UK Landlord Forum / Life

Would be interested to hear how other landlords would deal/have dealt with a situation I've just had.

A prospective tenant (who hadn't viewed the property himself, but had sent friends to do so on his behalf), paid a holding deposit and for reference checks with our Letting Agent, so the property was marked as 'let' and marketing ceased. A moving in date was agreed (two and a half weeks from the time the deposit was paid), and references were obtained. These proved satisfactory. I arranged for all the paperwork and keys to be with the agents for the move in date, but at the last minute, the tenant wanted to view the property (which we now believe was for the first time), and decided he didn't like it, and didn't sign.

I can hear a few suggestions of 'you should have ensured the tenant had seen the property for himself', but we were led to believe this was the case by the agent, and in any case, a holding deposit is a fairly firm statement of a tenant's seriousness about a property? The tenant was moving to the country for the first time but had an excellent salaried job, so we thought it was a fairly safe 'bet'. We even insisted on a guarantor, whose signature was in place for the day.

A few questions arising from this:
1. Who gets to keep the tenant's holding deposit? Presumably the agents pocket this?
2. Would other landlords have adopted a similar approach to us?
3. Is there any way of asking a tenant to sign a contract before the actual moving in date? I.e. in order to prevent this 'void' period of no marketing and no guaranteed move in? Or can we just consider ourselves unlucky?
4. We have now had another decent offer for the property, but the prospective tenants need to give notice on their current place. Can tenants give landlords 30 days notice from any point in a month (the fixed period of the AST is over), or does it have to be 30 days notice from the tenancy roll-on period (i.e. potentially therefore 7 weeks 6 days).

Will be interested to hear some opinions on the matter.

I'd never let to someone who hasn't seen the property, but may have done so in the situation you presented with a friend viewing on their behalf as physically it sometimes can't happen so don't feel bad about that.

Holding deposit, you need to have a word with your agent, I would certainly want most of it as presumably they charged 'admin' fees to the tenant in the first place.

The holding deposit should be yours.

Its there for this reason.

Its not personal, this person had a change of heart which happens, dont worry about it.

Thanks for your views

Quote from: Bristol Rover on July 05, 2015, 10:03:47 AM
A few questions arising from this:
1. Who gets to keep the tenant's holding deposit? Presumably the agents pocket this? You pocket this.
2. Would other landlords have adopted a similar approach to us? No, I'd not let to someone if only their friend saw it.
3. Is there any way of asking a tenant to sign a contract before the actual moving in date? Sure, but I'd not do that either. I want to see people, ensure their money is in my account, and go through a check-in procedure before I ask them to sign the AST. I.e. in order to prevent this 'void' period of no marketing and no guaranteed move in? Or can we just consider ourselves unlucky? Yes.
4. We have now had another decent offer for the property, but the prospective tenants need to give notice on their current place. Can tenants give landlords 30 days notice from any point in a month (the fixed period of the AST is over), or does it have to be 30 days notice from the tenancy roll-on period (i.e. potentially therefore 7 weeks 6 days). Usually their last day would be the last day of a rental period, as you say... but there's always flexibility isn't there? A Tenant could also pay for 2 places for a very short period, allowing a much easier move.

Will be interested to hear some opinions on the matter.

There you go then.