New landlord's deposit scheme for tenants

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New landlord's deposit scheme for tenants
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franco

Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 113
Location: Bolton, Lancashire

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 07 10:57 am Post subject: New landlord's deposit scheme for tenants
I have a few rental properties and was wondering if I need to back date and protect existing bonds for tenants that rented off me before the scheme started? Franco

Welsh Girls Allotment

Joined: 30 Sep 2006
Posts: 237
Location: Sunny South Wales

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 07 3:47 pm Post subject:

Probably, knowing this government, what annoys me about the system is that its a nice little earner for the gov, think of the interest the millions of pounds that has to be paid in will generate, its hard work being a landlord as it is without more legislation being thrown at us, what about a few rights for us for when tennants trash your house and do a flit - under this scheme they are still entitled to have the bond back, bonds are a joke anyway they rarely cover the cost of a new carpet never mind anything else they damage. grrrr - rant over soap box back in the cupboard

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 07 3:52 pm Post subject:
Yes but it must be nice to own another property - it would be quite nice to own one

Welsh Girls Allotment

Joined: 30 Sep 2006
Posts: 237
Location: Sunny South Wales

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 07 3:58 pm Post subject:
point taken, but some of the tennants really do take the biscuit, ...I could tell you some shocking stories

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 07 4:03 pm Post subject:
When we owned a house, we had to rent it out at one point, and the estimated damage was around �7,500 Tennants can be the pits. Sorry, didn't mean to be grumpy

LynneA

Joined: 25 Oct 2006
Posts: 4893
Location: London N21

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 07 4:21 pm Post subject:

I'd be interested to know more, as I suspect our landlord is trying to keep his rental revenue separate from his income. (Prefers cash, all utilities must be kept in his name despite him not paying anything etc).

Aside of the bond scheme ensuring tenants got their deposit back (I've only got my deposit back once - I've had experience of landlords inventing items that were damaged), it would also give a better idea of the number of properties in the private rental sector, and the amount of the bonds would indicate the value of the market.

gingerwelly

Joined: 08 Dec 2005
Posts: 419
Location: Wales ...in cardiff at the mo but from mid wales

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 07 1:05 am Post subject:
what sort of damage do people cause ? (I have always rented...dont think i have caused much damage .... well not to the house ..now the garden thats another matter )

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 07 7:02 am Post subject:
The couple who rented our house, years ago burnt the new carpet that we had put down for them, with the iron. An accident could be forgiven, but there were about 30 marks, of a whole iron imprint. I am guessing it is that kind of thing. And yes, we did leave an ironing board for them, she was just too lazy to get it out.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 07 7:51 am Post subject:
When I rented I lived in a newly built block of flats that were all rented out fully furnished. One day, one of the tenants left and took all the furniture with them. Not damage as such but a few thousand pounds worth of stuff I expect.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 07 8:54 am Post subject:

gingerwelly wrote:

what sort of damage do people cause ?
(I have always rented...dont think i have caused much damage .... well not to the house ..now the garden thats another matter

)

Went to have a look around a friends place recently, she's taken a job in Crete and rented her house out in Cambridge; she covers the mortgage and has pennies left over from doing so.

Her tennants got a bit behind, but she didn't really get anywhere with her housing agents. She's had them defaulirt after trashing the carpets, knocking holes in the walls, ruining the curtains, breaking what little furniture she left there (it was part furnished), putting daubs of the wrong coloured paint about the place... You'd be amazed.

Saw another (another mate was moving in to this house) where a bunch of tennants had used one room to keep birds in; whether they were wild caught or kept birds I never knew, but there were layers of filth and newspaper ingrained all over the room. Truly nasty, and that wasn't the worst of it.

Most people renting do no harm, some add value by looking after the place, but there are some right nutters out there.

Stacey

Joined: 18 Jul 2005
Posts: 8380
Location: Kernow

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 07 9:08 am Post subject:

cab wrote:

.

Most people renting do no harm, some add value by looking after the place, but there are some right nutters out there.

Unfortunately the same can be said for landlords.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 07 9:11 am Post subject:

Stacey wrote:

Unfortunately the same can be said for landlords.

