Having worked in the lettings industry for most of my adult life, I have become keenly aware that practical information for tenants is not circulating well. And that’s putting it mildly!
I can’t think of another single industry or service that comes close to the rental sector for disputes or misunderstandings, despite its importance let alone its economic clout. The cost of an
average rental in South East England will cost tenants as much as a pretty decent car
every single year. Even further afield, most tenants are still paying between a third and a half of everything they earn to keep a rented roof over their heads. However... what all tenants need to understand from the beginning is that they are often
not even the customers in transactions that involve agencies.
What do I mean? Well, let’s buy a chocolate bar in, say, Woolworths. Pay 40 pence and you become the customer. Along with all the consumer protections that come with
being a customer. Let’s take another example and buy that car from a reputable dealership. Clearly, again, you hand over the cash and thus become the customer. Simple.
Not so for the huge number of tenants who rent property via agencies. In the overwhelming majority of instances, the letting agent’s customer is
the landlord – not the tenant. And, like any other business, agencies respond to the needs of their customers – who unfortunately in this case are not the ones handing over all that money each month. Far too often the tenants’ needs get completely lost in this type of arrangement.
It’s an interesting anomaly that the most expensive purchase of a tenant’s year is often the very one over which they’ll have little or no control.
The relationship between a tenant and a landlord direct
can – in many instances – be easier to manage. You are, much more effectively, the customer here and, as a majority of landlords still don’t use agencies for all sorts of reasons, this means that a huge number of tenants and landlords do business without the expense of middlemen. However, such direct relationships can sometimes lead to another, quite different set of problems for tenants to deal with.
In fact, the
real double blind in letting/rentals is that tenants are always the ones left struggling to know where they stand, while also being the ones who pay handsomely for the privilege.
Just one more thing. Tenants in England and Wales (with some rare exceptions explained later) have precious few meaningful rights once something called The Fixed Term comes to an end. (Read Lesson on leases. You’ll already know this better as the original length of the agreement.) Once that extremely limited period of legal protection ends, it’s no exaggeration to say that a tenant’s rights could be balanced on the proverbial pinhead.
Welcome To The World Of The Modern Tenant
No guide can change Housing Legislation that governs how you rent, from whom, for how long, let alone how much it all costs. What it
can do is help you to negotiate your way through some very expensive and quite complex contracts. It can help you to understand them and their hidden consequences. It will teach you how they operate and what to watch for in the small print, and show you where your protections do exist – and where they don’t. It can point out pitfalls and help you find your way around some of them.
Plus, it explains what a reasonable landlord
can and will insist on to protect their own, very considerable interests.
I’ve illuminated a few tricks of the trade so you don’t get stung too often. I’ve also included details on some new and very interesting legislation covering
rental deposits that since April 2007 affect almost all landlords/agents and tenants too. I’ve also given you a flavour of other new laws that should soon, with luck, help in reducing dangerous housing conditions that can so often affect sharers on tight budgets. In short, spending a bit of time reading here should make a real difference to your everyday life as a tenant.
Now for the reality check. If
I were going to hand over to a virtual stranger the kind of money that it takes to set up an average tenancy (and
never forget that you only met this landlord/agent yesterday) then I’d want some realistic advice on what to expect.
Good and bad practice is widespread. Tenants with little experience can’t possibly just guess and get it right. So try reading the whole of this guide. It shouldn’t take long and its style is lighthearted and conversational. I’ve even thrown in a few true stories to make you laugh (or cry).
Although it’s often claimed that tenants have ‘rights’ under a variety of Housing Acts, Common Law, and Consumer Protection Acts, in reality this protection is about as much use as a chocolate teapot for anyone with six months’ security of tenure under an Assured Shorthold lease, which is what you’ll be getting as a modern tenant. By the time any action can be taken to enforce safety or contract, landlords or agents may have decided to
quite legally remove what they consider to be ‘troublesome tenants’. It’s a right that they do have in law and bad landlords/agents use it all too often to ‘control’ very legitimate tenant concerns.
However, do remember that, out there in this
huge marketplace are thousands of hard working, fair minded landlords who treat their tenants in just the way that any other customer would expect. It’s your job as a tenant to learn how to find yourself one of the majority and, frankly, how to steer clear of the rest.
By providing clear information, what you read here should help you to learn what to look for, what to try avoiding, how to conduct your tenancy, and with luck, leave with your deposit intact. I also provide access points to other useful and reliable sources of information to help build on what I’ve incorporated here. It should also explain why rushing to sign a contract that you don’t understand (or even bother to read!) can often be a grave a mistake.
This guide is not intended to be a legal manual, but a practical one – for when the law is as ineffective as it is for the vast majority of tenants, practicality rather than theory is what will help you most.