What Sam Saw Today

As Christmas draws ever nearer and I am still trying decide what gifts to buy my loved-ones (note to self – have probably missed Amazon’s delivery cut off date) I am faced with a bigger quandary at this time of year…and unfortunately it’s not of the “how-is-santa-going-to-deliver-my-presents-when-I-don’t-have-a-chimney” quandary.

Nope. My dilemma is very seasonal for this time of year – it is: Can you ever claim too many times on your buildings insurance?

Making an insurance claim,  in theory, should be pretty straight forward – I pay my insurance premiums and I am covered for the damage that has occurred. (I won’t bore you with the latest fiasco, this is the season to be jolly and hang tinsel on the tree). However, I feel I’m now on the cusp of being every insurance man’s nightmare – because “I-am-the-customer-who-always-claims-insurance”. And the fact is, insurance companies make their money from the “customers-who-never-claim-insurance”

So I didn’t mean to become the “customer-who-always-claims-insurance” it’s just I’ve had a run of bad luck in the last couple of years and tenants being the darlings that they are, have ensured that my properties have remained problem-free-only-in-my-dreams…

And so I spoke with my broker about what to do, and my concerns with being “the-customer-who-always-claims-insurance” and whether any company in their right mind would ever insure me again and he informed me it’s not about the amount of the claim that is the issue, but the frequency.  Which quelled one concern, as the claim would be for several thousands of pounds.  But, it opened another concern, because unfortunately, not only am I “the-customer-who-always-claims-insurance” I am, in fact, a regular. I am a frequent flyer. I am ”the-customer-who-regularly-claims-insurance”

I never wanted to be this person. I never wanted the loyalty card, bonus points and free desk top calendars that come with having my insurance broker’s telephone number on speed dial – I just somehow seem to have drifted into this territory.

And so my dilemma is – what is the probability if I claim again on my insurance, what is the likelihood that an insurance company will insure me again?  And if I find one that does, just what sort of mark up on the premiums am I going to have to end up paying? (bearing in mind I’ve already seen a 30% increase in the last 2 years due to my insurance incidents). And what choice am I actually going to have? Because the fact is, insurance companies insure those people who think something “may happen”, but it doesn’t. Insurance companies are not overly keen on people like me where something is “probably going to happen”.

So what to do? I have a valid claim.  But will the short term gain of claiming on the insurance for the damage be a long term pain?

Decisions. Decisions. Oh I would much rather be wondering what sort of mince pies to bake

That’s the question I find myself asking today…

As we enter the cold season, I am reminded of the horrible, horrible winter we had last year where we had a multitude of frozen pipes, broken boilers, upset tenants and my ever decreasing bank balance to pay the bills.  I remember at one point thinking to myself I would stop answering the phone. Every time I answered it, it seemed to cost me yet more money. Alas, ignorance was not an option…especially not when my tenants have me on speed dial and think nothing of bombarding me with their free annual text quota in a day.

And so with a heavy heart, I like many other landlords, are entering that wonderfully festive season which is traditionally known as Christmas to everyone else and T’is Season to be Jolly. Which in the landlord’s world – T’is the Season to Worry. Which in the plumbers world Ti’s Season To Plunder. Yes, for plumbers, winter is their peak season – this is the manual workers equivalent of City Boy Banker’s Bonus Month!

So when my kindly insurance broker called me to remind me it was that dreaded time of the year again – Insurance Renewal Time. I felt the sense of dread for the forthcoming cold season even more clammily around my neck…of course, it could have something to do with my annual premiums being the equivalent of a new car – or maybe I just need to get my boiler checked…

Anyhow as my broker is cheerfully telling me how this year I just have an 8% increase on my premiums (which I suspected I was meant to be grateful for) he then informs me of his new Christmas Selling Scam to fill his Santa Stockings. It’s Landlord Home Emergency Cover. I am aghast – am I not spending enough money with his company – and now he wants MORE!!! So I scoff and scorn about home emergency policies and bleet on about the cost and other such stuff. And then he stops me in my tracks when he tells me the price. It is a measly £59 including central heating cover per property. For the year. Yes, £59 for the year.

At such a tiny price there has got to be a catch. I mean this is £4.91 per month. So I ask him to send me over the policy details so I can check the small print. I then get onto the websites of Homeserve, AA, Swinton, LandlordCall, LandlordPlus and a million other sites which claim they offer Landlord Home Emergency Cover – there are a lot! And the price range varies – admittedly none of them as cheap as what’s he’s offered – but if I chose to I could spend 5 times more and go with Homeserve…for a pretty similar package.

So what do I get for £59? Well I get:

Plumbing and drainage: Sudden failure of, or damage to the plumbing and drainage system. This includes leaking pipes, blocked drains, water tanks and blockages in toilet waste pipes.

