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Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!
My next challenge 😡
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Pete Maddex
Old Oak
That’s a lot of damage in two years.
Pete
Pete
Lurker
Old Oak
Well that and other stuff cost the tenant her £1300 deposit.
Been fixing other stuff for 3 days.
I ll start on the top tomorrow. Plan to get a bit of stainless steel to cover that bit in the photo. I think I can get the rest presentable with scrapers and the ROS.
Then yacht varnish, I know that will not be the best long term solution but that will be someone else’s problem.
Been fixing other stuff for 3 days.
I ll start on the top tomorrow. Plan to get a bit of stainless steel to cover that bit in the photo. I think I can get the rest presentable with scrapers and the ROS.
Then yacht varnish, I know that will not be the best long term solution but that will be someone else’s problem.
duke
Old Oak
It is a hit and miss regarding renters. We had a house on a corner lot , to keep their rent down he did all the yard work and snow clearing off the driveway and walkway. Very clean couple, kept the house clean and would always let me know if there was a problem. Sadly they moved to live with their daughter. Sold the house shortly after as I was not interested to deal with a possible bad renter.
RafeZetter
Seedling
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2023
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 10
As a lifetime private tenant and 21 years in a HMO (the same one) I can tell you probably 90% of tenants treat rented properties like a rock star from the 70's treats hotel rooms. Even in this house which is for professionals not students all over 30 I STILL have to tell them regularly to treat it better, which has occasionally led to some heated arguments, they really don't give a toss.
I'm frankly amazed landlords don't charge 6 months rent as a deposit. Some years back as a handyman I helped a friend refurbish a recently vacated flat after a years tenancy and it looked like a war zone, cost the landlord well over the 2 months deposit they had seized, black mould, damage to walls, doors with damaged hinges, laminate flooring all scratched up.
Renters want stronger rights against rogue landlords and I can understand why, but landlords often really do get the short end with many tenants.
2 doors down is another HMO - students - it was fully refitted about 4 years ago, a few months back it was gutted out, kitchen, bathroom the lot and re-done.
I'm frankly amazed landlords don't charge 6 months rent as a deposit. Some years back as a handyman I helped a friend refurbish a recently vacated flat after a years tenancy and it looked like a war zone, cost the landlord well over the 2 months deposit they had seized, black mould, damage to walls, doors with damaged hinges, laminate flooring all scratched up.
Renters want stronger rights against rogue landlords and I can understand why, but landlords often really do get the short end with many tenants.
2 doors down is another HMO - students - it was fully refitted about 4 years ago, a few months back it was gutted out, kitchen, bathroom the lot and re-done.
duke
Old Oak
Our daughter owns and runs a 10 unit inn, cottage and cafe. She had a bad renter in the cottage, after 8 months the renter stopped paying. Always had an excuse, this went on for another 7 months without her paying. She knew the system and told them that it would take years through the courts to get her out, I know my rights.
They eventually had to pay her to get her to leave. She trashed the place and with my help to fix everything it was not chump change. Spent around $10,000 to make it right.
That women is now doing the same thing to another person.
They eventually had to pay her to get her to leave. She trashed the place and with my help to fix everything it was not chump change. Spent around $10,000 to make it right.
That women is now doing the same thing to another person.
Lurker
Old Oak
I have sorted most of the top and started sealing. Managed to get most marks (hot pan burns) out with a combination of ROS and wood bleach.
I have changed my mind about the stainless steel and I am going to try a tile left over from the kitchen floor.
Photographer, for the estate agent is coming next week.
I have changed my mind about the stainless steel and I am going to try a tile left over from the kitchen floor.
Photographer, for the estate agent is coming next week.
Steve Maskery
Old Oak
Personally, I think that the fundamental problem is that, while it looks lovely when it is all new, water and wood are not good bedfellows. 
S
S
Lurker
Old Oak
You are right Steve. The one that I (and Pete Maddex) fitted in our house is showing very slight signs around the sink tap stub.
I would generally agree Steve but a lot comes down to the finish. I’ve been using Rustins plastic coating for a while now and as far as wooden worktop goes it’s pretty close to bomb proof.Personally, I think that the fundamental problem is that, while it looks lovely when it is all new, water and wood are not good bedfellows.
