How to deal with an unresponsive tenant?

Reply to the comment left by Alison Clark at 19/09/2024 - 14:29
We have just issued the Deed of Surrender tonight. The tenant has serious personality issues it's 10pm for us and she never stops. I used the NRLA format. As she wants to break the AST she has to pay for Re-advertising - I used OpenRent and SpareRoom and both are excellent. Credit Ref checks, Inventory / Check out Report and has to return the property in the condition she took it on ( another argument with this one) you can only use this if you have a water tight Inventory / Check in. And remember the old saying you cant get blood out of a stone. If the person has no assets / income that you can find you can't pursue them. I am still in a drawn out court battle (18 months) over mould, filth, damage - I won the full deposit but am claiming 4k on top of the deposit - I would agree the Courts are anti Landlord/lady, they are so backed up, and they are hiking fees to deter landlords. As someone above said one bad tenant can lose you multiple years of revenue. We have a CCJ on one lady and I'm chasing her - she is ignoring Me. And we have the recent eviction - not point going after that drug addict.

Reply to the comment left by Disgrunteld Landlady at 21/09/2024 - 19:13
Me too disgrunteld lady

Reply to the comment left by Disgrunteld Landlady at 21/09/2024 - 19:25
Good luck with everything!!🤞

Reply to the comment left by Disgrunteld Landlady at 21/09/2024 - 19:13
Hi,
I totally understand why loads of LLs are selling, I do not harshly judge anybody for doing so, I will stay put, not because I think that others are making a mistake by selling, but because, I wouldn't know what else to do and of course, I would have to pay too much capital gains tax and I have learned the hard way from this sector, so I like to think I now know what I am doing (relatively speaking). It has cost me more than a college degree would have done.
I recently had my home valued and spoke to the surveyor who also told me that most of his valuations are from LLs wanting to sell.
What I had described previously in my initial woes as a green LL really is only a small part of what really happened to me, all through stupidity on my part and bad advice. I will list more just in case there are some prospective LLs out there reading this and thinking, as I did that it would be easy money.
The case I described earlier was probably the worst, these people were sent to me from the council with a promise that if I let them in, the council would pay the rent, I trusted the council implicitly and when these tenants were let in on an emergency basis, the council washed their hands of the whole matter, the tenants never paid a single penny in rent or a deposit, after the 2 months period was up I claimed their housing benefit directly from DSS and served a section 8. I had to go to court to evict and was awarded a considerable sum from the judge but was told by the judge with the tenant present that I should not expect to receive a penny of it due to the tenant having done this several times before. I eventually had to pay for bailiffs to evict forceably.
Another case was I rented to a couple of Asian guys who said that they were coming down from London to open a restaurant here in Suffolk, I did more checks on these people than I thought was necessary as I had only just recovered from the above. All their documentation was forged as were their passports and their previous landlord's recommendations (who I had also phoned). These people turned my house into a Cannabis farm, according to the Police, it was the second-largest drugs unit that they had ever busted. This as you can imagine was also not cheap to sort out, they had even diverted the main electricity supply to go around the meter so not to alert the authorities of their huge consumption.
I had another case where I let a 4-bed large property to a couple who viewed with 2 children and had to eventually evict with a section 8 because they were not paying rent, I also found at eviction that these people did not have children of their own, they had borrowed them, they had proceeded to sub-let the property to 15 other people.
Another delinquent tenant had resided in another of my properties where they had (after a couple of years) fallen behind with their rent to the tune of £3K, I proceeded, after many written warnings, to move forward with a section 8 eviction notice, the day before this went to court, I received a phone call from the council offering to pay the arrears if I would supply a new AST, which I did, and the council duly paid the rent arrears (before the court date). These nightmare tenants immediately started to fall behind with their rent payments again and I evicted on a section 8. On the day of the eviction, I went round to the property and found all the internal doors were missing, they had also sold the ornamental fireplace which had cost me £700, I phoned the Police who came to the property and arrested the tenants. I found out afterwards that these tenants had gone around the property with a couple of gallons of milk, lifted all the carpets, poured the milk under them, and replaced the carpets. Lovely people!
All this because I had the temerity to ask for my rent.
I could go on, but these were the worst ones, (oh! I also had Heroin addicts who smashed up a 4-bed property as well, section 21 that time, and accepted the £7K damage as I had realised that I wouldn't get the damage money anyway) I now thankfully have great tenants and have had no real problems for over 15 years.
Maybe, people can understand a little better why I hold nothing but contempt for twa$s like that pimply-faced moron Twomy and others of that ilk, who know nothing about what is going on in the PRS, I can also add names like Reeves, Miliband, Starmer, and Rayner amongst others.
If you are new to the PRS or are thinking of entering it (you probably aren't now LOL) my advice for what it is worth is to get educated, find a mentor who knows what he/she is doing, and heed their advice and you may then just survive.
Good luck folks

