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I had a single mother who said she was also a foster carer. She had one child of her own. Foster children had to have their own bedroom. She was renting a property from me that had three bedrooms but didn't get the right amount of benefits to cover that so was relying on the foster income to allow for the rent. I got a reference from the foster agency saying that this shortfall would be more than covered as part of my affordability checks. This was in my naive days when I was early on renting out properties. Turns out the reference wasn't worth the paper it was written on as what they didn't point out was that she had never fostered before and then when she tried to do the assessments and trial placements 'didn't like it' and so she left the property after the initial six months. I wasn't out of pocket but it has made me wary going forward. I think an established foster carer (now knowing the questions to ask) would be different. A friend who lives near a foster home has regaled me with whilst how lovely the foster parents are, not so much the estranged parents who make it 'challenging' for all within five doors of the foster home.

I would highlight that most tenants are more worried about not having a home. I advised a tenant of a £50 a month increase, less than 5% and they told me they were expecting more and were relieved to hear I was not planning on selling. I am making slightly less after the increase but feel I can afford to share the ‘pain’ with the tenant.. A fellow landlord I know is now asking the tenants what they think they expect the rate would increase after explaining their own increased costs etc and finding the tenant is often suggesting more than they were going to propose and so when they tell them the increase they are pleasantly surprised, even if not 100% happy.

Happy New Year. It seems too many years where we’ve wished the old year away and had hopes for a better one going forward!

I know a friend who tried to take out insurance on a flat in a conversion and asked for a recommendation from someone else in the block. The insurance company wouldn’t insure her due to exposure of risk, if the whole building blew up they would be exposed financially. Similar with flooding risk etc. I wonder if a mortgage risk is similarly exposed to risk like an insurance company would be? I am surprised it is in their T&Cs though as normally It is on a case by case basis.

Tradespeople with a family don’t seem to smoke and keep the places spotless in my experience, electricians, tv engineers etc wouldn’t have muddy boots. On views I watch out for how they treat the home. I discounted one professional couple who walked in and had been in the nearby wood and walked mud in, I let to an Eastern European tradesperson who had the right to stay and who took off their shoes at the door. I don’t ask them to take off dirty shoes - I observe as that is going to be what they do when I am not there.

I use OpenRent £29 that also puts on gumtree and Rightmove etc. I find it astonishing that a property is hard to let. Last time I advertised in August I had 82 enquiries in two days and then closed the advert and shortlisted 14 applicants. 10 of whom I could have proceeded with and chose from a strong bunch. I like tradespeople in particular. Posh folks doing renovations are a no in my book as they have never rented before and can be demanding and aren’t long term, so it isn’t always about vendors etc, it is about the fit for your property and time.

You are over complicating this. A 25 page agreement for a lodger sounds too much. I never expected my lodgers to clean common areas except after themselves when they used a shower or cooked. Tenant Fees Act doesn’t preclude legal fees but see that mostly to protect those with a STA and as a live in landlord you are highly unlikely to need to go to court as you have much more control over eviction than under a STA. Invest most of your energy in picking the right person.

Cause and effect, drop in students, drop in landlords renting to students and either selling or moving to a different market. I know some landlords who rented to Afghan refugees for example. What with s.24, anticipated EPC requirements etc many landlords are selling up anyway in spite of a massive change in their target audience. How do you know it has dropped by 30%, is there a report stating this? The reason I ask is that methods of advertising have also changed so if going on a particular portal that may be misleading. I've heard of landlords providing incentives to existing tenants to recommend directly to the next lot of tenants etc, this can work particularly well in the student market, not that I operate in that sphere but have friends who do.

I sold a flat recently and had a similar experience. I tracked down the document that had been included in previous sales but was now missing at Land Registry. A scanning project has apparently messed up a load of documents - my missing one was scanned in with another so didn’t get separately documented so as far as LR were concerned it didn’t exist. It took months for them to sort out. Solicitor recommended indemnity but as I work in a law firm I could see this causing problems down the line and the buyer did too. A second document had been scanned but only every other page and a third had the wrong last page as it got chewed up by the machine so they substituted a document from one of the other flats assigning the wrong garage to my property. I gather a lot of documents suffered a similar fate but LR are not advertising this as you might imagine!

