I read a rather sobering news article this morning about the financial pitfalls faced by inexperienced landlords who decide to let their properties. In this tale of woe, a lady from Streatham had been unable to sell her flat on the open market and in order to meet her mortgage payments, she had decided to let the flat while she lived elsewhere.
Two tenants duly moved in, but from the outset they refused to pay the full amount of rent as stated in the tenancy agreement. The owner eventually sent friends to the flat to try and sort matters out, but no more rent was forthcoming and the property had been extensively damaged. Five months later, eviction proceedings were finally started against the tenants, although by this point the beleaguered owner was facing a repossession order from her mortgage lender.
So how could this have been avoided?
One important thing I have learned as a landlord is that effective tenant management is crucial when a tenant defaults on their rent—and this is especially true when rent payments are required to cover the mortgage on a property. Rather than end up in the sorry position where you are facing a repossession order on your property, act quickly and put your lender in the picture: they will be much more sympathetic to your plight if they know exactly what is happening.
And if you run into problems, my advice would be do not bury your head in the sand and hope the problem goes away—it won’t!
