Acura

Thank you Melboy. That’s very helpful. It makes sense to hear that about BG as they didn’t have any availability for almost 2 months when the agents first called. I wouldn’t put it past them if they didn’t log the calls our agent is saying she made. I will question this with them next week, and if I was given the wrong information I a) need to apologize to our agent, and b) get a refund for the GSC they won’t be doing. I have another question now though. What happens if tenants refuse to let the Gassafe engineer into the house to check the hob? They’ve said he can go in the garage, but they don’t want him in the house. What happens then? The agent has written to them asking them to sign a disclaimer if they still refuse him access.

Thank you Melboy. That’s very helpful. It makes sense to hear that about BG as they didn’t have any availability for almost 2 months when the agents first called. I wouldn’t put it past them if they didn’t log the calls our agent is saying she made. I will question this with them next week, and if I was given the wrong information I a) need to apologize to our agent, and b) get a refund for the GSC they won’t be doing. I have another question now though. What happens if tenants refuse to let the Gassafe engineer into the house to check the hob? They’ve said he can go in the garage, but they don’t want him in the house. What happens then? The agent has written to them asking them to sign a disclaimer if they still refuse him access.

Thanks RL. I rang the NRLA for advice and they said I’m legally required to have the GSC current at all times. If anything happened in that void period we would be liable - not the agents or BG. They also told me without a GSC my LL insurance would be invalid. Also said it’s a very serious situation the agent has put us in and in the future to consider doing things like this myself and ask for a management fee reduction. Emailed the agent and her response was she called BG but they didn’t have anything available before the 21st. According to the BG agent I spoke to there had been no communication since December 1st, so one of them is wrong. I’ve arranged another company to do the GSC next Wednesday at a cost of £50. I’ll forward the invoice to the agent. Even if she did call the fact she’s not responded to any of my mails since 16th December is pretty lame. One terse email and a response within the hour, during Christmas week while she’s out of the country. No excuse.

We changed agents as the last lot were useless, and now it appears our new ones aren’t much better. Ugh. I reminded them on 23rd November the GSC was due in January 9th. On 1st December they booked it in but didn’t inform me either they’d booked it or the date. I chased again on the 15th December and reiterated the 9th Jan and got a reply back the next day saying it was booked in for the 21st Jan but they would ring for cancellations. No reply to any of my emails since so I rang BG myself. They would never have given an appointment AFTER the GSC was due but the earliest they can possibly get there is the 14th. What’s the legal implications here? There’s a void of 4 days. So annoyed.

If you owned the apartment who would have to foot the bill for you? This isn’t a landlord issue. It’s unfortunate you locked yourself out but it’s your responsibility to foot the bill for this.

Goodness, how sad. That happened to a colleague of my husband. He didn’t show up for work one day so they sent the police to check on him. He died sitting on his kitchen chair tying up his laces before heading to work. Awful for his family 😞

Are you all registered with the ICO? I’ve been advised by the NLA that just having the tenants names is enough to require registration. Seems ridiculous, but for the sake of £35 it’s better than a £5,000 fine.

Hi guys I need to find Landlord Cover for our home when we (re-)let it out in the new year. We used British Gas before but we believe there are many more competitive companies out there. Any you can recommend? Would need to include a boiler service and GSC too. Many thanks

Thanks all. This is what our agent has replied with ... “From 1st June you can no longer request that the tenants get the chimney swept.” Like you’ve all said, we’ll get it organised ourselves. I swear, the way it’s going landlords will be paying tenants before long to rent our houses 🤯

Guys, what’s the norm regarding fireplaces in a property? Should the tenants have the chimney swept annually if they use the fireplace, or at the end of the tenancy if they don’t? There’s nothing in the AST I’m reading to advise. Besides, everything has changed, so it’s hard to know what we can, or more likely, can’t ask them to pay for!!

They aren’t Mortitia. Don’t think I said they were, but apologies if I was misleading. We have requested we meet the tenants too before paperwork is signed. They should be paying a deposit today and hopefully we’ll meet them tonight or early next week.

Thanks all. We’re going with a 12 month contract with a ‘right to renew’ clause subject to property inspections showing the house is in good shape and rent is paid on time. Bit of a risk they may not renew, but we all go through that. Also renewed NLA membership which officially means I’m out of LL retirement 😏

Exactly my thoughts RL. Thank you. The mortgage company is happy with 3 years. It’s a Let to Buy mortgage so we can crack on with our house build. Grampa, the tenants.

Has anyone agreed to a 3 year TA without a break clause? Further to my post a few weeks ago about not being able to sell our house we have found tenants who want to take the property at the asking rate for 3 years, more than likely longer. Would you sign an agreement for that long? There’s always the risk of not being able to evict, but so far they are checking out to be exemplary professional tenants. Also, I cancelled my NLA membership after being with them for years. With only one property being let now (sold the rest) is it prudent to join again IYO? Thanks for your advice!

Hello all Last December I needed 3 EPCs doing at the same time. My management agency wanted £85 per property. Being the frugal landlord that I am I shopped around and found a company that would do them for £45 as they were all close together. Passing on the info in case anyone else needs them doing reasonably priced EPC Online www.epconline.co.uk www.energyperformancecertificates.co.uk

Indeed.