Gas & Electrical Supply: Sudden and complete failure or breakdown of the gas or electricity supply within your property

Pests: Professional extermination and control of pests in your home including cellars and outbuildings

Roofing: Damage to the roof of your home caused by storm or fallen trees or branches

Security & Glazing: Damage caused to external locks, doors and windows

Primary Heating: Complete failure or breakdown of either the heating and/or hot water supply provided by your primary heating system

3 Way Claim Helpline: A specific appointment time is agreed between the tenant and the tradesperson while on the phone to the claim helpline

Admittedly I can pull holes in the “emergency cover” and I can see limitations and exclusions where they will probably try and wriggle out of it.  But, you know I have had to shell out a lot for broken windows, burst pipes, broken boilers, smashed roof tiles from falling branches and a huge number of blocked toilet waste pipes over the last year!

And so I ummed and arrhed and asked lots of other landlords for their experiences. And I have to be honest I was undecided.  It sounded too cheap…and you know the saying “If it’s too good to be true…”

My broker usefully told me “It’s the sort of insurance that you don’t know you need it, until you need it”

Which, of course, I found extremely helpful (note sarcasm). And so I decided that for such a small amount of money I don’t expect much back. In fact, my expectations are so low that if anybody even answered the phone when an emergency happened I would think it was a minor miracle let alone anyone attending and even fixing the problem.

And so I have decided, it’s so cheap that I have to trial it. How can I not try it? At less than £5 per month it’s got to be worth a punt.  And so I am treating my experiment with Landlord Home Emergency Cover like a little test case – as if I worked at Which Consumer Research magazine or something.

Has it provided me with peace of mind for the 25% of my properties I’ve insured?  Well, at the very least, I have an emergency telephone number to give the tenant’s which is not mine…

This morning the bailiffs attended to serve the eviction order and take possession of my flat.  It was the one which the police raided earlier in the year which I wrote about here

I had been told by my solicitor that 9 times out of 10 the tenants have already left as they know once it gets to the bailiffs then there is no way they can stay.  Well this was never going to happen with my tenant. He likes to play games. And he knows the system.

He left his 8 month pregnant girlfriend at the flat (who’s not on the tenancy) and his dad – and told them to tell us that he was in hospital.  The girlfriend and tenant’s dad asked if they could have some more time as they had not been able to organise a van. They claimed that if they had 2 more days they would be able to organise it and to remove their belongings. Bear in mind – they have known the bailiffs would be coming for over a week. Prior to that they knew last month a court order had found in my favour for the possession.

The bailiff asked me if I would give them the additional time. I replied that they had known for weeks now they should have left and the goods should have been moved before today. I also realised that the bailiffs were overstretched and due to be evicting elsewhere so they didn’t want to hang around while the tenants’ moved their goods.  But, I stood firm – the bailiffs were there to secure possession of my property. By law the courts had found in my favour. I informed them the tenant had, had adequate time to organise a van and I believed that a time extension would make little difference to them but to me, as the owner of the property it would mean yet more loss of rent, and a delay in trying to put the flat back into habitable order.

I informed the bailiffs the tenants had to leave now as prescribed in the eviction order from the court.

This is the first time I have ever had to use a court order and bailiffs to evict a tenant. And let me tell you it doesn’t feel good. I am a human being too and it is not nice to have to be a “not nice person” and make “not nice decisions”.

What left a bad taste in my mouth was when it felt like the bailiff was also on the tenant’s side. Maybe they weren’t – but it felt yet again that I as the landlord was the baddie. To be honest, it’s really pd me off.

The tenant wrecked the flat, was a criminal (awaiting conviction), didn’t pay his rent and then used his heavily pregnant girlfriend as a pawn…and yet I have been left to feel like I did something wrong.

The tenant and the girlfriend have a new place to live. Meanwhile I am left with the legal, court and bailiff bills, the refurbishment costs of the flat and months of rental arrears to write off – oh and the guilty conscience.

Today I planned to get some paperwork sorted…or so I thought…this is the typical unknown quantities which you enter into when you decide to become a landlord:

9:30am: I get a call from my solicitor to tell me that given the tenant has not left the property we are evicting him from we now need to apply to get the bailiffs in. I agree and say I will wait for the paperwork and date for the bailiffs.

10am: I get a call from a tenant who has just moved into a flat to tell me that the glass in the entry door has been broken. It’s an old stained glass door. I’m not best pleased and I suspect the culprit is the guy I’m evicting from the other flat (see 9.30am call).

10.15am: The contractor cannot repair or mend the glass, it will cost over £150 per piece to replace – we’re talking thousands of pounds in total. We decide that he is to perspex over and make it safe.

11am: Contractor calls me to tell me the cellar door has been bashed in and is now hanging off it’s hinges. Again, I suspect it’s the tenant I am trying to evict, but with no proof I cannot do anything except repair it.

