Wedding plans stressful? Try renting out your flat.....
Nothing to be worried about! But I have been asked a few times this week how plans are going.
Luckily I have the main structure of the wedding sorted, venue, deposit, hotels (as of tomorrow), cake, piper, photography, videography etc sorted! :) and a few other surprises. It has been incredibly fun on the days i can concentrate on the big day.
So that's great, really glad that's ok for now. But some of you know, I am in the middle of trying to get the flat I own on the market for 30th July and sell it as quickly as possible.
Well yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Selling a place and planning / saving for a wedding is a bit nuts, but has to be done.
Big D and I want to of course buy somewhere after we get married. I mean, in an ideal world, that would be sorted, but we love our flat in East Dulwich, albeit renting but it's a great home at the moment and I currently own a place in North London.
Of course in hindsight, as always, I wish I bought a place that was bigger, so I wouldn't have to have the problem of selling or moving. Also it would have meant I didn't have to rent it out to horrific tenants, run my horrifically terrible property managers.
This is essentially what I want to do to the tenants and property managers : Click Here
Today is the day where the cretinous, spoilt c words move out and while it will be expensive to have an empty flat for a while, I won't have to deal with incompetency from the property managers and tenants who have caused so much damage and strain that it has left me with absolutely no profit to cover my bills, just enough to let me get on by.
They have been awful. I warn anyone that is renting out a flat that if you can find good property managers through friends - this is the best as unfortunately, like myself and other people have been stuck with terrible property managers that have caused more stress and money than what they are paid for.
The tenants have just been awful. I didn't realise they were just a lousy student couple who were in London for a year (I specifically paid and asked the property managers to get in a professional or professional couple) and they have been even worse than expected.
- broken the bathroom door
- wrecked the walls with their shitty posters and blu tack marks everywhere
-complained and made me (out of harrassment) try to sort out problems that couldn't really be solved other than them cleaning (they complained about flies but when I went over, they have loads of dirty empty food containers on the floor)
- complained to ME when the whole street's electricity was cut by mistake by the council
- complained about the cleanliness - even though they have been living there for a year: erm it's not my responsibility to clean the flat
- keep complaining about the bed slats
Then they tell me about how I shouldn't charge them any money because of the wall damage from the posters (I now need to redecorate the whole place, buy new paints which costs) because.... get this: their posters are slightly ripped:
I mean, you fucking kidding me? Also they are trying to get their deposit money back before even showing me they settled their bills - what a joke.
I could go on but my blood boils (quite literally in this weather as well talking about it.
However, for the new person, if I do get a new tenant (which I am ONLY going to let through friend recommendations or keep the place empty) the place is virtually RENOVATED ha!
But this isn't just the problem. Over the past year the property managers have systematically failed at every turn and once the tenants are out, deposit is settled, I am formally complaining and at least asking for 75% of the management fees back.
1. Lied to tenants about what furniture and what's included
3. Messed up me being paid rent on time on 6 occassions
4. ALWAYS ignore emails or calls until the 5th time or over a week later
5. Did not ask permission or keep me updated on maintenance works
7. Messed up organising an EPC certificate until I asked about it a year later
8. Got in students when specifically didn't ask
9. Ignore the tenants on maintenance requests
10. Lost vital documents and lied about it
Again, I could go on but already annoying me talking about it.
Anyways, all I can say - with everything, there is a silver lining and what it has taught me is that nothing goes to plan, you can only do what you can do and this was probably one of the most stressful things I have had to deal with - I really mean it. Although SELLING the place will be super stressful too.
But now it's great, organising a wedding is honestly a piece of cake compared to this.
Anyways, only about 2 hours until the bastards move out.