Someone just posted this on the Book of Face, plus it’s the DM usual warmongering, but what the heck? They really are out to get us, aren’t they 🤯 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7417191/John-McDonnell-declare-war-buy-let-landlords-giving-tenants-chance-buy-property.html

Should say the rental is OTM at £220k and I accepted an offer of £208,500 but he got refused finance so it fell through. In the States we sold our house in less than 2 weeks. Oh for it to be as simple here!

Thanks RL The rental house in the town centre could well be of interest to investors. The I AM Sold outfit is an auction company and they’re suggesting a reserve of £205k with a starting bid of £190k to garner interest. We’ve looked at TrustPilot reviews and it seems sellers love the service, but buyers not so much due to the fees. Need to think about it a bit more. 2021/22 isn’t that far away, you’re right, which is my thinking too. However it fills me with dread if I’m honest letting again. It’s so different to when I started in 1987, as we all know, and I’m sick to the back teeth of agents. We’d definitely self-manage, but know it’s a huge hassle when we’d be 2.5/3 hours away busy with a self-build ... which is the whole reason for selling up. Gah. Where can we buy that crystal ball?!

Me neither. Only recently changed a barrel in one rental as the key broke off in the old one. Property had been let since 1987 and this was the first time I changed the lock!!

Hello guys Well, after hanging up my landlord hat after 32 years we are now considering putting it back on again Situation is this ... We lived overseas so put our own home and my rentals in hands of (the most incompetent) management agents. I used to self-manage so it was very frustrating dealing with agents who didn’t seem to know their arse from their elbow. One rental isn’t selling as parking is an issue. It’s town centre and competitively priced, but clearly it needs reducing. Or ... putting in the hands of IAM Sold. Has anyone dealt with them? The agent who is dealing with the sale is recommending them, so wondered if anyone has experience of ‘the modern method of selling’, as they put it. The other problem we have is our house isn’t selling either. Everyone LOVES the house, but location is the issue. There’s a main road out the front which is many times busier than when we bought in 2002. Also, new houses are being built around us faster than breeding rabbits, and if that wasn’t enough the fecking HS2 route is right behind too. Oh, and Brexit rearing it’s uncertain head again! We’re doomed! We have a couple of options, and one of them is to re-mortgage and rent it out again and wait for the houses to all be built, the road out front to be closed off (2021/22) making it an extremely quiet cul du sac, and maybe even wait until HS2 is up, but that could be 8-10 years down the road. Other option is to reduce the price again. We’ve already dropped twice, and had a reasonable response with such positive feedback. If we could pick our house up and move it we would have sold many times over. C’est la vie. We are getting quite depressed about it all. Our house has been on the market 11 months. We’ve changed agents to relaunch on Rightmove 4 times. The current agent is the best we’ve had and is really working hard, but we’re still here! Would you do everything you could to sell rather than let again? I’m even considering re-letting the town centre property as I’ve never had a problem renting it, just the selling of. Any advice?

Thanks all. Well it’s clearly easy to take a lightweight set of ladders as the buyer did and informed us of the stuff up there. In fairness, it’s before we had chance to look ourselves. The agents are as useless as a chocolate ashtray and I’ve refused to pay their last management fees. They dropped the ball and didn’t do the inventory for a whole week after the tenant left. I’ve bollocked them, refused to pay, and putting in a complaint so they pay the cleaning bill for me to hand over to the buyer. I got the report at 7 pm on Saturday night after a huge effort of not standing down with ‘it will be done by Monday’. On Monday morning I was having my knee replaced, so not able to do the cleaning myself because of their cock-up. Useless shower of you know whats. They make my blood boil, and I can’t wait to be out of the business after 32 years. Annnyyyway, I’ll breathe now! Thanks for the advice. I don’t want to email the tenant directly because they didn’t pay the last month and half and I don’t want to get into that with her. Let the agents work for once.

Hi guys I’ve just sold one of my tenanted properties and discovered a load of crap up in the loft. I don’t know if it’s from the tenants who have just vacated, or from years back. The inventory never covers the loft, so I have no claim on them to say it wasn’t reported before. Should I ditch it all, or ask the (totally ineffectual) management agents to let the previous tenants know so they can collect it? What’s the right thing to do? It’s clothes, curtains, some x-box stuff, DVDs and general junk. Thanks. PS. Why are my posts always centralized?! I’m using an iPhone. Is that why? Can’t change any formats.

Exactly. And when we lived in the States it was a frustrating as hell to get invoices for ridiculous amounts for jobs that take 10 minutes. I’ve changed so many locks over the years, it maybe even took me less than that! One thing I will not miss are management agents. I even got a letter last week from one department telling me my tenant had defaulted ... after another department had issued a Section 21, and she moves out next week!! Ugh.

Thanks RL. I didn’t intend it to be a trick question! However, it’s interesting to see others’ opinions on trivial matters, which can end up being less than trivial. My first thought was he should pay, but like you, I thought again. I bought the barrel and changed it myself yesterday, so all in all less than £10. Wish he’d done it himself, but hey ho. He’s been a tenant for 10 years and not defaulted once, so I can’t grumble. Incidentally, he moved out last weekend after I informed him of my intentions to sell my properties. He didn’t want the stress of viewers and waiting for a sale before getting a section 21, so he moved back in with family. I’ve cancelled my subscription with the NLA. It’s time to retire after 32 years!!