Tenant wants her boyfriend to move in

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "08/08/2014 - 09:33":

i may just be over sensitive Mark as i run a very honest agency... i too hate rogue private landlords and letting agents, im afraid there are too many around and always have been... i do love this site by the way and all you do.

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Lynham" at "08/08/2014 - 10:35":

Much appreciated, thanks Mark. Have you ever considered becoming a sponsor?

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I am assuming that there is no LHA to complex things…

How long will the boy friend remain….

What if the boy friend had moved in without her asking you, what reel options would you have had?

Why not get him to sign up as a guarantor for her, and give her consent to have him as a lodger? Then use a S13 to put up the rent if you wish.

(A reasonable guarantor agreement will make him liable for any damage she did to the property before he moved it, as it will be money she owns you after she signed the agreement, as you will not know about the damage until the checkout.)

I had a situation where two tenants were on the contract, deposit registered etc. One of the tenants wanted to leave because of his job location three months into a six months contract.

He and the second tenant wanted to introduce their common friend. for the remaining three months I had no objections subject to reference & a fresh six months contract. etc. This was not acceptable to them.

The common friend moved in & I was aware of it & did not create an issue as by doing this i would have acknowledged his presence & the use of the property. Knowing this I served a section 21 notice & the official tenant left. This she would have done as she would not have been able to afford the rent or friend a suitable flat sharer.

For verbal bashing there is always flavor of the month. The most popular ones are Bankers, underwriters, solicitors, Councils, immigrants, muslim's, Polish, Romanians, tax planned rich and now the estate agents, (not in any order ) long may it last.

When I started up my lettings business I had sharers in properties and there was so much hassle that I don't do this anymore. Obviously this is a market driven business and there are a lot of HMO's, student properties and city centre properties that will probably only attract sharers. The rental returns on paper look great until the property gets trashed or there is a change of sharer or someone just ups and leaves!

As regards agents they offer a service to bring tenants to landlords. It's a two way relationship and as a landlord you should always remain in control and not go down the 'blame game'. It's your business and your responsibility to maintain control and be in the driving seat. If you don't use an agent and you know the ropes then it's not hard to manage. If you do use an agent you need to have good communication channels. It's easy to do with emails. As with any business the best ones will be those that provide an excellent service. You can see this now with the changing face of on-line business with the star rating system. As regards agents they work in a fluid and constantly changing market and they are supporting your business not running it so just ensure it's you that's in the driving seat.

Yes Neil I thought it was illegal too! I was certainly never asked to pay anything specifically and assumed that any fee was taken out of the fee I pay to the letting agent, which is half the first month's rent.

This is the second time this agent has signed up only one member of a couple as a tenant and I'd told them then that I didn't want it to happen again. In the first case I still don't have the female as a tenant as the agents said she never went back to see them despite agreeing to do so.

The second property they found a tenant for I turned up at the house the next day and was surprised to find that a chap who lives round the corner had been signed up as my tenant!! His daughter and her husband were moving into my house and explained that the father wanted to make sure that the rent was always paid. I immediately told the letting agents to sign up the couple as tenants and her father as a guarantor, which they did. No idea who was referenced or who paid what.

I'll phone SafeDepositsScotland and ask about getting the deposit back and redoing it, what a pain!

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "07/08/2014 - 19:38":

Hi Mark

Does the deposit have to be repaid back to the tenant and paid back to me again?

Thanks

Peter you do not need to physically give the deposit back to the tenant but get their agreement to take it out of the existing account and place in a new account

Roberta Many LLs do not appreciate the implications of letting to a single party in the full knowledge that a partner is also living in the property. Firstly if the tenant is claiming single person occupancy, single person benefits etc the LL is actively participating in any fraudulent claims being made by the tenant and can be pursued for any payments made to the tenant.

Secondly if the tenant falls out with their partner and moves out and the partner remains you have an unregulated tenancy because the partner can claim tenancy rights because the LL was in full knowledge of the occupancy.

These issues, due to new immigration legislation, can be even more serious if the non named partner is an illegal immigrant and the LL has failed to check their residence status. From October the LL has a legal obligation to go through this process.

Reply to the comment left by "Neil Woodhead" at "10/08/2014 - 09:27":

Thanks Neil
Just wondering as I always insist on ASTs rather than periodic, does deposit need re registering each time - even if the tenant doesn't change (no additional partners etc).
Eg. if Mrs Smith just extends another 6 months living on her own.

Thank you