I just found what is surely one of the greatest blogs I have ever read in my life. I have heard of RenterGirl before, might have even browsed before but the 5 or 6 posts I just read there, where not only gripping, intelligent meaningful and poignant, but they were darned funny as well -- not many posts actually make me chuckle out loud.
Rentergirl is a blog by a long-term private tenant, who tells her story of experiences with bad landlords and the day to day problems of tenant life.
It was really interesting for me to read it from that side. I am a member of forums like Property Tribes, and most of my Twitter followers are landlords. In fact I have always looked upon property from an investors perspective because writing about that side of property is my job.
By far the key points for me were those of letting agents, many of the landlords I know online seem like really conscientious people, I bet their toes would curl if they knew their landlord was treating the residents of their properties like that.
I am but young and I have not spent very much time in privately rented accommodation, but the one landlord I have had was nice enough, and he seemed very keen to keep me as a tenant because I kept the place nice and paid on time in cash. However, now having read Rentergirl I realise that I have no way of knowing what he would have been like if I had asked about renovations. When I said I was leaving he offered to reduce the rent, which did make me wonder why he had been charging so much in the first place.
One thing that occurs to me is that landlords are just humans. They are supposed to keep a percentage of every properties value in reserve for repairs, but they are just as prone to face financially difficult times as any of us, at which point
