"Managing a property is easy - you don't need to do anything and the money just comes in by standing order". I've heard this argument on numerous occasions over the years, usually when a landlord is telling me exactly why he doesn't need my managed service, and have perfected my "we'll see" smile to a tee. It's almost inevitable there will be another conversation on the matter - it's just a questions of when.
In the vast majority of cases, any landlord that trots out this line actually intends to do NO management. As long as the rent comes in he's never going to question anything, and if it's late he'll send them a text, they'll pay within a week or so, and he'll go on thinking he's a clever boy.
I've had 2 properties back this month where the landlord has not managed. The first had been let out for some years on a room by room basis with the landlord paying all bills. She had managed to get 5 rooms let by sticking a bed in the living room and when one tenant left she encouraged the remainder to find a new housemate so they all got on. Fast forward a few years, and none of the original tenants remained, she didn't know who was living in her property, and there were no written tenancy agreements worth their salt. Then the Council got involved as neighbours were complaining about the number of people living in the property, she was served an improvement order and forced to seek possession of the property. With no tenancy agreements, this took time and required solicitors, and as soon as the tenants knew they were being evicted the rent stopped coming in. I went to see her on the day the bailiff attended, by which time there was over £5k in rent arrears, and she'd incurred over £2.5k in legal costs. The place was pretty much wrecked - she "couldn't believe they had left it like this" despite never checking on it for the 5 years previously. When it rains, it pours! Total loss around the £12k mark I'd suggest.
The second landlord used to live in the property he let out, but relocated to the other end of the UK and decided he'd self manage. Again things appeared to be running smoothly, but when the rent stopped coming in and the tenant didn't return his calls, he called me - I'm happy to help, but if you've decided to self-manage surely you should know what to do yourself? We stuck a fairly horrible notice to the front door which prompted the tenant to call the landlord immediately (the desired effect!) to advise he was moving out in 7 days as he'd previously stated (he hadn't). The landlord was having none of it and started explaining the tenants contractual obligations to him before it became apparent that in 5 years of tenancy the landlord hadn't bothered renewing the gas test. That's a difficult one to argue your way out of - you're on a sticky wicket - so the chances of negotiating anything sensible with your tenant are limited. Assuming he doesn't want to be reported for not having a gas test, the landlord is looking at the loss of a months rent plus a month empty, plus the cost of tidying up his property as the tenant by this point had lost interest in playing by the rules on any matter. When we finally got inside the landlord was shocked to find badly fitted wallpaper everywhere - he'd given the tenant permission to decorate when he moved in (no idea why) - but "I never thought he'd do this" and hadn't checked for 5 years thereafter. Rectifying it would be in the region of £3k so a total loss of about £5k on this one.
The moral of the story is of course not to cut corners and if you don't know anything about the law of landlord and tenant - why the hell would you choose to manage your own tenancy? I don't know anything about servicing my car and for that reason I pay someone else to do it. I'm not saying the cost doesn't irk me sometimes - it does - but the alternative is doing it myself which I'll get away with for so long, but when it finally goes wrong the repair bill will be massive.
In the vast majority of cases, any landlord that trots out this line actually intends to do NO management. As long as the rent comes in he's never going to question anything, and if it's late he'll send them a text, they'll pay within a week or so, and he'll go on thinking he's a clever boy.I've had 2 properties back this month where the landlord has not managed. The first had been let out for some years on a room by room basis with the landlord paying all bills. She had managed to get 5 rooms let by sticking a bed in the living room and when one tenant left she encouraged the remainder to find a new housemate so they all got on. Fast forward a few years, and none of the original tenants remained, she didn't know who was living in her property, and there were no written tenancy agreements worth their salt. Then the Council got involved as neighbours were complaining about the number of people living in the property, she was served an improvement order and forced to seek possession of the property. With no tenancy agreements, this took time and required solicitors, and as soon as the tenants knew they were being evicted the rent stopped coming in. I went to see her on the day the bailiff attended, by which time there was over £5k in rent arrears, and she'd incurred over £2.5k in legal costs. The place was pretty much wrecked - she "couldn't believe they had left it like this" despite never checking on it for the 5 years previously. When it rains, it pours! Total loss around the £12k mark I'd suggest.
The second landlord used to live in the property he let out, but relocated to the other end of the UK and decided he'd self manage. Again things appeared to be running smoothly, but when the rent stopped coming in and the tenant didn't return his calls, he called me - I'm happy to help, but if you've decided to self-manage surely you should know what to do yourself? We stuck a fairly horrible notice to the front door which prompted the tenant to call the landlord immediately (the desired effect!) to advise he was moving out in 7 days as he'd previously stated (he hadn't). The landlord was having none of it and started explaining the tenants contractual obligations to him before it became apparent that in 5 years of tenancy the landlord hadn't bothered renewing the gas test. That's a difficult one to argue your way out of - you're on a sticky wicket - so the chances of negotiating anything sensible with your tenant are limited. Assuming he doesn't want to be reported for not having a gas test, the landlord is looking at the loss of a months rent plus a month empty, plus the cost of tidying up his property as the tenant by this point had lost interest in playing by the rules on any matter. When we finally got inside the landlord was shocked to find badly fitted wallpaper everywhere - he'd given the tenant permission to decorate when he moved in (no idea why) - but "I never thought he'd do this" and hadn't checked for 5 years thereafter. Rectifying it would be in the region of £3k so a total loss of about £5k on this one.
