I’m losing a tenant every 6 months, please help!

I’m losing a tenant every 6 months, please help!

17:23 PM, 29th October 2013, About 11 years ago 58

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Hi all,

My fifth tenant has now decided to leave after having been subject to 6 months of abuse and hell from the neighbour adjoining the maisonette. All four previous tenants have left after six months and have all cited this neighbour from hell as the culprit for their misery and reason for leaving. This has put me at substantial financial loss, not to mention the stress. This is my first property and subsequently my first time as a landlord. I am losing a tenant every 6 months

I have exacerbated all my options. The troublesome neighbour likes to throw his weight around and seems to relish in bullying my tenants. He is also very devious, he has filed noise complaints against each one of my tenants with the council and complains to both letting agents about the noise. My current tenant mentions that the last straw was when the neighbour abused and threw stones at his Mum while she was visiting, thus instigating my tenant to angrily shout at the neighbour who recorded the interaction on his phone. When my tenant called the Police they did nothing as the neighbour had footage of my tenant shouting.

Emails from my previous four tenants include incidents where the troublesome neighbour, grabbed Tenant A round the throat and threatened him in my property. He jumped over the garden fence and threatened Tenant B. Threats to steal, shoot, beat up Tenant C and Tenant D apparently used to come home from work and watch TV wearing headphones so as not to disturb him, the list is a lot longer than this.

Police have been called on six separate occasions by two different tenants (the others were too scared to).

I have contacted the landlord of the property direct. Their letting agent is not prepared to do anything about it giving the excuse that it is one tenants word against another. I am have now lost my fifth tenant! Is this not evidence enough that the neighbour is the cause of the problem?

My letting agent has tried to influence the other letting agent but I feel both have dragged their feet hoping that the dust will settle. My letting agent now is refusing to re-let the property due to this neighbour.

I feel like I only have two options:

1) Reluctantly sell the property or

2) Try and re-let the property by switching my current agent to the same letting agent who oversees the troublesome neighbour. This eliminates the denial that there is a problem and who causes it due to one letting agent getting to hear about all the problems at both properties without any middlemen diluting the seriousness of the allegations. The problem with this option is whether the letting agent would evict the troublesome tenant or just be happy to allow my tenants to leave and enjoy the inctreased income from the renewals.

What other options do I have?

Please help.

Mark Lintern


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Comments

Sharon Betton

10:56 AM, 30th October 2013, About 11 years ago

A dreadful situation. Cannot say I like the idea of a housing benefit tenant being offered the property just because they would have less ability to leave, though they may be more inclined to discuss with the Council before leaving.
Speak to the Council, probably the Environmental Department - they will have set procedures in place to deal with this issue. Discuss fully with the next tenant you take - make sure they are aware there is a problem and that you are aware of it and taking it seriously. They must report all incidents to the Police, if possible without arguments with the bad neighbours. My own authority like incident logs to be kept which provides part of the necessary evidence for Court action.
I would not give business to the bad agent who is not taking any action - they should be contacting the Council themselves in order to ascertain the actions they should and could take.
Another option may be a mediation service, though to be honest, unlikely to do much good from the sound of it as they are not acknowledging that they are bad tenants.

Industry Observer

11:17 AM, 30th October 2013, About 11 years ago

MAY I MAKE IT ABUNDANTLY CLEAR TO EVERYONE THAT IT IS NOT MARK HALTERN'S OWN AGENT THAT IS DOING NOTHING, BUT THE ITALIAN TENANTS AGENT.

Mark Lintern if you could confirm this to the P118 Community I would be grateful

11:24 AM, 30th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Why not just sell the property and buy else where. It's a rising market...am sure you made a tidy profit.

I can't imagine your neigbhour changing his tune any time soon!

Ian Ringrose

11:43 AM, 30th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Part of the problem is that the Italian tenant may be a good tenant as far as his landlord and agent is concerned. So why should the landlord/agent of the problem tenant do anything if he is paying his rent on time and not damaging the property?

