Evictions/Bailiffs. Do people really not know?

Everything except basic safety checks and maintenance, that is.
They also hadn't kept her deposit money separately, and tried to keep it for totally unsubstantiated "costs".

As far as I am aware there are no council estates being built these days, just a limited number of housing association properties in new developments, so there is a huge reliance on the private rental sector.

We started buying in the early eighties and gradually over the years legislation has been introduced which makes it less and less profitable for landlords.

If too many of us decide we have had enough and sell up, the country will have a huge problem.

I escaped my first marriage but took all his debts...well over £30K. Yes I probably should have fought it in the courts but tbh it took every ounce of strength I had to escape. I just wasn't up to fighting over money.

When I was working I could just about cope with the repayments. I wasn't a perfect payer but I would fall behind then catch up. When I became too ill to work my income plummeted. I didn't didn't know what to do so I contacted a debt charity. They told me that the money I had each month was so low that even they wouldn't take me on but they sent me a letter template. I sent this letter to each of my creditors explaining the situation with a budget of my income and expenditure which the charity had helped me put together. Every company (even those with bad online reviews) were lovely. No one was nasty and each agreed that I pay them £1 per month. This means that some of my debts won't be paid off until I'm well over 500 years old but they all accepted that it was all I could pay. I update them on my income and expenditure every 9 to 12 months and each time my £1 is accepted. Some even contact me to check that I can actually afford to pay the £1 and say they would take even less. I have this old fashioned idea that you should at least show you're willing to pay something so I pay £1 to each of them. If you show willing and stick to your agreement they leave you alone other than for the income updates. It's when you mess them about or ignore them that they get nasty.

I can't say anything about landlords and agencies because I never had a problem with them. My landlord was lovely and the agency was very easy to work with. But then because my creditors took my income and expenses into account I always had the money to pay my rent on time. My landlord relied on my rent as it formed part of his monthly income.

We were once visited by bailiffs wanting to recover our VAT debt. I showed them our latest accounts which showed that we owed about three times as much as they had come for. They took a quick look round our tiny cottage, said "Well there's nothing here worth that much" and left. Two minutes later they were back asking if we could give them a push down our lane as their car wouldn't start. No hard feelings, we were going bankrupt anyway.

I always enjoy watching the sheriffs faced with irate businessmen who threaten them with the police. The answer is always "Please do and they can explain the law to you" or the ones who insist on getting their accountants involved only to find that the accountants agrees with the court and says they have to pay the money. I am sometimes surprised by some of the well known companies who try to wriggle out of very small debts. The time wasted must cost them more than the debt.

What a tough time you have had vampirequeen but your experience shows that companies will try their best to help people who through no fault of their own, are in serious financial difficulties.

Your attitude to landlords is so nice as we too rely on the rental income we get now we are more or less retired.

If you rent a car or a van, the car hire firm will examine it meticulously for any damage when you return it and charge you the full cost of repair. If you do not pay the hire charge in advance they will not let you have the car.

The same thing applies to renting a property. If you rent a property, you pay the rent and if you do any damage you pay for it.

I should imagine that people just ignore any letters in the hope that the problem will go away. And tell anyone who comes to the door that they never received it.

People won't stop being landlords until other forms of investment offer better interest rates.

nanna8

Wouldn’t be a landlord in the uk for any amount of money. Too much risk . It is not quite so bad here, at least non payers get evicted after a while. There are a lot of people who invest in property instead of shares etc, especially these days. We don’t but many of our friends do and they are protected to a greater level than they seem to be there.

My ex hubby would be! He's spent the last twenty years not working (or paying me any maintenance for his children) and has managed to build up a very lucrative property portfolio.

I don't know what kind of risk you think there is nanna8, but if you do things professionally and think long-term, there is almost no risk.

Anyone on the point of eviction is going to clutch at straws and deny everything in the hopes it may buy them some time. There are both good and bad tenants and landlords. There are unscrupulous landlords who cram several people into homes no better than slums. However, a work colleague of mine bought a terraced house to rent out to add to her pension pot. She had it rewired with new kitchen, bathroom and carpets and freshly decorated. She found a tenant and thought all would be well. 3 months into the tenancy the rent stopped. All attempts to contact the tenant were met with silence. Finally with debts mounting up my colleague went to a company specialising with landlords and started the long and arduous process of evicting her tenant. It took 9 months and thousands of pounds to finally reach eviction day but her stress was not over. When she got into the house it had been completely vandalised. The fridge freezer and sofa had been taken, the kitchen cupboard doors had been removed and chucked in the garden. The whole house was crammed with rubbish, mouldy food and the carpets were thick with cat hair, urine and faeces. Every wall had either a fist sized hole in it or had been daubed with graffiti. My colleague was faced with yet more money to put the house back to the way it had been. She eventually sold it.

I can't understand tenants who destroy their homes. I've always rented and have always cared for the houses as if they were my own. After all I lived in them. Why would anyone want to live in a self made hovel or wish to deliberately destroy someone's property?

I do think you face an element of risk in purchasing a property to rent but then you do with any investment. We chose to invest in a rental property for a number of reasons but mainly that having never had any substantial savings previously we had no knowledge of stocks and shares but did know the property market from buying our own home...bricks and mortar appeared so much safer. We also wanted our money to be serving a purpose rather than sitting idle.
And it did. In the 5 years we owned this property we had two tenants both of whose circumstances were similar. They were single parents who had to leave their previous homes due to relationship breakdowns, each lived happily in our rented house for over 2 years without issue on either side and left after finding new relationships. We then sold the house to a gentleman who was also separating from his partner. Yes we received a small income, never enough to pay tax on ?, but I feel the main benefit to ourselves was knowing our money was being 'useful' .

Most tenants are just normal hard working people who look after their homes and pay their rent. It's only the ones who trash the property that you hear about.

I should imagine that people just ignore any letters in the hope that the problem will go away. And tell anyone who comes to the door that they never received it.

It happens all the time Witzend; which is why debt collection post is frequently sent by Recorded Delivery and has to be signed for. But then some refuse to sign for it because they know what it contains, which is why hand delivered letters are done and photographing it taking place.
Vampire is absolutely 100% right when she says that acknowledgement of the debt and working with your creditors to come to an amicable agreement that you can afford, is the very best way forward. No matter how small an amount you can afford, it will be accepted; but keep to the agreement and liaise with your creditors regularly if you have problems. Brushing debt under the carpet and pretending it doesn't exist is the very worst thing to do and only exacerbates the problem.