The Boomerang Effect for Landlords?

The Boomerang Effect for Landlords?

16:22 PM, 7th October 2011, About 13 years ago 21

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“Respect seems to be like a boomerang in the sense that you must send it out before it will come back to you.”

I have been giving a lot of thought to the relationship between a landlord and his tenants. Many tenants have landlord stories and many landlords have tenant stories but sadly neither seem to want to tell stories in praise of the other. Why is this? Why is so there little mutual respect between many tenants and landlords? Why is there so little respect for landlords generally?

Is this a historic thing?

Most landlords cringe when they hear the name “Rachman”. “Peter Rachman (1919 – 29 November 1962) was a London landlord in the Notting Hill area in the 1950s and 1960s. He became so notorious for his exploitation of tenants that the word “Rachmanism” entered the dictionary as a synonym for any greedy, unscrupulous landlord”

Why, when there are so many good landlords in the business, are we still living with the legacy of one man? There are now estimated to be 1.5 million landlords in the UK, how can so many people be tarred with one brush? I realise that there are still some unscrupulous landlords who live up to the poor reputation that we are given but then there are many, many of us who work very hard to provide decent, well managed homes for an estimated 3.4 million people. So why is “landlord” such a dirty word?

In this article, Richard Lambert, the new CEO of NLA, says “The private rented sector is not a housing problem; it’s a vital part of the solution.”

Richard is right, and all local authorities recognise that without private landlords they will fail in their duty to house homeless people. So why do so many of their officers still distrust landlords? Is it because they mostly come into contact with the bad boys, while good landlords just get on with their business and do not attract attention?

I have often come across tenants who have had bad experiences with previous landlords and when I have sensed this I have always met it head on. I don’t want to “live” with mistrust and I encourage tenants to tell me about their concerns. I have heard many stories from these tenants and, to be honest, if what they are saying is true, I too would be concerned.

So my question is: What can landlords do to repair our reputation? Clearly just being a good landlord and providing nice, well managed homes is not enough.

I suggest that we landlords throw the boomerang first and let’s see if it really does come back to us.
To do this we need to accept that there are some issues that are at the core of mistrust of landlords. Many of them are Chinese Whispers but the fact is they are damaging the reputation of good landlords and therefore we need to lay them to rest. Working to the spirit, rather then just the letter of the law might be a good place to begin.

I want to pick up on just two issues that tenants and local authorities often talk about.

  • Landlords entering a tenanted property without the tenants consent.

There has been much debate recently about the legalities of landlord right of entry v tenant’s right of quiet enjoyment and I don’t propose to revisit that here. Let’s move forward and look at the realities of the issue. I love my home and when I lock my front door I know that no one will enter my home without my consent. This is fundamental to my well being and security and I believe that this is fundamental to the well being of all human beings. Life is full of stresses and strains but when I come home I know that I can be me, I can do whatever I need to do to relax. I don’t need to worry what anyone else thinks, I don’t need to concern myself with whether I am being PC or socially acceptable or “normal” because I am in my home, my safe place and I can do whatever my heart desires. I cannot imagine how I would feel if one evening a person unlocked my front door and came into my home uninvited. I can imagine how I would react and it would not be a good experience for that person. I would be aggressive and unreasonable and I would demand that they left. I would then call the Police and expect them to arrest that person. Would I feel secure in future? No I would not and the first thing that I would do is change all of the locks on my outer doors to make certain that this horrible experience could not happen again.

I know that the majority of landlords would not treat their tenants with such disrespect but the fact is that there are many, many stories of tenants who have been subjected to just such an experience. When my youngest daughter went to university she called me one night and told me “Mum I think that the landlord has a hole in the wall. Every time of us is coming out of the shower to go back to our bedroom the landlord is in the living room”. I was angry and concerned and I rang the landlord. He told me “It’s my property and I will go and check it whenever I like” I pointed out to him that he must give the tenants a minimum of 24 hours notice before he goes to the property. He replied “I don’t care what the law says, it’s my property and no one is going to stop me inspecting it when I like”. I went the next day and changed all of the locks. The landlord forced the door open on his next visit. I took action and he was made to see the error of his ways but that’s another story.

The first boomerang I would like to throw is this.

