Bifta

The link was discovered by a user on another forum and then posted here.

Copy and pasted from another site. Would be nice to acknowledge the source :angry:

Cockend

Friends of ours have recently bought a small house for £205,000 using the money they 'made' on their previous property. The thing is they haven't actually sold their first property yet. Two mortgages and a belief they will get their asking price, utter madness

All sorted We agreed to sign up for another 12 months with a 6 month break clause and no rent increase, as long as the renewal fee was waived and the 'checking out fee' taken out of the contract With any luck I won't have to speak to the barrow boys at the agency until next year

Thanks for the reply. I've just skimmed over the new AST and there a few new terms that I'm not really pleased with - paying 50% of the checking out fee being one of them! We've had a good relationship with the Landlord over the last year and have always paid the rent on time. I don't want the letting agent to portray us as being arkward so I may write a short letter to the landlord explaining that we we want to stay longterm, but not neccessarily signing a new AST. I do get the feeling that the agent is just trying to make a quick buck from the both of us

We're very close to the end of our AST and I have just had the letting agency on the phone. They were basically trying to bully me into signing a new AST for a further six months. I said we were happy to stay in the property on a periodic tenancy and there was no need to renew the contract. After a bit of arguing I said we weren't signing a new AST because I'm not prepared to pay them the £120 fee for a renewal. We finally agreed to renew but only if the fee was waived and put in writing. As this is effectively a new AST, and there has been no mention of a rent rise, can he legally only raise the rent once the new AST has reached the end of it's term?

I loved the way the FTB at the start of the programme wanders around her new flat (didn't she have help from mummy and daddy?) with a Louis Vuitton bag under her arm, and then complains about not having enough money

http://www.taxationweb.co.uk/articles/article.php?id=129 This came at the top of my Google search. Quite scary when you think about it. I wouldn't think twice about grassing someone either

I think he was refering to Steve, who was being sarcastic anyway

I think he was taking the piss mate

£600 a day isn't £150,000 a year, nor would a contractor consider themselves to have a an annual wage. Most top end contracts are £400 / £450.

Two wrongs don't make a right. Pay the rent as usual so you have no comebacks, then if the deposit is withheld take him to the small claims court. If you have no inventory he won't have a leg to stand on.

No, I signed a contract which let have peaceful enjoyment of our home. The clauses regarding viewings would never stand in court as they would be considered as unfair terms. If the landlord knew he was unfairly witholding part of the deposit do you really think he would let it go as far as court? Like I said, we have no inventory so the 'stain on the carpet' argument couldn't be used.

You make it sound like it's our duty to allow viewings. With no inventory, I don't think he would have a leg to stand on if it came down to going to through small claims. He would have no legitimate reason to withold any of the deposit anyway, we pay the rent on time every month and keep the place to the standard it was when we moved in. I'm not going out of my way to piss the landlord off, I'm just not comfortable with viewings and that's that. I couldn't care less about the reference, and if it came down to it I would just say I've only just moved out of my parent's.

The arugument on viewings really gets my goat. We have a way to go to the end of our contract, but I won't be permitting any viewings towards the end of our tenancy. Why? Well there's is far too many of our posessions which could go missing, even if we were present at the time of the viewing I just wouldn't be comfortable with it. What would happen if something was stolen? I doubt very much the home insurance would cover it, and it would be me who's the one that would have to try to recover the loss, not mentioning if it was something of setimental value. At the end of the day the landlord is running a business. They should do their homework and factor in any potential void periods, not blame the tenant who is well within their rights to refuse viewings for any losses they may incur.

I've been through quite a few umbrella companies and aside from Prosperity4 these are the worst. Just got a bill from the IR for £108 tax that I underpaid due to their miscalculations. You can normally claim back a daily subsitence of about £25 unreceipted, but all other claims must have a receipt. What they do is offset the expenses you claim against your wage, therefore you pay less tax because expenses are non tax deductable. If he is indeed claiming without receipts then the onus will be on him when the IR innevitably catch up with him. I do find it hard to believe he is claiming without receipts though.

Got 2 or 3 GCSE's and that's it. Been in IT for 3 years and currently working as an AD / Exchange engineer for a global media company. Had a few jobs since I left school but I didn't find the lack of a degree to really hinder me.