Hi,

When my boyfriend comes back from Afghanistan in April he's moving down to where I am and we are going to rent somewhere together. This will be a first for both of us and I was really after some advice on a couple of things.

Have found a gate lodge for £450 pcm but it needs the following doing to it - new kitchen , new flooring , what looks like damp in one corner of the 2nd bedroom,  completely redecorating , garden makeover (resembles a field at the back!), doesn't have central heating (only electric wall heaters in the rooms) or double glazing. The landlady has said first month rent free if we decorate but all the work that needs doing to it would be way over this.

Is it acceptable to offer a lower price or can you only do that when buying? Would it be out of order to suggest her selling it to us instead of renting it? (then we would get back the money we put into it) I can see so much potential in it and structually it looks a good property.

Thanks, Kate

Hi

Do you really need someone to tell you to avoid this one like a barge pole.  Its a wreak.

Please don't chuck your money on this.  You could ask her about selling it to you but do you know how much it would cost you to put right or is it for demolishing.  The property doesn't sound habitable and i think your on a bit a dream for him coming home, which is quite right of course, but its not going to be romantic living there.  You want something you can relax in whilst you find the do-upper.

look on the internet and your local paper for better places.

Why would you want to rent somewhere that YOU do the work on?
A rented property should be inhabitable for you, thats what you pay rent for. If the place is in such a wreck and you do the work it will be the landlord that gains in the long run, she lets you off a month at £450 but you pay how much for the kitchen and bathroom and decorating......
I am with the above poster AVOID, AVOID.

We are having major problems finding somewhere to rent due to having animals :(
Sugar, is this a really cheap rent for your area????
Is it the only place you have found that takes animals???
Can you afford too buy instead of rent, but buy a different house, not this one???
The one place we may get is like what you describe.
They are going to get the sash windows working again and retile the bathroom, but to make it habitable we will need to redecorate EVERY room, retile the toilet and BLEACH the kitchen.
Fence in the whole of the garden, AND we have to pay 1 1/2 time rent as a deposit plus one months rent up front.
But as its an estate cottage we know that if we pay our rent on time and dont do anything to annoy the neighbours it will be a long term rent (rent for life)
If you have to do all that work and it will only be short term then I wouldnt bother. I also wouldnt bother if the rent is on a par with the same sized house that doesnt need work.
Also you have to take into account that if like our area, noone wants pets :( :(
Good Luck
Lea :)

Thank you all for your replies.

This is relatively cheap for the area - it is 2 bedrooms and most 2 bedroom places round here are at least £550/ £600, with less garden and space inside. It also has plenty of parking on the land instead of allocated or on the street ( had to park in allocated when with my ex and had my car vandalised 3 times so don't want to do that again.)

The actual building is is good nick - walls , chimney , roof etc are all fine it's really just the internal things that need doing. Boyfriend's uncle is a joiner so he'll do all the refitting , flooring etc so that wont cost us as much as it would do - but landlady and letting agents don't need to know that! ;)

We're hoping to stay in wherever we choose for at least a couple of years so it won't be a short term thing.

Ideallly I'd prefer to buy as I know we could make a profit in the end ( places like it sell well around here if done up nicely!!) but the landlady probably knows this.

At least you can put a caravan on the land then, when you can't live in it lol.

please don't give yourself the heartache, do you think the boyfriend will want to go in there after probably living in a tent for god knows how long, he'll want a bit of comfort.

If you do the work, they get it for free, kick you out and make a killing or rent to someone else.  If they said rent free for a year then try it but it will cost you more.

It's amazing what you can find habitable when the alternative is nothing! Essentials are a sound roof and weathertight doors and windows, electricity, running water (not down the walls!) and sanitation, and anything else is a bonus. Redecorating's cheap - a lick of emulsion and you're there. New kitchen? I wouldn't do that to a rented property. Does it have worktops/a table, sink and hob? That's as much as some army quarters used to have. Does it have working fireplaces?

I would get a quote from a couple of decorators first, it's likely that £450 wouldn't even cover the materials.  If you really want to do this you will need probably several months rent free to cover your costs. 

Also beware of putting your heart and soul into something which is not yours, she could very easily kick you out when you have done all the work.  First homes together can be a very sentimental business, you would be devastated if you had to move out just as you had made it your own.

If this is seriously your only option...

Negotiate more than a months rent for a start - get it in writing what you will and will not do.

Get a free standing kitchen.. make sure this is NOT included in 'what you will do', and then if/when you leave, she can either buy it from you or you can take it with you if you want to.

Otherwise, id walk away, the likelyhood is you will do it up, get it nice and she will sling you out and rent it to someone else for more, or sell it out from under you.

That is the hard thing as it sounds so suitable for you but the expense is a lot baring in mind you can be given notice pretty much at any time.

I would be adding to any lease agreement that a considerable min term be given or expenses may be sought.

>It's amazing what you can find habitable when the alternative is nothing!

Too true, my last house was a complete hovel but I only realized how dreadful it was when I moved to this house which is much better. The back bedroom was unusable because of what started out as a corner of damp (landlord always called it condensation) soon went wild and everything went mouldy in there, you couldn't even hang a coat in the wardrobe. It also had no central heating, just electric heaters and a log burner so keeping the place warm was a chore and nothing gets you down like damp and cold.
My other concern would be that this landlady sounds like a pretty sharp operator, a months free rent is a joke compared to what it would cost in both labour and materials for the things you've described, so I'd worry about the contract not being renewed at the end of the tenancy, the rent being given a big increase or having trouble getting a deposit back (which I am having currently, grrr)

Sugar is this the only place that you have physically looked at? I

It's like when you look at puppies you have to look at other breeders and the way they are reared, bloodlines etc, same with properties, never take the first you look at, don't just look at properties on paper, go and view look around at least 10 properties before you make up your mind.