Give your tenants total control of the doors to their home.

Ask your tenant if they are ok with you having a key and explain that you will never use it without their consent. Making a tenant feel in control will help to balance the feeling of some tenants that the landlord has power over them. No one is at their best if they feel that they are under the control of others. Corner a little mouse and watch it become a lion.

  • Essential repairs being delayed or not done at all

Things breakdown – this is a simple fact of life. The central heating is not going to breakdown in August it is going to wait until the deep midwinter, when gas engineers are up to their necks in work and parts are sold out. The washing machine is not going to break down just after a tenant has done the weekly wash it is going to wait until the drum is full of washing and water and just stop, this is usually on a Friday night after 8pm. The oven will wait until the tenant has a dinner party planned, the lawn mower until there is rain forecast for the next month. With the best will in the world landlords can only do what can be done. Often tenants have not owned their own homes and therefore they have no idea of the problems that can arise when calling engineers at a busy time or obtaining parts that are not in stock. When explaining delays to a tenant we need to accept that they might be thinking “She doesn’t want to spend the money” or “It alright for her but I am paying rent”. Going the extra mile will help to make tenants realise that we do care and that we do understand their needs. We cannot do the impossible but we can make it easier for a tenant to accept that there is a delay. If we cannot get an engineer out to sort out the heating we can offer portable heaters to be used while they are waiting. This may increase their fuel bills and offering to contribute towards that cost is an acknowledgement that the tenant is paying for a service that you cannot provide at that time but that you will cover the cost of emergency cover. If we cannot get a part for the washing machine we can offer to cover the cost of the tenant using a laundrette. This is not about the landlords legal obligation to ensure that everything he provides is kept in good working order throughout the tenancy, it is about respecting that a tenant is paying for a service and ensuring that the tenant does not suffer because of delays.

Boomerang 2: Acknowledge that tenants expect to get what they are paying for.

Try to see it from their point of view. Respond quickly to requests for repairs. Take the time and trouble to explain why there is a delay. Offer an alternative at your expense

  • Landlords not being fair with tenants deposits

The Tenancy Deposit legislation seems to have done very little to put this one to bed. Only around 6% of all tenants, whose deposits are protected through MyDeposits.co.uk, raise a dispute, only 39% of these are accepted as a dispute and only 50% of that small number actually go to arbitration. A tiny proportion of all deposits taken. Yet there are tenants who withhold the last months rent because they are nervous that the landlord might not return their deposit.

It is important to have the conversation with your tenants at the start of the tenancy. Apart from giving them their deposit protection certificates and the information we are legally required to provide to a tenant to tell him how the tenancy deposit protection system works, we should do everything we can to make him understand that we don’t want to withhold deposit we just need him to understand our expectations. A well worded tenancy agreement should detail what the deposit is meant to cover and the procedure for repaying the deposit at the end of the tenancy. A well presented inventory will include the condition and location of everything that is provided and record the fact that the manufacturers In Use and Safety Instructions have been given to the tenant. Offering to demonstrate the use of everything in the property is useful for those tenants who either have not been used to running their own home or who have not lived in the UK before now. It is dangerous for a landlord to assume that a tenant will instinctively know how to use the items provided as they should be used.

At the end of the tenancy we need to be realistic about our expectations and take account of the nature of the tenants that we house. If we accept smokers then we must accept that there may be odours or stains, we do not need to accept burns or major discolouration of walls and furniture. If we accept pets then we need to explain that the tenant will be expected to have the carpets and soft furnishings cleaned to remove hairs and odours at the end of the tenancy. If we let to sharers we need to realise that no one will accept responsibility “someone else will do it” often leads to heavier wear and tear but, since this type of tenant group usually offers a higher return, it is part of the facts of letting in multi occupation. Both parties having realistic expectations from the start is key to avoiding fall outs over deposits and damages at the end of the tenancy

Boomerang 3: Establish realistic expectations on both sides from day 1.

If a tenant has been a good tenant and paid rent in full and on time be prepared to live with small costs of repairs and replacements. Take account of the length of the tenancy and the client group involved. Begin from the position that you want to return 100% of the tenants deposit and try hard to achieve that aim.

