I know that well. I remember that for me, the only way to keep safe was to keep the head down, work hard and be unremarkable and boring for everybody else. To never trust anyone and never share with anybody. I wonder if it’s still the same now.
I also wonder if power structures (police, court) are as corrupt as they used to be. It used to be impossible to deal with them without paying a bribe.
1 Like
If you mean, 12 months fixed term, the tenant is willing pay 12 month rent plus security deposit altogether before the commence of the tenancy agreement. In this case, as long as the right to rent passed, I can accept it.
2 Likes
Me, too. So do other LL.
1 Like
Colin, you’ re a kindred soul! I also discriminate against Tesco and go to LIDL and ALDI. I also discriminate against Waitrose, M&S and majority of others. I do find some useful supplies in a pound shop. Also, on gumtree, some people give away unused brushes, paints or sell them cheaply. BTW, SofaProject sells paints cheaply, too.
We have to be resourceful and thrifty to make any profit now, don’t we?
BTW, thanks for your hearts/likes. You’re lovely.
1 Like
Thank you so much. That’s how I secured my first tenancy. Seems rarer now. Everyone I ask prefers month to month.
1 Like
Its a bit off topic but I have strpped big pallets to get the free timber and made good sheds , repaired the fences Made trellis for the garden. Got stuff of facebook Salvged huge timbers from builders skips… Helps that I am a Joiner.
1 Like
Ivan They do not actually say stop paying rent. If a tenant is being evicted due to non payment , they say stay until the baliffs kick you out, ,knowing that it will take a long time .Because then the council have to re house them and they really do not want the problem
1 Like
I also wonder if power structures (police, court) are as corrupt as they used to be. It used to be impossible to deal with them without paying a bribe.
After a year here I think there’s much less enforcement of the law in England. The police here prioritizes crime instead of investigating every single one. Even those with hard evidence are not investigated if the damage is small enough.
In current Ukraine, the police/courts feed on those who commit crime or “in the wrong”. A decade ago I would say they fed on everyone (taking money from all sides and making a “moral” decision). The salary of officials is quite decent now (or was so), so they’re more likely to respect the law or care about reputation. There’s less and less government control and more automatisation of required bureaucracy. Which can be more brutal sometimes as you can’t negotiate with a machine and you can’t get an appointment through electronic system. All this forces establishing other forms of mediation/negotiation. I don’t know what’s happening now. I guess it’s not good. But much better than anyone expected. People adapt to anything.
Anyway, sorry for offtopic. Please continue.
1 Like
I’m actually done. Thanks.
Daz
I have raised a similar issue with OpenRent before. My issue is I did a viewing recently and all but one didn’t turn up. I had a whole morning allocated in slots! People are rude, lazy, and selfish. In some ways this is a nice filtering mechanism, because if they can’t be bothered to read an advert or compose a legible sentence, or turn up when they say they will, then I don’t want them as tenants. But all the same, I suggest that OpenRent enable a feature whereby landlords can give tenants a feedback score the way Uber do so that if the tenants do decide they can’t be bothered to turn up to viewings then it will be a check mark against their profile for other landlords to spot they are time wasters. I was lucky the one person who dd turn up was good, but otherwise I thought about getting an agent. Definitely something your site should address.
Thanks, BH
6 Likes
Brendan, that’s a good idea with regards to scoring potential tenants, but it could also probably be open to misuse.
I carried out 7 viewings yesterday, and only 1 didn’t turn up, but I’d filtered these applicants down from 90 initial requests. Without my substantial amount of initial questions, I fear that I would have been in a position similar to you.
But on the other side of it, everyone who did turn up, were really nice, and I’d definitely score them high, which would give a potential future landlord confidence in allowing them to view.
1 Like
I am sure abuse can be avoided. If you decline them as “did not show up to viewing” then that metric could be captured and reflected on their profile. I don’t mean to rate every person, that would be subjective. I mean objective scoring so it’s clear that they have skipped viewings, failed credit checks etc.
2 Likes
Really sorry to hear this Brendan. I hope you don’t mind, I had a quick look at your account to see what happened.
