Hi, I hope you are all enjoying the sunshine when it shines? I am enjoying it so much I am feeling quite mellow, not really in the mood for ranting, but hey… no doubt I will get into the swing of it once I start.

So we have a new Government at last, but will they actually reverse any of the recent inane legislation fired at the Private Landlords? Well, I certainly hope so, but we will have to wait and see. I was most upset with the election result as I thought that the best way forward would be for Conservative Government to be in power with a clear majority. Everything I have ever heard the Lib Dems talk about shouts higher taxes, higher taxes! But, never mind I thought they would never actually get in power. How wrong I was, they are in via the ‘back-door’. No ‘pun’ intended!

I read interview in The Daily Telegraph on 1 June between Mark Prisk MP and Richard Tyler. Mark Prisk stated that “… the commitment to cut red tape by introducing “a one-in one-out rule” so that no new regulations are introduced without others being cut “by a greater amount”.” Great they can start by cutting out this ridiculous law that requires all new HMOs to have Planning Permission, and replace it with a new law promising to help, not hinder Landlords … in my dreams!!

Do you remember the example I gave in my first rant on the madness that is paying Housing Benefit directly to Tenants? The saga continues, and this has being going on since the middle of December 2009. To briefly re-cap, one of my tenants in Burnley is an alcoholic and has many other problems. Back in December, my tenant decided to phone the Benefits Office to say he did not live at the property anymore, even though he had not left the property. He thought (well, he sort of thinks) that if he said had moved out the Agents would stop asking for the ‘top-up’ monies he owed. Of course, all that happened was that they stopped paying Benefits directly to the Agents with immediate effect. We could not get him to fill out a new form for the Benefits and he just continually lied saying that he had done this, when clearly he had not. It took from mid-December to the end of May 2010 to finally sort this out. Thanks to Mike Clarke of mypropertypowerteam.co.uk for personally visiting him twice to fill out all the relevant forms. Through perseverance and sheer determination, I finally get the claim sorted and even received most of the backdated payments. Hip hip hooray.

The joy was short-lived. The tenant phones me on Bank Holiday Monday to ask me when I am collecting the keys for the property. He talks as if all this has been agreed (probably has been in his head). When I ask him what he is talking about, he says that he is moving in with his girlfriend next week and doesn’t want to rent the property anymore. Can you believe it? After all the trouble he has caused, and I have arranged for everything to be sorted out for him, because he could not even fill a form out??

It is just far too hot for all this ‘ranting’, so I am going to keep this article short and sweet.

Until my next ‘Rant’, I wish you all prosperity.

Best wishes,
Christina Hine

Founder, Good Find Properties
www.goodfindproperties.com

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the Authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of Geogleam Ltd T/A mypropertypowerteam.co.uk