What to do with bad rental tenants? Apparently, nothing, just suck up the costs.

As landlords for the past 11 years with 2 properties and tenants ourselves for 10 of those years whilst living abroad, we've had our fair share of fun and drama.

We're still chasing a deposit refund from the last property we rented. The agents came with a pre filled in form to charge us for repainting the front door as it sat in direct sunlight, to change the locks, clean and repaint. All decided before they walked through the door, they also claimed air conditioning units we had NO access to were damaged.

The re decorating costs were removed due to it being a new build and there being settlement cracks, but we have no right of reply to the other issues and apparently they will need to clean the house after they've got it ready for new tenants. they don't seem to see the problem there, that is we returned it clean, it's not our fault they will dirty the house when decorating.

In another property they deducted gardening costs because they didn't rent the house back out until 2 months after our contract ended.

We've had 2 lots of tenants from hell with our family home that we're now back living in and a tenant in our flat in Wales who left a month early, left the hot water and heating on full blast, left junk behind, didn't pay the last months rent or bother cleaning and failed to report water damage as well as damaging the tiles behind the shower.

We've had 3 sets of rental agents. the first ones sold the business and shifted the management of our property. The tenants weren't paying on time from day 1, but the agent paid us and played catch up with the tenants until he could no longer afford it. We ended up going right to wire with a Section 21a, application for bailiffs and application for police to attend. 

During this time they failed to pay rent and they broke the oven and I was forced, by law, to buy a new one. The agents did nothing to support the eviction and when I retained the deposit, the agent took their fee for the time I'd been spending a fortune in the courts to evict. All I could do to recover my money was to make a claim through the small claims court, which would've cost me more money.

The second agents found us a couple of good tenants, but the last lot, moved into a freshly painted house, then after 18 months demanded it was repainted as it was in a state and threatened to withhold rent. I stood my ground and said no, so then they threatened to sue me for a friend tripping in the kitchen. During their tenancy we had the really cold weather and the boiler broke down. I provided them with money to purchase 2 fan heaters and informed them they had an emersion tank to heat the water, while they waited a week for the new boiler. They tried to claim the additional electricity costs from me, until it was pointed out, I wasn't obliged to provide them with anything for the week. Finally they claimed the building was a fire risk due to insufficient fire safety doors on the top floor. i was able to prove to the agents that they were and they had put themselves at risk, as well as my house by removing the automatic fire closures and doors. 

On this occasion the agents failed to take sufficient photographs and didn't date them and were late submitting evidence of damage to the Deposit Protection Scheme and I received less than 50% back of the deposit. The agents also sent in a painter and decorator and signed off his work without checking it. The decorator used emulsion paint on doors, skirting boards and walls, despite being paid to gloss the woodwork, repair holes in the wall and fit doors, that we had to refit. We were also charged a fortune to have the rubbish removed of which we received no reimbursement for and I had to replace fence panels, damaged by Ivy from next door that had been allow to grow over. 

The agents were clearly on the side of the tenants, from speaking to the neighbours after both sets, they said they were foul mouthed and intimidating. Weirdly though despite the neighbours telling me how much of a problem both sets caused with their teenage sons and noise, they failed to let me know via the email address they had for me.

The latest debarcle is a single bloke in our flat in Wales, he left a month early without paying rent. He left behind the things he didn't want, he left the place filthy and failed to report water damage after a leak. I only found out he'd left because the council tax got in touch. He did give meter readings to his energy provider but left the hot water and heaters on full blast. He handed the keys back to the agents who failed to join the dots and on their recommendation I agreed for someone else to move in the following week.

After a visit to the flat on the weekend, the tenant has been relocated to another property and I'm now searching for a plumber and tiler to sort the bathroom out so we can re let it (with new agents) They failed to do an exit inspection for over a week and I'm now chasing up the deposit plus additional costs so I'm not out of pocket. There is a huge difference between wear and tear and wilful neglect and damage.

Over the years I've searched for advice from other landlord, solicitors, from Citizens advice etc. All I've ever found is information on what a tenant can do to protect themselves from bad landlords, including advice on how to get rehoused if they can't pay the rent, to how they can withhold rent if the landlord fails to ensure their home meets minimum adequate requirements. For landlords the information available is about what the landlord is legally required to do.

I asked in a facebook group if anyone had experience as a landlord with bad tenants and how, if at all, they resolved the issues. 