My beloved mother was a vegan and she brought me up to respect all living creatures, this has not always meant that this respect has been returned, but I am the eternal optimist and over almost 40 years I have enjoyed excellent relationships with a huge majority of my tenants. On the occasions where we have not worked well together I just bite the bullet and wait for the tenancy to end because people are as they are and you cannot win them all over no matter how hard you try. I probably would not have remained in this business for all these years had most of my boomerangs not come back.


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Comments

Ben Reeve-Lewis

7:08 AM, 15th October 2011, About 13 years ago

I think you hit the nail on the head there when you say that both parties think of it as their home Jonathon. That's what drives so much of it. And legally this is correct too, the landlord owns the property but under the Law of Propertry Act 1925 the tenant is the effective owner for the period of the lease, so you have competing motivations.

I too train conflict resolution, under my own name and often for the Chartered Instituite of Housing, Sitra, Shelter (Until I disagreed with their rogue landlord campaign haha) and a variety of others. I have developed a core skills training course specifically for people in housing and since I started it in 1998 over 2,000 housing staff had been on my course. The skeleton around which is built is Rapport, how to get it and maintain it even when both parties are angry with each other it can still be done.

The trick with rapport is not that you have to like the person you are in rapport with, but that on some level you 'are like them'. I teach people to find the points where they are like each other on a number of levels, both through words and non verbal communication.

Although a prosecuting officer for landlord and tenant law I do what you do, I meet with the parties and try to broker a solution. I dont find it necessary to take them out of the property though, in some instances I think it helps to be on site.

Councils do this for free and in my trainings I encourage this approach. People are happier and it beats having to do all that bloody paperwork

Mary Latham

13:22 PM, 16th October 2011, About 13 years ago

Ooops. I meant to reply to Jonathans comment and I hit the report comment box PLEASE IGNORE

Jonathan, as always, a well reasoned post. I will be using yet another quote from you in future -

"Tenants and landlords both want a voice and an escape route out of the hole they often dig themselves."

I have spoken to so many landlords when they are deep in a hole and do not know who to get out. I always say put your hands up and apologise, even when there is fault on both sides. I am amazed at how many landlords reply that "it is the principle of the thing". I am the last person to tell landlords not to have principles but they are often unhelpful when a discussion has reached stalemate. When a landlord backs off, even where the tenant may be at fault, the conversation can change course and this is the only way to get out of a stalemate without others becoming involved.

I will be posting a blog in the near future giving details - without names - of some of the worse cases that I have come across. In most of these cases the landlord has lost a lot of money by hanging on to his principles rather than trying to find a solution.

Ben if there were officers like you in every local authority the PRS would be more comfortable for both landlords and our tenants, unfortunately local authority involvement can sometimes make matters worse. As you know landlords can, as a knee jerk reaction, serve a Section 21 on a tenant who has involved the local authority and this is mainly because they think that the authority will use a big stick to hit them while protecting a tenant who may be in the wrong. It would be a great idea to do as Jonathan has suggested and have people who are skilled in mediation to work with the landlord and tenant to resolve the issue painlessly. I realise that funds and manpower are short but the investment would help tenants to stay in their homes and prevent them presenting to the authority as homeless.

This could be a boomerang for local authorities to throw at landlords and our tenants and I am sure that it will come back.

Ben Reeve-Lewis

14:07 PM, 16th October 2011, About 13 years ago

Oh Yeah Mary dont get me wrong, in the early days I did my fair amount of white charger work, only to find the tenant had been lying through their teeth and I had destroyed any chance of a reconciliation to make myself look like a hero........particularly if the tenant was pretty and defenceless haha

I always get annoyed when landlords shout at me that I am believeing everything the tenant tells me, as that is a million miles from the truth, as investigating offcier it is my job to prove or disprove when a case is made to me, it doesnt mean I believe or even like the tenant whose allegations I have to look into but, like a copper its my job to ask.

In fact I loathe making certain calls and will put them off for as long as possible. A landlord may have stuck a note on the front door saying "Pay me the £3,000 by Friday or I'm changing the locks", damning evidence I am sure you agree and I have to stop it happening but privately I think "If you owed me £3,000 I'd change the bloody locks as well".

