In an Ideal world the landlord would buy and decorate a flat. The letting agent would quickly find a tenant. The tenant would stay longterm and pay the rent and everybody would be happy.
I thought I had the ideal tenant. At the start of each letting month she sent me a whatsapp saying the money had been paid into my bank count.
I sent back a smiley, with the words thank you.
Then she told me that her visa had expired and she was leaving the UK. People arrive in the UK with criminal records,
What could go wrong? Everything went wrong is the last three months of her stay.
What could go Wrong?
Kitchen Fridge
In the kitchen, The fridge made a noise, went warmer, finally stop working. The tenants' food destroyed.
We paid for the engineer to come to fix it. He said it was an old model and the parts were discontinues. My son asked, why did he come claiming to fix it?
We ordered a new. You pay for the fridge What else do you pay for.. Delivery. Removal of packaging. For installation, switching it on.
The people delivering the new one They could not park outside.
Then they refused to carry it up the six steps into the building.
Bathroom Towel Rail
In the bathroom the towel rail sprung a leak. It flooded the hall floor. We had to spend a couple of thousand on removing the old flooring, laying down an underlay, fixing the new flooring, edging strips for under doors.
Mould, probably caused by drying clothes on radiators with windows closed which sends moisture in the air, simply having six people breathing all night with no windows open, and the evidence is the misty windows, and misty mirrors. Kitchen, huge pots of rice in water, no lid, casseroles, no lid, means moisture.
In Germany everybody opens windows for half an hour every morning. This idea horrifies the British, especially immigrants from hot countries, India, Kenya and Dubai, to prefer to turn their London living rooms into greenhouses, where they grow mould.
Painting cost
We spent a thousand on having the hall walls and guest toilet walls repainted. The paints alone cost more than a hundred pounds. The painter wanted another thousand to sand down the chipped doors and skirting boards, do an undercoat and a top coat.
I bought a tube of white paint with a little brush, like Tippex, and covered all the chips myself.
I negotiated with my lovely tenant. I paid her to leave behind her wardrobe, white desk and chair, new kettle. She left, pillows, plants. all sorts of nice things.
Tenants Sharing Work From Home
The place was ideal for a couple of work from home professionals.
You can't rent out to three. It's illegal unless you have a license for multiple occupancy, which involved a lockage for door and fire escape for each part of the dwelling, plus the yearly cost of inspection and license. Also insurance won't cover you for three unrelated people, whose responsible. Three time the chance that one won't be able to pay the rent.
Letting Agents
We find four letting agents. I spent two weeks speaking to fourteen agents.
Empty Property
He says every day the flat is empty its costing money. We are not only losing money, our retirement income, we are paying council tax.
Insurance won't cover empty properties. Why? Because they risk being burgled, vandalised, and squatters.
We reduce the price. Finally, we got an offer from a married couple. They want us to remove two of the three beds, and most of the furniture, desks, the microwave and kettle.
To my horror my husband agrees.
We have to pay for a van and two people to take the beds are being to the tip, and any tip costs, because it costs more to hire a storage room than to buy new beds.
We now still have pay for some storage, throw away treasures, all the items we will need if the family moves out to a house, and we have to furnish the place for a young couple working from home.
Everything was like a 5 star hotel..
Call Me
Want any advice, want to tell me your sob stories, which are worse than mine?
I'd be glad to know that I'm not alone, which means my troubles aren't my fault. Better still, I'd be glad to hear that really I was very lucky because other people had it worse.
Worst Case Scenario
How much worse could it be? What's the worst thing a tenant can do? Not pay the rent? Whenever you think of something which you think is the worst, there could be something even worse.
A friend of mine had a tenant who did not pay the rent. She phoned. He didn't answer the phone.
At the end of the month she went round to the property. He was gone. She found out why he was gone.
But his wife was there. On the sofa. Dead.
The landlady called the police. The police cordoned the crime scene.
For a year the owner could not even enter the property, let alone let it out. She never got the sofa back.
So, perhaps my troubles were par for the course, only to be expected. Now you know some of the things to expect.
