Melboy

Call his bluff. Just another know-it-all barrack room lawyer. You have done everything possible to resolve this situation and with a good timeline of events leading up to any court ruling... a court judge would see this imo. Never ceases to amaze me. If, as a tenant, you are not happy with your rental accommodation and your landlord then why not just berluddy move out.

The police will classify Flat 5's landlady complaint of having her front door kicked in as a "civil offence" and then wave goodbye to her.

Nope! You win hands down. I think you should have a TV series on the continuing saga of you being a landlord in Wales. I would even pay a subscription fee just to watch the ongoing events. 😀 You would certainly earn more money from the TV royalties than being a landlord of these flats.

I do have one "high risk" tenant at the moment where if this situation continues there is no way they could continue to pay rent and council tax and family bills. He and his wife are thoroughly decent hard working and very nice people so I am not sure how I am going to deal with this if and when the situation does arise. Worth a thought now so how would anyone else deal with this faced with the potential phone call from them that they are unable to pay this months rent due to the Corona virus lay off? One is in full time but lowish paid work for a major clothing high street store and the other is a self employed landscape gardener who also does other driving work to fill in during quiet Winter work periods. No children.

I'm just going with the flow right now. There is nothing I can do about it. I have managed to get 2 gas /boiler certificates done this week without any hassle. My Son was dressed up like he was going for a space walk though to carry out these tasks. You will have noticed that (as far as I am aware) there is no Government relaxation in the rules for a rental property gas certificate. Has to be a valid one in place.... no exceptions.

Any chance of a detour drop-off in Wiltshire please? 😀

.................and dare I say it my Son will be in deep trouble as well if this goes on long term. No Government help for a small Ltd. company either. There is Him and his Wife who is his secretary and phone appointments operator but she can claim Furlough leave and 80% salary from Himself. He has delayed paying his VAT and Corporation tax due this month. The Government have NOT put a delay on these payments as far as I am aware. It's his only way of protesting at the moment. Banks won't lend to him. His work will dry up completely as the recession bites deeper and deeper. It's bad enough now as people don't want him in the property for the obvious reasons. 3 cancellations for jobs this week already. Will he go under? We will have to wait and see.

Day 12 of Cabin fever..........not Corona fever. I was OK for the first 6 days as the Sun shone and I could work outside doing catch-up-after-Winter jobs but now it is cloudy with rain showers and a biting cold North wind which is enough to keep you indoors. Corona fever is certainly spreading fast and wide around the World and the deaths in Spain and Italy are mind boggling at how many there are in such a short space of time. Little wonder then that ex pat Brits.in Spain are clamouring to get a flight back to the UK I have been informed that a family friend in London has just died of the Corona virus but he did have an underlying health issue and his age of 94 was certainly stacked against him regarding chances of any survival but never the less this time last week he was bright and cheerful as any 94 year old could be. Sadly missed.

According to my Son's accountant.......no. Son has the one small flat he rents out and his (experienced) business accountant automatically allows and submits the £1,000 tax allowance as per the guidelines in the government information published.

1 property only.

My local council have no CT waiver or concessions on empty properties. Landlord/Owner is responsible for CT from day 1. I would say that ALL councils are expecting CT to be paid as per normal during this Corona Virus epidemic and for me the annual CT payment I make for my own property is due on April 1st. I don't expect to hear from the CT authorities that they are intending to change anything either.

I believe the Government have sent out the wrong signals about rents and tenants and landlords. Nothing has changed at this very early stage of the Corona virus lock down, it has been barely a week. I do accept the condition about no evictions for a three month period but this does give the green light for tenants to stop paying rent does it. The process for those tenants who do run into trouble is to investigate what they can do to obtain the rental payment either from the DWP or family members to tie them over what will probably be a short period of non employment. Companies are mostly paying 80% of their salary which is government backed. My Daughter and Grandson both on Furlough leave now have been informed that this is what is going to happen for them. “Furlough leave” or “furloughed employee” are not familiar concepts under UK employment law. However, in this context, a furloughed employee is someone who rather than being dismissed for redundancy by their employer, is kept on the payroll during a period where the employer does not have any work for the employee. More precise details here. https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/perspectives-events/blogs/2020/03/uk-government-announces-employee-furlough-scheme Any tenant who foolishly believes that withholding rental payment is going to be in for a nasty shock if the landlord does decide go down the eviction route. There are many prospective tenants in my location having trouble even getting hold of a suitable property to rent.

.........and it's a yes from me. Why wouldn't they?

My holiday to a rental cottage in Wales, Pembrokeshire was well and truly stuffed 3 weeks ago and I lost my money or so I thought and then........the Welsh assembly have issued a dictat to close everything down which means my booked holiday cottage is now eligible to be transferred to another date in the future. No refunds though which I would have thought should have been an option. Meanwhile back in Melboy Towers this is day 6 of total isolation and cabin fever has not set in just yet as I have kept myself busy in the garden. Pressure washed my large patio, cut the large lawn grass, done some shrub planting, sown my tomato seeds which eventually I will put into hanging baskets oh! and generally loafed around reading a book in this lovely March sunshine or watching some items of my interest on Youtube. That reminds me I do have a tenant who is in ultra high risk catagory and if he catches this Corona virus he will be a goner that is for certain. I have been skyping him to make sure he is following government guidelines, well, you know how bloody stubborn older people can be. 😉

Well here we go! I live in a very small village and we have just been informed that 2 cases of Corona virus have been certified here. One person who has just come back from India and one from Italy. Both of whom I know and I also know that they have been trying to get back to the UK for a week or more. Lockdown in Melboy Towers. !! Death figures coming out of Italy are really alarming and what is worse it's a growing figure. Spain is close behind. I have had conversations with all of my tenants about future happenings etc. if any go down with the virus or are laid off work.

