Something for nothing.
Why is it people these days seem to expect something for nothing? I have a specific beef at the moment, and that's my landlord and the agent representing him. Useless does not begin to cover it. Let me fill you in...
Back in the earlier months of 2005, my girlfriend and I decided we wanted the feelings we had when we left each other at the end of the night to go away. We started looking for a flat. We talked to a few estate agents in the area we were looking (Grayshott, Hindhead, Beacon Hill) and they started looking. We saw a few places, but due to the state of the UK housing market in the South East, we were looking at shoe boxes, frankly.
Then one of the agents (I guess it would be unfair to name them, but anyone who has had problems in the Beacon Hill area will no doubt know who I mean, and anyone who really wants to know can email me) found a place - Royal Huts is a fairly new development of flats. It was relatively spacious, well decorated and in a convenient spot. So we went for it. We filled out all the credit forms and handed over a cheque for the credit agency checks. Everything seemed to be going well when we heard from the agents that the landlord had put the flat up with another agency for more money and had got interest through them. That should have set alarm bells ringing, but I was leaving my job and moving in with my girlfriend - I was, admittedly, distracted. The agent told us there was another property we might like. It was a four-bedroomed place they would let us have at the same price as the two-bedroomed place as it was not in the best condition. We took a look.
The agent was lucky here, as both Mel and I could see through the bad condition to see that this 1930's place had huge rooms (for the UK anyway). We raised some concerns, but were told they would all be dealt with. We were told it would be cleaned top to bottom, painted top to bottom, a broken window would be replaced, old furniture removed etc. We decided to give it a go - if we didn't like it we would only be there for 6 months anyway. We went back and looked again around a month later, just under a week before we were due to move in. We raised the same concerns as before as not all the concerns had been addressed, but were again told they would be sorted. Where were those damn bells?
The day came to move in. The agent that had been showing us around wasn't available to do the handover, so another agent came along. The first issue came to light. Although we had a key to the front door, there was no key to our flat (we share the entrance with another flat). We said that that needed fixing there and then and the agent dutifully said she would get someone out that day. Issue number two. It was obvious as soon as we stepped in the door that the place hadn't been cleaned properly. If a vacuum cleaner had been run over the place, it wasn't one that worked. The oven was a state (still is actually, despite several goes at cleaning it). The issues mounted. The broken window wasn't fixed. Although most of the rooms had been given a new coat of paint on the walls and ceilings, the landings and the entrance hall had not been done, and the window sills, doors and skirting boards had been neglected. Various light fittings were broken. The list continued. We thought, what the hell. It's a place to live. In we moved.
Then we started looking through the inventory. A few more issues came to light, but the main two issues were that the shower leaked from the wall and the pilot light in the central heating kept going out. We filled out the inventory and delivered it back to the agent, expecting a plumber to be arranged to come and sort at least the shower.
Jump forward three months. Do we have a working shower? Nope. Do we have a date when it will be fixed? Nope. Do we have a working pilot light? Nope. Any joy of it being fixed? Nope. And why is this? Do we think there could be a veritable famine of plumbers? A shortage of shower expertise? Any valid reason for the delay? You must be joking. The truth is brutally simple. Our landlord is in the business of taking money, not spending it. And the kicker? Our landlord is the manager of the estate agent letting the place. The agent's boss is...the landlord. So can we even count on the agent bringing appropriate pressure on the landlord to get things sorted? I think not.
So what to do? I can't withhold rent, as since I am unemployed I needed my sister to act as guarantor, so if I choose not to pay, they go after her. I try and keep the pressure up on the agent, but what chance does he have? He can't even go to his manager and say he's got a problem landlord. Maybe this is just meant to be one of those character building moments. But it sticks in my throat. That people out for a quick buck can impact my quality of life and really not give a flying fudge. I know I shouldn't worry about it. It's only a flat. But frankly it's my money he's screwing around with, and I resent the hell out of it. And unfortunately there seem to be enough people out there to make my custom pretty unimportant to him. That and I'm told he got the properties in the area with more than a little help from daddy dearest to try and make some quick money from the proposed A3 tunnel project (long story short, part of a major road is to be diverted through a tunnel, causing house prices along the old part to increase once the traffic doesn't come past any more). But the bitter part of me takes comfort in the fact that the tunnel has already been delayed, and now a decision isn't expected soon. Add to that the time it will take to complete, and I feel so much better. Hopefully by the time it's finished, it will be his son that benefits, and not him.
Excuse the bile. I need to get it out though, and I don't want to bore my girlfriend to death - she gets a rant on how incompetent the agent and the landlord are at regular intervals.
Anyway, back to the question at hand. Why do people expect something for nothing? Because for as long as there are good people out there, there are others to take advantage of them. Lovely system. Checks and balances is it? But will I change? I hope not. I'd rather be frustrated at those who take advantage as opposed to someone without a conscience. Just as well being good is it's own reward...
