How To Get A Good Plumber

Hi,

I am in the process of renting out my property as im ill and have had to move back into the parents.

I am doing it through a company who have said i need to get the gas and electricity tested. They said it’s not a legal requirement but their requirement for letting properties. I had a friend who’s an electrician carry out the work but he has never heard of the LANDLORD ELELECTRICAL SAFETY CERTIFICATE. I have told the letting company that the work has been done but they insist i has to be on this specific certificate. I also told them i cant afford to get them to get an electrician to do the work again just for that certificate as i cant afford it.

Can anyone help me source this form? Or any other advice on the matter.

Thanks
Read the rest of this entry »

In a flat we are letting, the tennant has a card meter and has been complaining about the cost of the heater we provided for him, claims its uses £30 / week

We offered £20 month discount on rent however he says this isnt good enough and might go to cab if we dont offer more

Not only that but we find out he has signed on dss without telling us and has said he cannot pay the agreed amount on time but will have it the next week

We did say to tennant we did not want dss when he signed ast

Legally where do we stand re heating, we provided a heater and offered a discount, should we offer more or get hard and say pay up or get out?
Read the rest of this entry »

Hi all,

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this problem which has landed on me?

Four flats in a block and each has a different owner who in turn owns 25% of the freehold. We have our own management company. All the flats are tenanted. Serious roofworks need doing and 3 out of the 4 owners are happy to go ahead after estimates were sought.

The 4th flat (ground floor) is owned by a commercial landlord whose elderly tenant pays a very small rent having lived there since the 1960’s and has no AST. Commercial landlord never attends the annual management meeting.

This 4th landlord keeps trying to stop the work going ahead by asking for more estimates then taking months to reply. By this time the estimates are out of date or most recently the cheapest preferred roofer has moved on and Commercial Landlord asks for more estimates again rather than use the remaining estimates. The roof is leaking, the building is suffering and the tenants are not best pleased in the top flats.

Commercial Landlord has threatened me with having to get a ‘Section 90′ when I remonstrated with her- not sure what that is and should I be scared? Also is there anything I can do to insist on the works going ahead with or without her consent?

Only since this particular manager for the commercial landlord has taken over have we had soooo much trouble.

Mortitia
Read the rest of this entry »

I wonder if anyone can offer any thoughts on this.
After a lengthy struggle I have a court date of 14 Jan 2009 for a possession hearing, on behalf of my 98 year old aunt after issuing a section 8 to an assured tenant. She IS signing for everything herself and would be at the court in person.
She has 2 mandatories with proof. (Rent arrears of more than 8 weeks and substantial renovations) She also have 4 discretionaries.
The tenant has tried all sorts, claiming compensation under the disrepair protocol, which came to nothing, being one.
His solicitor who I think can not get public funding to assist him in court as there is not sufficient chance of success under the scheme says that they ‘will be seeking directions from the Court to deal with their clients defence’
What could this be?
The solicitor also says ‘ we estimate it may take some months for the Court to make a final decision in relation to this matter’

Could this be likely?

They want to settle and have asked for a sum of £1000 to over a bond and rent in advance for a new property but on the basis that he would be able to move out by the end of January.
The letter of course is without prejudice.

Now she would gladly pay the £1000 to get him out (despite the fact that he has completely trashed the place and owes £2635 in rent.)
But if she agrees and the court date comes and goes and he changes his mind she will be back at square one.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.
Read the rest of this entry »

Hi All,
The subject of setting up a bad tenant register keeps getting rejected by people saying it is against the law, however, I fail to see the difference between this and what the credit reference agencies do. Basically any tenant paying rent monthly is in a very similar position to anyone buying something on credit - failure to keep up the payments results in civil action.
I am no lawyer but I have looked into the Data Protection Act and I cannot see the problem. One paragraph will need to be added to new tenancy agreements to let the tenant know that their details will be recorded on the register and they will sign the agreement to consent to this (the same way a credit buyer consents on a credit agreement). The other requirements of the DPA are quite easy to satisfy, ie that the data is secure, that tenants have the right to challenge and change their information etc.
There is also another issue whereby publicly revealing specific information about a bad tenant might be considered defamation of character. This could be overcome by giving a tenant a rating (like a credit rating) of 1-100 where 100 is the perfect tenant and 1 is a ‘don’t touch them’. So when a tenant applies for a let the landlord will search the register and will not hear any details about the tenant’s history, he will just be given a number and then it is up to him to decide whether to proceed or not.
It could work both ways with landlords also having their information held in the same way giving tenants the ability to know whether or not their prospective landlord is any good.
The eventual outcome of all this would surely be to raise standards on both sides by giving both landlords and tenants an incentive to behave well.
I would welcome comments from people with legal training about this. The number of posts on this forum from landlords who have suffered huge losses at the hands of bad tenants clearly shows that something like this needs to be done.

Cheers

Paul Harman

Read the rest of this entry »

I recently got married and live with my wife in a property owned by her. I still own another property myself which I had lived in for 10 years before moving in with her, and have been renting it out for the last few months. I have paid off the mortgage on my property, but we currently have one running on my wife’s (our current home). The term on this is about to expire so I believe it will be tax efficient to remortgage my rented property instead and pay off our current mortgage, thereby enabling me to claim tax relief on mortgage interest. My salary (ie not including rental income) alone will certainly be enough to cover this mortage.

