The last 2 months have been quite exceptional in the rental market, agents across the capital have been inundated with calls and enquiries for their rental properties as students both young and old begin to plan their return to the many metropolitan campuses our wonderful city has to offer.

Of course, for a sizable amount of students, renting in an alien city is their first experience of having to fend for themselves domestically. No longer can they rely upon mum and dad to solve their every worry or woe. It is, at last, the first time children get a snapshot of what being an adult is all about, and some take to it rather better than others.

Being a landlord is not the cakewalk lined with gold that our infantile media like to portray it as. Indeed regardless of who you end up renting to, tenants come in all shapes and sizes, with varying abilities to solve problems either of their own makings of which often occur in the course of... well, life I guess.

As one can imagine those with less experience of life have to learn at some stage that there are consequences for their actions or in some cases lack of. Without a responsible adult to “nag” them, many discover to their great disappointment that there is no magic dishwasher fairy, who appears overnight cleaning away the detritus of the previous day, stacking it neatly back in the cupboard ready for their next meal. Some discover that locking themselves out, often requires a slightly more uncomfortable, embarrassing and in some cases costly solution than waiting for mum to get home. And some discover that being slovenly leads rather quickly to extra housemates in the form of mice or indeed their fatter uglier cousins, rats.

Landlords and agents increasingly take on the role of parent, educating their young wards in the way of the world. From dealing with neighbour complaints about noise and disturbance to arranging locksmiths for the locked out, plumbers for blocked toilets (a whole article in itself) and pest control for the squeamish!

This particular old fox is, rather unfortunately for my tenants, starting to get a little short of temper with some of my younger residents. There are after all, only so many times that you can explain, to otherwise intelligent and cultured adults that if you leave food out, you will get rodents. Having contacted pest control on a couple of occasions or one particular individual, I am at the stage where if they continue to invite these critters in for dinner on a regular basis and then complain about it, I may have to hold them in breach of the no-pet clause. The truth rather sadly is that many parents in our society have become used to outsourcing their parental responsibilities to 3rd party contractors. From teachers having to toilet train 4yr olds and educate them about the birds and the bees (probably a little early in some cases), to managing agents having to explain that some things really shouldn’t be flushed down the toilet. It’s surprising that so many of our youth survive into adulthood.

It also perhaps throws into sharp relief what value a good managing agent is, not only do you get your flat managed by a responsible adult, but your children might also get a good nanny.