Landlord Vs Tenant | God Vs Worm

Reading some of the horror stories in this thread makes me quite wary about moving in a few months.

I've lived in 2 rented properties with friends since moving out of home and so far have been incredibly lucky with the landlords. The first place was in a fairly new flat so nothing much went wrong, had one visit from the landlord in the 12 months that we lived there.

They did take £120 of our deposit for carpet cleaning. This annoyed me as we thoroughly cleaned the flat before left... I'm talking top to bottom. Not to mention the carpets were of really poor quality and were starting to wear anyway.

I live in a 3 bedroom house at the moment and the landlord is absolutely superb. We had a leak from the bath a few weeks ago which caused some damage to the kitchen lights. He was around next day to check it out and arranged for an electrician and a plumber to come round later that week.

The lease is up in May and I'm planning to move into a place with my girlfriend. I'm looking forward to moving but am not looking forward to getting a potentially problematic landlord.
 
I wouldn't worry too much otherwise you'll never move anywhere.

The mistakes I made were not taking a full inventory of items already in the flat when I moved in. Notifying any damage to flat/walls/carpets/wood/toilets/bathroom etc to the agency or landlord. Do this and it will hopefully cover a lot of the financial recooperation landlord will try to claim for at the end of your tenancy. Someting we didn't do in our first place.

The flat we are in now has some underlying damage, cracks, paintwork damage etc, some were there before we moved in and some we've caused ourselves. She's out of the country at the moment so can't ask her if she wants me to do some repairs. I wouldn't mind sprucing up the bedroom and hallway as it needs a damn good lick of paint and I would say to offer some kind of lower rent one month.
 
Yeh that's one good tip: go round the entire flat before you move in with a good camera and get shots of every square inch of the place. And double check the inventory for anything missing or there but shouldn't be.

classic example that happened to me is that the check-in was done before the cleaners had left the flat, so there was a hoover included in the inventory. when we moved in it was gone (obviously, as it belonged to the cleaners) but we didn't pick up on it in the inventory, so we got charged £150 for it when we left, with no proof that it was never there when we moved in.

Just be totally vigilant with your check-in and *get the landlord to confirm in writing that the deposit has been deposited in a non-personal/business bank account!*.
 
I cant believe that some people are suggesting a change of attitude in the younger generation is needed.

I WANT to OWN MY OWN PLACE. Why should i have to pay someone who got lucky over the top rpices just to have a roof over my head?
I work hard, i earn a good wage but because a group of bankers ****ed it up i will probably be renting for the rest of my life, or untill my grand parents die and i have to guilt my parents into giving me money for a deposit. ****ing ridiculous.
 
The amount of deposit required when you buy a flat these days is basically the same as it ever was to be honest, including before the crunch. On a 300k flat in London you'd need around 60k deposit/stamp duty. Was basically the same 5 years ago. My observation is that the recession has simply made it harder to get a good mortgage, not made the repayments or deposit any greater.
 
DiCe! said:
I cant believe that some people are suggesting a change of attitude in the younger generation is needed.

I WANT to OWN MY OWN PLACE. Why should i have to pay someone who got lucky over the top rpices just to have a roof over my head?
I work hard, i earn a good wage but because a group of bankers ****ed it up i will probably be renting for the rest of my life, or untill my grand parents die and i have to guilt my parents into giving me money for a deposit. ****ing ridiculous.
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Explain how the bankers have created this situation to me?

If you have no adverse credit then there are loads of mortgage products available to you. The banking crisis has dampened the market, actually making it easier for employed people such as yourself to buy.
 
Jez said:
Explain how the bankers have created this situation to me?

If you have no adverse credit then there are loads of mortgage products available to you. The banking crisis has dampened the market, actually making it easier for employed people such as yourself to buy.
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Not quite as simple as that. I think it's actually now harder generally to get a mortgage, but when you get one it will be cheaper, because house prices have fallen a little. So it's good and bad on all sides. But yes, I agree that the recession hasn't created this situation at all. Inflation and greed has, and that's been going on for hundreds of years and won't stop.
 
The part I (and a lot of other people my age) seem to find tricky is getting any kind of a deposit together...

I'm on a nationally and industry average salary (around £25K), yet average rental costs are just over 50% of my take-home, before council tax, utilities bills, food, toiletries, clothing, transport. Even being incredibly disciplined over years with budgeting and 'shopping smart', in my example I'd be left with less than £200 per month disposable income.

Where does the saving for a deposit come from within a reasonable time frame of say ten years? I'd have around £24K (not counting the essentially useless interest rates) after a *decade* of saving, and that's if I don't buy anything other than essentials. No TV, computers, music, gifts, holidays... With these sums it'd take me fifteen to twenty years at my current salary to even get a deposit down on the average property.

Something doesn't add up.
 
