[Ben Reeve Lewis is angry …]
If you are a letting agent and of nervous disposition look away for the next 15 paragraphs, because I’m in no mood for pleasantries.
Rant alert
Regular readers will know that Frazzy and I are tenants….very, very, very reluctant tenants – simply through temporary expedient, which I will explain later.
We live in a 1 bed flat in South East London paying £1,220 per month rent……..and no you didn’t misread that.
We received a letter today from our letting agent advising that the rent was to be raised by £80 per month to £1,300. Ok…its all up for negotiation, I can live with that ( I got them down to £1,250 anyway).
But what irked me the most was the paragraph that said if we didn’t want to pay the £84 re-sign fee for a further fixed term on the proposed conditions they would instigate possession proceedings.
Er, what happened to tenant choice? The supposed bastion of Assured Shorthold Tenancies? The flexibility that government and landlord rights groups idiotically tell us all tenants crave?
We have lived here for three years, never been in even 1p arrears, treat the property as if it were our own, swelled our landlord’s coffers to the tune of over £43,000 during that time and this is how we are treated?
The agents want £84 to re-sign and then what? 10% of £1,300 for the next 12 months, totalling £1,644. For which, if we don’t agree to their terms we will be made homeless?
What other industry would disrespect it’s customers in this way?
And you wonder why letting agents aren’t regarded with any warmth or trust. It is sheer profiteering.
I have a descriptive word for the jumped up little twonk who wrote that letter……it begins with an ‘A’ and ends in ‘Hole’, and if I was being really honest there would be an ‘F’ before the ‘A’ and the ‘Hole’.
And relax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its alright agents. It’s safe to look again now.
Housing bubble
In news terms there has really only been one bit of news this week. The announcement by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney that unless Britain gets building again the housing bubble being created by Help to Buy will plunge us back into recession.
Carney announced everywhere that:
“The (housing) market represented the “biggest risk” to financial stability and the long-term recovery.”
He went on to point out on the ‘Murnaghan show on Sky News:
“When we look at domestic risk, the biggest risk to financial stability and therefore to the durability of the expansion [of the economy; those risks centre in the housing market.”
Even Cameron didn’t disagree that we need to build our way out of a crisis if people are going to have safe and secure homes, but as usual he countered with the argument that we are already building, so it is all taken care of. Well ‘Lah-de Dah’, the Lib Dems have their finger on the pulse at all times.
The ‘F’….the ‘A’….the ‘Hole’…..
Government and housing
If Camo recognises the key role of housing in economic recovery why did he downgrade Kris Hopkins’ housing minister post? and why hasn’t he created a cabinet position for housing?
He seems more concerned with micro-managing the Astro Zeneker/Pfizer take-over than ensuring the people he is elected to govern have affordable homes to live in.
If stern austerity measures are finally paying off why are there still 10 people in the queue with their suitcases outside my homelessness office every morning at 8am when Frazzy drops me off for a merry day harassing landlords?
Watching breakfast TV this morning to ascertain from the weather if it is to be me hoodie or me Hawaiian shirt, I watched with interest reports of house price rises as the bubble Mark Carney warns of swells with even more helium – 4.7% for most but a jaw dropping 17% in London.
The real reason
This is where my inner mercenary is revealed, because Frazzy owns a house with her mum (this is the reason we rent) and there is only a year left on the mortgage and she is looking to sell to buy her mum a granny flat, which will hopefully leave us with enough money for a deposit on a house in Barbados [but there’s no snow in Barbados Ben … Ed].
So for once it’s me that is talking about the ‘Bouyant housing market’…….bring it on. I feel sorry for people priced out of the market…………………..but I can live with it!
Back to letting agents…….in a nice way.
Honest agents – yes really
In the interests of balance I was intrigued to read of a letting agent being recognised for it’s honesty.
The write up of a £1,300 flat (Where have I heard that before????) runs:
“Not a very nice one bedroom flat [sic] but like the budgie it’s cheap, open plan, well used kitchen, and if you can call it this – a small lounge. Large double bedroom (can’t say more than that), bathroom with a toilet and a bath.”
My favourite comment being this:
“There is an apparently jokey reference to the fact there are “unfortunately no rafters or natural beams to hang from. Harvey Residential insisted this flippant comment referred to hanging clothes and hammocks rather than suicide.”
This is all in the style of the legendary Roy Brooks agency, which started up in the 1930s, a branch of which sits at the bottom of my road.
Roy famously wrote of a property in the 1960s:
“Wanted: Someone with taste, means and a stomach strong enough to buy this erstwhile house of ill-repute in Pimlico.
It is untouched by the 20th century as far as conveniences for even the basic human decencies are concerned. Although it reeks of damp or worse, the plaster is coming off the walls and daylight peeps through a hole in the roof, it is still habitable judging by the bed of rags, fag ends and empty bottles in one corner.
Plenty of scope for the socially aspiring to express their decorative taste and get their abode in The Glossy, and nothing to stop them putting Westminster on their notepaper.