11.30am: Another tenant calls me very unhappy that the electrician who went to fix the immersion heater did not turn up to check why still not working  after repair job done the previous night. Spend the next hour trying to get hold of electrician. His phone is playing up and we have to do everything by text. The result – he tells me I need a plumber.

12:30: I call my friendly plumber to get him to attend and fix the immersion heater. Every time I call it just hangs up. I can’t work out if it’s my iphone or a fault on the line. I try several more times and then assume maybe he’s away.

12.35pm: I call round people I know locally (flat is 150 miles away) to get a recommendation for a plumber. None are forthcoming so I call a local letting agency who give me a telephone number.

12.45pm: New plumber is called, he can’t attend after 7pm tonight when the tenant will be home, but he can go tomorrow morning.

12.55pm: Tenant unhappy he can’t do the weekend and he wants it done tonight.

1.00pm: I use up credit with friends of mine who I know locally and ask them if they can allow the plumber into the tenants flat and babysit while work done if the tenant agrees

1.05pm: Tenant agrees. Plumber called back and it is organised for him to attend. Tenant then calls me to tell me he will also be there and will go in his lunch hour.

1.15pm: Plumber calls to say it is the element which has gone in the immersion tank and will cost £150 to replace. I agree the price and give go ahead.

1.45pm: Plumber calls again to say that they cannot get the immersion heater out and if they bang it any more it may explode. Immersion tank is too corroded for them to work on. I need a new one which will cost £350 +VAT and they can’t do it till next week. I’m a bit gutted but I console myself, that the tenant has an electric shower and so think to myself it will be a pain but he will have to wash his hands in cold water for a bit longer.

1.55pm: Tenant calls me. He is at the flat and he is furious. There is no water in the bathroom so he cannot use the taps, toilet or bath plus he still has no hot water.

2pm: Plumber tells me there is probably an airlock and that he will get somebody back there to sort.

2.05pm: Call another friendly plumber I know (in a different area) to do a price check to see if price quoted sounds OK for the new immersion tank. He agrees it’s a fair price.

2.10pm: Call tenant and inform him the plumber is on his way back to the flat to sort airlock, apologise profusely and assure him I will get it sorted. Tell him that we will get a new immersion tank but that it cannot be fitted in until Wednesday. He graciously accepts I am trying and concedes that will be OK.

2.20pm: Confirm with friend’s that they will be able to let plumber in next Wed and confirm with plumber the go ahead for the new immersion tank.  Tell friend’s that the plumber will be back with them soon as there is an airlock which needs to be sorted. They agree to hang on.

3pm: Call from the friend. The neighbour in the flat below has come up effing and jeffing and screaming like a banshee. Water from the immersion tank in my flat has now flooded into her flat below. She has called the management company and gone mad. There are now 3 plumbers at the flat with hoses trying to get water out of the system. She is going away tomorrow for a big work conference and is screaming and crying and going crazy.  I say “Nice try Steve but you are not going to wind me up today”. Steve is always pulling my leg as he knows how gullible I am. Unfortunately, he was not joking. It is real. Shit!

Steve has offered to make the neighbour a cup of tea in a bid to calm her down, but she only drinks Earl Grey which they don’t have. Steve has now gone to the shops to buy Earl Grey while the wife of Steve sits with the neighbour to try and calm her down.  Steve has called me while en route to the shops for the Earl Grey and warned me the neighbour is going crazy and demanding compensation. Shit!

3.20pm: Call from an estate agent to see if I wanted to view a good repossessed property they have just taken onto their books. I have to tell them now is not a good time and I will call them later

3:22pm: Call big boss plumber to ensure he is aware of situation and that it’s under control. He tells me he has three lads there now and he is en route and should be there within 5 minutes.

3.30pm: Steve is back with neighbour, plumbers have been mopping up water and sorting out damage. Steve tells me it’s not too bad and she’s over-reacting. Apparently she is going crazy how it has ruined her concentration for this big conference tomorrow that she has been preparing for, for the past 18 months.

3.40pm: Big boss plumber calls me, he is in attendance. All in hand. He reports damage to neighbouring flat not that bad and he doesn’t understand why neighbour went so mental.  He then informs me they don’t have time to do the job now and that I will have to probably find another plumber to finish the job. Now I am starting to feel on edge.

3.45pm: Steve confirms there is still no water to the bathroom and so toilet cannot be flushed.

3.50pm: Call big boss plumber who tells me they could not get into the flat below and so that is why they could not fix the air lock.  I tell him the neighbours water system is nothing to do with ours and the header tank is in the attic. The air lock would be in our own water system.

