UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello Armin,

Sorry to see you are still having problems finding a good tenant who's background checks out.  I've historically used agents to find tenants and although I pay for the find, the tenant pays the referencing cost to the agent and it is good for all properties they look at, so I don't have to check tenants out in sequence.

[Smug Mode = On] In the past, I have been in the envyable position of having to choose between tenants [Smug Mode = Off].

I'd be a bit suspicious of the "too intrusive" comment.  He could easily supply financial statement countersigned by his accountants.  Referencing agents do have obligations to law enforcement agencies (like money laundering) but these duties do not extend to acting as unpaid tax bloodhound.  I wonder if he realises what being a guarantor means and that's given him cold feet.  If he's getting cold feet about his brother in law, then so should you.

I wouldn't bother about worrying yourself over his tax affairs.  If the government can let Vodafone off £6bn then they don't really need a few extra hundred quid from the likes of us.

So what bike have you got then?  Do you get the chance to get out on it much?  Until recently I used to have a trusty (very trusty!) old Kawasaky GT550.  Quirky, but a good ride.  Then along came my son and all that kind of leasire time has just disappeared, so it was reluctantly bequeathed to a friend.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you finding someone soon...

I have a Honda VFR 750. My girl currently has a CBR 125R but provided she passes her test in spring she's going to upgrade to a CBR 600F.

[smug]Yes, I've got a motorbike-riding girlfriend[/smug]

Good to see some bikers on here! I ride a 2007 Rocket 3 with my wife as my "Pillion in a million" 

Nice bikes, everyone!  A motorbike-riding girlfriend does get you quite high up the bragging rights league table, Armin.

My girlfriend is a pillion, too.  She loves it and used to be the one chivvying me to go out for a ride.  She'll never be riding these days: Got knocked off and half killed when she was eighteen and mentally can't get back in the rider's saddle.  One of those car drivers who thinks saying "sorry mate I didn't see you" somehow makes it all right.  I don't understand it, almost no difference in the risk of being a rider or pillion.  But then again, I'm not the one who got wiped out.  But that's probably a thought for a different kind of forum.

I know how it is about getting a mental knock-back. I have a real issue with leaning hard when cornering at the moment which I need to overcome. I'll probably do an advanced riders course in 2012.

When it comes to cage drivers, I try to ride (and teach my girl too) as if they are getting a million pounds paid to take me out. That is I stay well clear of them and I don't trust that they see me, even if they look straight at me. They are all wanna-be assassins and just waiting to collect on that bounty on my head!

Hi Armin,

You've made me think of how I've had problems cornering.  On my GT I could take any right hand bend, any speed or conditions at any angle and felt completely confident.

Taking laft hand bands however...  Really felt that bit uncomfortable, like I never knew if the bike would slide out from under me.  I got a bit obsessed with it: Trying to find out if the bike was asymetrically weighted.

I like the million pound story.  I just did ordinary boing 'defensive riding' but the story brings that idea to life.

Armin, I recommend the Institute of Advanced Motorists riding course. Very safety concious and will improve the ride for your pillion too.

Chapter 12 - Back for more

Last weekend I was again in Sheffield showing prospective tenants around.

A few things changed.

First, my post on the Sheffield forum has now expired and I need to repost it soon. I am upping the advertised rent from £475 to £495. Reason being is that payable housing benefits for a three bedroom house has been upped from £475 to £495. I believe my rationale is clear.

I showed the place to three parties.

First were a nice working-class family. I once again made the mistake of talking too much, perhaps intimidating them. So they later mailed me that they aren't interested. But to be fair, as they had gone bankrupt just three years ago they probably wouldn't have qualified anyway.

Secondly was an ex-work colleague of mine. He liked the house and took a video for the GF. In the end he also told me that he was not going ahead. Seems the GF didn't like the place and he didn't like that its energy performance was poor. Fair enough.

Last party was a programmer with his polish colleague, freshly starting a new role. They liked it but then the mood turned sour when they tried to haggle. Yes, it sounds expensive when you convert it to polish Zlotys, but it's already below market rates!

And that was that. It's a bit quiet and depressed at home at the moment for my girl rear-ended a car at our last ride out. I was riding behind her and it was one of my more harrowing experiences running to where she was lying crumpled up from where I brought my own bike to a halt.  But she's alright aside from some spectacular and colourful bruises. Her bike's totalled though.

I have been reading this thread from time to time with interest.  It does show that a fair bit of work and thought has to go into letting a property out.  My husband is visiting one of ours tonight after work, as it is on his way home. 

Sorry to hear you are still having problems letting the Sheffield house out.     Keep pegging away is all I can say.  Something will work out sooner or later.

I do hope your girlfriend recovers quickly from her bruising following the motorbike accident too.

Hello Armin,

Glad to see you taking up the post again.  Sorry to hear about your girlfriend.  Hope she can get back into the saddle again.  I've had only one serious accident - cound not walk afterwards.  Despite most accidents to bikers being by cars, I was actually hit by another biker, form the rear when stopped at traffic lights.  They hit me straight on and then their bike carried down my left hand side, wiping me out.

Strangest thing was where the wing mirror hit me.  I had this completely circular bruise right in the middle of my left buttock.  Looked most strange.  And then it went all the colours of the rainbow.

I had a chat with a couple of Polish friends.  They tell me "all Polish people haggle".  I wonder if they exadurated for effect.  Maybe they wanted me to bargain them down to "most Polish people haggle"?

Anyway up.  I wonder if you've been the victim of a cultural mis-understanding and if you'd have given him a fiver of tenner off then you'd have struck a deal.  We'll never know.  But maybe it's something worth remembering if you get any other Polish people looking round.

Hope you get it rented out soon...