I explained the flat was damp, but the tenant had failed to inform me or the agents, therefore I was unable to make repairs. 

Responses ranged from:

You shouldn't rent out a property that's in bad repair and poorly maintained (it wasn't when the tenant moved in a year ago)

Yep, same here, just had to write the losses off. (Done this too many times)

That's what the rent is for. (Rent received covers insurances, maintenance fees and is taxable as an income, in some instances there are mortgages to be paid)

We had bad landlords, the law is on their side, the tenant always loses out (I could send endless links for what help and support they could get in enforce the landlord fixing these issues)

You could try small claims court (It'll cost money and you might get back £5 a month, but you still have to pay for the work to be done) or just put it down to bad experience.

Make sure you get proper references and entry exit inventories and put the deposit in the tenancy deposit scheme. (Done that, at the cost of at least £500 per let period)

In my opinion the rental agents should do more. They find the tenants, arrange the references, organise entry and exit inventories, carry out inspections and can arrange for repairs to be carried out if informed by the tenant. For this they charge an arrangement fee, charge 10% monthly for collecting rent and bill you directly for all the above.

The rental agents don't check on the quality of the work carried out, they don't challenge the tenant to make any repairs themselves and deem everything as wear and tear and if a tenant does break something they only advise the landlord that they can ask for costs towards a replacement. They just rush from tenant to tenant, they say people are desperate for accommodation and said we could clean the damp, patch the tiles and move the tenant in.

That's not how we work as landlords, sorry if you've had a rough time as a tenant, this isn't the forum to tell me how brilliant you are as a tenant and how bad your landlords have been. But if you've had bad tenants and are looking for somewhere to vent your frustrations, please feel free to visit the comments section.

The real cost of renting, lettings agents and The Deposit Protection Scheme

Before I start I would like to point out that for the previous 9 years we've been tenants abroad in South Africa and Dubai and we're on the verge of moving into our 5th rental property.

We are also landlords, we've been renting out our family home in England, until recently. We are also renting out a one bed flat in South Wales.

The last tenants, although not as bad as the first set and did vacate earlier than requested have not looked after our property at all, despite having a list of demands for things to be fixed, repaired and redecorated before they moved in, which we did willingly.

We received £716.99 back from the tenants deposit of £1,462.50, the cost of repairs claimed for was £1,820.08. Having read the report of the findings from the DPS, it is clear that there was lack of evidence in the form of quotes, dated photos and itemised repairs, damages etc. I'm very disappointed with the rental agents and could have and would have done a better job myself of submitting evidence had I not relied on the agents to do their job in my best interests. For example it is deemed acceptable for this door to have been repaired.

The rubbish removal wasn't listed with evidence of the individual items

An award of £300 was made for redecoration costs and as it wasn't stated at the time of the tenancy that the house had been freshly dated it was deemed acceptable wear and tear. Paint alone for the radiators, woodwork and walls was £100 and labour £15 an hour. The DPS consider a patch job good enough. 

There was an award of £40 for this carpet to be cleaned, it won't clean and now it has to be replaced

Despite tenants cleaning the property in between, we've redecorated, re carpted a room, replaced appliances, repaired fence panels, dry cleaned curtains. Paid for all repairs, unless caused by the tenant, had a new shower tray installed, fixed outside taps and lights, had new taps for the kitchen and downstairs loo, a new oven and hob installed, serviced and installed a new boiler during the the snow storm of 2018 and gave the tenants money to buy portable heaters to keep warm and had the cheek to take the heaters I paid for. They also had a list of demands that we rectified prior to thier tenancy commencing and they leave our home like this?

You can read about the problems we've had and see the photos by clicking here. There are links within that post.

Would you be happy renting a property that was offered in this condition? Our previous tenants weren't. Yet look how they left it.

I'd love to hear about your experiences as a tenant and/or a landlord. The good, the bad or the ugly.

The true costs of bad tenants

So here goes, 4 hours later and I've complied all the costs and evidence for my solicitor to attempt to claim damages and costs from the tenants, guarantor and rental agent.

The guarantor is only responsible for costs to the date the tenants left the property, in terms of outstanding rent. The tenants cannot be located and professionals have been hired to track them down. I cannot go into detail too much re the rental agents as I'm pursuing this matter either through my solicitor and/or the small claims court other than to highlight where I feel they've mismanaged the property.

