Warning: Upsetting Footage For Landlords

How awful for the landlord.

Frazer; I hope you have referred them to us at LandlordReferencing.

Our community of landlords & agents work together to stop this happening right across the UK.

In tenant alerts alone THIS WEEK we've sent out 14 tenants alerts;
£17,490 accumulated Rent Default
&
£26,300 accumulated Property Damage.

I truly believe the problem of damages and rent defaults has become EPIDEMIC. . .

Great article Frazer :-))

I have just found stand alone insurance policy for contents which DOES NOT require a buildings policy with it.
I have been searching for over 5 years for such a poilcy for my flats.
Cost to cover £10000.00 of contents including white goods from theft and damage and sanitary ware, loss of rent if flat suffers loss of amenity and no tenant is occupying house to stop paying rent and chooses to get another tenancy as they did not wish to wait whilst the flat was repaired; £12000.00!!
Cost fore this fantastic policy £83.00 per year.
ALL flat owning landlords get this policy and then it does not matter what your wronun tenants do the policy will ALWAYS cover your losses.
So consider this
RGI including credit chech per year £89.00
Contents cover including loss of rent £89.00
Deposit fee £30.00
Online letting agent tenant source £50.00
Total to be covered up to the eyeballs
£258.00
Had these products been available I would not have lost 2 properties and over £150000 in losses!!!?

And the names of the providers Paul? .... go on ..... you know you want to!

Let's set a challenge to see it these figures can be beaten.

I am not sure I am allowed to say under your posting rules am I?
Also I actually haven't yet taken out one of these contents and loss of rent policies out.
I am however due to very soon on 1 flat and I think whilst I am at it I will obtain a policy on existing tenants.
They are presently very good but if the premium is that cheap it is a bit of a no brainer isn't it?
I think I would prefer to actually obtain the insurance policies first; just in case I may have misunderstood what I have been advised.
I din't want to put duff information on your site.
After all I don't want to ruin my reputation but I will keep the site apprised as to the outcome either way.
Just as a complete aside how do you start a new topic, as all I have done is just reply to topics and it may be that I have something sufficiently worthwhile to say to start a new topic; possibly!!?

Hi Paul

Thank you very much for showing so much respect.

We are a blog site not a forum so it is not possible for people to start their own posts. However, we are always looking for guest authors who have interesting topics to share. We have multiple moderators and as the founder of the website and majority shareholder I am obviously one of them. Our editor is Jack Phillips who can be contacted by email at editor@property118.com

I will let Jack know that you may be in touch. Jack also tweets @Property118

Ok I see.
Would there be the possibilty of viewers of your site to request posts by your guest writers on topics that they would be interested in.
Of course I appreciate that most topics have probably been covered in the past but it is sometimes worthwhile revisiting a situation as this landlord game can be pretty dynamic sometimes

Yes, that happens all the time. People tend to Tweet or email us via the contact page in our About Us section. We generally point them to an existing article and ask them to comment there. If no such article exists them we ask our existing Guest Authors and Twitter contacts for help.

I don’t want to comment specifically on the property shown in the video but there are some general comments that I think are relevant to this discussion
• Letting a property that has once been your home is going the end in tears. There is too much emotional involvement and often things are damaged that “ I loved” or that you “choose together” or that you “made with my own hands”. Either you must decide that your home is going to become a business venture or do not let it. Even using an Agent, so that you are at arms length, is stressful for the Agent who cannot meet your expectations to keep this property in the condition that you once kept it.
• A property must be properly prepared for letting. There are certain things that you may really like, like light fittings, but they are probably not suitable for a property that is let. An example of this might be where the fitting has several matching shades. If one gets damaged it is unlikely that it can be replaced and therefore the whole fitting needs to be replaced. This will be a point of contention with a tenant who has broken just one small shade. Simple light fittings with bog standard lamp shades are cheap and easy to replace.
• We need to be realistic in our expectations of normal “wear and tear”. We are allowed 10% of our rent tax free each year to cover this. If we accept a family, which includes children, there will be marks on walls, doors and frames and probably furniture too. This does not mean that we have to accept “wall art” done with marker pens, rips in furniture coverings, lumps out of doors and walls but it does mean that paint will be chipped and will need to be refreshed and walls will need a coat of emulsion. If we accept smokers, we will need to refresh paint work and walls to cover any staining, wash or clean soft furnishing and deodorise furniture. No tenant will return a property in the same condition that it was in at the start of the tenancy and no landlord should expect that a property that has been lived in will be returned “as new”. If we don’t want marks made by smokers we should not take smokers and if we don’t want marks made by children we should not take children. My own home was decorated completely this summer and I noticed only last week that I have a couple of marks on the hall walls and a chip out of the door frame. I have obviously done this carrying too many things from the car at once because I am too lazy to go back for a second load. Homes are places that we live in and living causes damage – I expect ICI are really pleased to hear that!
I don’t like to focus on tenants who don’t do the right thing but if I ever decide to show my pictures of a property that I got back from two professional shares you will see what I mean by “unfair wear & tear” – 10 hours to clean a shower tray using industrial chemicals!!!!
Great tenants in there now though. See saw, see saw, see saw……..