Section 21 abolition stinks!

Section 21 abolition stinks!

9:01 AM, 16th September 2019, About 5 years ago 44

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The following is not only absolutely true, so too are the photos.

As both a landlord and agent, every week are varying numbers of Gas Safety Checks that require their annual renewals and each week the engineer arrives at my offices to collect all the sets of keys to the relevant properties. It’s a system that seems to work just fine, until…

Last week I received a call from he plumber to tell me he could not complete the check (and therefore certificate) at a particular property because of a ‘problem’ with the bathroom. When I enquired, he said he could not describe it but would take photos and *show* me.

Aside from the missing bath panel and floor covering, it turns out he tenants had blocked the one and only bathroom toilet and rather than arranging its unblocking or contacting me, had decided, somewhat ‘creatively’ to go to the effort of obtaining a commode under which buckets lined with a plastic shopping bag would be placed as crude replacement facilities, with the intention of tying the plastic bags once full and disposing of them in the general household waste bin.

Whilst an unholy way to carry on, it *might* (just) have been a barely acceptable TEMPORARY solution, but the problem was mounting (literally) faster than they were bothered/able to get rid of it. By my nightmarish calculations (bearing in mind this is a mid-20s couple with no children), there must be weeks’ -if not months’- worth of human waste in that bathroom…worse still we’ve just come out of a hot summer and there is no apparent ‘pathway’ through the buckets to the sole bathing facilities!!

Whilst you’re trying not to heave at the viewing of these photos, do please also ignore the can of Vimto on the radiator…a ‘convenient’ beverage shelf within arms-reach, which you may need when taking care of business; and don’t forget (or rather do) the ‘HealthyFry’ being used as a weight to hold down the original, field toilet’s lid…who knows what’s trying to escape from there?!

On a serious note and based purely on the buckets (as I think the floor-covering and bath-panel might give me the ammo I needed), in a post-S.21 world, what grounds under a S.8 would this sort of thing fall if I decided I wanted rid? It’s most certainly antisocial -animalistic, even- but unless affecting anyone in the immediate vicinity, not so much a problem as far as a Judge would see. There’s not really any damage as such to speak of as smell would be considered temporary. This is a classic case, as far as I can see, of where a S.21 is absolutely required. MPs: take note!!

Do please share this article far and wide as it is a very real example of how certain members of the renting population behave. And even if it were only the odd one, there has to remain an effective remedy to situations like this.”

Luke


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Comments

Chris @ Possession Friend

11:59 AM, 23rd September 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Martin Rdg at 16/09/2019 - 15:07
If you were the Gas fitter Martin, would you be happy to stand amongst those buckets and work on the boiler for 15 minutes -
Probably why Luke had trouble getting a plumber to enter the bathroom, as I certainly wouldn't !

Chris @ Possession Friend

12:03 PM, 23rd September 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by at 16/09/2019 - 18:24
' somebody's personal home ' !!!
What about the owner and Landlord of that property,
Anyway, its not as though the occupants can be identified ?
This kind of atrocious Tenant behaviour Needs to be shared Far and wide, just as Tenant support groups do.

Luke P

12:09 PM, 23rd September 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Heidi Ogden at 23/09/2019 - 11:27As a matter of course, we inspect as instructed by the owner, though it was about four months since we were last there. Having said that, we wouldn’t necessarily look at every inch of the house and the tenant can refuse. I can show you properties all day long that have been brand new at the start of a tenancy and literally within a matter of weeks look like they have been lived in ten years…tenants at the bottom end of the socio-economic scale can run things down very quickly, which is something I’m guessing you’re not used to seeing/knew happened. My original question still stands though…how would you deal with this and how would spotting this problem at, say, five buckets rather than thirty change matters?

Tim C

22:12 PM, 23rd September 2019, About 5 years ago

This is truely grim and highlights the reason S21 is still very much needed!
I had a situation once when the tenant refused to take her 4 dogs out for walkies and the dog pee rotted through the floorboards....when fixing our builder slipped on a stray turd on the staircase and broke his leg. No I am not joking!

Beaver

13:14 PM, 24th September 2019, About 5 years ago

If they leave those buckets long enough they should be able to grow a nice crop of cannabis in them.

What do you think they did with the floor covering. Did they burn it?

Beaver

13:49 PM, 24th September 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Luke P at 23/09/2019 - 12:09
Just re-read your original post which says that this was picked up at a routine safety check.

So if I understand this correctly, the tenant did not report the problem to you as the agent. Does the tenancy agreement specify that the tenant must report problems, and if so, what do they have to report?

Luke P

13:55 PM, 24th September 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by JJ at 24/09/2019 - 13:49They have blocked the toilet (which is something they will be responsible for, but could seek to have it rectified through us) and decided not to do anything about it.

Luke P

13:57 PM, 24th September 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by JJ at 24/09/2019 - 13:14
I can only hope so. Perhaps the toilet overflowed, ruining the floor and running underneath the bath panel, which they subsequently removed to get the floor up, breaking the panel as they did so...

Beaver

13:59 PM, 24th September 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Luke P at 24/09/2019 - 13:55
I see. I've had similar problems with my tenants; blocked the drains, let the sewage flow out into the garden. Didn't do anything about it. When the drains man came he found nothing wrong other than wads of material in the drains, but he wouldn't confirm misuse. So I ended up having to pay to get it cleaned out. You have my sympathy.

But if the tenant didn't report that there was a problem are they not in breach of their tenancy agreement?

Luke P

14:06 PM, 24th September 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by JJ at 24/09/2019 - 13:59
Very possibly, but perhaps the passage of water is now (or always was) free-flowing, but they simply *chose*/still choose to use buckets. This would not satisfy a breach of such a clause and the Judge holds jurisdiction...and in current times is unlikely to grant possession for a single 'minor' issue. Only true way forward is to retain s.21.

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