I too hadn’t heard of co-living but it does sound like an HMO. I looked at this for a property once but the council licensing and extra regulations just made it non-viable both financially and time-wise. I do end up being a quasi social worker and financial adviser sometimes but doing that on a bigger scale just isn’t attractive. I found it harrowing enough dealing with a mother who couldn’t afford her rent but could afford £200 pm on sky tv and £50pm mobile phone contract and £300pm car deal and £100pm on beauty treatments. But she was going to a food bank and ended up being evicted owing thousands. I will happily help people if they can then use that knowledge to help themselves but not trap them in a bubble of reliance which these schemes sound a bit like something they’d have trouble breaking free from.

I am exceptionally way down the vaccine priority list (less than 50, no pre-existing conditions, not a health worker), I wouldn't get my jab for ages. I also get an exceptionally good income which under pre-covid conditions would be a good indicator of suitability. I think it is too early to insist on a jab, if ever. I also have a friend who has 101 allergies and she has nearly died from past flu vaccine so is reticent about the covid jab. She is an ideal renter, good worker, charity sector worker, reliable income, just has a dodgy immune system, she can't even visit my home where I have cats. I wouldn't want to preclude someone like this person I am using as an example from renting. It will always be about judgment based on a combination of factors. As an aside, I took my aged mum for a vaccine on Saturday, very well run, very good set up, easy to book, very impressed. I am ever so enjoying (maybe not the right word, but I am!) the news about the EU debacle about their procurement process, more than I probably should be, as a Brexiteer I feel my instincts about the bloc not being caring, well run, having global interests at heart etc have had their airing. Mum has a neat little card verifying her first of two jabs (with space for the second), hand written, not too difficult to forge I would suspect, not that I am an expert or wanting to forge, but it seems just very very basic proof of her jab. Second jab isn't due until third week of April and this is someone aged 80. As a landlord I feel the 'right to rent' rules are already too much putting on us as doing the checks and balances and where will it stop if we have immigration, covid jabs, morality checks, social media checks, etc etc thrust upon us, where will it end and what clear criteria will there ever be?

Anything but a Labour supporter. However one of my tenancies which consists of two NHS workers have asked what reduction we would make for them. My mortgage company (Coventry) has not reduced the rate, I have seen reports of those who’ve taken breaks from payments getting penalised and so yes it is taking the ‘pxxs’ when a tenant who has not been affected asks for a freebie. We made one small reduction for a tenant who was on mat leave as a gesture of good will as we are flexible but also not a pushover.

Thanks Melboy, yes we've made it clear to tenants that this is not a 'holiday' their debt is accruing. The tenant that is paying a small amount but not the full amount is hugely apologetic and doing lots around the house and garden so I know they are genuine. It is the NHS one that I am fed up with. For me if I were furloughed the cap on salary would mean a major hit. It annoys me that ALL the advisors on this pandemic are unaffected financially, the NHS people, public sector workers etc.

We divested one leasehold property 18 months ago so we could reduce mortgage payments on our other two freehold properties as it was looking like an awkward property to keep hold of as some nearby land was being disputed over and the access road was up for repair which would be costly. Turns out we sold at pretty much top of the market which was more luck than design. Don't talk to me about the CGT we paid (only just paid out in January this year). We put some in a pot as a deposit potentially for our daughter to use in the future for either university or her own property. Looks like we will need to use that at the moment as my husband isn't working due to the epidemic and both sets of tenants have stopped paying. I have an inkling one who works in the NHS just doesn't want to pay rather than can't and is telling us to take a mortgage holiday so 'it will be alright then and I don't have to pay you anything back at all as that is what I've been told'. I think the family are under the impression they are having a rental holiday but we are making it clear it just accruing. I have more sympathy for the other usually really hard working tenant who works tons of hours in the catering trade but is now out of work and her ex husband who stopped payments to her the moment he could, she is paying us a third of the rent which is all she can do but we appreciate her trying. I am still working but don't know for how much longer. Whilst we've reduced mortgages we still do have mortgages to pay. I don't think we will be the ones with anything in the pot to buy which is disappointing but that will make it better pickings for those who do so good luck to you. We were fortunate in the 90s downturn as we had capital then and picked up three bargains, you can't always have it work your way every time.

However distressing your experience, if you are going through a court process I would suggest you cease from putting notices like this in the public domain as that could prejudice your case and cause it to fail.