tenant not paying rent

Why I’d prefer a non-paying tenant over an empty property.

thesecretlandlord

I know. I sound insane. But we all have to make business choices, and this one is mine to make. Keep reading and I’ll explain more.

I’ve been reading more and more about landlords who are scared to rent their properties right now. They’re worried the tenant won’t pay and they will have a nightmare to evict them.

All of these things are true.

There is nothing I can say to make that situation any better.

Maybe rent protection insurance? I have no idea if it works or what the small-print says because I’ve never taken a policy.

Not even now.

Not even now in these uncertain times.

The reason why I don’t?

I believe in active and close management. That means no matter what, you always, always ensure lines of communication are kept open.

Trust me, I know it’s hard when emotions get in the way and you think/ know you’re being fleeced. But communication is really the only way to solve any issues.

So, I’ve had a property come empty lately and we’re about to tenant it again. Unsurprisingly, it’s going to somebody on benefits (lost their job through Covid) and to be honest I feel happier with that.

Now, I know a lot of landlords don’t like taking tenants on benefits, but I gotta say, right now that is a pretty secure option. Even if you do take a tenant on who’s got a job, you have to be mindful they are only one pay check away from being made redundant.

I know that sounds harsh, but this is the reality of the situation.

To be frank, this was always the reality, but I don’t think a lot of people realised it.

So, why am I still willing to rent a property even if the tenant stops paying?

Because empty properties are expensive properties.

When you have an empty property it is you who’s footing all of the bills: council tax, water, electricity, gas. They’re all yours to pay. And then you have the mortgage and the insurance – which by the way for an empty property – will increase in premiums and lower in the risk coverage.

Empty properties are also a target for thieves and squatters. Scrap metal is still a booming business and opportunists will take any opportunity they can to strip your place of copper, lead and anything they think they can get any value from.

In March this year I had a property empty for one day.

One day.

Later that night, thieves broke in and stripped the wall lights, the plastic cover of the electric shower and the bathroom door. I have no idea what was so special about this list of items – but what I can tell you is the resulting bill to put these things right was thousands. I ended up having to rewire, install a new shower (frustrating given the one that was in there was just a few month’s old) and supplying and fixing a bathroom door.

It sounds bad and maybe you’re thinking the property is in a high crime area – it’s not.

I got unlucky.

The agent (now fired) had left the lean-to door on the yale lock and not locked the kitchen door with the mortice lock (invalidating my insurance policy). That evening a freak wind storm brought down the back fence panel leaving the property exposed and on view.

All it took was a random passer-by with bad intentions to apply a little pressure to the yale lock and bingo – full access was theirs.

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me at the time, I wasn’t aware the previous tenants had taken all the curtains and so to anyone passing by, it was quite clearly an empty property.

And so, as I say: empty properties are expensive properties.

Which brings me back to my earlier point and why I’d prefer a non-paying tenant over an empty property.

And it’s to do with risk assessment.

An empty property will always be a risk. There is always a risk something may happen. Somebody may break in, somebody may illegally move in, the roof may leak and you may not know about it, the boiler may blow up and you don’t know about it.

Every which way I cut this cake: an empty property is a risk – and it’s one that costs me money rather than making me money

A non-paying tenant?

The risk, I believe, is smaller.

Firstly, most tenants are paying their rents. That means you already start out with more chances of getting your rent than not.

Secondly, landlords should thoroughly reference check and get a guarantor where you can.

Thirdly, welcome people on benefits and feel secure in the knowledge the state is paying.

I know these are scary times and the world is shifting, but it’s critical to assess the risks. Not doing anything, can also be a risk.

Why pay rent if you don’t have to?

thesecretlandlord

That appears to be the rhetoric of tenant pressure groups and the government. But it may as well get extended further: Why pay rent at all?

I mean, what’s more important than a roof over your head?

The narrative is incredulous.

The knee-jerk laws and U-turns are unbelievable.

How landlords are meant to pay for a property when the tenant is not paying rent is laughable. Mortgage holiday? What sort of holiday is it when it destroys your credit rating and adds thousands of pounds and months to your misery of debt?

And what is it with most of this country thinking the UK housing stock is free? Landlords are in a mountain of debt the scale of which no tenant will ever likely understand.

And yet, landlords are expected to foot the bill despite mounting debts.

But if a tenant decides not to pay – even if they’re in receipt of housing benefit – tough luck.

There is fuck all you as the landlord can do.

So why pay rent, if you don’t have to?

That’s the message this government is sending. Oh and by the way, let’s not only extend the eviction ban for another month, let’s also make landlords give tenants six months’ notice to leave and complete a plethora of paperwork with so many twists and turns it looks like a Covid-19 broadcast.

The attitude and last-minute policy changes are sickening.

