Landlord/ladies, rental agents and tenants

I'm not generalising, I'm speaking from experience and I'm fed up of being led a merry dance by all three.

We are landlords, we are tenants and our middle child is now embarking on the world of work as a rental agent.

Our previous agents in the UK were on the side of the tenants, as in they was frightened of them and blatantly lied to us. Our current UK agent is fantastic.

Our previous tenants in the UK were 'tenants fro hell' our current UK tenants are fantastic.

Our rental agent in South Africa was fantastic for the first property, but on leaving the 2nd property she sided with the landlord.

Our first landlord in South Africa was also fantastic, our second landlord just didn't care about the property but cared enough to deduct cleaning charges for a room that according to the rental agent 'stank of dog' although the rental agent didn't mention that or even wrinkle her nose up during the exit inspection or even challenge the team of cleaners she had recommend to clean the house for the exit inspection who were still on site. The landlord also charged us for garden maintenance and we see he's had the front re landscaped which would explain the high costs. When we complained he also added that he carried out unnecessary repairs to the pool after we moved in and that we owed him R2,800, he failed to acknowledge the amount of money we spent topping up his leaking pool, which never leaked after he paid to have it repaired.

The current house we are in needs a lot of work doing to it, but we knew that when we rented it, we wanted a property near the beach and with character and room for the dog, plus visitors. The agent has disappeared, in fact he disappeared as soon as he got his money and once the relocation firm disappeared we were able to deal directly with the landlady and the house is being sorted slowly.

But I really resent the amount of time I have to spend supervising workmen, we don't speak each others languages, these men turn up unannounced, I'm a women on my own, it's not fair. I have to keep the dog locked away from them, I have to tidy and clean up after them and it costs us money in the form of electricity (currently fixing the air con) water (to fill the pool) my time (someone has to be at home to let them in)

Every time we've rented out our property and every time we've rented a property, I've taken detailed photos of before and after, sent the landlord a list of snags for fixing, or been sent one and in our case as landlords rectified each and every matter asap. As tenants though it appears we always get the rough end of the stick. Although after a long battle we did finally get some money back from our 'tenants from hell'

The house we have rented should've been ready when we moved in, cleaned and the air con working, not 6 weeks down the line.

Now excuse me while I remove a layer of clothing as I need to cover up while the men were in the house and clean up after them.

Luggage allowance and airfreight for expats relocating

We are relocating from South Africa to Dubai in the next 2 months. When we came to South Africa, the company provided NO support for our move, other than hubbies work contract and visas.

This move involves a relocation firm and package which includes flights and air freight as well as shipping our household furniture.

When we moved to SA, I took the last dated document for all our paperwork in my hand luggage, we took clothes, toiletries, some basic food items so we could have a 'touch of home' for the kids, their sports gear. In the kids hand luggage they brought their laptops, chargers and xbox plus games. We had 9 suitcases between the 4 of us and some major hassle at Manchester Airport with Air France over the cost which you can read about here.

Luggage wise, we will be flying with Emirates and they have a generous 30kg allowance, however if we go over that, it is rather expensive as they charge per kilo. I'm hoping by the time we leave, hubby will have reinstated his Gold membership and we can take 2 cases each, plus hand luggage, but without his passport, which was stolen 2 months ago, his next flight is likely to be when we move to Dubai.

It will be the middle of summer when we leave SA and the middle of winter when we arrive in Dubai, but that doesn't matter, we won't be needing to pack winter clothes, maybe a cardi and a jumper but that's it.

Hand luggage will be full of electronic items as it's too risky to pack them in the cases, what with the thefts that occur at OR Tambo airport. As an expat, with the need to travel frequently, hand luggage is packed very differently than when you're a tourist and the allowance of 7kgs with most airlines really isn't sufficient, but the secret is to make it look like it is light weight and not heavy.

So I'm not sure what we should put in our air cargo that will arrive around a week later. We're not moving with the kids this time, so only our stuff needs to be packed.

I'll find out by Friday after the removal companies come round to quote, the size and weight allowance of the air cargo. I assume I should pack some extra clothes and shoes, paperwork, but what else?

The container takes 42 days to arrive, our temporary housing allowance is only for 30 days, so that leave 12 days, do we arrange to move into an empty house and hope the container arrives early? We did that on the move here and ended up having to buy basic kitchen equipment, beds, towels and bedding, plus 3 beds. The house had patio furniture we used to sit on and came with curtains in the bedrooms. Obviously we can't pack beds in the air cargo, so it looks like bedding, towels and basic kitchen equipment is a must, but do you have any other suggestions as to what we may need to take?