I am presuming that a tenant who is laid off from work and then experiences money problems will have to apply for some form of rent payment relief from the DWP? It's not just the monthly rental payment though is it. Council tax is also a fairly hefty monthly outgoing from the family budget these days so perhaps that should also be looked at as well for relief payments or a holiday payment break ? I have been giving this some thought on how I am going to approach the subject should any of my tenants have a problem paying their rent. My initial thoughts are I could and probably would help in the short term but it would not be possible in the much longer term as indeed it is probably the case for every landlord. My Daughter, who is an estate agent, has been laid off on gardening leave for a month.... unpaid. She was not too upset about this as it means she can get on with a few outstanding renovation jobs she has planned. I think this does reflect though that the property market ( amongst many other business's ) are going to really suffer and I also believe the final outcome of this prolonged shutdown will lead to a major recession in the UK which will take a long time to recover from. Meanwhile cabin fever has not set in just now for me as yet on day 4 as I am keeping quite busy but when it does I shall jump in the car with a flask of tea and some sandwhiches and head for the rolling high hills of Wiltshire and admire the view. 😀 True British way of coping with any disaster.... imo of course.

In your situation you need to talk to and obtain legal advice from a solicitor. As much as I hate the Citizens Advice Bureau I do think for you this is going to be your best course of action. I think from what you are saying there is a case of harassment and the people doing this need to tread very carefully because it could backfire on them in a big way and empty their bank account at the same time by way of damages.

I am now in isolation at home. I cannot take the risk now of getting corona virus in spite of all the measures I have taken. I am or was a diabetic 2 patient but now a borderline DB2 and slimmer than COR's wallet on a Friday night out but I have been advised that I must lessen the risk to myself. Oh! and also I am very old......... according to the age chart that is. 😷 I have plenty of jobs to be done and I shall keep very busy without having contact with crowds. My family will keep an eye on myself and my good Lady. If anything changes I will let you know.

For those of us that were around in 1968 which was the last great flu epidemic I don't recall such draconian actions taking place in the UK. World Wide there were over 25 million people who died of the Hong Kong flu virus. I am not saying the UK should not take steps to contain this present flu virus but it is at the moment a bit over the top with the actions going on.......unless of course it's not a flu virus but something much more serious. So only 11 people have died in the UK and nearly all had serious underlying health problems whereby a normal Winter flu bug could have have seen them off. In 2018

Always RL................Here's my take on it. In a previous working life I trained in biological warfare and the subsequent results of a biological war breaking out. By the the 1970's it was pretty well accepted by the military that a nuclear war would not happen as the resulting consequences would reveal no winners in the aftermath however the use of some biological weapon would be far better as it would only wipe out the population but leave the infrastructure complete and undamaged. Not ideal of course but a better alternative to an atomic bomb blasting everything to smithereens and of no use to anyone with a thousand years of uninhabitable dust. It is known that there is a biological testing station just outside of Wuhan and I would say something has escaped from there to produce what we now know as Covid 19. This Covid 19 has all the hallmarks of a nerve agent where the human lungs are affected and you drown in your own lung fluid build up. Perfect cover up to call it a Corona virus. Anyway that's my take on the present situation and I can bet you your property portfolio to mine that there is far more to this situation than we are being told right now. Rule No.1 Do not spread mad panic amongst the civilian population. The British though, in true panic form, have decided that multi packs of toilet rolls was the most essential item to hoard with this Corona virus going around forgetting of course it should be old newspapers cut into quarters which are far more plentiful.

On what you have written I wouldn't take on any tenant that was not up front with the information that you have requested. Being busy is not an excuse for failing to turn up for what is basically an acceptance interview by you for your future tenants.

Erm' Did I miss something? Did I fall asleep? I don't recall anything being announced about the property world from the Chancellor like stamp duty reform or help for 1st time buyer's, help that would actually help a 1st time buyer that is and not make the property companies even richer with generous government handouts. Nothing for landlord's either or is that going to be in the "dark budget" you know, all the bad news is announced 2 weeks later rather than on a live TV budget debate.

Conversely my younger tenants have the disadvantage of an old landlord who, according to the BBC news, is most likely to croak it at the first sign of a cough. 😀 😷

Hand Gel? Luxury item? I use a normal liquid soap dispenser mixed with cap full of Dettol disinfectant. (other disinfectants are available). Does the job as good if not better than any hand gel. I have a Dettol spray can as well and I will spray the exterior door handles every day whilst this Corona virus alert is going on. Phones get an antiseptic wipe as well. Being "elderly" apparently I am at a high risk of snuffing it if I get this Corona virus. I cannot afford to die.........just yet. 😄

Nope! Keep calm and carry on. It's 4 years almost to the day that I was struck down with a flu virus and I was ill, very ill for almost a month. I was about to be carted off to the hospital by the doctor if my condition didn't improve within 3 days of taking strong anti-biotics. I lost nearly a stone in weight and the sweats were just unbelievable I just leaked water uncontrollably. It took me another 4 weeks to get back to normal. Corona virus cannot be any worse than what I experienced. Perhaps I am now a flu virus carrier. You had better clear the forum.....now. 😀