My tenant stabbed his wife and trashed my property

My tenant stabbed his wife and trashed my property

10:28 AM, 10th February 2014, About 10 years ago 30

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I have joint tenants who signed a 12 month assured shorthold tenancy agreement. They have been in the property nearly five months. They have always been late paying their rent and have not paid this months rent.

A few days ago I had a call from a neighbour to say the Police had been there and arrested the male tenant for stabbing his wife,who had been taken to hospital.  She is OK and back at the house but he has been remanded to prison with a likely prison sentence.

She claims the rent money is in his wallet which he had on him at the time.

What route can I go down to now to give her notice to quit as she is never going to pay the rent.

I did an inspection on the house and it is a tip. My tenant stabbed his wife and trashed my property

She has also not complied with the tenancy by having a dog and hamster at the house.

Thanks

Daniel

 


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Comments

16:13 PM, 11th February 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Jeremy Smith" at "11/02/2014 - 15:52":

Jeremy - I agree. Many of us (including me) have to learn the hard way. We try to help people out and sadly nine times out of ten people let us down. We'd love to think the best of people and do what we can for them, but "helping" usually does nothing more than allow the problem to escalate.

True story: My company took over the management of a property from another agent. The tenant was a single Mum. Both the previous agent and the landlord had allowed concession after concession after concession and by the time we came on the scene the tenant was a full 12 months in arrears.

With the landlord's consent we went straight for possession. I clearly remember the tenant saying in the courtroom that it was the landlord's fault she was in this mess for allowing her arrears to build up in the first place and the judge agreeing that it should never have been allowed to go this far.

So, damned if you do, damned if you don;t.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

17:51 PM, 11th February 2014, About 10 years ago

This is my story of trying to be helpful .... the perfect tenant of 6 years whose hubby left her. To cut a long story short, she was a career accountant with lovely kids HOWEVER, by the time I eventually got her out of my property which was trashed beyond belief she was an unemployed alcoholic who paid for her heroin addiction by selling her body.

For the full story see >>> http://www.property118.com/perfect-tenant-evicted-prostitute/29056/
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Jeremy Smith

18:10 PM, 11th February 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "11/02/2014 - 17:51":

You shouldn't have let her bribe you that way Mark, it's unethical, apart from being illegal ( or is it - payment in kind? - tax still due though ! )

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

18:12 PM, 11th February 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Jeremy Smith" at "11/02/2014 - 18:10":

HaHaHa - that is defamation by innuendo Dear Sir!
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Jeremy Smith

18:37 PM, 11th February 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "11/02/2014 - 18:12":

You leave my innuendo alone ! - I've kept mine to myself !!

But seriously:
I've had a few female tenants along the way, and am always a bit wary if I'm getting any "dodgy" ones that might think "here's a good candidiate to accuse something of"...
So far, I've never had any problems, but it has been suggested that if I was ever concerned that one might think to try it on (noooo, not like that !!) I mean accuse you of something, to take another person with you, preferably a female, so to thwart any ideas in that regard.
- good idea.

It's unbelievable how some people change over the years, others stay stuck in their ways, fortunately, and stay for years just renting.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

18:48 PM, 11th February 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Jeremy Smith" at "11/02/2014 - 18:37":

Good advice to visit tenants in pairs wherever possible, male or female.

Paul Routledge who set up Landlord Referencing services is a classic case of that. He was stabbed in the head several times by one of his tenants and left for dead! That was his motivation to set up LRS.
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Sharon Betton

12:16 PM, 12th February 2014, About 10 years ago

I think this woman almost certainly needs to re-locate, but this could take the Council some time. She needs a housing benefit claim and then try and get a Discretionary Housing Payment, to see if they would assist - extra money has been given to authorities for DHP's which must be spent before 31st March or given back, so likely to be more generous than usual. It is worth a try.

12:27 PM, 12th February 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Sharon Betton" at "12/02/2014 - 12:16":

It's certainly not the landlord's job to help the tenant with these things and he can't be expected to be knowledgeable about such matters.

It may sound hard -nosed but the one thing the landlord can do which really will speed matters up and arguably help the tenant in the long run is get a possession order. That will make the issue a whole lot more compelling for the council and the appropriate agencies who really do have the job of helping her.

Reader

15:02 PM, 12th February 2014, About 10 years ago

Find her somewhere else to live that is within her LHA bracket. It will potentially save her further violence and resolve your property problem. If she is non co operative follow Steves advice
Irrronically it is the victims of this domestic violence that feel sufficiently vulnerable to want to have their abusers back home to care for them. Do you want to meet the man with the knife again? An amicable departure is best for everyone .

Jeremy Smith

19:01 PM, 12th February 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Reader " at "12/02/2014 - 15:02":

You are right Mr(s) Reader!
I remember, one of my tenants, who had a police order against her partner not to go within a distance of the house, was secretly letting him back at night, for the very reason you suggest I would think, only for him to create more problems and get locked up!

Another tenant of mine, who I had to evict, was promised help by social services, but only when he was homeless, whilst he was housed with me, they said his needs were met!
-Only to stick him in some empty army barracks flats, with very little transport or services.

- But I agree, it's not for us to sort out people's disorganised lives for them !!

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