Bats in the belfry, windows are jammed - London flat renting, deposits & landlords

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Damn you new page etc

I also instructed the agency NOT to send their people in to deal with maintenance issues.

They did waffle on about using their "approved" plumber etc, but I asked what further accreditation was needed other than a Corgi certificate.

Anything else is kindly taken care of by my old man. He retired 17 years ago and is glad to crack on with things.

It seems that way the way they're going. We got them down slightly on the rent when we moved in, so I can only assume their agent has advised them that we're now paying well below market rate for a two bed in the area (it can't be more than 10% less). Seems they're just playing hardball from the start.

If you've been good tenants then you can use that to advantage if it comes to negotiations. As b&d suggests Landlords do not want empty properties and taking on new tenants brings risk.

At the same time our landlord has asked us for permission to come round to get the property 'revalued by her mortgage company', which makes me more suspicious. Assume she's either looking to buy more properties before the stamp duty changes, or she's looking to sell?

Might be looking to take equity out to fund another property or sell, perhaps.

More likely to be equity in all honesty. None of these guys want to realise their assets because CG would cripple them.

Yeah. Unless you are a reluctant landlord and want to offload that cash-cow that's dragging you down. Can't imagine there's too many of them left in London, though.

Reckon your old man could get himself a tidy little business going doing handywork for people like me. Not based in east london by any chance is he?!

He's 71 and spends his time avoiding an ever-growing list of stuff my Mother has for him, playing golf and cycling.

I can ask him if you like?

Nah it's OK - I like the occasional potter down to E3 to fix a creaky toilet or a broken blind.

Problems that can be immediately and unarguably sorted - makes a change from the day job.

Thanks for the offer though :)

I've found that the vast majority of issues are generally as a result of no hot water.

Everything else is fine 90% of the time.

Because I was a reluctant landlord, I made the mistake of leaving appliances and furniture.

So I've fixed things like fridges, wardrobes, blinds.

Need to pop over to re-balance the central heating next week. Well I think so. Can't remember if the place has TRVs or not, which could be fooling my tenants in to thinking their rads aren't working.

My gaff needs a smarten up, so I'll get over and repaint it/deep clean it at some point.

My managing agent advised that there's currently very little price difference between a furnished and an unfurnished property out in the United States of Essex.

Which matters not because I stored the few pieces of furniture I didn't want in there and managed to furnish the place having spent less than five hundred quid on eBay.

We had 10k deposit tied up in our rented flat which we've now moved out of. Spent a good chunk of that on cleaners and left it immaculate. Agreed condition with agent and signed for return of full deposit on the 11th of this month when we moved out.

Have been chasing payment since then. They claim a payment was made on Monday and would clear immediately. Still nothing in any of my accounts.

I called my bank and they said no incoming payments were on record. They advised I get a BACS reference or Faster Payment reference.

Called agent, they said as payment was made after 5pm on Monday it won't clear until tomorrow and that they didn't have a reference to give me.

Bullshit alert? What can I do?

The deposit was protected through MyDeposits (which seems utterly useless compared to their competitors - all they advise is 'contact the agent to get it back' which is really fucking helpful). MyDeposits say all payments should be received within 10 days of signing. It's been 12 and my concern is that they'll hang on to it to fund their fucking staff party until next year.

10k?!

4 months rent - the alternative was a guarantor and fuck that and them for asking.

Surely the bank would know whether a payment had been made, even if it hadn't cleared?

Did you send a written request for return of deposit via registered + signed for postage? (deposit schemes have standard forms for this, if I remember, which says all you need with no extra info needed)

And have they said that the whole lot would be refunded? (in writing?)

Sorry to say it sounds like bullshit from my (bad) experience a couple of years back - especially that they have no reference for a payment that size (I would be certain that they keep references/records for even the smallest payments and expenses!). Hopefully someone just 'forgot' to pay it and is making excuses, rather than them maliciously withholding it.

Good luck with this @CYOA!

4 months rent - the alternative was a guarantor and fuck that and them for asking.

Same as what I was asked when I first moved there. And of course 1st months rent and a month in advance.

£6k gone in one go and that was 12 years ago!

Tenancy agreements, anything in particular I should be looking out for?

Long term or short term?

Short. Had a read, can't see anything obviously bad.

You should be ok, they'll just be hanging onto these things for as long as possible and probably cba to do the fund return.

We can always arrange for the boys to come down for a dust up

Always use scaffolders.

Short

Then tbh as long as it has the break clauses you want and a deposit protection scheme there's probably not a great deal to look out for.

The reality of most short term tenancy agreements is theyve been approved by the estate agents solicitors at some point, so there's no room for negotiation anyway. The last one I had looked like it was written drunk in the 70s.

Leak from the upstairs flat, which has been empty since August, pending renovation.
Freeholders are a property management company, who are all out of office until Monday. I've spoken to their emergency builder/fix-it bloke, but because the flat is unoccupied he can't get access until he can get the keys from the office on Monday....
It's not a massive drip, and I'd put my money on it being rainwater getting in somewhere rather than something going awry with the plumbing, but still, no help until Monday is really taking the piss.
If I can demonstrate that I'm pro-actively seeking to locate the source of the problem and dealing with it before it gets any worse, what is my legal position with regards to getting into the upstairs flat myself, by force if necessary, in order to find the stopcock or stick a bucket under a leaky roof?

That's complete bollocks that no-one can access the office until Monday.

Christmas and the New Year are over.

That's basically what I told them, along with "if it looks like my ceiling is going to cave in, I reserve the right to batter the door down and sort it out myself."

Actually, I've just had a look at the door. Whoever was in there last hasn't locked the deadlock, so there is only a yale lock to spring with a hacksaw blade or similar...