But, as I have written elsewhere council's are changing their roles in this respect and organsiationally they are coming around to do what I have been doing on my own for years, being more mediator and facilitator than enforcement officer. If a tenant owes rent and the fly in the ointment is a defective notice seeking possession that wont get past the judge I will sit down with the landlord and help them fill it in properly, and for no fee at the same time as warning the tenant that they have brought this on themsleves and helping them with debt advice to try and salvage the situation.

Most council's have realised that we need landlords more than they need us and are going down this route now but it will be a while before it really gets into its stride.

I hope to accelrate things. On Friday the Guardian contacted me and aksed if I would start writing for them about how this stuff develops and this week I have a camera crew following me around to see if there is a documentary hidden in my work life. If the production company gives the green light they will be filming me for about 3 months. If I have any sort of sway with the producers I would like them to concentrate on the efforts we make to build relationships with landlords rather than just being the housing version of the Sweeney, which I realise probably makes for more exciting TV. The trouble is I am more Desmond Tutu than Regan and Carter so the final result might not get made.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

16:05 PM, 16th October 2011, About 13 years ago

Hi Ben, I hope it is on TV and that your common sense approach is allowed to prevail post editing. My own experience of TV is that sadly that rarely happens and they just keep filming until there is enough content to satisfy a pre determined agenda. Be very certain you know what that agenda is before you commit would be my advice.

Ben Reeve-Lewis

16:48 PM, 16th October 2011, About 13 years ago

Yeah I'm prepared for that Mark. But if it goes ahead I will have 3 months to push a bit. Failing that, if I end up looking like Lewisham's version of Dirty Harry I will at least have writings on things like Property 118 and Landlord Law Blog to show thats not quite where I am coming from.

My big worry is that in real life I swear like a docker with Tourettes and have raised sarcasm about my clients to an art from.

Mary Latham

18:21 PM, 17th October 2011, About 13 years ago

Wow Ben you are going to be a TV star hahahahaha.

I agree with Mark unfortunately they have a way of editing the content to show a particular pre-determined story. In the mid 90's I was filmed for TV - I still cringe when I watch the video of that programme. I was told that I would be representing the good landlords and how a terraced property could be made into a nice home for students. In the programme I came across as " I am the only good landlord in the area" This is not what I said nor what I intended to imply, I was making the point the the local authority had moved the goal posts - pre HA 2004 - so many times that landlords who let to students had various fire safety standards and that, in my opinion, we needed one national standard so that good landlords knew what was expected. Later I worked with the Homestamp consortium to produce a guide to Wst Midlands Fire Safety in HMO's (see http://www.homestamp.com for a free download) this was used when Lacors wrote the national standard but ours is MUCH better and very easy for a landlord to follow and it is still used by LA's in the West Midlands today. I recently refused to take part in a TV programme which I felt would turn into landlord bashing again.

In the West Midlands we have a few officers who share your methodology Ben and they are a joy to work with but I am still working on those who do not realise that some landlords make mistakes and need support while others set out to do a bad job and it they need to develope skills to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

I look forward to seeing the results on TV. I will do a bleep count to see how many naughty words you use.

18:33 PM, 17th October 2011, About 13 years ago

Oh now this sounds like it could be fun! I might even make a special effort to watch TV! I've never seen a docker with Tourettes being interviewed! I'm with Mary. I'll help count the bleeps!

Mary what a horrid experience with your daughter's landlord! Ugh! When I was first at college the landlord charged us £10 a week on Yarmouth Seafront and turned up regularly for a 'cuppa'. Place was so freezing cold I'm amazed he bothered! 🙂

Ben Reeve-Lewis

19:09 PM, 17th October 2011, About 13 years ago

Thanks everyone. I've heard this time and time again from people who have done it. I know you are right and I will probably not recognise myself if it goes out and should turn it down, but, damn it!!!!!! who am I kidding? I'm just too vain to say no!!!!

Mary Latham

19:12 PM, 17th October 2011, About 13 years ago

KP did you ever consider that he was getting warm looking at the nubile young woman who was sharing a cuppa with him?

Shall we do a joint blog entitled Ben RL is really a bleep bleep London Docker (we won't use the other word because it might cause offence)

Mary Latham

19:15 PM, 17th October 2011, About 13 years ago

I was too vain to say yes Ben

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