The Honest Agent: Q & A

Hi again Pianohouse,

If I have a month to month tenancy and I want to give a month notice can I do this at any time, or do I have to do it on the day I normally pay rent? Can I give notice today, say, and be out by the 5th of April even though my tenancy began on the 16th of the month and I usually pay from the 16th?

Thanks!

Unless there is a clause in your tenancy agreement that says otherwise, you are allowed to give a months notice at anytime. The landlord also has the same right, and if you are on a rolling/month to month agreement then you can discuss with the landlord if you wished to stay for a further week and just pay accordingly, but it has to be agreed on both sides, and in writing first in order to protect both parties.

Oh that's great! Thanks a bunch I'm going to try it.

Good luck! Let me know if you have any more questions.

Thank you! We went with the first agent, but so far we haven't had any interest, which is a bit of a disappointment... Still the agents have been good about keeping us informed.

Hope it picks up! Don't forget that your agent should contact you with feedback at least once a week. Even if they have no news. It shows that they are still interested and haven't forgotten you!

Hi Pianhouse!
Just an update, I stupidly didn't give a month's notice in time so gave notice with my final rent payment. As we move on schedule that meant we paid an extra two weeks of rent, horrible, but accepted as this was my fault. Imagine my surprise when the letting agent refunded those two weeks of rent with our deposit refund! How great is that? 

I'm glad you started this thread--I wish I'd looked earlier!

My husband and I are buying a house (he's British, I'm American, if it makes any difference) in the Northeast.  We've been procrastinating on it so we might get caught out with not having a place to live at the end of our lease on our current flat, so we're trying to get things taken care of as soon as possible! 

So far we've looked at 4 houses:

The one in the best shape is on the market for 110k, which is our upper limit.  It has a lot of new work, rewiring, etc. and we would only have to do a minimum of decoration, possibly have the chimney re-pointed, and buy a fridge to make it liveable.  We are apparently in competition with some other first-time buyers, so we might not get this one.

The second one is a reposession and the asking price is 97k; it has had most of the substantial work done (new heating system, wiring) but would need to have some exterior work done (chimney needs to be rebuilt) and some redecorating (new flooring, new bathroom, etc).  They seem kind of desperate to sell.

House 3 would need quite a lot of work and we wouldn't be liveable right away, they are asking 105k.  It has some potentially serious exterior problems and all of the interior needs redecorating.  It belonged to the mother of one of the estate agents; we think they might sit on it until they get an offer they like.

House 4 is a major project, it has the advantage of being an old Victorian terrace instead of an ex-council house, but it was converted from flats sometime in the past so it's not certain if it meets modern building regulations.  It's also a reposession and it seems that the previous owners weren't too happy about losing it--they took part of the heating system with them, so it needs totally new heating and possibly new wiring.  The bathroom is half-done and most of the flooring needs to be fixed.  There are possibly damp issues (my husband said it "smelled like a tramp"!). They are asking 105k.  It's definitely not worth that much in its current state but they would have to take a much lower offer to make it worth our while (like 85k), because of all the work that needs to be done.

Here's the questions we have at the moment:
1. How do you decide what is a fair offer?  What are the steps in making an offer?
2. How do we find a solicitor?  I have no idea if this is something we should shop around for, or if we should just pick someone.
3. Does it matter that I'm not a citizen? We would be getting a mortgage strictly on the basis of my husband's income.
4. How do we get life insurance, etc. that will not leave us vulnerable to legal differences between the US and UK?

We don't think the mortgage will be a problem--we've already talked to two banks and have an idea of what we can get.  The only issue is that his employer (ironically enough, a housing management company) has been dragging their feet on giving him a new contract, so we only have proof of his employment through June.  He knows a lot of chartered surveyors through work who will be willing to give us a discount on their services and an honest opinion, and we already have a pretty good idea of what the necessary repairs will cost.  We are out of town for the next 4 days, so we might be SOL on all of them, but we want to at least let the estate agents know we are interested and see what we can do on Tuesday.

What do we do next?

I can answer what we've been doing for number one.  We've looked online at the Land Registery for the prices that properties go in the areas we are looking at - down to the streets.  These prices tend to be updated up to two months prior, so you can see how the market has swung...and then base your offers on that - plus you now have something you can bring into negotiations by saying "Houses x, y & z were sold 6 months ago before this downswing and they only got £a.  So we are going to offer, £b."  You can't argue with selling prices (well, you can, but it probably means your property will stay on the market for a lot longer)!