Rent was not collected from November 2012 till I noticed in February 2013 having checked the UK bank accounts. It was then I realised that all payments had been made 2-3 weeks late and not once had the agents enforced the contract by charging an additional 10% for late payments, they however continues to take their 10% management fees on time up to and including after the eviction notice was served. They also gave the tenants 3 months notice instead of the 2 requested. When the tenants finally left after a costly trip to the UK to carry out the eviction procedure myself, I was informed by the neighburs and not the agent, who on entering the property called me to say 'the house was inhabitable and would require fumigating' yet his last inspection report in February 2013 stated 'light cleaning required' only. I was also informed by the agent that the house could not be re marketed while the tenants were in situ due to 'unwillingness of the tenants and the state of the house' yet the last inspection report in February 2013 stated the house required 'light cleaning only'

You can check out the other blog posts here, here, here, here and here with photos showing the extent of the damage and the efforts I went to, to evict the tenants.

Now it can be said we received money for 2 years, which we did, but we had a mortgage to pay, whilst renting a property in South Africa and UK tax to pay. We spent nearly 2000.00 GBP getting the house ready for the rental market and maintained the property during the rental period.

Our actual out of pocket costs are just under 2000.00 GBP, but if you see the list below you'll realise what it whole experience has actually cost and don't forget we carried out all the work, from cleaning to repainting and fixing holes in walls.

My costs to date are as follows:

Outstanding rent       1,900.00 GBP    June and July

                                      245.16 GBP    Aug 1- 8

Rent time house           704.84 GBP     Aug 9 -31

empty due to work        823.33 GBP    Sept 1-26

being done for re renting

Professional cleaning and repairs 

                                       943.15 GBP

Cleaning materials and DIY

                                        380.88 GBP

Personal costs inc phone, transport, postage

                                         433.93 GBP

Replacement to damaged and stolen items

                                          537.42 GBP

Return flights from the UK to evict tenants and carry out work

                                          19635.00 ZAR approx 1309.00 GBP

Total costs                         7277.71

minus deposit                      755.00

Outstanding                       6522.71

How to evict tenants following a Section 21a

When my husband was offered an Inter company transfer to South Africa with a 2 year work visa,  it seemed rather rash to sell our family home, after all the move may not have worked out, then what?

So we opted to rent out our family home with an agent. The house was empty for 3 months before tenants moved in. We paid the rental agent 10% of the monthly rent to manage the property on our behalf.

The agency has since been sold twice, but prior to the second sale we discovered the tenants weren’t making payments on time and had in fact not paid any rent since November 11^th 2012. Naïve of us to have trusted the agency to ensure rent was paid on time, naïve of us to assume we would be informed, but 6000 miles away and 2 years on, still adjusting to life as expats, we assumed that when we paid a company to act on our behalf, they would do just that.

Having finally extracted the rent arrears from the tenant’s guarantor, we opted to serve the tenants with a Section 21a notice giving them 2 months notice to evict the property. The agent opted in his wisdom to give them 3 months notice to quit with the date being May 24^th 2013.

From the last inspection report it was obvious there was lots of work needing doing to the property and as the tenants weren’t reliable we couldn’t trust that they’d make the necessary repairs and return the property in the state that they rented it. So I flew over to the UK to oversee this matter.

The tenants ignored the Section 21a notice and I then had to turn to a solicitor and the courts for assistance.

Assuming you have a short hold tenancy agreement with the tenants this is the procedure you are required to follow to obtain possession of your house, recover lost rent and make good repairs prior to re renting.

You are required to produce the following documents and I strongly suggest that in order to save time, should you find yourself in this position that, you obtain copies from your agent asap.

 

1.       Proof of ownership of the rental property, i.e. The Land Registry Office copies

2.       A copy of the signed tenancy agreement

3.       Rent statement

4.       Tenancy deposit certificate

5.       Evidence of service of the prescribed information that the landlord is obliged to give to the tenant in relation to the tenancy deposit scheme. I.e. a covering letter and the information that was given to the tenant

6.       Notices that have been served in relation to the property:

How, when and by whom

If served by royal mail, provide covering letter

If the notice was personally handed to the tenant, when the notice was served and by whom was it served

7.       Check in report/ inventory

8.       Tenant referencing documents credit checks, personal references

9.       For the purpose of enforcing any court judgement provide details of tenants employment, bank details and known assets

10.   Any correspondence between the parties agents, landlord and tenants

11.   Any details of any matters that the tenant has complained of, in relation to the state of the repair of the property and if items have been complained of what steps were/will be what has been done to remedy the situation

12.   Whether there has been any history of drugs and violence at the property and if a possession order is made you consider that the bailiff will require police assistance

13.   If the bailiff is required to take back possession, confirm who will be in attendance when possession is obtained and to arrange for the locks to be changed

 

Ensure your agent takes up these references prior to signing any contract so you don’t discover down the line that your tenants have done this to another landlord before.

