Should violence go with the territory?

Should violence go with the territory?

9:34 AM, 9th April 2019, About 6 years ago 4

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No too long ago Property118 covered Kicking Landlords. Now we have Stabbing Landlords. Such a Course of Action is not to be recommended. If a tenant or his representative threatens violence towards the landlord or his employees, it is certain to result in the termination of the tenancy.

In 2014 a tenant threatened to stab my plumber with a screwdriver. I ended the tenancy. The tenant was aggrieved and decided to take out his grievance on my plumber who was East European but spoke Little English. I immediately pulled the workman off the job!

I have been threatened with being shot six times. I have been threatened with being stabbed four times. It goes with the territory! However, should it? I have to say that in my view if any tenant seeks to be violent in any way shape of form then it is the end of the tenancy.

I had one female tenant in Maidstone who threatened to stick a knife into me. When the Bailiff arrived to evict her she threatened him also. That tenant is currently serving Life for sticking a knife into person – not a Landlord.

Another tenant threatened to stick a knife into me and then tried it on someone else who was an ex-soldier! The outcome was the ex-soldier turned the knife on the man and killed him. He was found not guilty of murder.

Recently I ended a tenancy in Maidstone, because I wanted the house back and not due to Rent Arrears. The two tenants were Romanian and absolutely fine. However, their Employer, an Albanian man, threatened to “stick a knife into my fat stomach.”

Recently in Ashford the son of a tenant threatened, by telephone, to stab me in the neck. The telephone call was recorded! It is a matter of watch this space! The son in question had a mental health issue. You might well say he must have had to threaten violence. It is not much consolation if the Landlord is stabbed to know the son as a mental health issue!

If a landlord employs his own staff he has a “duty of care” towards the employee. The Landlord must conduct a “risk assessment” in the same way as if he were considering whether he needed scaffolding to do a roof repair.

Most landlords have one property! Hopefully they will go through their entire Landlord Career without receiving threats of violence.

Fergus Wilson


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SimonR

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11:47 AM, 9th April 2019, About 6 years ago

unfortunately Fergus this is becoming a common occurrence, many tenants feel that they are entitled to housing and that their actions cannot be questioned, some of that belief comes from the actions of Shelter and Generation Rent where in their eyes tenants can do no wrong.

Freda Blogs

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12:25 PM, 9th April 2019, About 6 years ago

These are shocking stories Fergus, yet you and most other landlords are vilified in the press. Fortunately I haven't ever experienced anything like this.

However I do feel that these stories should be publicised to try and balance public opinion about landlords and start reversing the constant and corrosive drip drip anti-landlord narrative.

SimonR

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16:52 PM, 9th April 2019, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Freda Blogs at 09/04/2019 - 12:25
To be honest Freda these stories do make it the press at some point unfortunately for Fergus he is seen as a greedy opportunist praying on the less fortunate as are most landlords and agents. Only when the likes of Shelter, generation Rent and others actually see what their own actions contribute to and accept that the PRS has a place in todays world will things change.

Smithy

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12:24 PM, 14th April 2019, About 6 years ago

Whenever I hear a report about a particularly nasty criminal, I do wonder who his/her landlord is and what they have had to deal with.

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