Just over a month ago the tenants of a small house that we let in Scarborough did a runner. Luckily for us they weren't to far in arrears and it would have been far worse if they'd stopped paying rent and then obliged us, after the statutory two months notice, to take legal action to get them out. As it was they abandoned a load of rubbish they no longer wanted along with three rooms where they'd got as far as ripping off some of the wallpaper, with a view to redecorating, and took all of the light bulbs ( a very old fashioned gesture of defiance).
I'd known that things were likely to go badly for some time when I realised they'd been buying domestic appliances from Brighthouse; a store that provides overpriced goods at extortionate rates of interest to people who can't get credit elsewhere. Now the hidden part of their business model means that, like old fashioned hire purchase, you don't actually own the goods until you've made the final payments. If you fall behind at any point before them they simply take the goods back and put them into storage until you not only start paying again but also pay the costs of the storage.
So, there I am tidying up and finishing off stripping wallpaper when there's a loud knock at the door. It's the men from Brighthouse and they've come for the telly, the washing machine and the cooker. After a brief conversation, where I explained that I didn't know where they'd gone and that I'd been left in debt too, they went on their way.
Now I probably could work out where they are (there were letters from a Housing Association in Oldham) but because they don't have any money I'd be unlikely to get anything off them and the hassle simply wouldn't be worthwhile. But, for a brief moment I wondered whether, if I knew where they were, I'd let Brighthouse know. Had it been some local business that they'd ripped off then I would have thought about it for a little longer but as it was the thoughts of spiteful retribution quickly passed and I was more than happy for Brighthouse to take the hit. Besides, I'd be surprised if they didn't have an investigative team of their own for precisely this kind of case.
Things have now settled down, I've got a decorator in to bring the place up to scratch and he's liaising over colour schemes with the new tenants who'll be moving in at the beginning of April. Meanwhile the mantlepiece is starting to groan under the weight of final demands from mail order companies addressed to persons unknown, at least to me.
You're ... a landlord? On top of the petrolhead revelation, this is quite disorientating... ;)
ReplyDeleteIf the hoops I have had to jump through to act as a guarantor for my kids' rentals are anything to go by, your basic misstep is being kind enough to let to people without cast-iron financial bona fides... How did we end up in a world where the poor have to rent from private landlords? (Rhetorical question).
Mike
I've been irregularly employed for years and neither of us ever got into the habit of spending what we earn. Consumerism was just never that appealing and we're quite happy with second hand cars and furniture. Up North a single teacher's salary easily covered our basic costs and anything extra I made either piled up in the bank or was spent on worthy stuff like solar panels, insulation, replacement bike parts and books.
DeleteTo put it simply, buying another house and letting it out, at first to students, was a simple way of getting a pension.
The students were sometimes great and sometimes a pain in the arse. After a particularly annoying bunch had left, and I'd got a couple of lads in to redecorate, I was approached by one of the lad's uncles, another decorator, to ask if he could move in. He didn't have enough to pay a deposit and so he finished off the decoration to his own higher standards and we've left it at that.
The trouble has been at a second house we bought a couple of years ago, as the bank accounts piled up, and let to a young family on benefits with two small children and a couple of Staffies. The Dad was form the area and coming back to be with his extended family. It turns out that he was the annoying little brother that no-one wanted to help very much and he soon fell out with all of them too. I just hope that the kids are alright, wherever they are.
As for cast-iron financial bone fides they were precisely the sort of people that I simply had to decide whether or not to trust. Being wary of the sort of stereotyping that often takes place I suppose I was, and always will be, more likely to trust than to doubt.
So, as landlords go, I'm as soft as a babies brush, always respond quickly to problems "Please let me know if the roof springs a leak so that we can get it fixed straight away" and consequently have been taken advantage of a few more times than I care to remember.