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Landlord will be able to identify with this. The call. The silence. Then the words.
"I'm phoning up because I want to give you my one months notice."
OK I thought. The tenant has been struggling to pay the rent and was still slightly behind despite genuine efforts of trying to catch up. We had previously agreed a payment plan and he had been sticking to it.
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Following a brief chat about paying back his deposit it turns out that he had found a cheaper flat £295 pcm and was looking to move there. My flat was currently rented to him at £375. Now my dilemma as the landlord was do I let him go, given that he was slightly behind on his rent anyway. Or do I try to keep hold of him as a tenant knowing that to do this I was going to have to take a cut in rent.
I had to make a snap decision. I quickly evaluated that to relet it was going to cost me £200 in letting fees. On top of this we could be looking at a months void. Having spoken to Shaun a few times although I'd never met him. I'd gleaned that he was a nice enough young man, setting up and budgeting on your own for the first time isn't always easy. I gambled that the hassle of moving would be worth £30 a month.
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"If I was to say to you £325 per month would you still want to move". I wasn't sure if it was he wanted to move to the new flat or just he couldn't afford the rent on my apartment.
A pause. His reply. "I don't suppose you could make it £315 pcm?"
This time my turn to pause. Voids, hassle, inventories, weird requests on Gumtree.
"OK" I said. He needed the weekend to reflect on it. But I was pretty confident that the hassle factor of moving would be overiding.
I spoke to Shaun yesterday and he wants to stay on. I remain fully let and for the time being the cashflow just keeps coming in. In these tough times landlords will increasing face these dilemmas. How we respond to them could make the difference between 'sinking and swimming."
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1 comment:
You forgot to mention - perhaps it doesn't affect you - but what happens when you need to update your mortgage and they work out the rental income/cover against your mortgage ?
And it also depends on what your flat is really worth in the current market, I.e how easy would it be to relet at the £ 375 or would you have to take offers anyway. As it is, you will now be scared to increase the rent in the future for fear of losing the tenant.
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