Topher Bear

Absolutely agree with others re the deposit scheme. get onto it pronto. We had this happen to us a few years ago, with an agent in Camberley, Luff Associates. claimed the carpets were not clean, but the checkout agent said they were. She wanted us to get our guy back in to do them again...we refused, but then the checkout agents didn't help either! She kept £300 of deposit, and I didn't have the fight left to fight it (job I had moved for turned out to be a turd and I just couldn't be bothered). I agree, that if the checkout agents gave you the all clear, then that is what the arbitration will say. whatever, make sure you name and shame the agents...warn the rest of us!

Actually I finally found it, on a reuters report from 2nd March, from Hometrack. They say on average 12 weeks to sell, and 88.3% of asking price achieved on average. would be interesting to see the region breakdown on that! Now thinking my initial thoughts of 80 - 85% asking price are too high, might try 75%!

Hi all, as a followup to me message on the rental forum, I am considering buying our current rental property as an alternative to having to move again as we've been served notice. I am trying to find out what percentage of asking price is being achieved in recent times. I know a little while ago it had dropped to about 90%, is this still the case? I'm having trouble finding the info. Thanks Topher Bear

Thanks for the support guys, and Matt....I might well take you up on that...we'll see. We've got some great friends who live in Ramsbury, so do come near your way from time to time! Here is an update. The S21 has been signed, but not yet delivered. The LA tried negotiating with the LL, and her offer was if we allowed viewings from now she would let us stay for a couple of weeks beyond the end of the 29th May. She seems to think we have the power to say no to viewings, which we don't. We have to be given 24 hours notice and we can only make reasonable refusals (ie we can't just keep putting it off saying its inconvenient). I told them that she could "Stuff it!" However, before you extol the virtue of our LA, let me tell you some of the other ways they are trying to "help". They would wave £100 of their fee and only charge us £100 per person (2 adults) plus VAT to change to another place. The place we looked at tonight (no good, due to neighbours and what sound like a picky landlord - made the previous tenants re-fill in all the picture hook holes and re-touch them up! wanted us all to take off our shoes at the door!) they would charge £200 inc. VAT. So our LA are rather on the expensive side even after their "help". Also I had an interesting chat with the LL estate agent tonight. He says that our LA told our LL that we weren't in a position to buy it from her!! Sounds like they want to keep us as tenents somewhere, although they are right that we wouldn't want to deal with her....but they should have passed the message along! Anyhow, She bought the place in Summer 2007 for £190K, fitted new windows, redid the kitchen, rewired, new carpets and painting plus a bit of turfing in the garden (with her father in the building trade would not have cost a huge amount) it is not on the market yet, but would be marketed at £190K at the moment. I am investigating the possibility of buying it off her, I need to do some calcs, but if she were to take maybe £160K, we might do it, that is if we could get a mortgage and find another £15K - £20K deposit from somehwere. We might lose some money, but not having to move right now actually has a high value in itself! Also had an encouraging interview today, so might get a job in the next couple of months too! I have a contract until end of the year, though with 1weeks notice I know it won't last that long, but the banks don't necassarily know that. we'll see what happens. Topher Bear PS, we wouldn't consider staying beyond our rightful tenency, we want to be able to rent again in the future! And it doesn't provide any greater security.

I apologise for this being nothing but a personal whinge message. We are expecting our second child at the end of April, funding has run out at Airbus, and at the moment I do not have a job after about may, and now the landlady has given us notice to leave by 29th May, as she wants to sell! !!!!!! Stupid cow wants us to leave before she even puts it on the market. She knows that my wife is having a difficult pregnancy, she has got SPD, and is on crutches, and we are getting a wheelchair at the weekend, to help her get around at the weekends! This woman has no compassion. Our agent is trying to persuade her to let us stay until she finds a buyer, and is calling all the landlords they know to find if they might have anythin nearbye. We really could do with staying on the same estate as our 6 year olf daughter is in a good school, and we have moved her school once already. With only one car, which I need to for work (that is for as long as I have a job), we need to be within walking distance of the school. I knew the crash would cause real heartache and problems, but the alterative was to let these leeches on society get away with making huge amounts of money from our misery of no stable home. I just wanted to whinge, sorry about that. Topher Bear

Weeeeeee!!!!! Down, down, down we go!! Alistair Darling comment earlier today on radio 5: "No one could have predicted this 5 or 10 years ago" - WRONG!!! They did!! The WORM has turned! All this time, politicians and central bankers have been bailing, bailing, bailing, supposedly in our interest, and none of us have had a say...finally, the people have spoken, and overwelmingly, their response is....let 'em sink, let'em die, let 'em wallow in their own debt ridden filth, bankers and politicians both!! Tee, Hee, what a fun year, this is turning out to be :-) Topher Bear

