Favouritism™

Only because you've not rented property from them yet TC! (which 2? ...just curious.)

One thing you must do is make your landlord tests and certifies the boiler, flue and any other gas appliances to check carbon monoxide levels, and get a CO sensor fitted in the hall/ stair alongside the smoke detectors if they aren't already there [SDs should be mains not battery powered]. If he refuses fit your own regardless.

As far as Tenants' Rights and Obligations go I'm sure you're up to speed and better informed than me.

 

[Brains]

As a busy Landlord I can't defend all the positions above but:

Broken Cooker - Yep done that one last Christmas eve! Got a shop to open especially so I could buy it, got a fitter in and silly money. But at least tenants had a Christmas dinner.

Broken Boilers - Happens every year. We do gas inspections every January of every property. Obviously if the boiler stops on the first really cold day of winter (which is the day you find out that the boiler has not been working for ages but either the tenants were unaware, or did not tell you) then yes, it can take days to fit spares.
Hence reason why I have a stockpile of 12 electrical oil heaters that I can get into any property in about 4 hours if I have to.

House Inspections - We do them 3 times a year, I appreciate you may not like some bloke you hardly know poking his way around your home/nest/castle/sanctuary, testing fire alarms, commenting on how clean the carpet is, looking at the state of the paintwork and so on. But I'm afraid your home is my asset/income stream/investment. Nowt I can do about that, would you suggest I don't inspect my houses, then be accused of being an absentee landlord ?

Personal connections - All my tenants know me personally, I use a single agent to find them and check them out, but that is the end of his involvement.

Deposits - ALL landlords MUST have your deposit held by a government registered third party. So in the case of a dispute the arbitration can go either way, it's not up to the landlord.
If you don't have a deposit certificate issued by the 3rd party (usually "MyDeposits") then ask for one, and don't take no for an answer.
Most deposits are lost due to cleaning costs - I expect a house to be returned having been industrially cleaned. I make that very clear from the outset, and have only had a problem with this issue a few times.

 

[Archie_tect]

funny how they're keen to make sure you fulfil your side of the bargain (pay the rent etc) but when it comes to fulfilling theirs (expensive jobs like roof repairs and maintaining leylandii trees), you get promises and excuses rather than action…

Amazing how compliant landlords become when you withhold rent until repairs are complete... but get Local Authority Trading Standards or Building Inspector involved so that you have independent verification.

 

[ttcycle]

It's the insecurity of tenure as well. I have lived in London for about a decade now and have on average moved once a year or even at times once in three months and twice in 6 month periods.

Used to live in this place with walls so thin the man upstairs walking about sounded like an elephant and the walls shook and the neighbour to the side I could hear going to the toilet quite audibly.

Then there was the flat on the second floor that had been redeveloped all wrong as all the flats in the building had mould coming up about 2 metres on the walls.

Then not to mention the studio with climbing cockroaches, damp that was so bad that my clothing went mouldy and a scary amount of mice. Even the Environmental health officers who came told me to move out sharpish it was that bad - that was the three monther. The woman who owned the property threatened my life and to chuck out my belongings when I asked for assistance.

I won't list the others but getting repairs done can be an absolute nightmare.

All those properties were paying market rent prices too...greed, absolute greed.

Thankfully, I'm in a flat that has a great landlord. She's on the ball with repairs and completely reasonable. This can change though, very quickly and without reason.

 

[Brains]

Landlords don't like unhappy tenants

There is no financial or economic incentive for landlords to care about how cheerful their tenants are, unless tenants are so unhappy that they are going to (a) trash the place, (b) move out. (Unless you have a string of properties it's not as though you care whether they'd recommend you to their friends, is it?) As 98% of normal people would not usually consider the former, and the latter is usually rated in the top ten most stressful life events, the average tenant will put up with a fair amount of shoot before the landlord even hears about it, never mind is materially affected by it

There is no financial or economic incentive for landlords to care about how cheerful their tenants are
Yes there is, happy tenants are a lot less hassle than unhappy ones

unless tenants are so unhappy that they are going to (a) trash the place,
That is seriously unhappy - one would have to ask why

b) move out.
This happens all the time - Happy tenants also go

(Unless you have a string of properties it's not as though you care whether they'd recommend you to their friends, is it?)
This happens quite a lot, you also find that properties get passed from one tenant to another on a regular basis, I have one property that is now on tenant number four, each one tipped off the earlier one. It saves me a fortune is Agents fees

the average tenant will put up with a fair amount of shoot before the landlord even hears about it, never mind is materially affected by it
I would really hope not, at least not in the private sector.

 

[ttcycle]

Amazing how compliant landlords become when you withhold rent until repairs are complete... but get Local Authority Trading Standards or Building Inspector involved so that you have independent verification.

I'd be careful of doing this, actually withholding rent is a murky area (if you withold it for two months you can be evicted) seek legal advice if need be.

 

[Archie_tect]

I'd be careful of doing this, actually withholding rent is a murky area (if you withold it for two months you can be evicted) seek legal advice if need be.

Perhaps not a solicitor, due to cost, but certainly CAB and the Council ttc. Mind if the landlord is being so difficult and the relationship has become so unworkable then a tenant has to get independent help, certainly wouldn't recommend withholding rent for anything trivial. Probably best to move if that is an option anyway- depends on lease agreement for break clauses due to unreasonable behaviour on either side.