Tenants possibly smoking in my house???

Tenants can do anything they want within a house as long as its legal.

And that’s what got you into all that trouble in the first place, wasn’t it young man?

There is also an increased fire risk, I think you get cheaper landlord insurance if you specify no smoking. Not sure what position that would put you in with a claim if they knew you tolerated it.

How would you guys feel if the mortgage companies prohibited you from having parties for the duration of the mortgage? Or put other restrictions on what you could or couldn’t do during the banks’ continued ownership of the property until final payment has been made?
Regarding the painting of the property, would you move into a dirty unkept house? As for me paying for it, just include it in the rental costs, if that pushes the price too high and makes it uncompetitive, tough. If it means the project is less profitable, tough.
Just remember who the customer is.

And that’s what got you into all that trouble in the first place, wasn’t it young man?

Thats what got Paul into becoming a Daddy! 😆

Just steal their deposit like every landlord I’ve had in the past has done – charge them £150 for a shower curtain, and steal the washing machine that they themselves rented from a shop. 😆

Don – There is a market for people like you that demand and get total cleanliness and that’s great. All you have to do (assuming you were/are renting) is reject every house that has not been painted every 6-12months (90-95% of em at a guess). Most folks are happy with clean tidy paint and put other priorities first. Personally I look for a level of maintanence in a rented property as high as I would sustain if I owned it myself. But then we all have differing levels of that as well.

Out of interest do you repaint your house every 6-12months even when it looks mint from the last time or do you wait until it looks like it needs doing?

Just remember who the customer is.

Absolutely. But also remember being a landlord is not a philanthropic exercise either.

In future just add a clause that says the Tennant has to pay for a professional clean at the end of the tenancy.

Before any of you landlords run off to create tenancy agreements, you might want to read about unfair contract terms. its all here
http://www.oft.gov.uk/about-the-oft/legal-powers/legal/unfair-terms/guidance

The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 protect consumers against unfair standard terms in contracts they make with traders. The OFT, together with certain other bodies, can take legal action to prevent the use of such terms. The UTCCRs can protect consumers from terms that reduce their statutory or common law rights and from terms that seek to impose unfair burdens on the consumer over and above the obligations of ordinary rules of law.

imposing a full house clean would be a unfair term, but feel free to put it in there, its not worth the ink it will take to print

The rented flat I just moved out of was not professionally cleaned before we moved in. We moved in only a few hours after the last tenant checking out and they hadn’t had it done like they were supposed to. They also had a pet which was contrary to the tenancy agreement. My missus has severe asthma and allergies, it took weeks of vacuuming daily to stop the pet hair affecting her.
It was not painted before we moved in, 2 years for previous tenants, we were there 3 years, so it hasn’t been done in 5 years. I suspect my landlady is going to try to sting us for re-decorating, despite it being wear and tear.
We refused to pay a professional to clean the carpets and the sofa, as it was not done for us, we did however replace the mattress and pay for a full professional clean of the flat by the agents recommended and guaranteed cleaning company, excluding carpet shampooing and sofa cleaning(again, not done before we moved in).

The inventory says quite clearly that the place was not clean and tidy when we moved in but we have left it so, it seems this isn’t worth the paper it is written on, let alone the exorbitant inventory clerk fees. I’m now expecting a fight with my landlady over it.

The joys of renting.

Bonj you sound quite nieve to the whole landlord thing all the stuff you have said is quite readily available information found on the internet.

Renton as the owener of the property you are entitled to go and do an inspection yourself, even if the letting agent may try and suggest otherwise.

But inspection is part of the job that you pay the agent to do – there’s absolutely no point you doing it if you’re paying an agent to do it.
It’s like paying someone to do some building work for you and then barging the bricklayer out of the way and saying “I want to do that!”
If you want to do inspections yourself, don’t also pay an agent to do it. But it comes back to the point about removing your emotional involvement in it.

When you move back in, you are invariably going to do (or get done) a certain amount of work in cleaning, possibly decorating, general freshening up, refurnishing, etc. – to get rid of traces of the old tenants and make it your home again. This is the point at which you should start to think of it as *your* home, rather than merely an investment.

However, you are probably going to have to do this regardless of how the tenants treat it, whether or not they smoke in it, etc. so in my eyes there’s little point trying to pre-emptively mitigate this.

Just wait till they move out and THEN begin the process of converting it back into *your* home.

Is it not costly/a PITA for you to keep going up there and micromanaging? For me it’s an hour’s drive away, and it takes time, and time is money. I’d be better off spending that time at work earning more doing the job I’m actually professional at, and paying a guy who’s expertise it is to maintain properties. If you live in the same town as your rented property, and/or you don’t trust your agent, then YMMV. However if you don’t like/trust your agent, you should get another one.

I had a landlord who objected to me leaving a mtb tyre outside my front door (property in the middle of the countryside with no neighbours). She even came onto the property and hung it on my front door. When i moved it back, she then taped a note to my door. This and other gems as pinching the house keys for 4 hours when i left them in the shed door for 30 minutes, means i’ll never rent from “landlord managed” properties again.