UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi can someone offer some constructive advice please!

I have read a lot of information on this site and always the advice is to meet the tenants first.  This is exactly what we intended to do but we have someone who wants to rent our house.  They are doctors moving here from USA.

They have asked their sister to find a property to rent for a year and want to move in straight away when they arrive.  She has looked at the property twice and said she wants it for them. She is keen to sign and give the deposit.

The problem is they would be moving straight into the house, without seeing it themselves.  The checks in the USA aren't as thorough as here and the estate agent said they can do credit checks from before they left for USA.  Said proof of employment would be the contract from the local hospital.  The estate agent also suggested that we speak to them before on skype.

We discussed it with the estate agent and asked if we could have 6 months rent up front just in case any problems.  He said the problem with that is that

1) we can't take the money until 3 days before the move in date. This is because we have to nominate money to comply with Money Laundering acts etc. and also with RICS monitoring us we can't hold on to money that isn't ours.

2)      with the Deregulation Act 2015, the period the tenant pays is the period of notice you would be required to give them. So if they paid 6 months you would have to honour a 6 month notice period, to further complicate the matter the Section 21 we would serve, now expire after 6 months, meaning it would expire the day it was needed, rendering it pointless.

To add to all this we cant get references for rent in USA as they said they have sold property which they bought outright.

Has anyone ever been is this position? Is it worth considering or would you run a mile?  Thanks in advance for any answers.

Does sister live, work and own a house here?  Get her to go guarantor and obviously only give a 6 month AST.

It's very, very simple.

It's a Landlord's market... Tenants are competing for good properties.

Why give yourself any hassle, any trouble, any uncertainty, any risk?

Why bend over backwards to facilitate someone else's problems?

Do you feel, deep down, a virtuous sense of fair play and that you must give these Tenants you've never met, never judged for yourself, a fair crack of the whip?

Your solution - your way forward - is very, very obvious... of course it could all be copacetic, but why even take the risk? Are emotions now involved?

The Agent's 1 and 2 are interesting... I've happily taken lump sums of rent up front before... 3 months (CCJ) and 6 months (foreign students).

Thanks for your reply. Yes she is a nurse. They want 12 months.

I know I cant understand the rent comment either.  I have someone working for me who had to pay 6 months up front to another agent as they had their has repossessed in the past.

Their "ass repossessed"? Everyone enjoys that surely, why would it impact rent-ability factors? What a person does in their private live is up to them... MPs included.

I now understand the advice above may (might?) not be considered "constructive"... so I will add more...

RUN!

Be wary of advice from a forum.
Do your own research.

What thickee agent is telling you is total bullsh!t and goes to show they don't understand what they are doing.
I would get another agent. 
Certainly dump the U.S. tenants unless they are willing to (i) put down an obscene amount of deposit or (ii) pay above market rent

The agent doesn't understand the difference between advance payment of 6 months worth of monthly rent and payment of rent every 6 months.
It makes a massive difference and if you do not the draft agreement particularly well (which I doubt your arsehole of an agent will do) then you will be exposed to a  claim that the first payment was technically a deposit and you did not protect that deposit. (Although you may be able to defend through case law, why incur the hassle).
There are lots of landlords oblivious to the exposure happily taking multiple months in advance and maybe they are ok but they really need to look at the words in their agreement, but in any case that is nothing to with the De-Regulation Act 2015 but has been law through the Housing Act well before that.
I suspect the moronic dumbass agent has downloaded form 6a, (which is delivered as the prescribed form under the De-Regulation Act) and then totally took it at face value and didn't understand it and is now trying to pass off that they know something (that they bloody well do not). 
Why deal with such a dipsh!t ?? 

Best of luck

I'd also add...

Letting property to foreigners can add extra stress to the situation... as foreigners have different expectations from their experience of the rental market in other countries. Often good, often bad, but different. Bloody foreigners, coming over here and renting our properties from us!

You gotta run, run, run, run, run
Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do

Quote from: theangrylandlord on January 22, 2016, 01:23:51 AMWhy deal with such a dipsh!t ??

I do not believe this forum requires you to self-censor your vitriol... let's try... why deal with such a dipshit?

Go wild.

 
LOL!!

Thank you for your advice.


They are moving here from the USA.  They are originally from UK or one of them is.  One is a doctor and moving here for work at local hospital.

I may have confused matters.  I said someone I knew had recently paid six months because they had their house reposessed not these prospective tenants.

The reason why the agents said they cant do 6 months is because of a recent change in the law.  They may be wrong about this or misunderstand the law. I agree I think the agent isn't very good .  We have waited 2 months for someone to rent it and if this falls through will advertise with someone else.

Got some good news, took your advice and the relatives of the tenants have agreed to be guarantors for the rent.  They have a house and both the husband and wife say they will guarantee the rent.

We are supposed to be meeting them tonight to discuss situation and also find out more about the family and their requirements.

Would you still reject even though we have a guarantor?

Is that enough in your opinion? Is there anything else we should ask for?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

I would.

I've never had a property on the market for 2 months, though. I might feel more desperate.

Guarantors do have a habit of not wanting to pay when the time comes.

Extra deposit?

Firstly the agent IS WRONG not "might be wrong".

You need to think how you would enforce the guarantee if they do not pay.  How do you know they are good for the rent (on top of all their own costs)?  You are not going to credit check them or are you?
Enforcement will be through the court.  Hassle or what (not to mention expense and stress).
You should still get them to be the guarantor but bigger deposit much better.
Go for the belt and the braces

2 months on the market? Lower the rent...that's market dynamics.  If that is truly your alternative then are these folks actually paying above the going rate?  That might make them more valuable.

To be honest a U.K. Doctor is unlikely to want a CCJ on their file and so I'd tend to err on the side of "go for it" but try for a larger deposit as well as the guarantor.

Another solution is to take rent payments in advance.  If they just sold their house they will have the cash for 3-6 months rent in advance.
Another more creative solution if that is not palatable is to offer to return some of the larger deposit after XX months if everything is going ok (but don't overcommit as "going ok" is subjective).

Make sure the guarantor is 101% clear that they are liable for the full rent if tenant doesn't pay and make sure the recitals in the Deed of Guarantee spell this out in dummy English. 

Best of luck

Thanks for advice.  Guarantors will be credit checked and our agent has told us it will be legally enforceable.

We have a letter from the hospital today, with a copy of the job offer and contract details. We spoke to  tenants  via skype not ideal but got a good feeling about them.

I think I am going to ask for 6 months rent in advance too.  Not as a deposit but in advance. 

The house isn't overpriced just not marketed properly.  We will know better next time and try and deal with it all ourselves. I think I would prefer to arrange the viewings myself next time.  That way I can find out more about the people who are looking at the house before they view. Will also get instant feedback.

You have been helpful and appreciate it.

I hope this goes OK.

Everyone thinks a Guarantor Agreement is cast-iron... but I've heard of many Guarantors who've not simply rolled-over and paid-up when it's been required. I'm sure many do... but the ones I hear about seem to claim they weren't given chance to understand the implications, they didn't see the AST it related to, they only thought they were liable for the initial fixed term, not the duration of any follow-on tenancy, whether new fixed term or SPT... blah, blah, blah.

Thanks I hope so too. It is a bit worrying as it is our first time renting it out.

We will visit agents the weekend and check everything out and ask for 6 months rent in advance.

Will keep you posted on how it goes if they move in.