Reply to the comment left by GARY RIVETT at 22/09/2024 - 09:29
Compared to you, I think I have got away lightly. Green as a cucumber I let a property to a single mum fully furnished soon learnt my lesson that one - no more fully furnished for me. Let to a professional couple whose kids trashed the house. Let to a lady who did a runner - issue there was I had to go through the 'abandonment' process which was a right pain. Let to a couple with 2 kids who didn't pay for 12 months, luckily guarantor was an honourable chap and paid me pack over a year - cut the couple (his daughter) out of his will and put his money in a trust for the kids. Also had a few people leave owing the last months rent. This was over 20+ years with 18 properties so can't complain really.

Reply to the comment left by GlanACC at 22/09/2024 - 09:40
Gosh I really sympathise with all the above. Shocking and stressful times I’m sure.

This is why I am so grateful for Property118. All subscribers are generous with sharing their advice and suggestions. If I had a really good agent/branch manager and no staff turnover, I think at least I would have confidence in my fully managed service and feel supported with my difficult tenant!

Please can someone advise if I should repair the forced entry door or wait until the tenant leaves. Trying to gain access is stressful and I don't intend pursing this from the deposit as frustrating as it is (tenant was inside asleep) I am liable as it’s structural repair. It is secure and locks it’s just a bottom panel crack in the panel frame.Rapid response turned this around, from the outside you wouldn’t know.

Thank you

Reply to the comment left by GlanACC at 22/09/2024 - 09:40
Hi,
I would want to think that my case was extreme, but unfortunately, I have heard of worse, a local colleague told me that his first tenant turned off the electricity and went around the property with a hammer and bolster and cut all the wiring cables around the sockets and light switches in addition to all that had happened to me, the tenant had also used the rooms as a toilet. This guy had inherited the property from his parents and let it out fully furnished and ended up having to strip everything out of the house, re-wire, re-plumb, and re-plaster the entire property. He told me that the tenant got a suspended sentence for threatening behavior and criminal damage.
After I sorted my cannabis factory out, I told another landlady who told her friend who then decided to visit her 5 properties and found 3 of them to also be cannabis farms, I was able to do the work myself on my properties, however, this lady's experience bankrupted her.
I at least managed to stay in business and eventually turn things around, so I feel lucky in a sense.
Money-for-old-rope isn't it.

Reply to the comment left by Alison Clark at 22/09/2024 - 10:19
Hi Alison,
Sorry for going off on a tangent and not answering your question.
If it were me with this delinquent, I would do the least as is necessary until you can get him out, or he may just do it again, I am sorry, but I would expect him to do a lot more damage before you can get your property back.
I would expect that as soon as you turn up the heat and try to evict him, he will trash your property, this is what has happened to me on several occasions.
I would check to see if you have got insurance to cover this sort of thing, I did not have.
Just because it is illegal and of course criminal damage, does not mean that you will get any money back. After, my worst dereliction as I call them, I was told by the bailiff not to bother with the courts as I would only cause myself more stress, and to just start again after fixing things up, as I was unlikely to get any money from it (he was a court bailiff), which is what I did.

Reply to the comment left by GARY RIVETT at 22/09/2024 - 14:04
We could all join together and write a book. It would then be great to post it through number 10 for a bed time read! lol.

It’s fine Gary it’s good to off load in a safe place with people that understand!

Thank you. I agree with you. I definitely feel like the Police forced entry incident has spooked me a little.
I would be more than happy to leave the door repair. It’s difficult enough trying to gain access every three months for me to inspect the property. I’ve refused 6 monthly visits from the agent stating this is too long, given the issues.

I’m pleased you mentioned insurance. My simply business building/content and landlord protection is due to expire in January and I was looking over the cover. I feel insurance cover is not often in your favour, it’s not clear on the policy and when you make a claim it’s ‘sorry you are not covered for that’ do you or anyone have any experience with insurance and making claims please? Insurance did say I was only covered for rent arrears if the tenant remains in the property (why wouldn’t they be?)

Property118 do you have any previous questions please on the best insurance landlord protection please. I’m not a Ltd business - do I need to ensure liability cover is included?

Thank you.

This sounds tricky. I'd suggest just replacing the door panel to keep the place secure. Waiting could lead to more issues with the tenant.

If you fix it now, you might be able to use the deposit to cover some costs later, but there’s no guarantee. It’s probably not worth reaching out to the police about liability since they’ve said they’re not responsible. Just keep a record of everything in case problems come up later.