Husband and I have been together for 11 and a half years now and in that time, we’ve always lived in rented houses. We’ve no inclination to buy with the way the market is at the moment and we like the fact that if something major goes wrong, like a boiler needing to be replaced, the expense isn’t ours. We probably pay more in rent than we would on a mortgage but for us, it’s worth it. However, one thing we’ve realised is that having a good relationship with our landlord is really important.
We’ve lived in properties in the past where a letting agent has managed the property on behalf of the landlord and it usually means that it takes forever to get anything done because you’re always waiting for phonecalls to be answered or emails to be replied to, so we were happy to know when we moved into our current property that our landlady would be managing it herself, and it’s got us out of a bind in the past.
One evening, last summer, Husband, the kids and I did what we often do on a Saturday evening and went to my MIL’s for dinner. It was the evening of our village summer dance and most of the village was over there, having a boogie, but we couldn’t take the kids so we gave it a miss. Once we got home, we realised that we’d managed to forget our door key; it had been taken off of the fob earlier in the day so that it would fit into a running belt and not put back, so although we’d managed to deadlock the door, the main chubb key was missing.
We umed and ahhed about how the hell we could get into the house, checking windows, knocking on neighbours doors (it was well after 10pm by then and got no answers) until we remembered that our lovely landlady was at the village dance. We raced round the country lanes, managed to find her with a plastic beaker of white wine in her hand and threw ourselves at her mercy. Within minutes, she’d managed to recruit a friend of her family (who is a builder) to come and cut through the door frame to get to the lock and force it from the outside, and we were in the house in no time at all.
We realised at this point that not only were we lucky to have forgotten the key on an evening that she was around, but also that we REALLY needed to invest in some spare keys and a lockable box to hide somewhere, should we ever have such a disaster again! Possibly the most amazing part is that our landlady also refusd to accept any money towards the subsequent repair which had to be done to sort out the door frame again after our disaster! We were so grateful for her help and it made us realise exactly how lucky we were to have such a fab landlady!
Do you have a good relationship with your landlord? Have you ever had a disaster and needed their help? Do leave me a comment below telling me all about it!
For appreciation potential, you are looking for a property that—with a few cosmetic changes and some renovations—will attract tenants who are willing to pay higher rents. This will also raise the value of the property if you choose to sell it after a few years.