When you have a HMO (House of Multiple Occupation) in the UK, issues comes up with tenants that may not normally arise in a standard letting of the whole property.
Therefore we at Quick Property Buyer thought we would write this article to give a couple of tips on clauses we now insert into our leases to deal with issues that have recently come up.
- No Bicycles in the common parts
Many tenants wants to store their bicycles inside the common parts, even in the shared rooms like lounges. As well as being an obstacle when people are trying to evacuate in a fire, they start to make the property look run down. Properties begin to look like student accommodation and handle bars for bicycles often do damage the walls. One other issue is that as soon as one tenant wants their bicycle inside the house, others also want to do the same.
I once had an argument with a tenant who would not remove his bike from the lounge as the clause prohibiting bikes was not stated directly in his lease, although there were many similar clauses. Since then, I have inserted a direct clause.
- Tenants will wait in the property for engineers and to do viewings
Leases need to be clear, especially on who is responsible for waiting inside the property for appointments. If a tenant has their way, you as a landlord would travel to the property and wait in for the whole day for engineers. Everyone is busy with their lives and their jobs and being a tenant does not obviate their obligation to wait in their home occasionally for engineers. Therefore I insert this clause.
Likewise, who should physically do viewings for prospective new tenants when rooms become empty. You find there may be a helpful tenant, but if there is, the rest will not reply to your emails and let the helpful tenant do all the work. In the end if one tenant does do all the viewings, they will feel alienated. Therefore I insert a clause that all tenants will do the viewings. They may still ignore your requests to show people around, but it does give you some ammunition if needed.
If you have a tenanted property that you would like to sell fast for cash, do not hesitate to contact one of our friendly team at Quick Property Buyer for an instant cash offer. We are the fastest growing cash buying company in the UK.