Property maintenance & upkeep

By this stage your rent is well below market rent so it is best be quiet or you might provoke a sale.

I didn't see where the OP said that, so there is no way you could possibly know. You are really unhelpful, ignorant even. Even if the landlord sold the property, do you thinke he'd be able to offload it without painting the house and repairing the decking?

What a completely unhelpful comment. It makes you sound as though you approve of a landlord who takes no interest in the upkeep of his property. You seem the sort of person who gets landlords a bad name.

Sometimes the Agents don't pass on information to the landlords.

Actually I think it is helpful.

Unless you live under a rock, you know that LLs are selling up at an alarming rate due to proposed changes in the legislation and the current price of property. I myself am considering giving tenants in three properties notice, and just selling up. Do you know what would make that decision a whole lot easier? If I have to invest in repairs, and the tenants pissing me off.

The proposed ban on evictions and the probability of SF being in government after the next election make the appeal for LLs to sell sooner rather than later irresistible. The data relating to that is there for you to see. I was happy to wait and sell when tenants like yourself left of your own volition, but now I think, why wait?

The OP hasn't said that they live in a RPZ. So at present you are jumping to conclusions.

Any comment to make about the LL not carrying out repairs to the decking to the extent that it is dangerous?

No clearer, but put in a slightly less negative way.

However, if you want to sell, you'll have to paint the house (this house hasn't been painted in 10 years apparently) repair or remove the decking assuming it is in a dangerous state as mentioned above. Neither of these will get you a better price than the market average, while not doing them will ensure a lower than market price (unless you sell to a REIT which is always a possibility). Knowing that the LL has owned the house for 10 years or more means that he will make a good profit on his investment, above and beyond the rent he has already squeezed out of it. But you'd also wonder where he'd get as good a return on his money as he has been getting up to now.

O kaayy. So from the juxtaposition of those two comments, I understand that if a tenant wants to live in a properly kept up house, and they mention this to you, you consider that they are píssing you off?

That's certainly how it came across. Imagine asking your LL to repair something and getting a response implying you're pissing the LL off so maybe it's time to sell up. So passive-aggressive.

I have significant concerns about the sincerity of your posting on here. Do not post in this thread again and take this as a note to improve the quality of your posts.

Sounds like the previous tenants weren't the most careful but your current tenant is paying rent and imo, those maintenance issues should have been sorted before the property was re-let whether the rent is below market value or at the current high rates. I have a lot of sympathy for landlords who get stung by bad tenants and people are desperate to find rentals now, but that list of repairs means the property wouldn't pass an inspection and some could be dangerous. It sounds like a lot of money to fix what seems like fairly straighforward stuff. What size is the property?

Btw, there is no requirement to provide furniture, the regulations only specify kitchen white goods. There are lots of renters who would like an unfurnished property.

You are right we should have just sold it rather than re-let if we couldnt afford to fix everything again only 4 years after spending 9k on the place. We are kicking ourselves and praying now we dont get caught by some other new legislation coming along. And its not even just the cost of things nowadays. Its getting someone to do it. By the time you got everything done there would probably be some new legislation to whip you with. Nobody wants to rent a property with no furniture though. Im sure every landlord would love that but nobody wants it.

It was a huge mistake renting it again last time. Should have sold it then. We actually werent going to rent it the last time at all. We were just going to clean it up and sell it. The current tenants previous landlord is a friend of mine and he called my wife and asked could she take them to see it. He was selling up and they hadnt found anywhere yet. My wife showed them the property to explain that there was just too much for us to do and why they couldnt have it and there were tears and begging and the woman was pregnant, so when she came home the decision had been made that they were getting the place as they were moving back to their home country in 6 months and were homeless. So the agreement was that they could have it for the 6 months as long as i could tip away and fix things up in my own time as we hadnt got the money to get someone else to do it. Through events that were no fault of their own they ended up having to stay a bit longer but are still going home.

Im sorry we ever rented the place out tbh.

We ended up on low rent because we had good tenants in there for years and gave them a break on the rent. Then we got stuck on that rent after that.

Then a few more good tenants and a couple of bad ones and then 2 particularly bad ones in a row had broken our will to be landlords. The last tenants we probably should never let into the place tbh but we were doing them and our friend a favor while they were getting their affairs in order to go home and they are nice people. They even had numerous friends of theirs calling us to take the place when they are gone, but its definitely being sold now.

If I was to give you the list of things I have fixed myself it would be 10 times as long. And yes I am fixing them myself as I go. Actually as I type, I have the tiles in the van to tile the bathroom the next time I get a chance to go out there :) Brought the taps with me the last time to replace when I was changing the thermostat in the immersion, but lo and behold no valve on the taps behind the sinks so thats a job for a plumber now. 2 of them havent bothered turning up so far. Used to have a handyman to do jobs I could'nt do but he doesnt do it anymore. More money on the sites for him full time now.

Anyway handy as I am, it costs a lot of money and time and those things just arent so plentiful that they are worth it. The place is being sold. But this thread isnt about my situation. I was just pointing out for the OP that things are not so easily done these days and to speak to their landlord about prioritizing whats to be done. But I would guess their landlord is the same as myself. Did a cost benefit and said they will leave it and sell it as is. When you can recover the outlay then you have no incentive to spend the money.

Downbythegarden says

"Nobody wants to rent a property with no furniture though. Im sure every landlord would love that but nobody wants it".

Why is that?

There must be room for both furnished and unfurnished in the market. There are landlords who are unhappy with extra rules and an annual rtb charge, yet they spend thousands to fit-out or refurbish a rental when that's not something they are obliged to do. Supplying stuff like decking, sofas, beds, drawer chests, wood floors, window coverings, light fittings etc is not required. Everyone agrees that rentals should comply with standards - structurally safe, certs for electrics, gas, etc, and kitchen/bathroom requirements, but it's strange that landlords don't provide unfurnished as it's less expensive and when a tenant leaves, the only work should be minor repairs, painting, and new white goods. It might suit renters as well to have a cheaper rental and have their own sofas, beds and soft furnishings to their own taste that they can take away if they leave. If the legislation only specifies white goods then why are landlords still supplying fully furnished properties? I don't understand it tbh.

Leave the providers of high end fully furnished places with gyms and resident caretakers etc to charge huge rents to people who can afford it, but some landlords might prefer to provide unfurnished properties especailly if they are locked into 'below market rent'.