span call. In April 2007, when tenancy
class="cap">C ould deposit protection became
it be that the dream of mandatory, calls went up 75 per
owning property to rent may not cent to more than 200 a day.
be as stress free as the TV
Forget the idyllic luxury of
property shows suggest it might buying a gorgeous rural property
be? and renting it out to perfect
That's the story that seems to be tenants. The number one enquiry
shown in new figures just to the association was how to
released by the National remove a troublesome tenant from
Landlords Association (NLA). It's property to rent. When you
revealed that it received a consider it received more than
record number of calls from 600 calls a week, that's a lot of
landlords seeking advice during tenants annoying landlords around
2007.
the UK!
The association runs a phone
The second most common
helpline which offers free advice question was asking what the new
to its members during business protection scheme for tenancy
hours. They can call with any deposit was (TDP). The scheme
query they have about property to came in just under a year ago and
rent or related matters.
was designed to raise standards
It's finished crunching the in the private rented sector. The
figures for the year, and found main aim of TDP was to ensure
out it received an average of that when a tenant pays a deposit
2,600 calls a month. Across the and was entitled to get it back,
year that meant a staggering they could be assured it would
31,000 individual inquiries.
happen. It also contained some
It took the association's rules to assist with the
advisers an average of 12 minutes resolution of disputes by having
and 49 seconds to deal with a an alternative dispute resolution
service. The idea behind that was
They include the landlord who
to encourage tenants and made his first visit to a
landlords to agree on the property in two years to discover
condition and contents of the the kitchen had been moved to
property at the start of the another room, and an outbuilding
tenancy.
had been demolished to make way
The third most popular inquiry for a new conservatory! In that
was asking about a tenants' instance the landlord seemed to
housing benefit payments, and be a winner.
what the landlord could do when
Not so the poor landlord who
they didn't match the rent was forced to get a court order
period.
to remove some tenants… and was
Next up, in fourth place, was delighted when they suddenly left
questions about students living in the middle of the night. Turns
in property to rent, and the out they had stripped the entire
implications when they wanted to central heating system from the
swap with another student. And property to rent – and took the
finally, the fifth most popular double glazing too!
inquiry was whether or not the
And how's this for cheek.
landlord needed a HMO License, Another landlord visited a
for Houses in Multiple Occupation property with a long-term tenant
such as bed sits.
to find they had removed the
If it was just answering garage door and replaced it with
straight forward questions like a brick wall and window. Then
these, the daily grind for the they had knocked through from the
association's advisors would be hallway to the garage and were
easy (if a little dull). But in sub-letting the new room!
fact they get some pretty
interesting ones too, and have
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Article Tags: landlord, landlords, property
