UK Landlord Forum / Life

Each year, I always take a day of leave and travel around with a heating engineer to each property and get the GSCs done one after the other. This keeps them all in-line and it has worked beautifully for years.

In very early February I started lining-up all the Tenants so the GSCs could be done on Tuesday the 20th of February. All were sorted out, except one. A Tenant I've had installed for years, she is quite feckless, a semi-recluse and always had issues paying until we finally sorted out Universal Credit payments coming direct to me (as even they believed she simply could not budget).

Email, SMS, phone call - they all went unanswered... so, to not upset my apple cart, I took a trip down to Sheffield (16 miles) and knocked on her door... it was just after 15:00 on a Saturday, and I woke her up!!!

I explained about the GSC - her reply: "Oh, I figured it would be about this time of year, I said to my mum - I'd better get some gas on the meter otherwise they'll not be able to do it, but I'm waiting for a new card from OVO and it's not arrived".

I left. The card didn't arrive by the 20th, so it threw-out my GSC harmony.

She just messaged me telling me - "if you want to sort it out anytime from Tuesday next week" - that's the 5th of March and I admit that I'm totally cheesed-off and would benefit from external thoughts on this.

I'm cheesed-off to the point I think I want to sell the property and replace it with another solid terrace closer to home.

She's been there since about 2014 and whenever I ask her about "her plans" she (literally) starts bawling and sniffling at me. I have not had the mettle to progress this. I've broached the topic several times. Each time I bottle it and I walk away with my tail between my legs. She will not go easily, that much is certain.

Am I being petulant about this situation? I'm annoyed. The heating engineer was annoyed. My GSC-Zen is gone. And I know that I could get more than the static £500 that she's been paying for a decade (it's the one tenancy where I don't follow my own advice of annual modest rent increases - it's just too much hassle) with a new terrace a lot closer to home in another town. Or is letting sleeping dogs lie best... take the £500 each month until the day she leaves this earth, and then sell without argument?

The downside of selling a property and buying another one is the hit you take on the costs. Estate agent fees, CGT, conveyancing and SDLT.
It can take months (years) to get that back.

I don't think the risk is being petulant.
And you know you need to put the rent up. Take that pain instead.

I think I said before, this is a rescue tenant and they are for life,not just a 12-month AST. At least you know you are being played. Trying to sell with her there is not going to work out. I would serve notice, life is too short to be be taking crap like this. You have been more than accomodating. You could try putting the rent up, but will UC pay the going rate ?

I'm going to get the GSC out of the way first and then hit her with a £25 a month increase... see how the process works-out with a view to annual increases, if it's not mind-bending or soul-destroying, so that I can start to boil this frog. To be honest, I had not once even contemplated the idea of selling the property with her included... I don't think I could ever do that to someone.

If she went elsewhere and passed the criteria they required then it would be totally different... and a miracle.