Yep, thats also certainly true. You get great landlords, you get nutjob landlords, and probably everything inbetween.

marigold

Joined: 02 Sep 2005
Posts: 12458
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 07 9:19 am Post subject:

cab wrote:

Most people renting do no harm, some add value by looking after the place, but there are some right nutters out there.

Yup, and the feckless people's behaviour means that even a totally responsible tenant is treated as a potential criminal

.

I have had to "improve" the newly-renovated house I live in because the landlord didn't bother to fit any curtain tracks and simply ignored my requests that he do so. Not a huge expense, but I don't think it's one I should have had to bear. Few of the doors close properly, and he also ignores requests for them to be fixed, so I either have to sort them myself or put up with the inconvenience.

The house was also dirty when I moved in with builder's mess everywhere (including dirty lavatory - yuk!!!). There were two boxfuls of old circulars, free newspapers and previous tenants' mail littering the kitchen. No gas/elec either and I wasn't told it had pre-payment meters.... Great fun getting that sorted on a freezing cold Feb day.

If I was fortunate enough to own property to rent out I'd make sure it was clean and welcoming to new tenants and probably leave them tea and biscuits and a bunch of flowers. I'm a fool aren't I?

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 07 9:25 am Post subject:

marigold wrote:

If I was fortunate enough to own property to rent out I'd make sure it was clean and welcoming to new tenants and probably leave them tea and biscuits and a bunch of flowers. I'm a fool aren't I?

The nice thing is, Marigold, when we did that with our last tenants, (before we sold the house), they were the best tenants you could wish for, scrupulously clean, considerate lovely people. But the flat was really lovely too, so I think that made them take more care. Good landlords have a better chance of good tenants, where bad landlords probably often get what they deserve - although I know there are exceptions to this

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 07 9:28 am Post subject:

marigold wrote:

Yup, and the feckless people's behaviour means that even a totally responsible tenant is treated as a potential criminal

I think its a two way thing; many veterans of rented houses treat any new landlord as a potential enemy too.

Quote:

I have had to "improve" the newly-renovated house I live in because the landlord didn't bother to fit any curtain tracks and simply ignored my requests that he do so. Not a huge expense, but I don't think it's one I should have had to bear. Few of the doors close properly, and he also ignores requests for them to be fixed, so I either have to sort them myself or put up with the inconvenience.

The house was also dirty when I moved in with builder's mess everywhere (including dirty lavatory - yuk!!!). There were two boxfuls of old circulars, free newspapers and previous tenants' mail littering the kitchen. No gas/elec either and I wasn't told it had pre-payment meters.... Great fun getting that sorted on a freezing cold Feb day.

Clearly your landlord can best be described by a word beginning with 'c' and ending with 't'. There are some complete gits out there who believe that house tenants are the lowest of the low, only fit to be farmed for rent. I've seen some awful rental property. In your position I'd be off to CAB to see what they can do to advise you, and I'd be looking for somewhere else to live too.

Quote:

If I was fortunate enough to own property to rent out I'd make sure it was clean and welcoming to new tenants and probably leave them tea and biscuits and a bunch of flowers. I'm a fool aren't I?

The thing is, if you treat your tenant properly then they'll be good to you too. I've had a couple of brilliant landlords, and when that happens you stay where you are, you don't look to move, and you treat the property with a lot more care and respect. Its human nature. Then they get a steady income stream, less work to do, everyone is happy.

As a landlord now (we don't rent a property, we've only got the one we live in, and thats not ours for years, but we do have lodger) I take the same approach you would. Feed him once or twice a week (its leftovers from the plot anyway, most of our food) as its healthy to eat with people you live with, keep his room in good repair, and if for any reason the house is a state (like the week the central heating was being installed, and like this week when I'm rebuilding the kitchen) we rebate his rent. Oh, and we keep the rent on the low side because then we get to pick and choose who we want to live with; that turns an unused third bedroom into three grand a year, with little or no work. And that pays for updating our house (said central heating and kitchen).

Generally I think that if you treat people well then they'll treat you well. If someone starts out by treating you badly, like your landlord, then you need to go do something about it.

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