Vile tenants ganging up on me, please HELP!

Vile tenants ganging up on me, please HELP!

11:39 AM, 18th May 2015, About 9 years ago 46

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Long story cut short … the last tenant (A) to move out of one of our small portfolio of 5 houses failed to pay her rent for the last month, left some minor damage etc etc and so this weekend we claimed the full amount of her deposit back from the DPS. Vile tenants ganging up on me, please HELP

Her response was to send me a batch of obscene texts and Messenger messages and then, worse to post a vile message across local social media – naming me as a thieving landlord who doesn’t arrange repairs, leaves the property unsafe etc etc – and describing our property (which she lauded on the same social media sites when she moved in as being ‘lush’) as a dangerous s**t hole.

She (tenant A) is blaming all kinds of supposed damage to her property, accidents she apparently sustained and her daughter’s ill health on the house – well, you get the picture of the weekend we (well me really, as this was all aimed at me personally) have endured.

By yesterday evening she (tenant A) had made contact through Facebook with the last tenant (tenant B) before her – who left the house in a disgusting condition btw and also forfeited the majority of her deposit, and believes she (tenant A) has ‘confirmed’ with her (tenant B) that the repairs that she (tenant A) is now claiming weren’t done were left over from then – which is an easily demonstrable lie as we have receipts and communications from both of them detailing what issues had ever been reported to us, and when each was dealt with.

I suppose apart from the vile personal attack the main thrust of tenant A’s argument is that a ‘roof leak’ was not dealt with. There WAS a leak through the roof that damaged the upstairs landing ceiling in the house in 2013, so a year before tenant A moved in. That leak was eventually located and traced to the neighbour’s chimney and fixed. The neighbour in question paid for 50% of the repair.

Tenant A caused a leak in the bathroom which damaged the kitchen ceiling (which has now been repaired and we didn’t charge her for that) and they are both now screaming all over social media that the 2 unrelated leaks are the same and were not dealt with.

She (tenant A) also seemingly now believes that the first month rent she paid us (in advance) entitled her to assume that would not need to pay for the last month she was living in the house – enabling her to allege (on social media, so the world and his wife have suddenly become legal experts advising her how best to ‘bring me down’) that I have stolen her first month’s rent money that she paid ‘up front’ (and which she is now saying I told her would be lodged with the DPS with her deposit – obviously untrue.)

Our Tenancy Agreement clearly states that rent is due each month in advance. She (tenant A) was given a receipt for the initial cash payment she made (deposit + first month’s rent) and her other rent payments have gone straight into our bank.

To make matters even worse (if that is possible) our next prospective tenants (tenant C) who were due to move in early in June, have seen all the nastiness emblazoned across Facebook and have decided they don’t now want to live in our house for fear of this last nasty piece of work (tenant A) taking repercussions against us by damaging the property – and so they have withdrawn and they have requested their deposit back (which I have just repaid)

My question is this: what do we do next??

All constructive feedback with me much appreciated.

Thanks

Denise


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Comments

Lorraine Steele

20:08 PM, 19th May 2015, About 9 years ago

It's a free site, apparently
http://www.landlordreferencing.co.uk

Lorraine Steele

20:14 PM, 19th May 2015, About 9 years ago

Jay James

20:15 PM, 19th May 2015, About 9 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "D D" at "19/05/2015 - 15:09":

Think I'm in love, lol

Barbara Thorning

20:58 PM, 19th May 2015, About 9 years ago

I dealt with a tenant earlier this year who sent a message via Whatsapp (free) asking us to ring him back because he had no money on his phone. We arranged to accompany him to the One Stop Shop to help with the HB claim and he turned up in a taxi.... When we had finished he had the cheek to ask for a lift back! I said I was going in the other direction (not quite true...) so he sent a Whatsapp message his mother to ask her to call the taxi company for him. Unbelievable.

22:35 PM, 19th May 2015, About 9 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Jay James" at "19/05/2015 - 20:08":

It is now

Mick Roberts

8:10 AM, 20th May 2015, About 9 years ago

Better to be spoke about than not at all. Why do u think I take ridiculous photos of myself?

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.

Yeah, I ask my tech tenants kids. Wow, an 18 year old girl wanted a photo with me the other day ‘cause I am special round these parts ha ha, & she knew how to use my phone & photos & Facebook better than me.