 

In order to obtain an accelerated possession order of your property you will be required to present these documents to your solicitor. Who will charge you approximately £2000 plus vat to obtain possession of your property. You will also be required to pay £175 to the courts and a further £110 should bailiffs be required.

The process to obtain possession of your house can take up to 5 months and as most Insurance companies will only pay for 30 days accommodation, you should really issue an eviction notice at least 5 months before you intend to reoccupy the property.

Recovery of rental arrears and damages can take between 1-3 years so prior to renting out your property, ensure, like we did, you have enough money in your account to meet these costs Inc. mortgage payments.

Once you’ve satisfied the courts that you have given 2 months written notice to the tenants for them to vacate the premises you can request an Issue of proceedings for possession on the first working day after the date the tenants were due to vacate the property.

The tenants have 14 days from the date issued to provide a defence. If a defence is submitted then the possession order can be delayed for up to 6 weeks for a hearing.

The court will then serve the possession order and a date will be given to the tenants in which they have to vacate the property.

Today as I sit writing this post I have been in the UK for 7 weeks. The tenants are using a van and their car to empty the contents of a 6 bed house. This may take some time, they started 6 days ago. I expect to have the house back by Friday.

Failure to do so will result in a warrant for possession served by a bailiff in order to evict the tenant with a further cost of £110.

 

Did you hear the one about the UK rental agent?

We trusted the rent of our house to a friend in the UK. Three months after we moved in January 2011he found us a tenant and 9 months later he sold the business. But all was good or so we thought, the agent managing the property stayed the same and the rent arrived on time. But in January 2013 I had casue to contact the agent to request an inspection report and to find out why the tenants wouldn't let British Gas in to service the boiler. The owners reply was 'that he will wrap the agents knuckles for not getting back to us'  and added:

'The rent payment has also been promised tomorrow and will include January and Februarys rent. '

When we leftthe UK we made sure there was enough money to cover our mortgage for a year, just incase we couldn't find suitable tenants and to be honest I wasn't checking the bank account because, foolishly, I trusted the company to inform me should a payment be missed or made late.

After checking the bank we discovered the last rent was paid the end of November 2012 and no one was doing anything to get this money back for us.

The owner of the rental agency then told us this:

'There is no excuse for our lack of communications over the last few months, which I fully accept has been a absolute failure on our part and I am personally embarrassed to be in this position. Can I assure you the tenants are under no illusion as to their obligations and that we are actively pursuing the outstanding rent to which I hope to have a clearer update for Wednesday evening .'

We then requested that an eviction notice was to be served, regardless of whether the tenants paid up on time or not. It was confirmed by the owner that it was served on February 21st 2013.

The rent was finally paid on February 29th and March's payment was made on the 1st. A new date agreed between the rental company and the tenant, but NOT discussed with us.

I then ask for confirmation that the eviction order is still in place for the tenants to vacate the property by the 25th April. The rental owner then informs me:

'The eviction notice was served and is still active but it came to light today in my meeting with XXXX that he had served it for the 24^th May which is a month later than I had expected.

My apologises again for this delay, but we do seem to have a rent commitment and we will work at the property condition before they vacate. Please accept my assurance that we will monitor the situation closely, continuing to liaise with the tenants and their guarantor until the tenancy expires. We will endeavour to get a new tenant in place with as minimum void period as possible.'

 

He also informs me:

'Due to issues that have arisen and lack of attention to detail on a number of occasions we have released XXXX from his duties. As of today he no longer works for Fosse House, so I request that all correspondence comes directly through me.'

 

That was on 5th March. 

 

Today the rental agent sends me a generic email stating that he has sold the Malvern Business and that my new agent is.........wait for it........ XXXX the same bloke he sacked earlier this month for his incompentency.