The Week The Landlords Moved In

you just need to put good insulation between the floorboards and the laminate ,not the flimsy foam stuff most carpet shops recommend devongirl its more expensive but worthwhile .We have tenants who have cats and carpets get shredded by cats so laminate is more practical for them .

We decided to insulate our ceilings downstairs and it has been wonderful - it keeps the rooms much warmer and it has acted as a great sound insulator for upstairs - in our case because DH usually goes to be before me he cannot hear the TV!

paddyann I applaud your attitude to tenants, but having rented and now owning a ground floor flat, I beg you not to give them the option of a laminate floor anywhere above ground level! Noise is transferred INCREDIBLY LOUD to the floor below!

The chap who bought our house let it the next day to Polish people using the two reception rooms downstairs also as bedrooms - I think he allowed one person to rent the house and effectively sublet as he did not do all the necessary things to make it a HMO dwelling - we knew a person who did work for him a year or more later and the house was exactly the same inside as when we lived there when it came to decor and carpets etc.

welshwife buy to let mortgages are fairly easy to get all you need is a deposit and you can get great low rates using the proerty as collateral .It wouldn't have mattered when your house was decorated OR the quality of the soft furnishing most would redecorate to suit the clientele they want to attract and decor over 4 or 5 years would certainly be out of date for the market .We have a number of rental properties they are ALL redecorated for new tenants and we check the colour schemes etc with the tenent before we start ,we also check if they would prefer laminate flooring to carpet.The better you treat your tenents the more likely they are to stay longterm.I've never heard of an exchange and completion on the same day and I doubt if ANY lawyer would consider conveyancing in that timescale ,I dont understand the interest on his deposit either..if he borrowed against his other properties he'd be paying interest from when the loan was taken not when the purchase was complete

I found it interesting that none of the landlords who had a number of properties gave any indication of how they financed their purchases.
We sold one of our houses to a landlord and he was financing this by borrowing against properties already owned with a mortgage for the deposit and then a mortgage on the house for the one he had from us. He fell on his feet with our house as the decoration was only a few years old and we left very good quality carpets everywhere plus decent lined curtains.

He wanted to do exchange and completion on the same day because of not wishing to pay interest on his deposit! The Estate agent would not allow him to do that and we had a few days. We had already been working on our next house but had to move in without it being finished!

Agree with you devongirl. I thought re father and son landlords in the first episode that it was the son who was really moved to do something for the tenant in situ - dad still had an eye firmly on profit margins and I do wonder what will happen to the lady who lives in their 'desirable' property once 2 years is up.

I think you are right that they all seemed to own multiple properties too.

My concern (having only seen the first 2 programs so far) is whether the improvements made to the conditions of the tenants featured was propagated across other properties (as I get the impression that all landlords had more than one rented property) or whether these people got 'special treatment' (though it was only their due) becuase it was being filmed.

I have watched all the programmes and felt that in the first two the landlords met their tenants at least halfway (in the end) and were very reasonable. Interesting that in the last programme both sets of landlords were (to my mind) the least reasonable and if I had seen this programme in isolation, I might have been left with a very different view of landlords in general.

What really came across to me - as a tenant myself- is the grey area of when you are expected to do minor repairs and when it is reasonable to report something - which I fully understand can be a source of worry. You worry that whatever needs repairing might not be viewed as wear and tear and you worry that depending on how costly repair might be, that your rent will go up.

I am fortunate to have a very good landlord, a very clear rental agreement and an efficient process for reporting any repairs, but time and again in this series, this sort of process was lacking in some area/s.

What also came through strongly in all of these programmes was how detached the landlords were from their tenants - geographically and also re being up to date with their living conditions - they usually had agencies /managers doing the daily stuff for them. Some wanted to rectify this and were humbled into recognising that they had perhaps not fulfilled all their responsibilities. Some then went the extra mile to enable their tenants to have a better living standard. In the last programme, I heard denial after denial, excuse after excuse from the landlords and a lack of any real compassion for tenants needs beyond some minor cosmetic repairs and sound bites that were aimed to represent themselves well.

Phew - didn't mean to rant! That obviously touched a few nerves!

Sorry I hit the post button too soon. I hadn't formulated my reply properly. Let me think about it a bit more and I'll get back to you.

"For the love of money is the root of all evil

well

I must catch up on this programme. One of my offspring has 3 houses that they let out - this is their means of saving for retirement - and I know that they are ideal landlords - a bit TOO soft sometimes I think! But they do expect to make an income from the houses; but not an unreasonable one. They are always ready to help tenants out and have waived the rent when one person fell on hard times - the tenant appreciated their kindness and played fair with them in return.

Their approach is to get to know the tenants and make sure that all is ell on a regular basis. I am sure they are not the only decent small landlords around - well, I hope so!

I agree imperfect, I have no problem with landlords making some profit indeed any business but it needs to be evened out a bit. A little Christian charity would have gone a long way in this instance and something put back into the community.

I was in a similar position through divorce (ex had an affair and left) left on my own with 4 children, but decided that I would get a degree and move forward. I had to get into debt just to pay my rent. Benefit system would have kept me if I had just carried on claiming until my youngest was 16 ... I wanted to manage independently, but had to take out a student loan and maintenance loan - partial, but not full grant given. Should it be any different? I don't know - just that I felt penalised for trying to better my circumstances.
fundamental pronc
Perturbed by the apparently Christian landlord last night - could see the 'kerching' signs in his eyeballs when he realised that this one, of many properties he owns could be more profitable. I wonder if he could have done more to be supportive longer term? A fundamental principle of many religious faiths - and certainly Christianity - is care for the poor, proportionate to ones own incomes (sometimes called tithing - giving 10% back to community) and he could easily afford to have done that according to the 'passive' income figure he is accruing.

It makes you wonder just what housing benefit is for and how it is decided who gets it - this is a person who worked but through no fault of her own needed to change course and is training so she can work again - limited time to need the benefit not forever on going.

Yes it was the last programme. Did you see the caption at the end that said the Housing benefit appeal had been rejected, and that family had had to move out and were living with friends?
That is worse than what the landlords said, no explanation, no money, no home

Is this the last programme ? - cannot see it on next week. We get BBC Wales and iit is not on tonight till after the news as there has been a programme about Gareth Edwards.

Only one of them? I hope when they watch the programme back that they are embarrassed, but suspect not ...