Got some tenants moving out of one of my houses at the end of feb. They’ve just rung to ask if the month’s rent they paid up front can be “used to pay their last month’s stay in the house”.

I asked if they meant the deposit, they said no, they paid the first month up front and they seem to think that this is some sort of extra!!! Not the first time I’ve had this either!

I politely pointed out that the rent is payable “in advance” and that if they want to stay til the end of Feb, Feb’s rent must be paid at the beginning of Feb. Wassocks!

Grrrrrr…..

Snigle
:o(

yep.

it’s why all landlords appear to be bastards.

(I’ve been both sides of the argument on this one).

“one of my houses”

I’m sure you’ll cope my dear fellow 😀

I wouldn’t say all tenants, but look at it from their side, how do they know that you are going to give them THEIR deposit back?

I rent and to be honest, most of my dealing with agents haven’t been good.

mrmo – because it’s lodged with a deposit scheme who have an arbitrator to resolve disputes. If the deposit is allowed to be used to pay the last month’s rent there’s no incentive for the tenant to keep the place in good order and not walk off with half the fixtures and fittings.

I think I’m a great landlord. Everything gets fixed within 48hrs where possible, I’ve given them lots of leeway when they’ve been struggling to pay the rent on time, and I’ve helped them loads with their embassy/imigration (they’re Malaysian).
Sad that a good landlord/tenant relationship should be sullied by them trying to get one over me in their last month!
I’m going to be renovating the house quite considerably when they leave, so I wouldn’t have let the odd stained carpet effect their deposit, but I’m thinking differently now.

Can’t blame them for trying. Did they kick up a fuss when you said no?

Maybe they’ve just simply got the wrong end of the stick?

🙂

i thought that too Peter

They’ve not responded yet, so if they have got the wrong end of the stick and accept that, I’ll certainly give them the benefit of the doubt.

I’ve had 2 or 3 try exactly the same thing in the past, I suspect it’s a case of inexperienced people getting confused by the difference between ‘in advance’ and ‘in hand’, as perhaps would be applied to their wages. That, or they’re just funking chancers! 🙄

Snigle
:o)

Just added some tags- ALL in good jest! (will remove if offended) 🙂

I suspect it’s a case of inexperienced people getting confused by the difference between ‘in advance’ and ‘in hand’

Given recent threads on here requiring logic, I’d say that’s a good possibility.

No offense taken Hora!

Snigle
:o)

mlc, doesn’t that depend on when the tenancy began? Could be confusion, could be they want to go and it would be quicker if there is less hassle.

Depends on the relationship between tenant and landlord, how much the deposit is etc. Could be simply, “we intend to leave the place in a good condition, if we let you keep the deposit we don’t pay the rent we are all square. Bit quicker and easier for us” ??

That they asked would suggest they aren’t trying anything on.

In every house I ever rented I did that, but without asking.

I lost £1100 to a blingin landlord who absconded with my bond (this was prior to the new protection scheme)… still bitter about that 🙁

I’m very cynical about landlords nowadays, don’t trust them as far as I can throw them unfortunately.

I’ve only ever lived in one rented property where the landlord or estate agent didnt “try it on”.

Snigletrack years ago a couple of friends moved in with another lad who owned his own house. Very soon he was known as ‘Rigsby’, a name that has stuck ever since. One particularly cold winter the bill came in and (from memory) it was only 50% more than the service charge due to Rigsbys rules on heating etc. Hes a top lad mind but a yorkshireman all the same 😆

MrMo, all well and good in a perfect world, but the deposit is there to protect me from loss or damage, or for them not paying the last month’s rent.

Yes, it will be difficult for them to find another month’s rent and deposit for their new home, but that’s not my problem. I’m not a charity.

I’ve done that. Except I’ve not asked beforehand.
Would do it again, too.

Landlord had made it very clear to me that he wanted me out of the house before the end of the contract, but without any intention of ending the contract early (he still wanted rent paid). Coupled with the landlord’s particularly poor handling of necessary maintenance, I don’t feel that this was unreasonable at all.

Afterwards, it was made pretty clear that they still wanted the final month’s rent, and had no intention of returning my deposit afterwards, without providing any justification.

