UK Landlord Forum / Life

Thanks MallyB. To be fair spending money in the pub does seem to be much more fun than paying ones rent ☺

Hi guys
2 and a half months since I started this thread, 2 months since my tenant moved in and 2 months since the last post in here. So, as promised, its time for an update.
Well obviously its still very early days and there is very little to report. Rent is due weekly every Friday and so far its gone in at about 10pm the night before each week (8 times). I speak to the tenant about once a week and so far he has no complaints. He tells me he wants to stay for the long term and is delighted with the property. I am definitely taking nothing for granted as its still very much the honeymoon period but fingers crossed its so far so good.

Sorry, just as you say, you're still in the 'honeymoon period' jamesds... keep providing the reports, though.

However, contact with your Tenant "about once per week"? Why? That's a bit close, innit?

To be honest Hippo your right. Once a week is a little bit to frequent and thinking about it, it has dwindled somewhat. You see the property was my residential home until 3 days before my tenant moved in. Therefore I was ringing or popping by to collect any post etc. These last 3 weeks has saw us swap the odd text and had one brief phone chat that lasted a couple of minutes. I think its best now for me to reduce contact further and as long as the rent is paid on time then no news is good news I suppose.

Hi all, I have just joined and have been reading your comments on this post with interest. I have been a landlord for over twenty years and currently have eight properties rented out - of those one tenant was a friend (still is) and has rented for over five years, paying his rent on time and only having a problem when he lost his job - at which point I reduced his rent for the two months until he got settled again. I have two tenants with bad credit ratings that pay on time (and have done for eight years) and have rented out to people who needed somewhere desperately and who have stayed with me once sorted. I make a good living, despite not rooking people - the modern ethos seems to be screw the tenant as hard as possible and move on to the next one, so modern tenants treat the faceless landlord with contempt. Am I wrong? How many of you give a week free at Christmas?  I know I will get ranted at, but I feel the majority of landlords on this site are too quick to judge - I do hope Jameds has a friend and long term tenant in 18 months, with a little give and take there is no reason not to.  I have had one or two problems over the years but with the houses, not the tenants and I do not use an agent, I tried early on but found they took money for management that did not take place - keeping tenants at arms length is not always good, all of mine chat to me on occasion and this builds up a bond over the years, which is good. what would I have done differently? Nothing!

Good for you.

The point being made is that a Landlord / Tenant relationship is first and foremost a business relationship. A business relationship differs greatly to that of a friendship - obligations on both sides are much more formalised, for obvious reasons. What the general consensus appears to be is that you don't want to let properties to friends for the fear of negatively impacting your friendship.

So, are you wrong? For you, absolutely not. Speaking more generically, maybe the way you've gone about it would not be recommended from the outset?

You aren't going to get ranted at for giving us your story.

Just some advice from a then, new landlord that 'helped someone', it was a single mum, like I had been, fleeing domestic violence, told me she would be the best tenant and was very honest and clean, needed a home for herself and children, and I was silly enough to not take a deposit, and done all the silly things I shouldn't have, ie. on the end of the phone for every little problem, I never pushed hard enough for any rent increase in 6 years!, 9as she was always saying she was skint), and I believed her.  Consequently, trying to evict for almost a year and am in the process of being stung for her legal fees of over 7k, at least! 

So Jamesed, even if you still intend to 'help out' someone, at least you have been advised well on here, I wished I'd have discovered this site sooner, may have been a different outcome for me

Firstly thanks Denny for hoping it works out for me. Its looking good so far, but like I said, its still early days.
Secondly to fingersburnt. I am not renting out my property to a friend to "Help them out". I don't think I am doing my tenant a favour by renting him my property nor do I think he is doing me a favour. It is merely a mutually beneficial business arrangement. I needed a tenant who I believe is in a good position to pay the rent on time and who I know wont trash the place. He was living somewhere he believed was sub standard in comparison and was delighted to move in. So far so good. But as the previous page warned me that it could go wrong (certain posters claiming it was inevitable) I am not counting any chickens.

Apologies, I thought it was a friend you were renting to, which would have helped them out, no?  Although my tenant wasn't a friend, she an friend of a friend, and was not in a position to get a property in London quickly, with no deposit, so I agreed, and it did 'help them out'.  I didn't mean to cause upset or offence, but hey, never mind, hope all goes well, and lots of luck

Quote from: boboff on September 03, 2015, 09:01:57 AM
That is so funny.

You put "if" it goes tits up.

There is no if, it WILL go tits up.

But I at least admire your arrogance, its a quality often over looked in us.

4 months down the line and so far everything has gone like clockwork. 15 rent payments later and each one has gone into my bank early. Complaints or requests from my tenant for maintenance or repairs so far nil. Contact is pretty minimal these days  although we were at the same New Years Eve party and had a good natter while barely mentioning the property. Still early days though I suppose....

I am sure that I speak for all of us when I say that it pleases us that you are finding things to be so trouble-free. I hope you did not get the impression that we wanted you to run into troubles, just that we believed you would, in due course. Our thoughts are unlikely to have changed on this, we understand that the one rule in life is that there are always exceptions to the rules.

Bon chance.

