Renting

Wednesday

Martin Vander Weyer

I’ll dare to say what Andy Haldane doesn’t 

A sandwich with Andy Haldane, the former Bank of England economist, now president of British Chambers of Commerce, is the intellectual equivalent of a lunchtime workout with an ultra-fit personal trainer – or so I imagine, having never submitted to the latter experience. When his BCC role was announced in February, Haldane spoke of ‘a fighting chance’ that UK growth would beat expectations for the coming year. But that was before the closure of the Strait and the resurgence of global demons. The purpose of the sandwich was to find out if he had tempered his upbeat tone. The Iran conflict is ‘the last thing anyone needed, least of all the UK’, he began.

Thursday

Madeline Grant

Landlords need protecting too

Do you know how much faeces 30 dogs can produce over a couple of years? I have some idea because I recently helped my mother regain access to the small cottage adjoining her house, after she had rented it out to a nightmare tenant who caused incalculable damage. It took nine months to evict the tenant after she stopped paying rent, having already been in considerable arrears. Reclaiming the property proved onerous and expensive, involving legal instruction and eventually High Court enforcement. Upon finally entering with enforcement officers, some of us retched. We found half an inch of dog mess all over the floor and smeared across walls; empty bottles; an infestation of fleas, rats and every kind of rubbish. The stench was indescribable.

Friday

Mary Dejevsky

The problem with scrapping leasehold

Like most non-renting flat-dwellers, I call myself a home-owner or owner-occupier, but that isn’t quite true. I don’t own my flat; I am a leaseholder. What I bought was the right to occupy it for however many years are left on the lease – and as the lease runs down, the flat is worth less and less. Conversely, this is why, if you were so minded, you could find a prime London flat for a (relative) pittance if the lease has only a few years to run, and why long leases generally come with a premium.