UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the landlord scene. I've purchased a 3 bed property which has been refurbished throughout and is now ready to be rented out. I saw an advert of someone asking for everything my property has to offer. I replied with all the information about it including non-smokers, pets by written permission only, etc, etc.

I let the lady visit the house (on a few occasions) and said to her that as long as all the references check out I can't see a problem with her living there. I said I wanted a deposit equivalent of a month's rent and the rent for the month payable on the day of moving in. She agreed to this. Now she wants to have her just her name on the tenancy and not her husband, this rings alarm bells for me, does he have bad credit? Also she said that both of them worked, now suddenly only he works.

I looked at their facebook profile and it's clear they have a cat, yet this has not been mentioned at all. When the husband visited the property he told me he was a smoker but an outside one, I don't want any smokers in the property at all and this was made clear.

To top it off I've just had a text off her asking if they can pay the deposit up to ten days after moving in, again, alarm bells are ringing. My partner and I paid a deposit for his step daughter on her flat and were meant to get it back at the end of the tenancy only for that landlord to pick up so many faults (which were not really there) and so she (or we) never got a penny of it back. This is why I'm not really wanting to wait for a deposit.

They have already given notice on the property they are in and are hoping to move into my property in the next few weeks.

Sorry to ramble on, to cut the post short I'd like to know...

1, Why would someone want just their name on the tenancy especially if they're not working at present? Surely from my point of view it's better to have two people to chase if there was a debt.

2, I've made clear no smokers to live in my property, can I include this being 'outside smokers'? (I'm pretty sure I filled out the insurance to say that I'd not have smokers there)

3, What if they have a cat (or any animal there) without my permission and it causes damage?

4, Would any of you allow someone to move in without paying the deposit first? I'm sure they're current landlord didn't allow this.

5, I'm still waiting for her to sign the permission forms for me to do checks on her and her husband although she let me down and didn't turn up when she said she would so I'm still waiting to do this. Is the search instant once I have permission?

Thanks in advance (and I will have lots more posts now I've found this place).

1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 don't need answering in detail unless you think that we really must?

Your answer is to walk away, as fast as you can, don't look back, don't feel guilty or pressured.

Thanks for the reply. There's just so much that doesn't add up for me and I need to trust my gut instinct on this.

I won't have any problems renting out the property as there's such a shortage in the area and I'm sure there will be someone better suited.

Trust your gut instinct - move straight on and look for another tenant.  Polite text/letter/phone call to the person applying saying "thanks but no thanks" - huge amount of red lights flashing from your initial post