S
The join right next to the tap is clearly a point of ingress, plus it's a cheapo ikea or similar beech worktop (beech will always go black) which, having used one for a small bench, are poor quality. Frankly, I think this is on the owner rather than the tenant, unless you could prove they were deliberately flooding the worktop on a regular basis in a way that doesn't consitute reasonable use.
Lurker
Old Oak
With hindsight the joint was in a bad place. What I didn’t post was photos of the various burn marks near the hob. Two decent boards for trivets/ chopping were provided to the tenant.
The really annoying thing was they had been cooking in one of bedrooms
took me a while to degrease the walls for repainting.
The really annoying thing was they had been cooking in one of bedrooms
took me a while to degrease the walls for repainting.
Mike
Sapling
Didn't anyone check on the condition of the rental in the past two years? I had three rental houses in the U.S., and I visited them every year to inspect the property and make sure each tenant was meeting the obligations in the lease. Fortunately, I had wonderful tenants (all law enforcement officers) and when the time came to sell off the properties the year before I retired, I sold them to the tenants living in them at the time.
Lurker
Old Oak
Passed the responsibility to letting agents. My son expressed his displeasure with them when he followed the agent in after their inspection (their report said nothing was wrong) 
The following week, I visited their office and was rather forthright, resulting in two months fees being refunded. Nothing like a shop full of customers and a loud voice to get a satisfactory resolution
The following week, I visited their office and was rather forthright, resulting in two months fees being refunded. Nothing like a shop full of customers and a loud voice to get a satisfactory resolution
RafeZetter
Seedling
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2023
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 10
caps for emphasis - DO NOT TRUST LETTING AGENTS, EVER - as previously mentioned I've been a private tenant all my adult life, coming on 38 years now and I've never encountered a letting agency that did barely more than the minimum to justify their 15% cut every month.Passed the responsibility to letting agents. My son expressed his displeasure with them when he followed the agent in after their inspection (their report said nothing was wrong)
The following week, I visited their office and was rather forthright, resulting in two months fees being refunded. Nothing like a shop full of customers and a loud voice to get a satisfactory resolution
If you're a landlord and you're using one, you'll have to commit to riding them regularly to make sure they are doing what you're paying them for, because if they don't, YOU are legally liable, not them if things go sideways. I've not seen an agency contract yet, and I've seen plenty, that accepts liability for ANYTHING.
The amount of times I've had to mention things about other tenants to the current letting agency in charge for this HMO to be a reply of "we don't deal with internal things of the house" and trying to get them to even sort out repairs is like pulling teeth, so much so I don't even bother reporting things anymore I just fix it myself, quicker simpler and I'll know it's done right.
They do an "inspection" once a year or a room inspection on changeover - that's almost the entirety of their involvement - even the landlords think they are useless, but only have a letting agency because of how complicated it is now to rent out rooms to mostly foreign students or those on work visas - 4 of whom are in this HMO, and the aforementioned twats that treat this place as though it was a cheap sleazy motel.
We are renting for a short while during our house sale/purchase. We've rented before but this time were staggered by the sheer amount of paperwork and, to be honest, pointless for much of the time. Do we really need to know or care when the chimney was last swept? The CH boiler serviced? The EPC? Does anyone really take that into account when renting or buying? The electrical certificate ? And loads more. The detailed house particulars and photographs. Took me best part of a day to wade through it all and provide comments and my own photographs.
Then there was all the 'prove who you are'. Not helped by TransUnion having incorrect details of me on their system and refusing to do anything about it.
Fortunately will never need to rent again. This is it. I'll be carried out in a box from the new home.
Then there was all the 'prove who you are'. Not helped by TransUnion having incorrect details of me on their system and refusing to do anything about it.
Fortunately will never need to rent again. This is it. I'll be carried out in a box from the new home.
Windows
Old Oak
Sounds like you’re on top of things, but take notes, photos, videos of everything and send to the landlords/management and keep for when you move out. You cannot be too detailed - particularly about wear & tear and dirt that was present when you moved in. I hope everyone seems friendly now, but there’s a good chance that they will list every little thing they can when you leave. I thought I was being pretty good about documenting when we moved in to a rental, but I was still surprised when we moved out and got hit with a cleaning fee even though we left the place cleaner than when we moved in.