Thanks for the reply Hippo. No, I didn't think anybody actually wanted me to run into all kinds of problems. Why would you ? I am just a faceless poster on a message board after all. I actually appreciated the warnings. I thought it was a little pessimistic of some posters when they told me it was inevitable that things would turn to sh*t for me but I suppose its better to expect problems and be pleasantly surprised than to expect everything to go well and then to have a rude awakening. Anyway I am aware its still early days....

Doesn't time fly. 9 months in. Still not a single problem. Any newbies reading this thread and wondering if it makes sense to rent to a friend I would say the experienced guys say don't do it. I am just a lucky fella I guess.

When you have a problem tenant you have a problem.  When that tenant is also a friend it compounds that problem.  I haven't had problem tenants yet but would prefer them not to be friends when I have to deal with them.  I am just a lucky fella I guess.

The forum asked him to come back and report. He is, dutifully, doing that. He's relishing telling us about it... bit childish, that... and doesn't realise we don't care that much. We'd be sad for him if he did have a problem, and try to help, but we don't feel our noses are being rubbed in anything by hearing good news so far.

Thanks for the replies off the two usual suspects. Firstly Riptide. On a few occasions you have replied to my posts with what seems to be a mildly caustic sarcasm. Maybe I am wrong and the fact that the final sentence of your post word for word mimics the final sentence of mine is just a remarkable coincidence. Either way thanks ever so much.
Secondly to Hippo. You are correct in that I was asked by a couple of forum members to come back and report if things were running smoothly or if I had encountered any problems. I agreed at the time I would do so and I would have done whichever way things panned out. Where I feel you are wrong is that you think I am unaware that you don't really care. Do you think I am an idiot ? Why would you care about some faceless poster on an internet forum ?.  You also call me out as childish and yet you didn't call out Mystic Boboff  when he/she arrogantly stated and I quote "That is so funny, you say if it goes tits up. There is no if, it will go tits up.". I asked at the time how Boboff could possibly know how things would pan out and I was called arrogant for questioning the psychic powers of Mystic Bob. Perhaps he/she could tell us all Saturdays lottery numbers in advance ?

No, I'm genuinely glad for you that despite advice it's all going well.  I'd still offer the same advice if some asked should they rent to friends though.

Quote from: Riptide on June 20, 2016, 03:47:58 PM
No, I'm genuinely glad for you that despite advice it's all going well.  I'd still offer the same advice if some asked should they rent to friends though.

Thanks. I agree that would be solid advice for the reasons stated by yourself and others. I never had a problem with the advice that it was a bad move. It was just that I received the advice at a time when it would have been damaging to my friendship with my tenant for me to back out. A kind of damned if I do damned if I don't scenario. I admit I found it slightly annoying and arrogant of certain posters to tell me it was inevitable that it would turn to shit.

Quote from: jameds on June 20, 2016, 03:37:31 PM
Thanks for the replies off the two usual suspects. Firstly Riptide. On a few occasions you have replied to my posts with what seems to be a mildly caustic sarcasm. Maybe I am wrong and the fact that the final sentence of your post word for word mimics the final sentence of mine is just a remarkable coincidence. Either way thanks ever so much.
Secondly to Hippo. You are correct in that I was asked by a couple of forum members to come back and report if things were running smoothly or if I had encountered any problems. I agreed at the time I would do so and I would have done whichever way things panned out. Where I feel you are wrong is that you think I am unaware that you don't really care. Do you think I am an idiot ? Why would you care about some faceless poster on an internet forum ?.  You also call me out as childish and yet you didn't call out Mystic Boboff  when he/she arrogantly stated and I quote "That is so funny, you say if it goes tits up. There is no if, it will go tits up.". I asked at the time how Boboff could possibly know how things would pan out and I was called arrogant for questioning the psychic powers of Mystic Bob. Perhaps he/she could tell us all Saturdays lottery numbers in advance ?

Again, this is all a bit childish. Just be happy. There's no-one for you to 'get back' or teach a lesson to. Still pleased it's going well, there's always an exception to the rule - but try to resist coming across as so needy.

Trying to teach a lesson ffs ?
Childish and Needy now ? (Blows a raspberry while desperately wanting to be loved)

Is that a rhetorical question, or do you know the answer? C'mon, stop it now... we get that it's going swimmingly for you. I don't think you are lucky, I think you're astute. That realisation would not change the advice given before or that to be given in the future... just sayin'. Maybe you could write a Landlording blog or summat?

Quote from: jameds on June 20, 2016, 04:00:39 PM
certain posters to tell me it was inevitable that it would turn to shit.

It's just if it does turn to shit it will be that stinky runny shit that gets everywhere and takes an age to clean and stinks your hands out for a while as opposed to the hard sunbaked lump shit that's easier and less messy to deal with.

Ok guys. Fair comments above by the two of you. I think we are all pretty much in agreement that renting out to a friend is risky business. To be fair it wasn't what the thread was supposed to be about anyway if you look at the title and the opening post. Time for this thread to be put to bed for good I think. Unless things do turn to shit of course....

If it does, come back and we will try to help... we will also try to remember not to say "I told you so..." as that would be unproductive.

Well, I will (try).

I think you can take a bit of ribaldry anyway.

Quote from: Riptide on June 20, 2016, 08:30:32 PMIt's just if it does turn to shit it will be that stinky runny shit that gets everywhere and takes an age to clean and stinks your hands out for a while as opposed to the hard sunbaked lump shit that's easier and less messy to deal with.

This is almost poetry.

Almost.