Mysterious Bulgarian Blonde ‘Loves’ My Flat!

You have to trust your instincts. I have a Bulgarian tenant who started off as a cleaner and asked for a rent reduction. I took a gamble and reduced the rent. This happened back in 2004. Guess what? The tenant is still in the property and has never missed a payment and the flat was ever better than I originally let it out. You can't always judge a book by it's cover, but at the same time trust your instincts.

Much of this background checking should apply to the prospective Indian tenant too.

I would defend his preference to rent half the flat: living in London is expensive! Any expatriate used to being paid in another currency is going to balk at the UK's costs and want to minimise their expenditure, especially for the first few months while they get established and build up some hard currency savings. And for all you know, his earnings may be helping to support his family back in India too.

I was in a similar situation when I moved to London in 2002: it was very difficult as a single person finding somewhere decent to live, so I decided to become tenant and landlord. I asked the letting agent of a two-bed flat I liked whether they and the landlord would allow me to take on the tenancy for the whole flat, and then advertise for a flat mate. The flatmate would have to pass their normal tenancy checks and would be added to the tenancy agreement. If I failed to find someone, I would still cover the rent for the whole flat. It was a win-win for them really, as there was little difference between this situation and two friends approaching them to share the flat in the first place. There was a risk to me, but in the event it proved remarkably easy to find a co-tenant, and everything worked very well: the landlord got the same rent and I only had to pay half the rent and running costs, plus had some company in the evenings.

So if you like this Indian chap, why not propose this arrangement to him, and give him some tips on how to find a flatmate after he moves in?

It's probably not a good idea though for the Indian and the Bulgarian to pair up . . .

Reply to the comment left by "Tony Atkins" at "10/06/2015 - 17:23":

Hi Tony

Am I missing something here?

I see no reference to an Indian chap in this thread?
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Hi Mark - see Joe Bloggs comment, timed 10.56 today, re "an IT guy from india"

I am, and I suspect many others in this country are also, very concerned about uncontrolled immigration, and it is easy to generalize. But what is clear is that the way some immigrants want to change us, instead of them being prepared to integrate to our ways is simply not acceptable, the religions drive them to live in ways that are totally incompatible with Britain in the 21st century, but having said that we need to stay objective as regards prospective tenants. I went against my normal unspoken rules recently when approached by a Bulgarian, what swung it was he was a taxi driver and here they have to jump through hoops to get a licence so I thought the council have already done the legwork, anyway took him on six months ago and he has not caused any problems, and paid on the dot, so the theme here is stay flexible, and not be too fixed in stereotyping people.

Reply to the comment left by "Tony Atkins" at "10/06/2015 - 17:59":

Ah yes, sorry, I must have overlooked that.

An IT contractor sharing with a two bed flat mother and daughter though? Nah!
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HI Mark
Sorry if you find my comments distasteful. They were light hearted as the member had already had a gut feel. Blonde or not.

The rental of property is a business & we all have to be prudent and this is nothing personal against anybody colour, race, gender, sexuality etc. It has to be a commercial decision. The landlord of a flat has obligations to other leaseholders.

When taking commercial decisions one has to take on board unpleasant & distasteful decisions.

Do you not think asking a single parent to vacate their flat by the Council or the banks is less distasteful or because it is a commercial norm therefore it is tasteful

Reply to the comment left by "shakeel ahmad" at "10/06/2015 - 19:34":

Perhaps I'm more sensitive to comments like this because I am married to a beautiful blonde Eastern European lady myself. I'm fed up of people asking where we met and then being surprised to hear that we met on a train on the way back to Norwich from London. My wife was attending a job exhibition having just qualified with a masters degree from the University of East Anglia. I can't tell you how many times ignorant people have said in jest; "not Russian brides.com then?" It wears a bit thin after a while.

I feel sorry for the attractive single Eastern European girls because they deal with a very different set of racial prejudices than those of Asian and African origin.
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Hi Mark,
No offence taken on my part. I am very up front & straight talking person and have suffered for it in my life and hence I work for myself.

Compliments to your Mrs and I know what you mean. The Eastern European girls are gorgeous, sensitive, intelligent, caring and loving and here I am going to put my foot into it again with the female forum users. The UK girls could lean a lot from them.

I have no issues with any race & respect all & sundry. However history of the Ottoman period followed by the Communist era had left a lot of young people all at sea. The sensible ones are gaining degree's/professional qualifications to change their future & their generations to come and I salute them for it.

Regards

it is a case of mutual respect, we all need it, I am not prejudiced at all, but if a prospective tenant came with her face covered there is no way I would entertain giving them any keys, but this is not based on discrimination, it is that I would see it as disrespectful.