Landlords Revenge

Landlords Revenge

11:30 AM, 3rd July 2013, About 11 years ago 41

Text Size

A landlord who came out and told BBC’s The One Show of her troublesome tenant has now had further problems. 

Broadcast on 2nd May, the landlord Mrs Trivedy was featured on the show in an item about rent-arrears and the difficulties landlords are having with tenants on benefit who are not passing on the rent.

Mrs Trivedy was shown getting the help of Landlord Action when her social tenants stopped passing on their housing benefit yet refused to vacate the property, leaving her £4400 in rental arrears. After the case was broadcast on the BBC, the tenants moved on which may have been a good result.

But the tenants left with much of the landlord’s furniture. And they have wrecked the home. Mrs Trivedy says “Wear and tear in a rental property is inevitable but what I was faced with, even given the tenants previous behaviour, was completely unnecessary. Not only is there damage to every room, they have stolen two sofas, a wardrobe, a chest of draws, a fridge-freezer, curtain poles as well as numerous smaller items. What remains was a complete mess and totally unliveable.”

The Condition of Schedule following the tenants’ departure describes the property as in poor condition with damage, missing items and a lack of cleanliness reported in every room, in addition to the garden being littered with dog mess.  Mrs Trivedy says she has made a statement to the police in regards to the missing items but was advised that it was unlikely to be taken much further as there are varying degrees of theft and it is her word against the tenants.

Mrs Trivedy says “I am obviously thrilled to have regained possession following the notice served by Landlord Action which has avoided further rent arrears and additional court fees, but I still face being thousands of pounds out of pocket.  I will have to make-over the entire property and replace furniture in order to let it again. I think the tenants should be made to pay.”

Paul Shamplina, Founder of Landlord Action says this is not an uncommon scenario. Tenants can feel aggrieved after being asked to leave. But he adds, “In this case it seems the TV exposure may have made these people more upset”. Even though the house in Bracknell was shown on screen, the tenant was interviewed and the landlord is very shocked at their behaviour.

Shamplina also advised that in these cases landlords have to be careful not to throw good money after bad. The potential outcome of further action has to be weighed up against the costs and time involved. Firstly, is it possible to track down the tenants to recover the rent arrears and if so what is their financial position? Secondly, when you regain possession, what state is the property in and how much will it cost to put right? An inventory is paramount to proving this.”

Landlord Action has a busy rent recovery department for landlords who will act on behalf of Sandra Trivedy in helping her locate her ex tenants for a fixed fee. However Mr Shamplina says “in a case such as this, we must take a view as to whether the landlord really wants to spend money and enforce a money judgement if the tenants do not have a job or any assets. Obtaining a CCJ and trying to get a court order for monthly payments off such tenants is likely to take years to clear. Many landlords wish to do so out of principle but we advise landlords to weigh up their options before going down this route.”

Contact Landlord Action

Specialists in tenant eviction and debt collection. Regulated by The Law Society.

Landlords Revenge


Share This Article


Comments

Andrew Taylor

20:22 PM, 3rd July 2013, About 11 years ago

Anon - if you dislike dealing with your customers so much why be a landlord? No one is forced to take low income tenants, no one is forced to let to LHA tenants. Landlords are only required to tell the water company the name of the tenants, they are not required to pay their bills.

Siobhan - check out http://www.landlordreferencing.co.uk/

There are bad tenants and bad landlords. I do not know any of the circumstances in the specific case in question to comment. I do know that when I had a bad tenant that took 8 months to get out and cost be about £10K, the person to blame for it all was me. Its to easy to blame the tenants, I gave them the keys, I bought them into my life. Its too easy to just rubbish tenants, and a lot harder to admit that landlords make mistakes all the time, and sometimes they coast quite a lot!

Anon

20:49 PM, 3rd July 2013, About 11 years ago

Dear Andrew,
Thank you for your kind comments. It is not my intention to get into any kind of argument with you or anyone else but having said that i don't need you to point out my mistakes or errors. I am well aware of them myself. I must say you are wrong re the water bills. Nonetheless i wish you well with your business and your life. My comments were not about you personally, but about a type of person who sees kindness and patience as a sign of weekness, so i don't understand why you chose to attack me personally, as there are many sets of circumstances here about which you know nothing and yet you feel free to criticize.This is the only extent to which i will engage in this discourse with you. I will know better than to contribute in the future. Good luck, i wish you well.