You could start leaving ‘em with Prop118’s letting agents on here, & just become distanced from the process. That is my intentions as I get older. As I can have great year, great tenants, & just ONE tenant can put whole damper on the whole thing. Whereas referenced tenant ‘normally’ seem better behaved, & any crap, it’s the letting agent man in the office that they don’t attack, because he is seen as a business. Sometimes us Landlords get too close for comfort.

And as I read on, Steve says the same.

Ha ha, my name is mud by Luke, yes it’s true. I gave up caring years ago, used to feel down when one bad tenant messed it up, but now shrug me shoulders & carry on, I get the thinking in me brain, it’s all part of the job, have to have one bad ‘un, to get 99 good ‘uns.

Yes we need a bad tenants page, but we wouldn’t get it.

This is what I normally get twice a year, got to laugh about it, or we’d cry: https://youtu.be/OzqVVRlZzE8

Or this one on nice big detached house: https://youtu.be/i_HKaqYlHi4

OOh I’ve had tenant 13 missed calls, while I was in meeting for 13 mins, me & plumber were wan__rs, boiler not working, I paid plumber to go out, she ran out of gas, always our fault, not theirs.

I see my ex tenants all the time, most friendly, want another house, but last week, girl only one I ever took to court, I had to stop at Zebra crossing, she crossed in front of me, calling me ‘Prick Prick Prick in front of her mates, self control needed ha ha.

8:27 AM, 20th May 2015, About 9 years ago

.... if only the Property118 Lettingsupermarket agents operated in our area - I already tried that but IF we decide to re-let this particular property (so if it doesn't look like it will sell for the right price) we will definitely use a local agents to find us a tenant and then manage it

8:37 AM, 20th May 2015, About 9 years ago

omg Mick - I just watched your videos!

Fed Up Landlord

10:32 AM, 23rd May 2015, About 9 years ago

If such behaviour gets out of hand you can always ask your local Neighbourhood Police (that's if there are any left) to have a quiet word with said tenant and advise them that their conduct is a criminal offence.

Section 1 Protection From Harassment Act 1997

Prohibition of Harassment.

(1)A person must not pursue a course of conduct—
(a)which amounts to harassment of another, and
(b)which he knows or ought to know amounts to harassment of the other.
(2)For the purposes of this section, the person whose course of conduct is in question ought to know that it amounts to harassment of another if a reasonable person in possession of the same information would think the course of conduct amounted to harassment of the other.
(3)Subsection (1) does not apply to a course of conduct if the person who pursued it shows—
(a)that it was pursued for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime,
(b)that it was pursued under any enactment or rule of law or to comply with any condition or requirement imposed by any person under any enactment, or
(c)that in the particular circumstances the pursuit of the course of conduct was reasonable.

Dealt with lots of stuff like this in my former life. Even more after Facebook started. Texts, Facebook Pages, yelling at you in the street - all add to the "course of conduct". Now the Old Bill may well try and say "Its a civil matter between landlord and tenant". Well no actually it isn't. The object of dispute may not be criminal - but any illegal conduct that follows is. Just because you are a landlord doesn't make you or the tenant exempt from the law. So make sure you report it as a crime, or at the very least get an incident log number. If nothing is done make a complaint about lack of police action through your local police or the Independent Police Complaints Commission form https://secureforms.ipcc.gov.uk/Pages/form_complaint.aspx

Be persistent. Tell them that you are being harassed by this tenant and you wish it to cease. Normally they are warned as it is treated as a "First Case Harassment". If it carried on they get locked up and may be cautioned which is recorded. If they do it again it's off to court. To some tenants this is an occupational hazard. but I did deal with tenants harassing landlords and vice versa in my 30 years. Most of the time a word of advice in their shell like will resolve the matter.

Devon Landlord

17:35 PM, 27th May 2015, About 9 years ago

Face Book What is face book? As a professional landlord I've never used it, will never use it and am certainly not interested in what scum-bag tenants might say about me after I have evicted them and if possible taken all their deposit in a legitimate process because of their inability to pass back a property in a fit state to re-let. The key to all this is to be professional. tenants are not your friend, they are your clients! Treat them as such but if they start to cause you grief get rid of them as quickly as possible as they are no good to you or to themselves as they lack respect and personal credibility. Just keep an eye on the property during the section 21 period to ensure that they are not damaging it. Presumably you have a clause which states that they have to make the property available for viewings and if so do so even if the 'viewings' are with like minded landlords who are willing to play the game. Join a landlord Association and make some like minded friends that way. Final comment. Be professional, stay professional and you will be treated with deference and respect.

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