I met Jennifer after almost 6 months and from what I discovered, I had to write something about it. This is a log of events that have made life terrible for Jennifer.

I know Jennifer for almost two years now. She was our very sweet and special landlady when we were residing at Hobgate in York. Life keeps changing and we had to move to India. This was during the peak recession period in the UK (end of Dec’08).

Jennifer obviously didn’t want her house to remain vacant for longer. For all her previous tenants she used to manage the property herself. She got fixed all repairs or maintenance work. Increasingly it was getting more and more painful for her to find the right people and get things fixed. So naturally, this time, she chose to subcontract the management part to a letting agent. For only a minor charge per month (50 GBP / month) she would be relieved of all the hassle – is what she thought. 🙂

The agents initially promised her all sorts of non-existing services just to make her commit to them. The deal was signed and a new tenant occupied her house. Jennifer was bound to the contract wherein she was stuck with whatever tenants the agents brought in until the tenant left themselves. Despite being the owner of the house Jennifer couldn’t evict her tenants.

Now comes the real effects of recession. The first month past, she didn’t receive the rent in her bank account. On calling the agents they said there was some error and would set it right ASAP. Eventually she received the money after a month. She thought this was a one off and let it go. However, the same thing happened with the second, third and fourth month rent as well. She keeps calling their office… they keep giving her lame excuses, transfering call from one person to the other… adopting the usual phone harassment techniques.

This time I met her, she was in very bad shape, utterly disturbed and complained of unnecessary stress due to the agent.  She has a heart condition and getting old each day. Is this how one treats a simple and honest house owner. Hey guys… is recession that bad that you have actually forgotten human values? How about some innovative thinking? perhaps a new business idea? Stop stealing… whats not yours is really NOT yours.