The Reluctant Landlord

I am an evil, capitalist, unfair bastard of a landlord. At least, that's what my worry is. I try really hard to be honest, fair, and uncuntlike as possible.

I never wanted to be a landlord, I wanted to be a lumberjack! but somehow I ended up as one.

Let me roll back a few years to see how this sorry mess began...

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January 2008 was a pretty stressful time for us. I'd just got a new job and was commuting a hellish distance, so Liz and I decided to move house. Rather foolishly, I had also asked Liz to marry me and - even more foolishly - she had agreed. I say "even more foolishly" because she was finishing up the thesis for her MA. And was looking for a new job.

So, in the month of January we had...

• A new job for me.
• Moving house
• Planning a wedding
• Finishing an MA
• Looking for a new job
• Getting married

We often joked that the only other thing we needed to make our stress complete was to suffer a death in the family. Which, of course, promptly happened.

Frankly, the last thing we needed was the added stress of having to sell a house. The easiest thing to do was get a Buy-To-Let mortgage and let the house out. It was simply the path of least resistance - get a managing agent to take care of all the nitty-gritty and watch the money roll in.

Of course, for the first few years we lost money. Not a lot, maybe a couple of hundred pounds. Worth it for the lack of stress.

We've had two sets of tenants, and - up til now - things have been fairly calm. When the dishwasher broke, we made sure it was replaced straight away, when the fences blew over during the storms, we had new ones put in straight away - having been a tenant, I know how rubbish it is waiting on a landlord to pull their finger out.

Recently we installed solar panels - giving them vastly reduced electricity costs.

Overall, as I say, we try to be the opposite of the crappy landlords that we've had in the past.

The problem is, my current tenants aren't cleaning the house. Specifically, the the mold they've caused in the bathroom. We've asked politely, pointed out how it's their responsibility, how it'll just take a bit of Detol spray. But nothing.

The agency who manage the property asked us if we wanted to serve notice on them. To me, this seems like a massive over-reaction. They pay their rent on time, rarely bother us unless it's necessary, and haven't caused us any trouble.

But - at the same time - they're not taking care of the house. It's our house - I realise that. We own it, but they live in it. As far as I'm concerned, it's their home.

But I'm left with a nagging feeling. On the one hand, we might be able to get a bit more rent, and get in a family who will scrub the bathroom & weed the garden. On the other hand, the house may lie empty for months - and we'd be making a family homeless over a spot of mould.

sigh

So, what to do? They've been reminded to clean the bathroom. If they don't, should we chuck them out? Send in a cleaner?