It looks like you organised viewings about 20 days before viewings were possible. It seems some of the people who initially booked viewings with you found a property in the interim, and disappointingly didn’t let you know. I can see the people who enquired closer to your available viewing slot were the ones to take the property, and the others at least let you know they were ill on the day.
It’s obviously disappointing when tenants:
a) Don’t let people know when they’re not going to show up (or be late)
b) Ignore our attempts to double-check attendance, which we do when landlords use our viewings organiser. As this is reactive rather than proactive for tenants, it really should be a no brainer.
I’ll take a closer look at the tomorrow, and see if we can improve the performance of these reminders further because they clearly let you down here. I suspect with viewings organiser far out in advance, we might need slightly different timings for reminders. Hopefully we can get these in place by the next time you need to find tenants.
Otherwise if we can’t improve performance here, then yes, some way to reliably flag tenants who miss viewings (without notifying the landlord beforehand!) sounds sensible.
I’m glad you did find suitable tenants and hope the rest of the process is smoother for you.
I feel your pain. I had the same problem with Open Rent - total time wasters, not at all relevant to the ad no matter how clear I made my requirements - then getting black marks from Open Rent for a system which needs to be improved. If tenants dont read the ad or are not fit we should be able to reject them without this affecting our advertising money we are spending with open rent. My last tenants were from Open Rent - overseas students and no credit reference needless to say - the financial loss to myself is massive. Dont take risks on desperate people who dont pass the checks. Maybe not ref credit checks should be another criteria that tenants can be screened out on via OpenRent.
2 Likes
Susan do you mean to say that overseas T have failed you?
Surely overseas students are some of the best tenants you can find, so long as you stick to the golden rule that they pay 6 or 12 months rent upfront.
I suppose you would also need to be sure they have no intention to remain in the country once their course has finished. But reminding them after 10 months that they have to vacate the property should help with that.
I advertised with Openrent, last year and was unsuccessful in finding anyone within the time limit they set. They wanted me to readvertise. I chose to put the advert in window. Same sort of procedures. People apply without UK permit and when you keep asking for sharecode to check, they just send Uk gov.co.uk screenshot, saying email sent aa per screen shot. They do not give their sharecode or date of birth but keep insisting they have work permit. Last year, I found a working couple from window advert with UK visa. But within 10 months, they left, saying father died and had to return home and will never to UK. They have left a lot of their furniture, rotting food, kitchen stacked up, bathroom full of empty cleaning stuff, shampoos, bedrooms full. The deposit is not sufficient to pay for 2 months rent and removing their belongings. This happened last year. Couple had to go back in a hurry, but they stayed 18 months and paid to the end. Even now, I cannot advertise with Openrent. High Street is having the same issues of plethira of wrong people applying. I do ask them to provide date of birth and sharecode but they do not give this. So I do not take any holding deposit. These people wish to pay everything rent and deposit and move in directly. They get surprised when I say refetences are a must. Some people have said they wish to stay 2 to 3 months and pay upfront. This is a firm ‘no’. References are a must. With Openrent, I also had a lot of dss applying but they never kept the viewing appointments at all. Phoning them, I found it was not their number, but a relative’s.
I have had similar problems on your site - very inferior applicants.
You must change your criterion to weed the unsuitable potential tenants which unfortunately seems to be 99%. I am lucky I use Sparerooms for the HMOs and only really use you for the paperwork. For the single lets I am working on, I will try you once after which I will have to go to estate agents.
4 Likes
Keep up, ALL foreign students are allowed to stay in U.K. for 2 years post-graduation to look for a job. They just have to change visa which is never refused.
1 Like
The only problem with a tenant paying a full years rent up front is that many landlords can be tempted to be lazy with inspections. It’s been known for tenants to pay up front and to either sublet, or use the property as a cannabis farm brothel, or other illegal activities. The problem is that it’s just impossible to be sure whether your dealing with a genuine tenant, who might well turn out to be a brilliant tenant, or a tenant from hell. Secondly, with more and more landlords leaving the sector, the remaining landlords can afford to be more choosy. Why take a risk if you don’t need to. Getting the right tenant in your major investment is possibly the single biggest challenge to a landlord.
2 Likes