Comprises 10 rather unpleasant rooms with slimy back yard, 4,650 Freehold. Tarted up, these houses make 15,000.”
And my favourite ‘Roy-ism’:
“Rain sadly drips through the ceiling on to the oilcloth. The pock-marked basement floor indicates a thriving community of woodworm, otherwise there is not much wrong with the property”.
God bless him….the Tony Benn of letting agents.
Life afloat?
Finally my eye alighted on an article on the CNN website about how Londoners and even Parisians, forced into renting by high house prices are taking to the waterways in narrow-boats
This was something I was considering myself around 15 years ago before deciding to relocate to Somerset instead after a friend who had lived on one for a year advised me that he had never been so cold in his life.
It still holds an allure for me that cant be wiped out even by the comments of 64 year old head of the Residential Boat Owners Association Alan Wildman who assures us that it isn’t a practical alternative to homeownership.
Buying a boat can be a lot cheaper but unlike bricks and mortar boats decrease in value with age. Mooring fees can run to £30,000 and I recall when I was looking seriously into it that every 7 years you have to have your bottom scraped.(Waits for giggles to die down before explaining “The bottom of your boat”).
I confess I still quite fancy it though, but Frazzy gets sea sick in the bath so I doubt it will ever happen.
See ya next week
Morning Ben,
I’d be pee’d off with that threat too.
It’s probably an empty threat in response to the usual advice to ignore any renewal fees and let it slip into periodic- easy advice when it’s not your own home you’re gambling with. I bet your landlord doesn’t even know about it.
What I would do though, is politely contact the landlord direct and negotiate mutually agreeable terms with the organ grinder. I’m sure you could find them easy enough.
Maybe that’s too much like a busman’s holiday for you to bother?
Your landlord is hardly coining it in on the rent though. What is the gross yield on that? 6%? Take away agency commission, service charges, ground rent, tax, maintenance etc and they’d be nearly better off with a hassle free deposit account.
The capital appreciation ain’t bad though but that’s a lucky gamble that has paid off for them- it could have gone the other way.
In my experience, the agent will be trying to charge the landlord a re-charge fee as well. I always avoid this by requesting that the tenancy roll into a periodic rather than a renewal.
Hmmm.
Hmmmm. How can the agent serve you notice if you don’t pay their fee? Isn’t it up to the landlord?
We don’t charge any resiging fees to tenants or landlords, just an ongoing percentage of the rent (although much lower than in the first year).
In the rare cases that the tenant wanted any major changes to the agreement or other tenants needed adding or referencing then there may be a small fee, but usually we don’t bother charging it.
Couldn’t that threat be construed as harassment? There is no legal requirement to sign for a further fixed term. I’d be inclined to speak to the landlord direct too.
Well these are my thoughts exactly guys. I seriously doubt our landlords had any idea this was going on.
I have checked them both out fully, both financially and personally (Come on……I’m a TRO….do you think I would just keep my fingers crossed????)and they seem decent, professional and solvent. Ideal landlords for ideal tenants.
In our second year we just remained as periodic tenants and there was no quibble, so I seriously do believe this letter was merely a personal ranting of a jumped up idiot trying to impress his bosses.
But for me it is also indicative of a certain agent mindset, even amongst the good ones, that tenants arent as important as their landlord clients.
I remember with the same crew arranging a time for a gas safe cert visit. I mentioned that Frazzy and I needed to check our diaries and the genuinely friendly and helpful lady said breezily “Oh dont worry, you dont have to be there, we have keys and will just let ourselves in” Er……this is our home love!!!!!!!!! How would you feel if your mortgage lender said the same thing?
Also I recall a particularly unpleasant run in with the boss of a local agent whose staff had done just that, let themselves in without the tenant’s permission. I doorstepped him for a quick result, he was completely unfazed and just looked back at me disinterestedly and said “In my view all tenants are scum”.
This was the boss of a major high street franchise.
Doesnt exactly fill me with confidence
Landlords wouldn’t have an income if it wasn’t for the tenants. Tenants are just as important to agents and any that fool themselves otherwise don’t understand their business.
But you already know this Ben.
Yes I do Sandra but there is a certain mindset for some of the landlords and agents I meet.
To counter this though I recently attended a talk by Richard Blanco of the NLA, a portfolio landlord in East London who was advising landlords how to keep their void times down. I was expecting a business talk of some kind but it was all about building good relationships with tenants and about the importance of creating a home for them.
I was so impressed I asked for his presentation and am urging mangers in my council to adopt it as an ethos.
People like yourself, Marion Money, Serena Thompson and Richard keep me going in the face of some of the complete tossers my job brings me into contact with.
I’ve just met a landlord who is building his portfolio of HMO’s up. His first rule is, if he can’t envisage living in the room, he wouldn’t expect a tenant to.
Wouldn’t life be easier if all landlords felt this way :-)
Yes it would be easier Sandra but I’d be out of a job haha
No…. we couldn’t have you out of work. There wouldn’t be a blog to look forward to at the end of the week to make us smile.