- Do I have to take out a buy-to-let mortgage on my property, or will a standard residencial one suffice? (a mortgage broker i spoke to said a residencial mortgage would be fine as i will not need to the rent to cover payments, but i’m not convinced this is right)
- Can I claim tax relief on the full mortgage amount, or just up to the original purchase price? (it is worth a lot more now than when i bought it)
- Is there anything better I could do from a tax saving perspective? (My wife is in a lower tax band than me)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Read the rest of this entry »

Evening ladies and gents, firstly happy Xmas and New year and all that!

May I ask for some advise?

My Tenant of alomst a year, pretty much hasn’t stopped moaning all year, a number of isses have occured, but I think in my books have been dealt with quickly to resolve.
Firstly the cost of heating the property was too much, she claimed a faulty boiler, this was double checked and found to have no issues, however 2 months later is did pack up, a new Worcester Combi was installed and the rent dropped by £100 for that month.

Other issues include a blocked external drain, blocked with leaves, leaking rad and sink caused by a dodgey plumber (who I won’t use again)

Further to this she clamed the house riddled with rising damp, I attended with a damp company to find her father with a cheap damp meter probing the walls, my bloke also checked the walls and nothing was found… The fathers meter being cheap and not calibrated correctly. She was advised the issues were condencation caused by lack of ventilation, ie not opening the windows!

On that visit I went out and purchsed a dehumidifer and it was found that a guttering pipe was at the wrong angle causing overflow, this I offered to rectify.

September arrives and she is burgled, I made sure the house was secure that night and the locks changed the following day.

I then sent her a letter, asking to confirm in writing that she intends to leave the property at the end of her contract, I have now received a stoppy letter, I think written by her father claiming, the house is still damp (which it isn’t) she has stated her clothes are being damaged and she has had to replace a laptop that has been damaged by damp. (which funnily enough was stolen when she was burgled)

Now then, since September I haven’t heard a peep out of her regards damp or any other issues, she is also now claiming ill health as well now.

When she was moaing about the so called damp, I did offer her a way out of the contract, if the letting agent found a new tenant which tied in with her moving out… so I am not all that bad.

I guess her content insurance should cover anything she feels is damaged?

May I ask for your thoughts and a plan of action

This is all I need over Xmas and with my partner about to give birth!
Cheers for reading and I hope I didn’t send anyone to sleep

Dave
Read the rest of this entry »

Hi all. My Possession Order expired on Dec 18 but there are clear signs of someone still living in the property. However, my tenant had kids and the kids rooms are empty, suggesting the tenant has gone, but the neighbour says the tenant’s sister has moved in. I have submitted forms for baililffs to go in ASAP and have written to tenant and Housing Benefits saying that as far as I’m concerned the property isnt yet vacant so she (or Benefits) are still liable to pay until I can change the locks. Does anyone know if I will have a problem if it’s not the tenant but someone else there, and am I entitled to go in now and change the locks? ( the Bailiff knows that no other adult had permission to live in the property)

many thanks
Elana
Read the rest of this entry »

Hi, I am new to this and if any one read my replies you might agree with what I say and think I have experience but to set everyone straight I watch a lot of property programs, I am a college student and I want to own my own property’s to let out! Some peoples advice they have given to people has taught me something new, I would like to learn more, so if any one want to tech me more or show me the ropes I would be very happy, plus I could use a few more friends and am willing to learn and could help you out as well, I am six foot so I can paint ceilings withough a ladder (new houses only), I could also do with some cash to help with collage so I might say help you re plant and clean one of your house and since I helped out and done a good job you may think I deserve a £10 for example. Plus working with a teenager could be a good experience for you as well; I am very polite and well mannered, I know hard to bell eve for someone of my age, must have had the right upbringing I suppose.

Read the rest of this entry »

I had a new tenant move in over Christmas found thru a LA, but managed by myself.

I was contacted by new T informing me the lock is faulty and she cannot lock it. As the property is a new build (about 18 months old) and still under warranty I said I’d contact the contractor (builders) and customer service and get back to her, as there had been problems with this lock before.

The contractors customer care numbers are only open in the new year but they did have another emergency number that Safegaurd was operating and I had spoken to them but not pushed it straight away as an emergency in case we found another way round this lock and was about to call back the T.

But before I could get back to her she contacted me to inform me she already called out a locksmith and had the locks repaired/changed and it cost her £120.

Perhaps using Safeguard may have been cheaper than £120…

The lock was reported as faulty previously last month by previous LA who informed me the door would not open, so I got the contractor to replace the lock, which they did free of charge, but now this has happened during the holiday season. Prior to current T the property was empty.

My question is who pays for the cost of the out of hours locksmith? The contractor/builders? as lock was found to be faulty and defective? and seems to have failed as they only changed it last month. Me? or tenant? She didn’t ask my permission before she called locksmith but did keep me informed before and after she took the course of action which she chose.
Read the rest of this entry »