Venting

[Barmaid]

OK - this is not a question, just a vent. My tenant has buggered off to Afganistan for the next 8 months. The agents are broccoli. I was quite ruffled around the boa when I was told he was leaving the property empty and left instructions about keeping heating on to prevent frozen pipes etc. The muppet cleared off and switched off the electricity. Hence the burglar alarm has been ringing since SUNDAY!!! So all day either me or my clerks have been fending calls from ruffled around the boa neighbours all damn day.

Now the agents say I have to pay to get someone out to it to disarm it so the tenant does not have to pay for the electricity!!!! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. He knew there was a bloody alarm there when he took it on!

So HE goes away, HE switches off the electricity and I have to pay for the alarm company to sort out the alarm. And the agents say I am being unreasonable when I say I shall evict him when his tenancy expires. Oh - and there is no one watering the garden so all my plants will die.

Just need to vent somewhere!!!! I wouldn't bother so much if he was paying a good rent, but I accepted a lower rent on the basis he would be a good tenant (being forces and all that!).

[4getmenot]

are you being paid rent while he is away?

[Barmaid]

I don't know! He only went on Saturday and the rent is not due yet. It has bounced for the last 2 months and I've had to chase it. Of course I can't bloody chase it whilst he is abroad. The agents have just had one of my "sort it or else" letters. I'm just pee'd off that I and my office have had to deal with irate callers (for whom I feel extreme sympathy) but there is naff all I can do if I am 70 miles away.

[Hopkirk]

You want him to leave the heating on for 8 months?

[Barmaid]

No I don't hopkirk. But I do want him to keep it on over the winter (only on tick) to prevent frozen pipes - which clearly is not going to happen if he is away until next year and he has turned the electricity off. AND despite my requesting an insurance certificate he has failed to provide it so if there is any damage I will have to cover it (Ok I could sue him, but there is no bloody point). I am furious.

[tamborine]

that's the trouble with middle-men like agents.....they take little responsibility albeit their interest charge. Surely the agents have keys & should do your bidding ?

[4getmenot]

surely it is in contract that he has to keep up with rent. I say kick him out!!

[Barmaid]

Quite Tambo! This was my point to my supercilious account manager today (who I have had issues with since this started). I said "why am I paying you, if I now have to drive to Bury to sort it out?!"

I feel a bit sorry for the tenant (even if he is a bloody muppet who didn't read the instructions about the alarm), he is off fighting for his country so I won't actually evict him in his absence. However, the minute he is back I have no choice but to get rid so that I can rid myself of the agents who take a whopping fee every month for doing sweet fa. Unfortunately, my contract is such that if I keep him on but get rid of them, I still have to pay them, so they've both got to go.

I'm just pissed that I had grief from my clerks, grief from my ex neighbours, grief from the environmental health people and grief from the agents when I had work to do.

[Barmaid]

My last comment comes with a caveat 4get. If the rent bounces this month and I can't enforce it, next month he will be served with the appropriate notices and will be out. I don't mind being a bit sympathetic, but I am not a charity.

[tamborine]

be ready to say goodbye to the deposit - the agents will find an excuse to keep that.

[sherrardk]

Has he cleared the place out? Maybe he has done a bunk (no point paying rent for 8 months if you aren't going to be in the country).

[boxtops]

Do I understand that your tenant is in the British Army? - so - although I understand your annoyance - he's hardly gone from choice, and you could surely anticipate he'd be off at some time.

I share your annoyance too about managing agents. My tenants didn't pay their rent on time so I didn't have their rent to pay my mortgage - but each month the agents contacted me and asked what I wanted them to to do - chase my sodding rent, please, that's what I pay you for.

Small rant over, but I know what you mean.

[tamborine]

you could take it up with the Forces.....they will pay & can place another tenant in.

[Buenchico]

Hi Barmaid!

Point 1:
Leaving the electricity turned on while you're away for an extended period is probably a sure-fire way to invalidate an insurance policy (especially with regard to fire cover), although I'm sure that a talented barrister could argue otherwise ;-)

Point 2:
As landlord you have a legal responsibility to ensure that any alarm system you've installed meets with the current legislation. That means that it should have only sounded for 20 minutes before self-cancelling.

Chris

[Barmaid]

No he's USAF boxtops. Although I did ask the agents (who said they would get a USAF chap) if he was likely to be posted for any length of time because part of the tenancy agreement was to water the plants in the garden. Their answer was that they only take people on a 3 year UK tour of duty and he wouldn't be posted. That's what has not helped. However, I do accept that he is open to operational requirements but that's not really the point.

The point is that he switched off the leccy (despite my warnings on the alarm), that I (or more importantly, my stressed clerks) had to fend off irate neighbours who were trying to trace me and I have spent the best part of 3 hours sorting it when I pay handsomely every month for someone else to deal with this broccoli! OK so I doubt I will ever move back there, but that's not the point. The fact is, other people have been inconvienced because of someone else (although the alarm stops its external audible alarm after 20 mins, the internal one still goes and environmental health are now involved).

I am going to write to the Housing Officer on the base Tambo. I can't do anything until his tenancy expires (and in fact it expires while he is away but I wouldn't sign a new one - thankfully so I can get rid) unless the rent bounces twice more in which case he's gone. I'm just cross that a) he is a muppet and b) the agents feel that by collecting the rent - which I have to chase - that is all they need to do for their ridiculous percentage every month.

And as for my supercilious account manager, well, she had best not call me for a day or so!

[craft1948]

Tambo has a point............when I was a debt collector and had to chase both UK and American armed forces personnel I used to send details of the debt to their regiment's admin office, they used to pay me and deduct the money from their pay.

[Barmaid]

Well the insurance people can't have it both ways Chris. The electricity is needed for the alarm. The alarm battery will kick in if the electricity is off for any length of time because there is an anti tamper device the alarm thinks that if the leccy is off someone is tampering. He can isolate part of the electricity system without shutting off the alarm or the heating. And in any event, if the electricity is not on, the heating will not work. If the heating doesn't work, frozen pipes ensue. Plus most companies who provide policies for empty properties (I know this from my probate days) actually want lights left on etc to make it look like there is someone there. In a new property, providing appliances are disconnected, the chances of electrical fires are pretty slim.

The alarm self cancels after 20 minutes. There is still an audible beeping inside the house though. The neighbours across the road have complained about this (although how they can hear this I have no idea). Plus the neighbours can hear this. The requirement is for the external bell to cancel after 20 minutes. Unfortunately the internal one doesn't and it constantly beeps.

[Barmaid]

Craft, if the rent bounces again, that's exactly what I am going to do. I'm just being unreasonable and irrational because I am ticked off at having lost 3 hours work because muppet brain turned the leccy off and now I have to pay to get the alarm people to reset the bloody thing!