Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide :)

[kilasuit]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

So I'm going to offer to pay her broadband over-usage until I can get the handyman up on the roof

Errrm I hope you didnt.

If the tenant cannot live without the ability to watch TV i.e. making use of DVDs or other methods to distract them whilst you are awaiting for a non-essential repair then they need to do a rain check on life and start to learn about how to use technology better - they knew they had a Download limit and I bet they knew they were going to have gone over that limit.

As a previous housing association tenant where everything was impossible to get sorted with them (No one answered - change of Housing Officer - My ridiculous working hours (almost all outside of standard working hours) and their inability to deal with anything via email (or even via phone or in person)

So my Landlord expenses in the last couple of weeks have been:

£342 for the boiler pump, system drain and inhibitor

£95 for a TV aerial re-fixing following gales (the indoor one wouldn't work in a basement)

£50 for DIY man to fix swollen wood front door due to rain leaving Tenant stuck inside. - Never heard of going out and in via a window?? Jokes btw

£310.95 for a fridge and a freezer

£40 gift vouchers to compensate for delays Wish I'd ever had one of these from any Landlord / Landlady

Total: £837.95


Add to that the £11k legal costs which I have incurred in relation to removing *Scumbag Tenant* and you'll see that being a landlord isn't always about making a fortune; only the bad ones do that by not treating their tenants with respect. I'm not even going to break even this month. In fact I've made a loss

I'm hoping that the "Scumbag Tenant" is now a distant and unfortunate memory

I'm finding my way around AAD a bit more and found your thread PlanB, I'm glad I inspired you to start it and I certainly wish you had been my sons landlord/lady, you obviously care about your tenants!

Six months on and no problems in his current house, seems they now have a decent landlord and the 'caretaker' lives next door, a really nice man and has helped with anything they've been stuck with.

Yes - Please start up north way - seems theres not enough Landlords that care about their tenants and especially the background situation for them

I do care about my tenants, the trouble is my tenants don't care about me. To be frank I feel they treat me like dirt just because they're paying rent.

Personally I favour the non-faceless Landlords i.e. not the Housing Associations or Councils and if I could i would much rather not rent via an estate agents either as too much faff with some of the "fees" that are incurred and with no real visibility for why these are incurred - Nice generic "Admin" fees

Worse still is when they treat my contractors badly.

There has been only 1 occasion where I had to tell a contractor to get out of the house - and that was because he was was a complete moron and shouldnt have been sent to do a job he wasn't even close to being qualified to do. In fact I reckon he would have caused more damage if he had tried to do the work. Again this was a faceless Housing Association so I wasn't having them wasting my time.

One plumber was so badly sworn at by a tenant that he refused to go back to the property to finish the job. A water tank in the loft had developed a leak so he drained it down in order to take it out and weld the seam (it's copper). My tenant went ballistic saying she had just returned from a foreign trip and needed hot water to clean the flat from top to bottom since her husband had made a mess in her absence.

So I booked plumber No 2 and warned him what to expect. When I politely referred her to the reason for a change of plumber (she'd sworn at him for 10 minutes non stop) she said her sister had been in a car accident and lost her arm. I couldn't quite see why that was my plumber's fault, but there you go.

She then swore at me.

Some people just make bad tenants

The initial fixed term tenancy agreement expired a long time ago. Of course I can technically give them notice but I really do understand their personal problems.

Anyway the recent attempt to outlaw "Revenge Evictions" failed by just two MP votes. I support Shelter's campaign to make it law. Tenants should never feel afraid to speak up for their legal rights even if they piss me off in the process.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/campai...illion_renters

Being a Landlord/Landlady takes a certain skillset and isn't something that can be taken lightly

Being a Good Landlord/Landlady needs to understand the needs of both themselves and their tenants

Being a Great Landlord/Landlady is being able to handle the issues you've had to handle and Still willing to help others with their issues.

I can only hope that I could get a Landlord/Landlady that compares you to you PlanB - My current one (in my house share) is probably my favourite so far

I hope that the Eviction rules do change - however I hope that doesn't make evicting the Scumbags more difficult

[SA Gold]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

you sound like the fairest landlord i have come across PlanB. A lot of them see to take the attitude: like it or lump it, sadly although have found there are exceptions to the rule (like you).

[The Tech Clerk]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

Received from CAB:-


Yesterday the House of Lords voted to put a stop to retaliatory evictions!

This will soon mean an end to a situation whereby renters can be evicted simply for complaining about bad conditions such as damp or mould.