Never before in my almost two decades of being a landlord have I ever felt so vulnerable. I have become stripped of all powers and any sort of protection, and yet the expectations that I am to provide safe accommodation accumulates with no let up – and potentially no rent. And no way of knowing if I will ever get my money back, or lose everything I put in.

I can only assume tenant groups are planning mass bankruptcies, because this is what this action feels like.

Only this week I’ve had to agree to damp work in a property at a cost of £2,800. I found the whole thing strange. I’ve owned the property for 15 years and have never had damp. Until a new tenant moved in two months ago.

This, to me, seemed a weird coincidence and thus I asked several people to attend to ascertain what was going on. This period of investigating what may be causing the sudden damp patches took a couple of weeks while various persons looked into the matter.

My tenant decided this was not acceptable. They called the council. The council then got heavy about the work. I said, hold on, I’m trying to work out why I’ve suddenly got damp, do you mind if I try and figure out what’s happening?

They didn’t give two flying fucks. All they wanted is a start date of the work and to see the problem solved.

But what if that tenant was not paying rent? What am I meant to do then? How on earth am I meant to pay for such expensive remedial work?

And this is what I find the most frightening about this situation, and it’s going to get worse.

If tenants are not paying their rent, landlords will struggle to pay their mortgages. But if tenants are not paying their rent and landlords are trying to subsidise a tenant’s living costs, how on earth will they be able to ensure the property remains in good condition?

I know these tenant pressure groups want ‘rent debt’ forgiven, but who will forgive a landlord for not complying with housing safety?

Who will a landlord call when the tenant has not paid the rent, but still expects the roof to be fixed? Who will the landlord ask for help when they can’t make ends meet and the property falls into disrepair?

There are no winners in this war. And it is a war that has been created unnecessarily.

Nobody argues whether it’s fair for a supermarket to charge for the food you want to eat, so why are people arguing whether it’s fair for a landlord to charge rent for the property you want to live in?

Perhaps if the Private Rental Sector (PRS) was made up of big companies we wouldn’t be having this debate. Big companies are not so easy to push about and screw over. But most landlords are little people, with no power.

The government have ensured the housing crisis is set to continue and they have hastened the demise of the PRS.

Little landlords have little pockets; people often forget that. Until they see the ‘For Sale’ board outside. Because that ‘For Sale’ sign, well, that’s the last vestige of a landlord’s power.

Is it unfair for tenants to pay rent?

thesecretlandlord

To be honest, the question seems insane. If you sign a contract and agree to rent a property for a price, then you should pay.

But listening to ‘You & Yours’ on Radio 4 this morning, I’ve learned from a tenant caller, apparently, it appears to some tenants to ask them to pay the contractually agreed rent is unfair.

Tenants, the caller said, should be more looked after. She admitted, she was one of the lucky ones, she had a cash pile and a maintenance agreement from her ex-husband. However, her ability to teach pilates during the lockdown had severely hindered her ability to pay her £2000 per month rent.

The landlord, she said, had refused to reduce her rent by as much as she felt she was entitled to and only gave her only £100 off. That was not good enough, she wanted more, and felt the government should put more pressure on landlords to do more.

Forget the fact she’d signed a legally binding contract, for the minute.

But, what got me about this attitude, was just prior to the tenant caller, two landlords had called in – both of them had invested their money into property to provide for a pension. Both of them were trying to help their tenants, and both had taken a financial hit that had affected their way of life.

For the first landlord, their tenant not paying rent for over one year and the eviction getting caught up in the Covid-19 crisis, meant the property would be sold once it’d been recovered: To pay the debts accrued on account of the tenant.

At this stage, the tenant owes over £9,000 in unpaid rent and the landlord has racked up a legal bill of £7,500.

But apparently, more pressure should be put on landlords to do more.

What more do tenants want?

Obviously, it sounds like free rent.

Which is fine in theory, but what about in practice?

Most landlords are in debt. They weren’t gifted the properties they rent out in some secret prize draw. They worked in their jobs and they invested in their properties for a future, for a pension, for maybe a life that didn’t involve giving free rent to random people just because they feel like they’re entitled to it.

And it may surprise most tenants to learn, but landlords do work. Not only did they have to work to raise the capital to buy the property in the first place, but many still work in their everyday jobs to pay the mortgage and keep the property running. For most, the ownership of a rental property is their pension.

And what I find so frustrating about this situation is the lack of understanding from any side about what it means to be a landlord.

Any other business is not expected to give free anything. Supermarkets during this crisis have removed most of their promotions and food bills have increased substantially. But where are the cries for how unfair it is that supermarkets are charging us money, real actual money for food?

There are none.

We expect to pay for the food we buy.

So then, why is it that tenants expect to live rent free in the property they rent? Don’t they realise their landlord has a mortgage and bills to pay? Don’t they ever think about what they would do if their source of income suddenly got stopped?