Sorry, I was out of it for a few days, Gotta stinka of a cold which laid me out all weekend, and I've been playing catch up at work for missing Monday, on top of that Mrs TB is suffering terribly from Morning sickness and tired all the time, so I'm running the home pretty much at the moment too!! Better luck this weekend. TB

ABSOLUTELY!!! Duly signed...get it know out there. Will add to my media attention information, but if there is not strong support from HPC, then we are not likely to gain strong support from elsewhere! TB

I just would like to guage general feeling on this matter, and quick straw pole on numbers Check out the thread: Right Against Eviction of Tenants (sorry my pc is riling against me at the moment and won't let me get the link..I'll add it as soon as it behaves itself!) for more info on what this is about! thanks Topher Bear

Yeah, your right, 2 or 3 months is better, I just didn't want to sound too greedy, unrealistic, my rights bla, bla bla. I figured I woul get a better response if I seemed to be bending over backwards to help, just needed that extra little bit to enable me to do my part. Lets up it to 2 months for the next stage. Media! I've had this response from lib-dems...pretty dissapointed in this one. ############################# Thank you for your email to Nick Clegg MP. Nick has asked me to thank you for your comments which have been carefully noted. Nick has worked with Shelter recently on a number of campaigns to raise awareness the current extent of homelessness in Britain as well as the unfair systems that puts tenants in a vulnerable position. Nick will continue to work closely with Shelter to ensure that awareness is raised to ensure that changes are made to ensure provisions are made for the safety of tenants. Once again, thank you for writing to us. Please feel free to contact us about this or any other matter in the future. #################################### A whole lot of nothing. "to ensure that awreness is rias to ensure that changes are made to ensure provisions are made..." to ensure comments are made to placate the odd punter without doing anything! and to think I'm thinking of voting lib-dem! I will have to wait till the weekend to formulate my plan for media attention. Thanks TB

washers: like what they said! (though a plumber told me quite recently that there are so many different types of washers that you really need to get the right ones otherwise they don't do the job properly so IMHO, should be landlords - also, no landlord really wants me mucking about with plumping...they really wouldn't!!! I'll stick with leaky washers than a potential flood damage that is my fault!!) As for rent increase. First the law. They cannot apply a rent increase without your agreement. There only course of action is to issue you with your notice (our latest Agents did this on someone when I was in the office checking out the paperwork!!). What you need to do is check out the other rental properties in your area of similar nature and see what they are asking for. check out rightmove. If you find other places then print it out and send it to them, telling them that the rent you are currently paying is a fair amount and that the increase amount is higher than elsewhere, remind them of void periods. However, sounds to me like maybe you should think about finding somewhere else. Is the baby your first? If not, then ignore what I am about to say, you'll know it already. When you have the baby you will be caught up with looking after baby, the last thing you really want to be doing is having to chase minor building repairs, it will mar those special early days and months. A quick change now to a nicer more homely place will in the longer term be a better move and you can concentrate on enjoying your life with baby. Though I do understand that you might be closer to arrival than you can realistically move in, after all you don't want to be moving at 38 weeks! If possible look into it, this place sounds like a hiding to no-where. TB

Housing Benefit. Things to bear in mind. You can get the Housing Benefit paid to yourself or direct to the landlord. Get it paid to yourself and they may never need to know...but if you don't pass the credit check then they will want either a guarantor or want to know how you plan to pay for the rent. (rule of thumb they use is annual income before tax devided by 30 to provide months rent that they consider you can afford. annual income £15,000 = a maximum rent of £500). Issues to consider with housing benefit. They will work out how much a reasonable rent is for your family in that area. Reasonable rents are always lower than that being asked by landlords. for a couple they may only consider you warrant a 1 bed flat and provide you rent for that, at max it would be a small 2 bed flat (not house) err on the side of caution to check affordability. Another issue is that it can take a little while to get it all sorted and start getting the money through. They will back-date payments to the date at which you made the application, but can still be a couple of months after that, so you will have to have access to cash for up front costs. There is an awful lot of Housing Benefit out there. Our agents in Wimborne once told us that over 60% of their properties were paid for by Housing benefit! (bet most homeowners didn't realise this effect of house price increases that their tax money goes to pay for peoples second homes bought to rent!) so don't let that worry you, especially if you are in an area with low employement...housing benefit is likely to be common, there simply aren't enough social housing out there. Hope this helps...may not be what you want to hear, sorry. TB