Snigletrack, i know your not a charity, as i said, that they asked, suggests they mean no harm and are trying to cut their hassle a little.

Oh, reread your original post.

If they want to skip out on the last month’s rent, and expect their deposit returned, then yeah, I’d agree that’s out of order.

For everybody who thinks it’s ok to skip out on a landlord or that the are all **** who are there to screw you over try renting a house out. Your opinion soon changes, especially regarding “normal wear and tear”

9 times out of 10 the real arse is the agent who is only on their side but has 2 people to screw over

I never smiled so much as when i recently heard estate agents complaing how bad life was and that they would all be going out of buissness

MrMo, they’re not asking for the deposit to be used for the last month, they’ve ‘misremembered’ the fact that their first month’s rent ‘up front’, paid for their first month’s stay in the house. They seem to think they paid a month extra for some reason.

Our rental situation is near perfect….the landlord lives in hongkong (the house is in Chiswick) we have no inventory due to the fact that whenever we move out, he wants to gut the place, all he is interested in are the white goods, our deposit is in the bag and as it stands, the house is in much better nick than when we moved in as we’ve decorated.

He has been very helpfull with any problems and has thanked us for being ‘understanding’. The last tenants were trouble by all accounts.

I rented out my place once to a bloke who put two of his employees in it for a year. As soon as I moved out he got people to redecorate it to a much better standard than I left it in (decorating isn’t my thing). The two girls moved out with thirty days still left on the contract, leaving the flat in a very good condition and he let me keep the deposit so i could ‘freshen it up’ when I moved back in. Beautiful!

Sounds like incomprehension rather than “trying it on” to me.

They pay people like us rent so generally tenants are a bit stupid by default 😉

Gary_M – Member
They pay people like us rent so generally tenants are a bit stupid by default

Nail… Head… Wallop!

Snigle
:o)

Considering most landlords will conjure up some wonderful fees for damage and cleaning, and try to claw as much of the deposit as possible, its possibly the best way to make sure they don’t rip you off.
Not paying the last months rent means the landlord can only claim up to the limit of the deposit. any extras they will have to go to court for.

The day landlords stop treating the deposit as a little extra profit they make out of tenants, will… sorry, i don’t think i’ll see that day.

People buy properties to let to make money. Fact

My landlord lives in Dubai, has his office in New York and postal address in Scotland. “Do whatever you want” he says. “It’s not me who lives there.”

Was it relevant that you mentioned they were Malay? Racist! oh wait sorry wrong thread!! 😉

my last tenant was a filthy b*stard.

In 3 years there he never did his dishes, that we could see when he finally left, with the aid of an eviction order, owing 6 months rent. Mouse droppings everywhere, not to mention the dog turds all over the house; the carpets strangely also smelt of dog’s p*ss. And he ran up some nice unpaid debts while he was there. Two of the interior doors were ruined (hell, one of them had the bottom half missing) and the kitchen units were totally rotten from where he’d let the taps run into the sink, with a washing machine outlet uncapped.

One month’s rent cover all that? not bloody likely.

People buy properties to let to make money. Fact

not always. I bought it with my then g/f to live in. Shortly after we moved in we realised it was a sh&t area, and wanted to move out again. However, in the meantime, the house prices crashed. The house we bought in 1990 for £30k was, by 1992 worth £20k and kept dropping to reach a low of about £10k.

Luckily, both our salaries kept increasing, to the point where, in ’98, we could afford to buy another house (nice little semi in a good neighbourhood)

We still couldn’t sell the first house without losing £20k so we thought “why not rent it out – let it pay its own mortage”. So we did. The first 5 years were painless. Then in 2003 Mr R moved in…

And we still haven’t sold the bloody thing 🙁 it’s going to follow me to the grave

Don’t landlords have insurance for that sort of thing?

some do, some don’t. We had basic “buildings” insurance but not “contents”.

The idea is that the letting agent vets the tenant before they move in. Those with a bad reputation/credit history don’t get very nice houses.

I’m a tenant and I have insurance with M&S that covers Landlords possessions and fittings too.

Never claimed on it yet though.