Anthony Endsor

20:50 PM, 3rd July 2013, About 11 years ago

This case hits very close to home for me. I currently have a tenant who has been in one of my properties for 13 months and never paid a penny in rent. Needless to say it is a Housing Benefit case. I issued a section 8 after 3 months, but it was thrown out as I couldn't prove I hadn't received the rent, so I had to wait until I could issue a section 21, 2 months before the tenancy was due to expire. Now, surprise surprise, the tenant has got back up from Housing Benefit, who are now trying to help her sort the situation. Unfortunately however, it would appear this does not involve getting the rent paid. So I think I will be following the lead on this one and asking Landlord Action to help me.
It is an absolute disgrace that a tenant can go on living in a property just because they have nowhere else to go, without paying a single penny in rent. Not working either. How nice. No mortgage or rent to pay, just doss around all day in my house without having to worry about a thing. Great isn't it?

philip allen

21:06 PM, 3rd July 2013, About 11 years ago

Andrew,
Your comment reminds me of the Tommy Cooper joke, "Doctor, when I do this it hurts". The Doctor said, "Don't do it".
We're landlords for as many different reasons as there are landlords. We all expose ourselves to these people, we have no choice, simply because their characters are not tattooed to their foreheads. I've had one or two bad ones and lots of good ones. It will ever be the case no matter how vigilant we are with our checks and references. It certainly will never stop me from being a landlord because it's all a case of averages and the numbers still stack in my favour.
That still doesn't stop me from loathing a system that supports, openly, this kind of vandalism. Councils insist that a tenant stays put until the bailiffs are at the door. Never mind the cost, financially and emotionally, to the landlords. We are the 'scum' in their view. I've seen us, on this very site, referred to as the London 'crew' as though we were some sort of elitist mob of vultures praying on the dead meat of tenants. The system and the people who support it are the vandals.

Edwin Cowper

21:56 PM, 3rd July 2013, About 11 years ago

SHORT CIRCUIT THE GROWTH OF ARREARS

I get the impression this poor lady has not considered what to do as soon as tenants get two months in arrears who are on benefit. Certainly some of the agents my area don't think of it.

You can make the tenants two months in arrear after 5 weeks non-payment if you make the rent payable monthly in advance and they don't pay on two successive rent days.

Can't stop the damage though.

I've found tenants are so surprised that (so far) they move out, minimising loss

Anon

22:09 PM, 3rd July 2013, About 11 years ago

Anthony Endsor / Philip Allen,
Couldn't agree more with your comments. I was a landlord for 10 years before i ran into problems. What, did i suddenly forget what i was doing? It leaves one quite disillusioned. Some people live a charmed life. Others don't. Best wishes guys.

Anon

22:20 PM, 3rd July 2013, About 11 years ago

Just for information my portfolio is based in the north east. If anyone has seen our local news lately, since the introduction of universal credits some local authorities here are running rent arrears of £130,000 per week. Before that local authority tenants never had the rent paid directly to them, the local council simply paid themselves. Interesting how they thought it was ok for private sector landlords to wear the pain but not themselves. Look at them squeel like pigs when they have had these measures imposed on them by central government. Don't misunderstand me i take no pleasure in this, i don't want anyone to wear the pain but it is a graphic illustratoin of the bias in favour of people who never have and never will try to do anything with their life but who are happy to take from others (their landlord) who they think has an endless supply of money. Their sense of entitlement is stunning.

Anthony Endsor

22:21 PM, 3rd July 2013, About 11 years ago

Couldn't agree more Anon.

Andrew Taylor

23:08 PM, 3rd July 2013, About 11 years ago

Anon @ 20:49 - the first paragraph is a reply to your comment, how have i attacked you personally? You have called tenants less than human and rubbish, I have commented on that. I have then commented to Siobhan and made a general comment in my last paragraph on what is being posted here based on my experiences.

Anthony Endsor @20:50 - if your tenants are LHA, why have you not claimed direct payment from the local authority once they were contractually two months behind on the rent? How could you not prove non-receipt of rent? Landlord Action are a good company.

Anthony Endsor

23:14 PM, 3rd July 2013, About 11 years ago

Easier said than done Andrew. The local authority are quite stubborn when it comes to handing over money. And I don't have a rent book, so cannot prove non-receipt of rent as how do you show something that isn't there?
I will be speaking to Landlord Action about this and see what they can do to help.

Leave Comments

In order to post comments you will need to Sign In or Sign Up for a FREE Membership

or

Don't have an account? Sign Up

Landlord Tax Planning Book Now