| Comment | I think the sad reality is you need to go into any dealing with a private landlord or a letting agent as if they are going to be dishonest and are willing to lie to get your money. The fact is enough of them are dishonest that it makes sense as a consumer to kind of assume they all are and act accordingly.
One thing is pictures and videos. Take loads of pictures and take long, detailed videos walking through the property and pointing out any issues. It seems like letting agents have two settings when it comes to do inspections. Either they are frequent and intrusive or never at all where as the ideal I think is once or maybe twice a year.
I always used the inspection to take loads more pictures and confirm in writing the flat was still in the expected condition. Letting agents almost never want to confirm this as it will make it harder to try and keep the deposit later if that is what they decide they want to do but keep emailing and get them to confirm.
Save and document everything. If something is broken point it out frequently and use the pretense that it says issues must be raised in your lease. Provided you are persistent enough in your communication, you keep meticulous records, and you don't totally destroy your flat it becomes very hard for them to rob you which is unfortunately their initial instinct. |
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