*******ALARM BELLS ARE RINGING NOW!!!!!!!!!!*******

3.55pm: Call the letting agency who recommended the plumber to see if they know anybody else I can call. They don’t. I update them on my sorry situation and understandably they are nervous to recommend anyone else. I assure them that I don’t blame them and I understand they were trying to help and I just wondered if they knew anyone else.

4pm: I start calling all tradespeople I know in the area to see if they can recommend a plumber.

4:05-4:30pm: Every plumber called nobody got time to fix airlock until next week.  Now starting to feel very worried…tenant will be home within couple of hours and I need to get this sorted.

4:30pm: In desperation I try my usual plumber again. Amazingly he picks up the phone. I am a babbling mess and completely incoherent. He is aghast. He cannot believe the plumbers have done all this and left me with an airlock and are now saying they are too busy to fix it. It also turns out that the plumbing firm who I had been recommended, and who attended the job, are arch rivals of his company’s and have nicked some of his work. He also knew the letting agency who would have recommended them without me even saying anything. Shit – Now I am in turf wars.  Plumber tells me they are completely chock a block he has no idea why his phone was not working earlier. Tells me he needs to get on with his work and that he will call me at 5.30pm to tell me if he can do it.

4.35pm: Think I may explode so decide to write this blog entry as a way to calm myself. I just now have to wait.  I am rather stuck. I can’t call anyone in case my usual plumber can come and fix it. I am also rather pissed off. I tried to do a good thing and fix this problem to keep the tenant sweet, have ended up using a rogue tradesman, have now flooded the flat below and have no water in the flat – oh and obviously I still have no hot water and need a new immersion tank!

5.10pm: Random mobile number calls me, it is Tom. Tom is a plumber and he sounds lovely, very softly spoken and humble. He has been told by the cowboys to call me to try and sort the situation as they don’t want to go back having fallen out with the neighbour. I am rather cautious who Tom really is and gently coax out of him the relationship with the other plumber. Turns out he doesn’t work with them, or know the big boss, it just happens that one of the guys who works for the other company knows him from school, felt guilty about the mess the company had left me in and so called him to call me to see if he could fix it. Sounds kosha enough, but I’m still cautious. I thank him and say I will call him back.

5.20pm Original trusted plumber who I have used for years calls me to tell me he is en route and will be there in 5 minutes and to make sure my friends are there to let him in.

5.22pm: Call friends to check they are still at flat.

5.25pm: Tom texts me to tell me he can be there in 20 mins. I am just replying to his text to say’ Thanks, but no thanks’ when he calls. I explain that actually we now have a plumber in attendance but thank him for the call and his willingness to assist. He confides that he cannot believe the other company has done this and that he feels he should ensure people don’t think he is anything to do with him as they will drag his name down. While I feel Tom is kosha, I am very non-committal. The world is a small place and you need to be careful what you say.

Now waiting for original, trusted plumber to call me. Tenant will be at work still and completely unaware as to the fun  I have had this afternoon. I have phoned my friend’s again and apologised profusely for ruining their day. They laugh and smile and tell me “Don’t worry Sam, we feel like we are in a soap opera – it’s like having your life for the day!”. I laugh back. How lucky I am to have such good friends!

********UPDATE********

Original plumber attended. I was right to be concerned by the first plumber stating about the airlock…turns out there was no airlock – they had isolated the water because they had split the cylinder which was in there – which was why they had flooded the downstairs flat! So basically, he completely lied to me!! Anyway, finally managed to get the water back to the flat later Friday night. I am still waiting to hear how much compensation the neighbour wants for the damage…oh and I still have to buy a new immersion heater for the flat.

Anyone who reads the news knows the situation in Greece is dire. As my other half of the family is in Greece I can tell you first hand, it’s a horrible situation which will take years to unravel and set right.  Unemployment is rife, wages, pensions and any form of government subsidies are being cut left, right and centre and every day brings a new tax.

Recently, in a desperate bid to get more money into the government coffers, the Greek government has levied a new “property tax” for all property owners. Based upon the size of your property (per square metre) and the location, property owners now have to pay a new tax for just owning a property. The new property tax is to be paid annually and is supposedly just in force for 4 years – it’s meant to be an “emergency tax”. But, nobody believes the government. The Greek’s believe that once this new property tax is charged, it will be here to stay. And who can argue – if a government can find a new way to get more money in from it’s property owning tax payers then why would they close this lucrative income stream.

The Greek government have introduced this new property tax overnight. Up and down the country property owners are wringing their hands in despair – and fear.

And what has this got to do with us here in the UK? Well, right now nothing. But, given the copycat behaviour we see across our Eurozone who’s to say that suddenly we won’t see a new property tax introduced here in the UK? Once the government cottons on to how much can be raised in a single swoop the temptation may be too much to bear.

Owning property is a great asset and can be a great income stream – but it can also be a liability.  Make sure you’re assets outweigh your liabilities!