We’ve been campaigning on this since 2007, when Sefton CAB first brought the issue to light with their report 'The Tenant's Dilemma' (you can download a PDF of the report here), so this vote represents a big victory for renters across England.

A big thank you to all of you who have contacted your local MP or a member of the House of Lords about this issue to put it onto the political agenda and campaign for change.

Now that retaliatory evictions are set to become a thing of the past, we’ll be turning our attention to extortionate letting agent fees, stronger regulation of landlords and getting refunds for tenants who’ve been mistreated. We need your continued support for our Settled and Safe campaign to get a fairer deal for renters.

If you are a private renter please tell us about your experiences by taking this very short survey.

[julian]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

Unfortunately my experience of landlords has been dire.

At college we had to feign an electricity leak and ask to bring in the electricity board because the money in the meter went out almost immediately, such that instead of freezing to death 4 of us moved into the only room warmed by gas fire.
Son was in a shared house as a student, on an approved uni list, at a standard rent, not the cheapest. When he opened the window to try and close it, it fell out; the gas meter ate a fortune and the boiler did not work; when he moved out to hall, the clothes he hung up were steaming they were so damp from the room; the landlord did not return their deposit although had done nothing to the property for years but collect the rent. As a result of the mould, son developed bad asthmatic cough, this led to him rupturing a disc in his back that needed emergency surgery, which led to the end of his days at uni.

So Plan B seems to be a jewel.

[nanna58]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

PlanB is super duper

[PlanB]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

An unusual Landlord problem today which nothing could have prepared me for.

I get a call from my Managing Agent to complain that my tenant's cat had got onto the roof and into another flat through an open window where it promptly crapped in their bath

It was hard to keep a straight face on the phone as I apologised profusely and promised it wouldn't happen again. Now I know why some Landlords won't allow pets.

[nanna58]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

I'm not laughing ......... Honest...

[marypoppins]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

An unusual Landlord problem today which nothing could have prepared me for.

I get a call from my Managing Agent to complain that my tenant's cat had got onto the roof and into another flat through an open window where it promptly crapped in their bath

It was hard to keep a straight face on the phone as I apologised profusely and promised it wouldn't happen again. Now I know why some Landlords won't allow pets.

If it got into the bathroom why didn't it use the toilet ffs?

I'd have been checking the calendar to see what the date was!

[PlanB]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

Another day another pet problem

This time a different Tenant says their new dog-walker is trapped inside the property because the lock is faulty, which is all my fault apparently. So they're getting an emergency locksmith who will change the lock and send me the bill which will be £55 labour plus cost of the new lock.

1. If they're trapped inside the property then the lock must have been ok or they wouldn't be on the inside would they

2. Have they not heard of WD40?

Anyway a locksmith has been and gone while I was typing this post and before I had the chance to agree/disagree/get Kevin (my cheap regular DIY man). He's charged £55 to spray it with something (WD40 perhaps?) and jiggle it about. The whole thing took 5 minutes to fix.

It's all working fine now and the hysterical dog-walker has been freed.

So was this pilot error by the new dog-walker (why have they got a set of keys anyway?) who simply panicked because if he didn't get out with the dog it might pee on the floor, or should I reimburse the Tenant with £55?

There's a small clue when the Tenant text to say he'll pay half

I know what I'm going to do but I'd welcome your views first.

[The Tech Clerk]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!! no comment

[nanna58]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

No no no

[marypoppins]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

Isn't there another door?

I'd have climbed out of a window, unless it was on the 2nd floor! (Well I'd have tried but probably wouldn't have managed it!)

[PlanB]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

Isn't there another door?

Not at the front of the property which is in a terrace, so exiting out the back would mean climbing over 40 garden walls carrying the dog which was desperate to do a whoopsie at the time. At least I presume that was the reason for such a panic.

However it is on the ground floor which has three sash windows so the dog-walker could have easily escaped through one of those into the front garden and beyond (just like the burglars did last year ).

Anyway my decision is to pay the £55 to keep the moral high ground But not until he sends me the bill - unless guilt gets the better of him and he doesn't.

Memo to myself: no more Tenants with pets.

[nightwatch]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

Could Mr walker not of just walked the dog round the back garden/yard and cleaned it up , or put the dog out of the front window on the extending lead that so many owners have then got it back inside, while waiting for your handy man to turn up?

[SaltnVinegar]

Re: Am I a Bad Landlord? You decide

Memo to myself: no more Tenants with lack of brain cells.

IFYPFY.........