Renting in London: the accidental landlord takes a chance on a tenant without a guarantor

Taking a chance on tenants who have come to London in the hope of finding fame or fortune is risky, but it usually pays off...
£461 a week: this modern, top-floor flat in SW8 comes fully furnished and is available through John D Wood (020 8012 2444)
Victoria Whitlock15 August 2016

One of my tenants has emailed to say she is leaving to take up a new job in another city, and while I am very sorry to see her go, I am pleased that she has managed to turn her life around.

When I met her a year ago, she was homeless, broke and down in the dumps due to a number of “emotional issues” she was working through, so she’d decided to move to London to make a fresh start.

She had a job, but she was still in her probationary period so the referencing agency suggested I asked her for a guarantor. Unfortunately, she didn’t have one. Then I found out she was so skint she was planning to go to friends with a begging bowl to collect enough cash for her deposit.

She wasn’t what you would call an ideal tenant, at least on paper, but I liked her. Also, I am pretty lazy and I didn’t want the hassle of looking for another tenant when I had already found one who seemed all right. Giving her a room was a bit of risk, but it paid off. She has never missed a rent payment or caused any problems and now she is back on her feet and about to start a better-paid job in a new city.

I have taken a few chances with other tenants who have come to London in the hope of finding fame or fortune. They haven’t all been successful. There was the Spanish would-be opera singer who ended up washing dishes in a restaurant; the Greek engineer who waited on tables, and the Italian architect who served coffee to commuters.

They might not have found what they were looking for in London, but they all paid their rent on time and looked after the flat and none of them made me regret my decision to give them a room. It isn’t an approach I would recommend to others, but I don’t mind taking the odd risky tenant because if things don’t work out I know I won’t be stuck with them for very long. I only give them six-month tenancy agreements. When the six months are up, I can get rid of them by serving a Section 21 notice, which gives them two months to leave.

Landlords don’t have to give a reason for ending a tenancy with an S21 and it’s much easier than going through the trauma of a Section 8 eviction, which, I get the impression, only succeeds if the tenant has been very, very bad.

Some tenants’ campaign groups are now trying to persuade the Government to ban “no fault” S21 evictions, arguing that it isn’t fair for good tenants to be thrown out of their homes at short notice when they have done nothing wrong.

While I can see where they’re coming from, in that I wouldn’t like the thought hanging over my head that I could be turfed out of my home with just two months’ notice, in my experience landlords rarely kick out tenants without good reason.

Some will end tenancies because they want to sell their properties, while in other cases, tenants might be turfed out because the landlord wants to move back into their home. Nevertheless, most tenancies end at the tenant’s request.

If you make it harder for landlords to evict tenants they will only ever take on those who are rock solid with secure jobs and high salaries — and fewer will take a chance on those waifs and strays who might just need a break to get back on their feet.

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