Asuithea has given good advice. I agree. Talk to the landlord and agent about your concerns that the property to you seems un-inhabitable, to see if you can agree an early release on the contract (get it in writing of course). If they are honest and reasonable landlords/agents they will understand and agree your problem...remind them that it will be easier to resolve the damp issues when the property is empty. If they prove to be obstinate about it, threaten environmental health. You'd better do a quick check on the environmental health website about your rights and what the correct procedure is. From memory (so don't quote me), if an environmental health officer comes around and 'condems' the property then the landlord is obliged to re-house you...this could allow you an early release contract. Double check and please do let us know how you get on. TB

Not actually in that position....yet! I'm just thinking about the angles that could create a mega-media outcry! Although of course many of these middle class sheeple homeowners might just consider renters as lazy scum who get what they deserve! One point that needs to be made clear for anyone in this position, you cannot leave the property or give notice yourself. You must wait until the bailiffs come (unless of course you can find somewhere else in time) and make you homeless, otherwise the council won't help.

I'm lost for words. . . . We've been telling everyone for the last few years that the market was overvalued, but we were outshouted by experts and sheeple that prices won't fall, & if they did it would not be by much. In the meantime, prices have risen further, meaning that in our opinion prices will fall even further. Now that the mainstream are saying 25% drop, does this mean that we are wrong to expect such large falls as we now tend to believe in? or does it mean that falls will be minimum 25% and further? If you rememeber all the predicitions that these guys have made about the future of hosue prices, they have almost always been wrong, under-estimates and over-estimates. They usually change their predictions every six months, why should they suddenly be right now about 25% overall drop? I very much doubt it, and with nearly 15% down already and they are generally right about conditions staying the same i n 2009, then that will be more like 40%, add in a bit more for 2010 and that comes to 50%. Thats if he is broadly right about conditions staying the same for another 18 months. I don't realy believe that they can get anything right, so that means either less than 50% or more than 50%. My feeling is more than 50%. why? well lending conditions are now worse than the old days, due to the high levels of unsecured debt people have. 50% would bring things down to reasonable affordable conditions, but reasonable will for a while not be good enough. With experts suggesting 25% drops, I am thinking more like 60% 65% or perhaps even 70% drops. Don't believe me? I don't really care if you don't. I've spent years people not believing me, and now I am being proved right. I've been proved right before, all I'll say is...we'll just have to wait and see. 25% down, pah! who does he think he's kidding. He's just trying to draw a line in the sand to get people to jump back in soon, only they won't be able to due to lack of lending!! TB, mega uber bear!!

This was inevitable, ever since they announced that there was trouble with FMx2. Really no idea what the effects will be...could turn out to be a big non-event in the immediate term, though I can't see how it can be anything other than bad for the value of the doller. As for making the US bankrupt, they were already!!

Thats all very well, but it would only be reasonable to be able to do a credit check at the beginning of the tenancy, as I wouldn't want it reciporacated at regular intervals throughtout a tenancy. I would say that it is often the case the the Landlord gets into difficulties AFTER a tenancy agreement, and nothng would show on a credit check before. I got a couple of replies today: The Nu-lablour party responded (their e-mail address really is new-labour...i'd like to talk to old-labour please!): I suggest that you contact the Department for Communities and Local Government about this matter at: Department for Communities and Local Government Eland House Bressenden Place London SW1E 5DU 020 7944 4400 www.communities.gov.uk and from David Cameron (edited highlights and re-wording to not break their silly comment at end of e-mail about not copying and disclosing etc. etc.) : From a Cameron Flunky. Grateful to me, taking on board what I have to say. A group of theirs are looking at similar issues, current climate etc, they will pass on my comments I'll follow up both of these, and await some more responses and keep you posted TB

used to work at South West Water accounts dept. It was all automatic. First there is the Bill, then there is the Red letter, then there is a threatening letter, then Court proceedings started, then reminder that the court found against them threatening bailifs, then the bailifs. And your right, they can't cut off the supply. There was no referal to debt collectors until after the court. In fact the first 3 letters wouldn't even be seen by anyone in the normal course of business, it would just be a stastic on a printout!

