5 Little-known disadvantages of renting your home

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Image from Scaramanga

Today, an increasing number of families rent their homes from private landlords or agencies, by choice, or because they are still saving up a deposit for a mortgage. I rented for my whole adult life until a year ago and it worked for me for all those years.

But whatever your reason for considering renting is, you will need to be aware of some of the most important disadvantages before you sign the dotted line of that rental agreement…

Limited decorating options

Apart from furnishings and curtains, you won’t be able to do any decorating without the landlord’s permission. Some private landlords are more flexible than others, but you need to make sure that an inventory is created and the rules laid out before the tenancy agreement is signed.

You must always ask for permission before hanging artworks or doing any decorating – even if the house needs it! There are some decor items that you can get for your home, however, such as ready made curtains, but you’ll need to take them with you when you move out and there is no guarantee that your next home will have the same size windows.

Regular property checks

Your agent or landlord will check the condition of the home regularly, which means they can pay a visit every few months, especially during the first part of your tenancy. Plus, if you’ve agreed that you can decorate your rental property, your landlord will want to inspect the results.

Look through your tenancy agreement to see how regularly they are planning to do the checkups and how much notice they are going to give you. After all, you are paying rent to have the privacy of your own home and need to arrange a time that suits you both (and gives you a chance to whizz around with the vacuum!)

Not being able to save for a deposit

When you rent, you are not only responsible for the monthly bills of council tax, water, electricity, telecommunications and gas, but have to find the monthly rental payments for the agency or landlord. Those all add up! Unless you are on two very good salaries, you will have little money left to save for getting on the property ladder.

Just try to put aside as much as you possibly can each month, and save it in an account you can’t get to easily, such as an ISA with a different bank to your regular current account. I used the Help To Buy ISA when I was saving and the extra money I got from the account more than covered all my legal fees when buying my home.

Waiting for the landlord to plan repairs

You might find that you can only do so much when it comes to necessary repairs, as most maintenance tasks would need to be completed by your landlord. Sure, it’s great not to have the expense when a boiler breaks down, but this also means that you’ll have to wait for the landlord or agency to get it sorted. This might take longer than you like to send a professional to look at your boiler.

The roof tiles slipped in a home that I was renting, so we effectively had a hole in the roof. This still wasn’t fixed by the time we moved out, and had let a lot of damp in – which was one of the main reasons we left – and it had been like that for a couple of years.

While landlords can create a lease agreement for free that outlines anything the tenant will be responsible for, when there’s a larger task to be done, you’ll still have to wait for them to carry out the repair. This may also mean working around the times and dates that tradespeople can come, so you’ll need to be flexible.

You need to keep quiet

When you rent your home, you will need to get on with the neighbours and part of that is keeping noise to a minimum. You can’t complain about their noise, but – if they are homeowners – they may feel obliged to let your landlord know if you do something wrong. This can lead to the termination of your tenancy, as most landlords don’t like conflict in their homes. So try to keep it down!

Renting a home is the only affordable way of having a decent family home for many people. Before you enter a tenancy agreement, however, you should check that you are happy with the terms, and you have a reasonable agent or landlord. Let me know your tips and advice for dealing with landlords and agencies by leaving me a comment below.

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