|
February 2005
|
 Liz Hodgkinson
on Help for stressed-out landlords
Like many new and amateur landlords, Deborah Morley thought it
would be easy enough to buy a property, do it up and rent it out. In
the event, she was completely unprepared for the stress that
overwhelmed her when things started to go wrong.
So now, as a qualified counsellor, Deborah is offering
counselling and therapy to stressed-out landlords. Deborah, who
has worked in mental health for 15 years, says: “When I started out,
I simply had no idea of how difficult and lonely the landlord life
could be.
“I don’t have a pension in my job,
and I wanted an alternative investment, like many people these
days. Because I had accumulated a lot of equity in my ground floor
flat over seven years of ownership, I decided to buy the upstairs
property as well, when it went on the market. The idea was that I
would live in one flat and rent out the other.” |
|
Deborah quickly found tenants – and
then the stress started. “I did some simple sums, working out
the mortgage and what rent I could get. My figures allowed me an
operating profit. But I’d left out one factor: I had two tenants who
didn’t pay.
“I was surprised at the intensity and
suddenness of the anxiety when faced with a negative cash flow.
I also discovered in myself a reluctance to press the tenants for
the rent, as I started to empathise with their plight.. But I
couldn’t sleep at night for worrying.”
In time Deborah finally evicted the
non-payers, but then there was more trouble on the way. “The
roof came off the upstairs flat during a
freak storm. My tenants rang down to say they could see the sky
through the attic, and rain was coming in. Of course, it was a Friday
night, so how was I going to get hold of roofers all of a sudden?” She
managed to find some contractors who knocked up a temporary covering.
But then they had to go, as they had other emergencies to see to.
Deborah found the experience even more traumatic as she had to deal
with it on her own. |
|
Liz Hodgkinson is a prolific author
and journalist contributing to many publications. She
has written over 40 books on a wide variety of topics
and has a background in national newspapers. She now
falls into the 'later-life' age category and in
recent years has started writing for this 'older'
market, and contributes to Saga magazine, among
others.
Liz has two sons and four grandchildren. She is
divorced and now lives in London and on the
South Coast. She has written three books on property
matters and her interests include snooping round
other people's houses and viewing showhomes.
|
|
“I realised I had never even considered maintenance issues, or
how I might pay for unexpected repairs. At the same time, I was
counselling clients about their stress!
So I decided to extend my counselling services to landlords, as I
understand what they go through. Not only are you at the mercy of
environmental forces beyond your control, but your own personality and
attitudes can actually cause or add to your problems.”
How personality and attitude can cause problems
Deborah sums up from her own experience:
|
|
|
-
You may
feel for tenants who say they cannot raise the deposit. You want to
be kind and you want to help them. It’s not a useful attitude from a
business point of view.
-
Remember, this is the only business where, if the customer stops
paying, you have to continue to provide the service. The power of
the tenant can bring up intense anxiety, making you, the landlord,
vulnerable on a deeper level than first seems apparent.
-
As a
landlord, you are providing the most basic and primitive need, that
of a home, and you may be reluctant to throw people out on the
street.
-
You
have to come to terms with the stereotype of a landlord being a
nasty person, and who wants to live up to that reputation?
How does Deborah’s landlord therapy work?
“First of all, we look at the external situation, using crisis
intervention techniques to develop coping strategies. Then we move to
looking at the individual, and the part they may be playing in their
own problems. This moves into a ‘fire drill’ to find better ways of
coping with stress and anxiety generally.
“Finally, we look at the landlord’s relationship with the tenant,
and also with money. Both are potentially emotional areas, and anybody
considering letting property has to realise that it is not just a
matter of money in and money out.
“What sort of twinge would you get, for example, if you learned
the standing order had not been set up?
“In my own case, my stress would have been considerably reduced if I
had been more assertive. I discovered that I was creating problems
for myself. I had to learn the hard way that I was running a business,
and I now realise you have to stick to rules and procedures if you are
going to make it work.
“It takes time to learn the ropes, and it can be difficult for
people to admit that they may need help, as everybody assumes there is
nothing to being a landlord, and anybody can do it.”
Deborah Morley is based in Brighton. To contact her for short or
long-term counselling, email:
devorahsan@hotmail.com
|
|
|
laterlife interest
The above article is part of the features section of
laterlife.com called laterlife interest.
laterlife interest
contains a variety of articles of interest for visitors
to laterlife.com written by a number of experienced and
new journalists.
It includes both one off articles and
also regular columns of a more specialist nature such
as healthwise, reports
from the REACH files, and a beauty section called
looking good in later life.
Also don't forget to take a look at our
regular IT question and answer section called YoucandoIT
by IT trainer and author Jackie Sherman.
To view the latest articles and indexes to
previous articles click on laterlife interest
here or above. To search for articles about a
certain topic, use the site search feature
below.
|
|
|
|
|
|