Hold on – with 9.4 million furloughed workers, maybe some did?

But the difference for them – they get to claim 80% of their salary from the government, or maybe claim benefits. Landlords get none of that. There is no help from the government. If a tenant stops paying rent, there is no secret source or benefit to claim. Owning another property means you’re ineligible for any benefits.

Stop and think about that for a minute. If you, as a tenant, stop paying your rent – what do you realistically think is going to happen?

Do you think your landlord will go to that magic money tree at the bottom of the garden and pick the mortgage payment from its lustrous leaves?

Get real.

Your landlord will suffer. Your landlord will experience a level of stress and anxiety only those is serious, financial debt will ever understand.

Don’t pay for a while and your landlord, along with your home, will get repossessed.

Because that’s the circle of life and how this world runs.

As a landlord I’m not asking for your sympathy; I’m asking for your understanding: We’re all in this economic chain together. It’s not us against them, it’s not landlord versus tenant: this is life. This is the world we live in.

Nothing comes for free. And nobody should expect to live for free. These are difficult times, likely set to get worse. And while there’s calls for more tenant protection and demands to clear tenant debts, I wonder who’s going to clear the landlord debts?

Landlords don’t have magic money trees or stress-free lives. When the shit hits the fan – and it will – the banks will step in and take back their properties. Then, we’ll really have a rental crisis, and it will be the tenants not paying to blame.

Will Covid-19 Spell the End of the Private Landlord?

Will Covid-19 Spell the End of the Private Landlord?

thesecretlandlord

My friend texted me last night about another friend who’d contacted her. Her friend is a landlord of a House of Multiple Occupation (HMO) and is on her knees, literally. The tenants are not paying the rent and she has to pay the mortgage and all of the utility bills for the property – but with no rent coming in. She’s also been furloughed and is struggling to make ends meet. Trying to pay for this property – where the tenants are not paying – is putting her entire life on a knife-edge, losing her sleep and causing huge arguments with her husband from the financial and emotional stress.

‘What can she do?’ She asked me.

‘Wait’, was my reply. ‘Talk to her bank, her suppliers and explain the situation, and then she has to wait.’

I found my reply to be laughable, ridiculous. How can it be that this landlord is so powerless to do anything?

But that’s what the government did when they slapped a ban on all eviction notices for landlords during coronavirus.

And yes, I get there are some rogue landlords out there, but the vast majority are not. The vast majority of landlords are everyday people trying to make a bit extra, trying to save for a pension, trying to build a future.

The majority of landlords are not big corporations, they are not rich people with money trees at the end of the garden: They are normal people, holding down normal jobs, trying to live normal lives.

The situation makes me so angry and sad because people hate landlords so much. I mean, really fucking detest landlords. And they hate me so much because what?

I didn’t murder anybody.

I’ve never committed a crime.

I’ve never been to jail.

I’ve never even squashed a spider.

But you know why I reckon so many people and the government (clearly) hate me as a landlord: because I rented a property to a tenant and asked them to pay rent for it.

Well, bugger me sideways and piss all over me. I know you want to.

But the thing is, if I owned a shop selling thimbles and a customer came in and wanted one of my thimbles, I’d ask them to pay for it. If they didn’t, the law would protect me. I’m not a free thimble shop, the same way I’m not a free property shop.

But the government don’t understand this. They don’t give two hoots, let alone one flying fig, that the majority of landlords are your everyday Joe’s, normal people who have normal jobs and normal lives. The government, the media and the public have done a grand job demonising landlords and making them into the scapegoat of why the UK has such high property prices.

And it’s not just residential tenants who’re refusing to pay rent – even big blue chip companies are refusing to pay. Much like those big companies who also refuse to pay tax. But the thing that gets me, is some of those commercial places, your local hairdressers or corner shop for example, may be owned by a retired person who invested believing it was good for their pension. They believed the hype. Heck, the government even encourage commercial property investment for your pension via SIPPS. But at the last quarter, only 48% of commercial tenants had paid rent in time and in full. This quarter, it’s set to be even lower.

Again, the government have banned landlords from taking any action.

Now, I’m all for forbearance, showing leniency, understanding and everything else that makes me a human being who’s running a business. But, there has to come a point at which the responsibility shifts. People need to understand actions have consequences – even if you don’t act. If you don’t pay rent, that has consequences.

And maybe for those tenants who haven’t paid rent right now they can breathe easily knowing they can’t be evicted. But what about the landlords who haven’t got any rent coming in? What about the banks who won’t have their loan payments coming in? What about the utility companies? The council tax departments?

This is not just a trickle down. The consequences of this will be trickle up. Then it will be trickle down and down. And when all the hated landlords have gone bust and there’s a lack of property to rent because social housing can’t provide for everyone, maybe then people might remember that old-fashioned thing called a landlord.