I fully endorse the above post! In exactly the same boat here. I really have had enough of renting and with a baby on the way I need to think about buying very soon. But it's just not possible without having to beg family members to help. Lottery is never gonna happen either.
 
There are bad landlords and there are bad tennants, it's swings and roundabouts.

You see the power of the landlord where the landlord will see the power of the tennant, for example did you know none payment of rent is not grounds for eviction and changing the locks on a tennant who hasn't paid the rent in 6 months is illegal even if you inform them of you intentions?

I've been lucky I've never had a landlord make a deduction from a deposit but conversly I've always been a good tenant and have always left properties as clean and tidy if not better than when I moved in.
 
a1ex2001 said:
There are bad landlords and there are bad tennants, it's swings and roundabouts.

You see the power of the landlord where the landlord will see the power of the tennant, for example did you know none payment of rent is not grounds for eviction and changing the locks on a tennant who hasn't paid the rent in 6 months is illegal even if you inform them of you intentions?

I've been lucky I've never had a landlord make a deduction from a deposit but conversly I've always been a good tenant and have always left properties as clean and tidy if not better than when I moved in.
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Just not the case though mate is it. Because the tenant has zero rights to withhold rent, whereas the landlord has the deposit to play with. It's very heavily biased towards landlords currently. Yeh of course you can get problem tenants but as I mentioned earlier every single issue with a tenant can be solved by deductions from deposit, kicking them out or claiming on insurance. Landlords never lose out, tenants do.

And as I think I've shown in my posts it's really got nowt to do with how good/bad you are as a tenant - I have treated all my flats and landlords with the utmost respect but they constantly try to screw me over. Doesn't matter how nice/clean/efficient you are as a tenant - the landlord can and often will screw you over, even if it's just in a small way.

You've been lucky so far :)
 
sixty said:
The part I (and a lot of other people my age) seem to find tricky is getting any kind of a deposit together...

I'm on a nationally and industry average salary (around £25K), yet average rental costs are just over 50% of my take-home, before council tax, utilities bills, food, toiletries, clothing, transport. Even being incredibly disciplined over years with budgeting and 'shopping smart', in my example I'd be left with less than £200 per month disposable income.

Where does the saving for a deposit come from within a reasonable time frame of say ten years? I'd have around £24K (not counting the essentially useless interest rates) after a *decade* of saving, and that's if I don't buy anything other than essentials. No TV, computers, music, gifts, holidays... With these sums it'd take me fifteen to twenty years at my current salary to even get a deposit down on the average property.

Something doesn't add up.
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Disco! :) My sentiments exactly.
 
My landlord kept claiming the rent even when I'd left the flat and then disappeared. Now the benefits place want there money back and since they can't find him have sent me the bill.
They won't be getting anything though.
 
redrooster303 said:
My landlord kept claiming the rent even when I'd left the flat and then disappeared. Now the benefits place want there money back and since they can't find him have sent me the bill.
They won't be getting anything though.
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yikes. that's nasty business. definitely stick to your guns on that one. best just to never let anyone (even the current lettings agency) know your new address when you leave. that way they'll never bother trying to find you.
 
mothermachine said:
The amount of deposit required when you buy a flat these days is basically the same as it ever was to be honest, including before the crunch. On a 300k flat in London you'd need around 60k deposit/stamp duty. Was basically the same 5 years ago. My observation is that the recession has simply made it harder to get a good mortgage, not made the repayments or deposit any greater.
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Sorry your wrong. 10+ years ago you could get a mortgage for 100% easily, or even 105% to cover the fees you needed to pay such as solicitors.

House prices are sill over valued in most peoples minds who think about it logically. UK has a shortage of good quality accomodation so supply and demand means that cost is higher than you would expect it to be. We are a small island with a high population per square mile, England especially.
Something will have to give for the current model to change, either more building or a reduction in population.
20 years ago you did not need to have special schemes for people like nurses to be able to afford a decent house, now you do, house price inflation has outstripped most things by miles, especially wages.
I cannot however see anything changing to correct the situation.

Funny thing is most people think its good their house has gone up in value and is now worth say 6x their wage. But its for most very much paper wealth, unless your going to downscale massively or move from a very expensive area to a cheap one the only people who will see your "wealth" will be either
a) your relatives who you leave it to in your will
b) the nursing home you go to live in when you become too frail to support yourself and are forced to sell your house to pay your nursing bills (easily £6k per month for lots of people)
 
I'll come in as a landlord. I didn't read all of the drivel the OP posted but I got the gist.

I have just applied for section 8 on not one but 2 of my properties. Section 8 is where a tenant is in arrears for more than 2 months. I applied for one of these in December and I get a court date of 9th March. This is to get my OWN property back when the scumbag tenant hasn't paid the rent.

This doesn't gaurantee that i will get my property back and I have had to pay for this action. Between the 2 properties and 3 tenants I'm owed over £25k. Half of this debt was inherited through a recent purchase and I knew about it and the other half was partly down to my lack of action and partly a rather dodgy agent.

