I gave yet another letting agent the Spanish archer today. When I first
started out (nearly 2 years ago) I mailed all the local letting agents & got
a fair amount of work.

Soon found out it was a PITA. Collect keys, return keys, everything had to
be done yesterday, kept waiting for payment, every invoice queried - one
even asked me to help them defraud a landlord.

I now only work for 2 of them who are pretty good.

The one I 86'd today is a rather suspicious story.

Did a job for them on 10 November - toilet cistern wouldn't flush.

Changed the siphon & found the bottom entry ball valve had been cross
threaded, so I changed that as well. Checked for leaks, put away tools,
checked again - all OK.

Get a message on 3 December (I'm in France on a booze cruise, phone switched
off) saying that it was overflowing & had damaged the ceiling below.
Couldn't return the call till the 4th & was told they had to get someone
else in to sort it, cost £35 and I would have to pay it!

Odd thing is, I'd left my fleece at the job & returned to pick it up 2 or 3
days later - tenant didn't mention any leak or overflow.

I insisted on seeing a job sheet from whoever went in. It claimed the ball
valve was incorrectly set causing an overflow.

Since the siphon I fitted had a built in overflow & the cistern had a
separate one I find this distinctly iffy.

Some work you just don't need.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
.. .

The one I 86'd today is a rather suspicious story.

Totally agree with your thinking but I am intrigued with 86'd ??? What does
this mean or am I being thick?

John

On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:41:24 UTC, "John"
wrote:


"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
.. .

The one I 86'd today is a rather suspicious story.

Totally agree with your thinking but I am intrigued with 86'd ??? What does
this mean or am I being thick?

Dump, chuck, whatever. Apparently used in casinos.

"Spanish Archer" was the one I didn't get at first, although the meaning
was clear from context. Of course, it's "El Bow".

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

John wrote:
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in
message .. .

The one I 86'd today is a rather suspicious story.

Totally agree with your thinking but I am intrigued with 86'd ??? What
does this mean or am I being thick?

Sorry John, its a term I picked up from the restaurant trade. 86'd is a
term that means the item is deleted.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

Bob Eager wrote:
On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:41:24 UTC, "John"
wrote:


"The Medway Handyman" wrote in
message .. .

The one I 86'd today is a rather suspicious story.

Totally agree with your thinking but I am intrigued with 86'd ???
What does this mean or am I being thick?

Dump, chuck, whatever. Apparently used in casinos.

"Spanish Archer" was the one I didn't get at first, although the
meaning was clear from context. Of course, it's "El Bow".

Sorry Bob, east Londoner!


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:57:44 UTC, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

Bob Eager wrote:
On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:41:24 UTC, "John"
wrote:


"The Medway Handyman" wrote in
message .. .

The one I 86'd today is a rather suspicious story.

Totally agree with your thinking but I am intrigued with 86'd ???
What does this mean or am I being thick?

Dump, chuck, whatever. Apparently used in casinos.

"Spanish Archer" was the one I didn't get at first, although the
meaning was clear from context. Of course, it's "El Bow".

Sorry Bob, east Londoner!

"deep six" is what I might have said...

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

The Medway Handyman wrote:
I gave yet another letting agent the Spanish archer today. When I first
started out (nearly 2 years ago) I mailed all the local letting agents & got
a fair amount of work.

Soon found out it was a PITA. Collect keys, return keys, everything had to
be done yesterday, kept waiting for payment, every invoice queried - one
even asked me to help them defraud a landlord.

That's been our experience (as landlords) over the years. If you
*possibly* can then let direct to the tenant and develop a good
relationship with the tenant. Our best lets over the years have been
direct to people who in many cases are still good friends. Our worst
lets have been through agents.

It appears that the experience is identical from the other side,
tenants hate agents too!

--
Chris Green

On 13 Dec 2007 09:26:10 GMT wrote :
That's been our experience (as landlords) over the years. If you
*possibly* can then let direct to the tenant and develop a good
relationship with the tenant. Our best lets over the years have
been direct to people who in many cases are still good friends.
Our worst lets have been through agents.

Old saying: make friends of your tenants, not tenants of your
friends. Our family business had lots of nice people over the years
as tenants. The few lettings that went badly wrong were generally
ones where there was a personal element at the outset. If you start
off with an arms length business relationship only then it can stay
that way if you or the tenant is happier that way.


--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk

Tony Bryer wrote:
On 13 Dec 2007 09:26:10 GMT wrote :
That's been our experience (as landlords) over the years. If you
*possibly* can then let direct to the tenant and develop a good
relationship with the tenant. Our best lets over the years have
been direct to people who in many cases are still good friends.
Our worst lets have been through agents.

Old saying: make friends of your tenants, not tenants of your
friends. Our family business had lots of nice people over the years
as tenants. The few lettings that went badly wrong were generally
ones where there was a personal element at the outset. If you start
off with an arms length business relationship only then it can stay
that way if you or the tenant is happier that way.

I'd go with that, one of our more 'difficult' tenants was actually a
family member. We didn't fall out over it but it wasn't a happy
tenancy either. As you say tenants may just want to be tenants and if
they're not connected in some other way that can work fine, other
tenants become good friends and that's lovely.

--
Chris Green

On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 09:26:10 +0000, tinnews wrote:

The Medway Handyman wrote:
I gave yet another letting agent the Spanish archer today. When I
first started out (nearly 2 years ago) I mailed all the local letting
agents & got a fair amount of work.

Soon found out it was a PITA. Collect keys, return keys, everything
had to be done yesterday, kept waiting for payment, every invoice
queried - one even asked me to help them defraud a landlord.

That's been our experience (as landlords) over the years. If you
*possibly* can then let direct to the tenant and develop a good
relationship with the tenant. Our best lets over the years have been
direct to people who in many cases are still good friends. Our worst
lets have been through agents.

It appears that the experience is identical from the other side, tenants
hate agents too!

If like me the agent does the maintenance then generally things go quite
well. If I had to find someone to do the maintenance then everything
would double in cost and/or the quality of the work would suffer and the
tenants and landlord would all suffer too.

Usually the managing agents are Estate Agents with all that that implies
regarding the likely competence and understanding of maintenance.


--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html

I do a fair amount of work for landlords. Some use letting agents, some
operate directly, but in almost all cases I get them to give me a set of
keys and tell the tenants that I'll be coming in to do some work. In some
cases I know the tenants quite well and they have my card and can call me
about any problems, though I ask them to tell the landlord or agent as
well to OK the work with them.

Most agents are OK, though none is the sharpest knife in the drawer. Some
are di Romans here in Reading once gave me all 3 sets of keys to a flat
(which were all on the same ring). I asked them who'd have paid if I'd
lost them and they said they would have done. Yeah. For months after I was
emails notifying me of their office meeting because someone had put my
address on an internal distribution list.


--
John Stumbles

Procrastinate now!