Here is a copy of the letter I have just sent to my mp about this using the 'write to them' website. ###################### Dear MP<insert name here!> In the current economic climate there is much concern over the possibilities of homeowners losing their homes through repossession. I am a tenant in a private rented property and wondered what would happen if my home was repossessed by my landlords lender. I found some information on the shelter website (http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_topics/repossession/repossession_of_rented_homes) and I have to say it makes disturbing reading. First off it suggests that in all likely-hood the first we as tenants are likely to hear about it is when we receive a letter from the courts informing us of the date bailiffs are coming round to gain possession, which would likely only be a matter of days. On top of that it would seem that the tenants have very little rights to extend this notice period even with a potentially costly court appeal. According to Shelter only Binding Tenancy agreements provide enough security to give tenants a chance to find somewhere else. To my amazement they say that Buy-to-let mortgages to provide for binding agreements!! I agree that a bank has a right to repossess a property and to ask for any tenant to leave, but I feel that it is only fair that tenant be provided with a normal agreement notice of at least one month and better 2 months, as it can take some-time to find a new place. What with the massive rise in Buy-to-let mortgages this places huge numbers of tenants at potential risk of being out on their ear through absolutely no fault of their own. With all political parties bending over backwards to help out homeowners from becoming homeless it seems that the forgotten (not so) few, are being ignored and left to fend for themselves, when we are probably more a victim of this current financial crisis than the homeowners. I bring this matter to your attention, because I believe that the law should be changed to provide sitting tenants with at least 1 month notice of eviction from a lender who has repossessed. Yours sincerely, <insert name here> ################################### May I urge others to also write to their MP's about it. I am about to send a similar letter to the offices of all three main parties. Depending upon the responses I might send to the news media next. TB

O.k. I've done some digging and found out some info on the Shelter website. http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/a...of_rented_homes Its a bit complicated, but Matt does appear to be generally correct about little notice of eviction by a lender, however if you happen to have a binding tenancy then the lender becomes the landlord and is bound to your contract (ie will have to give 1 to 2 months notice). According to Shelter however most agreements are not binding, and can you believe it a Buy-To-Let mortgage is non-binding!! I suppose its not surprising the banks have decided to cover their own *****, but seems to be a major moral flaw that we can get behind. So the start of a campaign to change the law on rental home repossessions!! But for those who are in this situation now, or find themselves so in the next 12 months, read the above link and get advice PRONTO. I would say general advice for all of us is to get ready now, in case it happens. Talk to family and friends about moving in with them temporarily if it happens, research and keep details of local storage companies, pin the number of a local advice line to the fridge, for you may not know your out on your ear until a few days before! Oh yes, one more little advice for those in this sitution imminently. DO NOT pay ANYTHING to the lender UNLESS its specifically called RENT. The moment you pay them rent, they are bound to your contract! Bingo! Also, if you do happen to read one of your landlords mortgage letters...don't try and dob them in, as it might bring about immediate repossession proceedings! Topher Bear

Errm, what happened to the threatening letters and court case? These are supposed to happen before debt collection.

Know how you feel. We lost £200 because our agent insisted that the carpets had not been cleaned properly, despite a reciept and a checkout company giving the o.k. Lots was going on at the time, that I simply didn't have the fight left in me to persue it at the time...I've got my own back by giving a very bad review on allagents website :-) (can't do that in your case, coz it is the LL not the LA...mind you, you could put the pressure on the LA about giving them a bad revue if they don't get more out of the LL!) Sometimes in life its easier just to move on...after all its only money!

Does anyone have any figures for tenant eviction due to landlord's mortgage lender repossesion? Would be interesting to see if this is significantly on the increase and if its a big problem. If it really is, then it might be worth lobbying parliament, MPs, housing charities such as shelter, news media, to get this problem out in the open. A homeowner being repossesed is unfortunate, but his cirumstances have become that he cannot afford to keep up repayments...he is now officially poorer than when they took the mortgage. A Tenant losing the home due to a landlord being repossesed has not had anything changed, is not poorer and has done nothing wrong to warrant losing their house, so is surely an even greater sob story than the homeowner. I'm sure none of us really expect to be able to live in a repossesed house indefinately, but we should at least be given reasonable time to find somewhere else to live...and what if the tenents in question are about to have a baby? This is definately a topic worth persuing and I'm sure going to be of greater importance! Topher Bear

Thanks very much for this site. I noticed the registration in Slovakia and thought 'smart move' About the Wolfs, thats pretty much what I figured. I guess the only way to get around such issues is for as many genuine customers to voice their opinion as possible so that the odd employee vote is swamped by reality! So everyone....get commenting!! Sorry about making more work for you Jay!