Inexperienced Landord Looking for advice

[Almcuk]

I own a 2 bedroomed property by the sea - it's an old terraced house, end terrace so it has really nice views. It's in a great place and after getting engaged and moving in with my (now) husband, I tried to sell the house, but it no sooner went on the market than the bottom dropped out of everything!

I took it off the market in 2009, around April time.

I then handed it over to an estate agent to rent out for me and paid them a monthly fee for looking after everything, however, a short few months later their tenant did a runner and when I went to see my house it was ruined. Everything had to be thrown out and the whole place had to be scrubbed, cleaned and repaired.

I then decided to try my hand at renting it out myself.

First tenant I got in was okay, didn't do any housework but then I can't really force them to do that, but the house was generally okay - he moved out June 2011 and I got another tenant lined up to move in September 2011 which gave me time to decorate, clean and get the carpets cleaned, etc.

So, my current tenant signed a 12 month lease September 2011 - August 2012

She has just renewed this lease for a further 12 months which will take us to August 2013

However, this year has been rubbish - the house next door to mine has been standing empty since March and after multiple water leaks in their kitchen which the council (as the owner of the property lives down South) kept going in to 'secure' and 'make good' the dining room wall in my house is damaged to the point of needing all the plaster removing, replastering and then the dining room decorating.

This work can't be done until next February as the wall is going to take months to dry out, so in the meantime I bought a room screen which they have in front of the damaged area of the wall, so they don't have to stare at it each day. This wall doesn't affect anything else other than the look of it, so that's kind of resolved temporarily.

The next issue was the electric kept tripping, we traced this to the flood light outside which i had sealed, it didn't work, had it sealed again, still didn't work, I then had the light replaced but the electrics still tripped so a fourth visit by the electrician revealed that the actual cable had been damaged and so that was changed - this is now resolved!!

So now the main bedroom starts to let in water through the ceiling - so I have someone go straight down and get up into the loft to check the roof from the inside, he also went out onto the roof and did a few little repairs and replaced a tile or two.

So that's resolved.

And now for the final episode (!) the main bedroom is letting in water through the walls.

It seems this problem has 2 causes - one is that the roof tiles don't come out over the guttering so the water is running straight down the house walls, over time this has obviously caused the water to find a way through the brick work and once it's got a route in it's not going to stop!!

So I had all the guttering around the house removed, new fascias put up and the guttering re-positioned so that it does sit under the tiles.

of course the water is still coming in - don't get me wrong, it's not running down the walls, but there are damp patches on the 2 outer walls in that bedroom.

I am now getting the pointing done, this was a lot of calls and time to get a decent quote and some good workmen in to do this work. None of the quote work disturbed the tenant as they didn't need access to the house at all.

On Thursday last week the scaffolding went up around the house - the work is going to take around a week, although they'll not be working today as the weather is so bad here!

But on Thursday night when I got home I had a call from my tenant who completely lost her temper with me as her sky didn't work, the scaffolding had blocked the signal and she wanted me to do something about it right there and then, she then had a full on rant which included telling me how I am letting her live in a terrible state whilst still claiming rent from her.

The problem I have is the issues that have arisen are quite big jobs - especially the pointing, and it's not going to be an overnight solution.

I went into the house last monday (with my tenants permission) and stripped the wallpaper off the bedroom as the damp patches had it looking awful, I then painted the walls with 2 coats of paint to tidy it up until after the New Year.

What I'd already agreed with my tenant was that we'll get the pointing done now, give the walls a few weeks to dry out and then get the bedroom re-papered and then painted. I think the decorating will only be around 2 days work in total.

so everything was okay, until she lost it with me on Thursday and now it seems she wants me to get all this work done and the house put back to normal without any distractions at all. She doesn't really want workmen coming in and out of the house and she has 3 cats which get upset when people come to the house (!!)

it's getting really difficult!

So what I really need to get from anyone who can offer me advice is:

1. I believe I've acted very quickly to all the calls my tenant has made and where the repair cannot be done straight away I've made arrangements for a short term solution (as in the dining room wall) however, my tenant seems to be hinting at the fact that she should be living rent free or reduced rent whilst the house is in any other state than how she moved into it as.

How much is there to this? Should I be offering reduced rent although I would then have to cover the loss of rent and the repairs myself?

2. My tenant has cats and they really, really smell bad. My whole house smells of acrid cat smells. I've not mentioned anything at all to her about this as I was going to wait until all the repairs are done and she's in a happier state of mind. But how exactly do you bring up this subject without offending but at the same time the house is really going to carry that smell for some time?

3. I am not really interested in keeping this house anymore. I was never cut out to be a landlord and the recent events of trying to sort workmen and my tenants schedule are just way too exhausting, I'd like to have just one house to concentrate on. I've spent thousands on this little house and it will be in great shape come Feb when the final work is completed.

What is the best way to go about selling a property with a tenant in it?

Thanks - appreciate any advice anyone has to offer.

Thanks.

[Richlist]

So what I really need to get from anyone who can offer me advice is:

1. How much is there to this? Should I be offering reduced rent although I would then have to cover the loss of rent and the repairs myself?

NO. You have acted entirely appropriately. Tenants are not entitled to any more than an owner occupier would be in the same situation. An owner occupier would still be expected to pay their mortgage etc so don't offer your tenant anything. Paying rent doesn't entitle them to a refund in this instance.

2. My tenant has cats and they really, really smell bad. My whole house smells of acrid cat smells. I've not mentioned anything at all to her about this as I was going to wait until all the repairs are done and she's in a happier state of mind. But how exactly do you bring up this subject without offending but at the same time the house is really going to carry that smell for some time?

Either you shouldn't accept tenants with cats and dogs OR take a larger deposit OR charge higher rent to cover the clean up costs.

3. What is the best way to go about selling a property with a tenant in it?

At a local property auction but don't expect a top price.