How to put in an offer?  Call up the estate agent that took you to view the properties and let them know you want to put in an offer - tell them why you are doing that offer and what you have in place (provisional mortgage, etc).

Good luck!

Here's the questions we have at the moment:
1. How do you decide what is a fair offer?  What are the steps in making an offer?
2. How do we find a solicitor?  I have no idea if this is something we should shop around for, or if we should just pick someone.
3. Does it matter that I'm not a citizen? We would be getting a mortgage strictly on the basis of my husband's income.
4. How do we get life insurance, etc. that will not leave us vulnerable to legal differences between the US and UK?

1. Agents are legally obliged to put forward ALL offers, no matter if you offer £50k or the full asking price. A fair offer, given the current market climate would be 5-10k below the asking price. That way, the vendor will probably reject it but it gives you space to move the offer up gradually.

2. Always shop around for a good solicitors. There are lots of cowboys out there and all registered solicitors MUST be a member of the law society. Remember, you get what you pay for. If you need a recommendation, just PM me and I can reply with a list of good ones.

I'm afraid I am unable to answer questions 3 and 4. You should ask those of your mortgage broker.

NB: If you are buying any house that needs work due to damp or movement, you must get a full homebuyers report when you book a survey (as opposed to a mortgage valuation) It is more expensive but will save you a lot of hassle later on.

Hope this helps!

It seems as though I have had to speak with my agent quite a bit these last few months.  First we had mice, then we wanted a double check, and now the fridge is out, which may or may not have caused some water damage.  Plus, I have not mentioned to her that the tiles in the kitchen are all coming up, which my landlord quick fixed as we were moving in (she said she thought it was because she swamped them a bit much while cleaning for us), and I have knobs falling off the dresser constantly, another thing she tried to quick fix...  Are those all legitimate concerns to raise when I get my call back about the fridge?  They drive me crazy on a daily basis, and I don't want to quick fix myself because clearly it needs to be done right to stay fixed!

Yes, in fact helle_chic I would writeo ut a list and give it to her, or email it, so they can't forget. They may be small things but they do need fixing so the problems don't become worse.

Yes, in fact helle_chic I would writeo ut a list and give it to her, or email it, so they can't forget. They may be small things but they do need fixing so the problems don't become worse.

and also to document so if they never fix, they can't say they didn't know and charge you for the repair after move out.

Our landlord comes around quarterly to do a quick walk thru and find out what's come up that didn't warrant an immediate repair request.  It's always fine on the day, but then within a day or two, we have something to be fixed right away. always.    It must seem to them like we wait until after their visit to break things.  The real problem is that the owner lives in Australia, and every request takes days to bounce back and forth for approval. 

This time around, I'm asking the agents what the management contract involves. will the agency make decisions and repairs and bill the owner, or will there be this annoying delay caused by needing approval of every little thing.  And if so, is the owner local or at the other end of the world?  After problems with both our first two landlords being newcomers and small timers in the business, I'm also asking if the owner is someone who owns enough properties to be professional about it?   How long have they owned the house?  Not every agent has wanted to answer these questions, but I've found them worth asking.

What other information would YOU want to know beforehand about the owner and their history or habits?

Well.  Turns out it was the outlet, not the fridge (which I figured out thanks to someone here at UKY!), but they still didn't come until this morning!  And then the electrician climbed up into my cupboard and flipped a switch that I couldn't see and didn't know was there, and I felt like such an idiot!

No news on the tiles though.

Also, we lost at least £25 of food to the leaking fridge...  Should I ask for reimbursement?  Will I get anywhere?

So...  The fridge saga continues.  I got the bill from my agent, who says that I owe almost £70 because an electrician came and flipped a switch.  The letter says (quite condescendingly!) that I should have made sure the outlet was turned on before reporting electrical troubles.

Obviously.

The thing is, as I said, the switch is located up in a cupboard that I have to climb onto the workspace to see...  And I'm almost six feet tall!  It is nowhere near the actual refrigerator, I was never told it was there and there is nothing visible running up the wall to indicate that I should have climbed up to look.  I know I'm not without fault here, but I think this is a bit of a unique situation, and an obscene amount of money to pay!  Shouldn't the agency have been familiar with the unusual aspects of their property and been able to tell me to check, or is this a common thing that any Brit would have known to look for?

I have a feeling I am going to have to eat this one, but I'm so angry, and I can't seem to get it through to my agent that this was in no way an obvious thing I overlooked!