Back in the earlier months of 2005, my girlfriend and I decided we wanted the feelings we had when we left each other at the end of the night to go away. We started looking for a flat. We talked to a few estate agents in the area we were looking (Grayshott, Hindhead, Beacon Hill) and they started looking. We saw a few places, but due to the state of the UK housing market in the South East, we were looking at shoe boxes, frankly.
Then one of the agents (I guess it would be unfair to name them, but anyone who has had problems in the Beacon Hill area will no doubt know who I mean, and anyone who really wants to know can email me) found a place - Royal Huts is a fairly new development of flats. It was relatively spacious, well decorated and in a convenient spot. So we went for it. We filled out all the credit forms and handed over a cheque for the credit agency checks. Everything seemed to be going well when we heard from the agents that the landlord had put the flat up with another agency for more money and had got interest through them. That should have set alarm bells ringing, but I was leaving my job and moving in with my girlfriend - I was, admittedly, distracted. The agent told us there was another property we might like. It was a four-bedroomed place they would let us have at the same price as the two-bedroomed place as it was not in the best condition. We took a look.
The agent was lucky here, as both Mel and I could see through the bad condition to see that this 1930's place had huge rooms (for the UK anyway). We raised some concerns, but were told they would all be dealt with. We were told it would be cleaned top to bottom, painted top to bottom, a broken window would be replaced, old furniture removed etc. We decided to give it a go - if we didn't like it we would only be there for 6 months anyway. We went back and looked again around a month later, just under a week before we were due to move in. We raised the same concerns as before as not all the concerns had been addressed, but were again told they would be sorted. Where were those damn bells?
The day came to move in. The agent that had been showing us around wasn't available to do the handover, so another agent came along. The first issue came to light. Although we had a key to the front door, there was no key to our flat (we share the entrance with another flat). We said that that needed fixing there and then and the agent dutifully said she would get someone out that day. Issue number two. It was obvious as soon as we stepped in the door that the place hadn't been cleaned properly. If a vacuum cleaner had been run over the place, it wasn't one that worked. The oven was a state (still is actually, despite several goes at cleaning it). The issues mounted. The broken window wasn't fixed. Although most of the rooms had been given a new coat of paint on the walls and ceilings, the landings and the entrance hall had not been done, and the window sills, doors and skirting boards had been neglected. Various light fittings were broken. The list continued. We thought, what the hell. It's a place to live. In we moved.
Then we started looking through the inventory. A few more issues came to light, but the main two issues were that the shower leaked from the wall and the pilot light in the central heating kept going out. We filled out the inventory and delivered it back to the agent, expecting a plumber to be arranged to come and sort at least the shower.
Jump forward three months. Do we have a working shower? Nope. Do we have a date when it will be fixed? Nope. Do we have a working pilot light? Nope. Any joy of it being fixed? Nope. And why is this? Do we think there could be a veritable famine of plumbers? A shortage of shower expertise? Any valid reason for the delay? You must be joking. The truth is brutally simple. Our landlord is in the business of taking money, not spending it. And the kicker? Our landlord is the manager of the estate agent letting the place. The agent's boss is...the landlord. So can we even count on the agent bringing appropriate pressure on the landlord to get things sorted? I think not.
So what to do? I can't withhold rent, as since I am unemployed I needed my sister to act as guarantor, so if I choose not to pay, they go after her. I try and keep the pressure up on the agent, but what chance does he have? He can't even go to his manager and say he's got a problem landlord. Maybe this is just meant to be one of those character building moments. But it sticks in my throat. That people out for a quick buck can impact my quality of life and really not give a flying fudge. I know I shouldn't worry about it. It's only a flat. But frankly it's my money he's screwing around with, and I resent the hell out of it. And unfortunately there seem to be enough people out there to make my custom pretty unimportant to him. That and I'm told he got the properties in the area with more than a little help from daddy dearest to try and make some quick money from the proposed A3 tunnel project (long story short, part of a major road is to be diverted through a tunnel, causing house prices along the old part to increase once the traffic doesn't come past any more). But the bitter part of me takes comfort in the fact that the tunnel has already been delayed, and now a decision isn't expected soon. Add to that the time it will take to complete, and I feel so much better. Hopefully by the time it's finished, it will be his son that benefits, and not him.
Excuse the bile. I need to get it out though, and I don't want to bore my girlfriend to death - she gets a rant on how incompetent the agent and the landlord are at regular intervals.
Anyway, back to the question at hand. Why do people expect something for nothing? Because for as long as there are good people out there, there are others to take advantage of them. Lovely system. Checks and balances is it? But will I change? I hope not. I'd rather be frustrated at those who take advantage as opposed to someone without a conscience. Just as well being good is it's own reward...
posted by Rob Langley at 8:04 pm
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