Mark Lintern

11:59 AM, 30th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Industry Observer " at "30/10/2013 - 11:17":

Hi Industry observer,

Yes you are correct, whilst I wouldn't say that my agent is pulling out all the stops on my behalf, they are helping a great deal, I have had a meeting with the MD previously and he is forwarding emails to the Problem tenants Agent as well as myself illustrating where the problem clearly lies with a call to action. It is the Problem tenants Agent (not mine) that is refusing to recognise their tenant as a problem.

Mark Lintern

12:02 PM, 30th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "James Tallis" at "30/10/2013 - 11:24":

Hi James,

Yes this is one of the options I am considering and I am hoping, grateful to the help you all have provided, that I will come to a decision by Friday.

Sharon Betton

12:06 PM, 30th October 2013, About 11 years ago

It really goes against the grain, but an incentive could be a sum of money which may assist them getting somewhere else. But how much they would need or want to move out, is questionable. Obviously, you don't want to give more than necessary.

Mark Lintern

12:15 PM, 30th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Ok I have an update:
In previous correspondance I have made noise to the effect that I may intend to sue the landlord and agent for loss of income. My agent re-iterated this point to their Agent yesterday. I followed this up with a polite but firm email giving no inclination of my intentions just a suggestion that I am interested in their response in light of the loss of another of my tenants. Their agent has replied having informed the other landlord, who is considering their action, they intend to come to a decision within a week. Which is not acceptable for me as time is money. Any way I have written a draft email that I would like to run by you guys first to see if you think this would be a good solution, with it I offer a little bit of financial help to the other landlord as an incentive, I've considered I may need to lose a battle to win the war. Here is the content of the draft email that I am intending to send to the their Agent:

'Thank you for the quick response. I understand that this is a constant frustrating inconvenience for everyone involved, not least my tenants, and I am encouraged to learn that your client is taking the time to consider their response. I would be very grateful if you could convey to them, as I'm sure they are aware, and for the intention to have it at the forefront of their minds, that for me this is a matter of urgency as time is money. Without wanting to sound pushy or trying to rush them, I do need to make a decision as soon as possible, preferably by friday.

To be clear I am simply interested to know whether they intend to remove the tenant or not. In this instance I would also like to offer an olive branch and propose that I am willing to pay half of any loss of income that your landlady incurs as a result of any delay in finding a new tenant - providing that I have their word that they will start proceedings immediately to remove their tenant and that given this guarantee I can convince my current tenant to stay, and providing that you as the Agent do your up most to ensure a new tenant is moved in at the earliest opportunity. I am willing to do this as I see the removal of your tenant as being the quickest and easiest solution for all parties involved and see no benefit in creating enemies and friction between Agents and Landlords/ladies over what is essentially a bullying trouble maker of a tenant, who will clearly only ever cause you further problems.

I welcome yours and your clients thoughts.'

What does everyone think to this approach? Am I giving too much? I will send it later this afternoon once I've considered your experienced points of view.

Thanks again,
Mark

Jeremy Smith

13:34 PM, 30th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Industry Observer " at "30/10/2013 - 08:11":

@ IO,
I think Ian's silicone suggestion was supposed to be a joke to lighten up the discussion and give a chuckle to us readers.....
...it certainly did for me.

These type of tenants/neighbours from hell can really get you down, and anything that brings a laugh might just stop you crying yourself to sleep from the depression it can cause.
These type of people can really do serious mental damage to the people around them and to the landlord that has to try to deal with the situation...I know from personal experience...
I still find it hard to visit my local pubs without looking over my shoulder for people who have had a twisted picture painted of me by my tenants whom I had to evict.....
There's some nasty people out there who will do you serious harm if given half a chance.

Industry Observer

13:52 PM, 30th October 2013, About 11 years ago

Mark

Have you run this by your own agent?

Jeremy

Fair comment beauty is in the eye of the beholder and humour is a very personal thing. And there is a time and aplace too.

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