And the law is very much on the side of the tenant rather than the landlord. What msot tenants don't seem to realise is that the landlords have a lot of money invested in these properties. The terms of the AST are there to protect an asset worth many tens of thousands of pounds. Why should tenants be allowed to ruin this with no come back? In any case, since the introduction of the TDS, it is very difficult to get any money from the deposit.

/rant
 
SeatIbiza said:
I'll come in as a landlord. I didn't read all of the drivel the OP posted but I got the gist.

I have just applied for section 8 on not one but 2 of my properties. Section 8 is where a tenant is in arrears for more than 2 months. I applied for one of these in December and I get a court date of 9th March. This is to get my OWN property back when the scumbag tenant hasn't paid the rent.

This doesn't gaurantee that i will get my property back and I have had to pay for this action. Between the 2 properties and 3 tenants I'm owed over £25k. Half of this debt was inherited through a recent purchase and I knew about it and the other half was partly down to my lack of action and partly a rather dodgy agent.

And the law is very much on the side of the tenant rather than the landlord. What msot tenants don't seem to realise is that the landlords have a lot of money invested in these properties. The terms of the AST are there to protect an asset worth many tens of thousands of pounds. Why should tenants be allowed to ruin this with no come back? In any case, since the introduction of the TDS, it is very difficult to get any money from the deposit.

/rant
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Sorry but if you consider my original post to be "drivel" then please kindly GTFO of this thread or simply be a bit more polite ok mate?

as for my opinion on your situation... you clearly have oodles of money if you can afford to buy multiple properties. i therefore have sympathy for you personally with your situation, but I do not have sympathy for you as one individual in the marketplace. you have a good deal of money, people who rent do not, generally speaking. that is why they rent, and can't buy!
 
mothermachine said:
Just not the case though mate is it. Because the tenant has zero rights to withhold rent, whereas the landlord has the deposit to play with. It's very heavily biased towards landlords currently. Yeh of course you can get problem tenants but as I mentioned earlier every single issue with a tenant can be solved by deductions from deposit, kicking them out or claiming on insurance. Landlords never lose out, tenants do.

And as I think I've shown in my posts it's really got nowt to do with how good/bad you are as a tenant - I have treated all my flats and landlords with the utmost respect but they constantly try to screw me over. Doesn't matter how nice/clean/efficient you are as a tenant - the landlord can and often will screw you over, even if it's just in a small way.

You've been lucky so far :)
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Your clearly not right, you do have the right to with hold rent in certain circumstances and also the right to have work done and deduct it from the rent in certain circumstances. Also if the landlord is in breach of the contract you are almost certainly entitled to rip it up and move on.

Every single issue with a tennant cannot be solved by deduction from deposit, it cannot cover six months unpaid rent (for which you cannot evict them), it cannot replace every carpet bed and soft furnishing in the house. The deposit is a limited protection against limited damage. It is also increadibly common for tennants to leave without paying the last months rent as this effectively reclaims your deposit and no agency or landlord will pursue it as the cost and chances of seeing the money ever again simply don't justify it.

I say again I've never been ripped off by a landlord and it was certainly true when we were students that the only people who got 'ripped' off by landlords were those that deserved it.

The laws in this country protecting tennants are some of the strictest around and your rant is silly.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Your clearly not right, you do have the right to with hold rent in certain circumstances and also the right to have work done and deduct it from the rent in certain circumstances. Also if the landlord is in breach of the contract you are almost certainly entitled to rip it up and move on.

Every single issue with a tennant cannot be solved by deduction from deposit, it cannot cover six months unpaid rent (for which you cannot evict them), it cannot replace every carpet bed and soft furnishing in the house. The deposit is a limited protection against limited damage. It is also increadibly common for tennants to leave without paying the last months rent as this effectively reclaims your deposit and no agency or landlord will pursue it as the cost and chances of seeing the money ever again simply don't justify it.

I say again I've never been ripped off by a landlord and it was certainly true when we were students that the only people who got 'ripped' off by landlords were those that deserved it.

The laws in this country protecting tennants are some of the strictest around and your rant is silly.
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None of this makes sense to me. My contracts for my recent flats have all made it clear that under no circumstances can rent be withheld. They also make it clear that no tenant may have work done to the property without permission.

And of course if your landlord breaks terms of the contract you are entitled to rip it up and move, as you say. But the whole point of this post is to illustrate that if you want to carry on renting there you have basically zero protection if things go wrong. You might have had some extremely lax and flexible contracts but I haven't!

Saying things like "your rant is silly" is not helpful, is it? Clearly this rant is not "silly" - it's the reality of my renting situation over the last 4 years. I'm not a crap tenant who deserved any of this either... which you clearly insinuate that I am.
 
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