If you still decide on this one, which IMO is going to take thousands to be liveable in, seriously listen to what others have said, it won't be your property you'll spend a lot of money, and with my pessimistic head on once again, (sorry Jeff) if the landlady has allowed it to get into this state, (who'd want a landlady like that anyway?) she obviously knows it won't sell for much either, once you have done it up, she will sell it, guaranteed!!!!! You will put thousands on the property value and lose out.

If she is willing to sell it, great, you'll make a lot on it, in which case look at rent and for sale properties to give yourself more options anyway, if you can get a mortgage look around. :-) Otherwise 6 months free rent whilst you do it up as she will re-coup that back at  time of sale or if she re-rents for double the price.

Don't get caught out or used and please look around at others too.

They are going to get the sash windows working again and retile the bathroom, but to make it habitable we will need to redecorate EVERY room, retile the toilet and BLEACH the kitchen.

Lea suggestion from John (and yes he will come!) -have a decorating party, invite all your friends to come and help!

you may well do all the work then she will give you notice ..I wouldnt bother.

No way!! I pay less than that for a flat in London (Wimbledon) £395 pcm, the only thing I would ever consider doing is repainting from ware and tare, I move every year as im still at Uni and my contracts always cover white goods so if anything like cookers, washing machines or even a bathroom suit my landlord has to pay for not me unless Iv broken it. Iv lived in flats where we replace bits and bobs or general do simple DIY and the landlords have given us a huge reduction in that months rent.

Walk from this one.

I forgot to say..

It is ALWAYS worth checking out properties that in the listing say 'no pets' - because agents tend to automatically put that on if the landlord hasn't specified 'pets welcome' and in fact MANY landlords are perfectly happy to accept pets after discussion with the tenant and on the proviso that an extra deposit is left and usually that its written into the contract that the tenant will have the carpets professionally cleaned at the end of the tenancy.

So it really is worth asking, I know plenty of people living in properties that were originally advertised as no pets, and in fact the landlord is happy with the pets! I also know a couple of landlords who though they don't specifiy pets are welcome, will accept them if the owner asks and sets out things as above.  (and obviuosly, appears to be a responsible pet owner).

If you find that the agent wont contact the landlord to ask, on any of their properties, or its all too much trouble, then thats a pretty good indication that other things will be too much trouble for them once you are IN the property too so avoid like the plague!

When renting a property (from someone who's done it a lot!) never pay for anything (other than paint) that you can't take with you when you move!

http://www.pims.co.uk/Landlord-Legislation?gclid=COf-ruuc0acCFQoY4Qod40E5EA

This gives some guidelines of standards that landlords should follow.

You have to be very careful of paying any deposits if your inventory of the house is not significant detail otherwise alot of unscrupulous landlords will try and fleece you :-)

> You have to be very careful of paying any deposits if your inventory of the house is not significant detail otherwise alot of unscrupulous landlords will try and fleece you

You can photograph all the rooms when you move in.

Yes very good idea :-)

Around here as i've been looking today for a house to rent in a village which is cheaper than most as no train line and not on a major road link. They come in around £850pcm for a 2/3bed house with garden and this is a terraced home. Not sure where you live but this isn't a bad price, I could go down to around £750 to live in Worthing, but then the dreaded road into work would kill me and the location isn't ideal.

My daughter has to pay £695 for a one bed flat just for herself :(

Goodness me! Where is your daughter living?

Very true Theemx, and particularly if you are happy to pay a deposit it shows you trust your pet not to mess the place up. We had to rent for a couple of months last year due to our house purchase falling through and us not being able to stand living with hubby's parents any longer! We had to pay something like £50 or £100 deposit per dog (we had three at the time) but after going back for a 2nd extra thorough vaccuum as the landlady said there was still dog hair in the carpet after we left, we got it all back.

> Where is your daughter living

Kent. Old house converted into flats - she has a bedroom big enough for a small double bed, lounge/kitchen and bathroom - second floor.

Daisy if I were to move into the centre of town i'd be paying silly prices like your daughter for a one bed flat too...:-(

>  if I were to move into the centre of town i'd be paying silly prices like your daughter for a one bed flat too

The problem with flats is that there aren't many to rent in villages and by the time she has added fuel and parking (she was commuting into London when she first rented the flat), it was cheaper to rent a flat in the town :( Hopefully she will buy something when the lease runs out which wll make more sense, but she moved from Bristol and had to rent somewhere in a hurry

We all have very different ideas when it comes to decorating--if you decide to go ahead do the basic only. I lived in my property for over ten years on a full repairing lease and wouldn't especially recommend it--if anything major had needed doing I'd have really struggled. When I was finally able to buy the house (the property had been CPOed by the county council almost 30 years earlier for a motorway that never came) the valuer took the condition of the house into consideration and I made the improvements I wanted then (as opposed to the ones I needed). 

Ask the landlord for a condition survey so that you are all fully aware of any underlying structural problems as well as the internal state of the house. Then you can negotiate a rent free period based on specific alterations/repairs knowing what it will cost you. The landlord might require you to redecorate at 3 or 5 year intervals--check this out in case any special conditions apply (e.g. is the building listed).  Negotiate an appropriate rent free period based on the cost analysis of the condition survey, do the least possible and try to build up a positive relationship with your landlord, I know there are some terrible people around, but not all landlords are monsters and who knows, you might end up in a long term arrangement that suits you all very well.

If your partner has been living in a tent in Afghanistan I suspect his main priority will be you rather than the state of the wallpaper. All the very best for your new life together :)