Any landlord out there?

S

Studio488commercial

Suspended / Banned
Messages
695
Edit My Images
No
On Monday I was at my tenants doing our yearly landlord gas cert, when it came to light that there was a problem with the boiler and gas fire, they have failed a spillage test by the narrowest of margins but as my mate said a fail is a fail, so its now Monday at 4.00pm. I inform my tenant and formulate a plan. so she has no heating but has said she has some electric heaters, no hot water but has an electric shower, so boiling a kettle for the pots is in order. On Thursday we book a heating company who are installing a brand new combination boiler and replacing all the radiators in the house whilst the tenant is on holiday next week. she will be without heating for 6-7 days MAX

so all is well, yet the tenant is kicking off that its cold and why is it taking so long and she burnt her hand boiling the kettle and she has to use the laundrette to dry her clothing and other inane ramblings, such as why I didn't give her more warning when I told her today she had to clear out one of her rooms full of stuff so we can access the floor, apparently she is very busy and hasn't got time to do this sort of thing !

So my question to all you landlords, could I/should I have done more or is it just life that tenants expect the world, and want it yesterday.
 
Honestly, I think it depends on the tenant. Mine are both very reasonable about granting access but very demanding in every little thing is sorted now.

I think at the end of the day as long as you’re reasonable ( which you sound like you are) then how can they complain?
 
I think you've done all that you can. Most landlords would've had the new boiler fitted and kept the old radiators.
Tell her to put an extra jumper on.
 
I assume it was a back boiler with a fire in front..... i don’t see how you can have done anything differently re replacement boiler....
 
Last edited:
We had the gas boiler (for central heating only) condemned at work in February 2018, whilst snow was on the ground...it took three days to get quotes and then the fastest anyone had a fitter available was another 7 days so I would say you have done well.

Is she subtly angling for a contribution to the electricity costs or discount on this months rent?
 
When our boiler failed and a spare part wasn't readily available we used electric heaters
British Gas supplied us with some additional ones, it was January and the weather was cold
Electricity bill was considerably higher and in the end BG agreed to pay us compensation

Can see both sides of this, you are doing all you can, but lack of hot water especially can make you feel very miserable
 
The problem is that no one likes to buy a new boiler, particularly landlords.
They get told at every service about the lack of parts, inefficiency and the boiler needs to be replaced, but they hang on and hang on, then this happens.
I deal with it every day :)
 
I think landlords boilers should be replaced as soon as warranty has expired...
 
We were landlords for more than 30 years. In my opinion the OP has done what can be done and on the basis of the posting the tenant is being unreasonable. If the tenancy is on licence it might be time to think about winding it up.
 
I'd offer them a bit off the rent if it was me.... Its what I'd expect of my landlord, except he's a cock
 
The boiler at work I mentioned above had had 10 years worth of dire warnings about parts and being close to the end, and was likely 10 to 15 years or more old before the warnings started. How much unnecessary replacement would such a policy promote when we are supposed to be adopting “greener” lifestyles?

I will acknowledge the new boiler is Considerable more energy efficient than the older one, but I don’t know how long it would take to offset the obtaining raw materials, manufacturing, delivery, installation, disposal of old unit etc.etc
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
We were landlords for more than 30 years. In my opinion the OP has done what can be done and on the basis of the posting the tenant is being unreasonable. If the tenancy is on licence it might be time to think about winding it up.
Click to expand...
We are probably selling the place after this, when a tenant says we didnt give them enough notice to move some stuff out of a room (4 days and its plastic bags of clothing etc, not furniture) then you know the worlds gone mad. when I said we would simply move the install date she said she would move it ! Oh i didnt mention the fact that we are so nice we give her at least one months grace every year and that month arrears is then spread through the other months, also the property has been let for 30% less thenmarket value as we felt sorry for her bing a single mum. More fool us ! never agan, being nice to people usually gets you nothing but grief.
 
I tried to buy a bungalow that was being sold after being rented to a single mum
Only trouble was she wouldn't leave and despite me hanging on in the end I gave up
Very hard to get someone out of a property if they don't want to leave of their own volition
 
Being a landlord is a lot harder now than many know.
I’m not sure on the regulations in the rest of the uk but the Scottish government have put out so many new regulations over the past few years l, with more coming soon.
Gas safety
EICR reports every time a tenant moves in regardless of the time between them.
In Scotland it’s now near impossible to get them out regardless of if they pay rent or not and they have to give next to no notice that they are leaving.

Who you get also makes a huge difference.. we have bent over backwards twice to help students coming from the US that couldn’t get a place due to various reasons and both times have had nothing but issues with them.
One telling us to keep the deposit after leaving with no notice and there dog/ cat damaging the brand new couch for them to then turn around to the deposit people and demand it all back.

Students are normally the easiest but f**k me are they stupid... we have had to replace two bathrooms in two years as if there’s even a slight issue they don’t tell you for months.(we only check quarterly) which has resulted in major problems in the end even though they knew about it the whole time.

We have had two family’s in the past 8 years and will not again. They constantly complained about everything and anything and broke so much stuff it was unbelievable, which they always just claimed it was faulty.
 
I think you have been rather unlucky in both the timing of the incident and a rather grumpy tenant. I find this isn't generally the case. I look after a couple of hundred properties and these situations are normally resolved amicably and I find being "nice" to people normally pays dividends in the long run.
 
gerry s said:
I think you have been rather unlucky in both the timing of the incident and a rather grumpy tenant. I find this isn't generally the case. I look after a couple of hundred properties and these situations are normally resolved amicably and I find being "nice" to people normally pays dividends in the long run.
Click to expand...
Being nice failed in this case :) fingers crossed it sells tomorrow. My pension is doing better than the property at the moment, not sure how people make any cash in the property game, rent yields need to be 9%+ and that is not that easy.
 
The most successful landlord I deal with always looks to get a minimum of 5% but then he is in it for the long term and builds his portfolio slowly... Has been for about 50 years.
 
gerry s said:
The most successful landlord I deal with always looks to get a minimum of 5% but then he is in it for the long term and builds his portfolio slowly... Has been for about 50 years.
Click to expand...
5% wow, my pension is killing that, will stick the cash in that :) and not have the grief, definitely leaving the property game to to the experts.
 
Correct.....the first property of his I had anything to do with was in 1992 that he purchased for 65,00 that’s now worth about 650/750,000 as a plot... and he’s had 27 years of rent in between.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top