Nightmare Tenancy

[Bluebells25]

First time poster. Please pardon my mistakes. I am caught up in a very difficult situation which has completely stressed me out. 8 months back, I rented out my house to a family (mother, her two adult daughters with 8 children between them) I was very worried letting out to such a large family but they were very keen, very polite and produced two personal/character references. I have been a landlord before this, had to rent out because we needed to move due to work and renting ourselves. The very next month tenants rent was overdue by 10 days, same story the next 2 months. Had an inspection if the property by agents in the 3rd month and heartbroken as my beautiful house resembled a junkyard. Got Section 12 notice issued to get property back at the end of 6 months. On receiving inspection report and notice to end Tenancy, tenants sent a long offensive email saying we were in the wrong and the property is really bad. Then Coronavirus hit. We them they could continue to stay until it was safe to move out. Next month rent paid 3 weeks late after much chasing. Then they complained about oil tank leak. Being in the midst of Coronavirus peak, we paid emergency charges to have someone take a look. Had the oil tank changed but took over 3 weeks as contractor was struggling with supply. Tenants paid no rent this month or the next. Again after chasing, paid April’s rent 6 weeks late and then just stopped paying rent all together while coming up with various complaints. Got them issued with Section 8 notice. They have finally left but owe us 2 months rent which according to the agent, they have just refused to pay. Also refused to provide their forwarding address. I called up the two people who had provided personal references. Last evening a man phoned saying he was my tenant’s Manager saying I am harassing my ex tenants and everything I have claimed is a lie and I will be sued for harassment and slander. This person happens to be there close friend as I have seen him at our property whenever we have visited (probably lived there too). I feel that it I who is being harassed by my ex tenants not the other way round. But what is your opinion, AIBU in my actions. Please help with your suggestions. I have lost my sleep and peace of mind completely. Sorry, forgot to mention, they have had no loss of income or any change in their financial position.

you should never leave sentimental furniture or décor behind. Sounds as if you did not emotionally disassociate yourselves form the property before letting. Will your ll insurance not cover the damage and/or non payment of rent?

Are their any landlord forums where you can name them and make others aware . You’re very lucky they didn’t stay longer and wait to be evicted so they could claim homelessness and expect the council to house them .

To be honest with you. Unless this is a 5/6 bedroom property then even when potential tenants apply a family of 11 in one house is a lot.

I understand they seemed nice but you need to have more of a business that heart head on when renting.

@Purpletigers They all work in the same place and I do know where.

Yanbu, they sound awful, they clearly have no morals. Have you been able to re let the property? I would make a claim to keep the full deposit and then be very careful about future lets, depending on how much they owe above that you could take them to the small claims court. Sadly they sound like professional scammers, it's good that they wont get a reference from you, hopefully they haven't just moved on to the next unfortunate victim...

Excellent , that’s where I’d start then . I swear I would follow them home to find out where they live .

They will definitely have moved on to the next victim . I would bet money on it .

@Star81 it is a five bed property. We tried to sell before moving but Brexit made it difficult. The rental in the area where this property is, is very low whereas where we have moved is very high. We were forced to rent due to financial reasons.

I think the man who phoned you was not the actual agent, but just trying to intimidate you and get you to back off.
I would draw a line under the whole episode though and just be relieved that you have managed to get them out of the property.

@Samtsirch the man who called said he was my tenants’ manager not agent. But I recognise his voice. I have seen him at the property twice. He was with them when we handed them the keys. My agent thinks he was also living there with them.

I would take advice off the police about him calling and threatening you but the response you should always give with I will sue you is carry on see you there

I doubt the references were genuine. More likely he is a partner to one of them. Assume you had carried out all statutory requirements otherwise you may find them countersuing you. Did the agent visit at all, look at damage etc?

@Bluebells25

The problem is the tenants have become offensive and cries harassment whenever we have asked for the rent. Just wondering if it was ok for the manager/ friend of the tenants to get my number and threaten me on the phone? Is that not GDPR breach?

GDPR? Of course not, your tenants aren't a company to whom you have given your details

@Purpletigers the Manager has threatened that if I ever correspond with them at the work place (it’s a Supermarket) this will be harassment and he will make my life miserable. Just wondering how in the capacity of their Manager is he in a positive to make threats on their behalf?

@CodenameVillanelle The tenants manger who made threats using his professional position from the workplace after getting it from the tenants made me think of GDPR.

If you're using an agent, get another one as your agent sounds useless.

I have had a few bad tenants, one of whom paid no rent for almost the whole of the 6 months it took to evict them.

My agent dealt with everything for me and went to court on my behalf.

I also got almost all of my unpaid rent back through my agent's insurance, and of course, got to keep the whole deposit, which came nowhere near the cost of repairing the damage.

There's a lot of useless agents, I'm afraid. I'm very lucky, mine is brilliant. I don't live near the house I let out so I need an agent and I know I can trust mine implicitly.

Unless he is acting on behalf of the company it is a personal issue and therefore not gdpr related. You contacted him first. If your agent had passed on your details to a third party ie. him that would be.

I am so sorry to hear of all this. We have rented property out for many years - fortunately without any major problems. Several things: an excellent tenancy agreement for a start. A fully documented inventory with photos and with signatures of the tenants and - above all - a reasonable, fair rent. Obtain guarantors too if humanly possible and emphasise to the guarantor [and get them to acknowledge] that they are responsible for unpaid rent.

As to the current situation please do take this to court. You can do it yourself and it is not difficult. You should get a court order which goes on their record and will make it difficult for them to rent in future. If you do not know an address then apply to the court for what used to be called "substituted service" such as one of their references. the likelihood is that they will not attend a court hearing.

@Ginandbearit1

Make sure you take pictures and do an inventory - the deposit protection company will use this to compare to the one you had when they moved in. Also bank statements to show lack of rent payments. This is evidence you can use to keep part/all of the deposit you need to repair the house/cover the rent.
When/if they ask for a reference be honest.
Next time use a letting agents as they credit check and obtain proper references. They're expensive but good

Sorry, meant to say, that I would try small claims court if you know where the tenant is living now.

Otherwise, I'm afraid it just has to be written off, something I've also had to do.

Never trust anyone. Always chase up references, your agent should do this and don't just get personal references. Get references from previous landlord, and verify that they actually are a previous landlord, and also get financial references.

Of course they seemed nice, they wanted you to like them so they could rip you off.

Just move on and forget about it. It's terrible behaviour but actually you are lucky they left voluntarily. There are temporary laws in place to prevent eviction in any circumstances until at least the end of August and then the Court system is going to be stretched to breaking point meaning that evictions will take months so you could have been stuck with them for another year and still be receiving no rent.

Go to small claims and hire a professional server to serve the papers on them, at their place of work if needs be.

You've done nothing wrong (probably shouldn't have called their references though) and given the issues with the virus you have been perfectly lenient as well.

Lesson learnt, dont rent to a group of families in future. Not sure how they fit 8 kids into 2 bedrooms (presumably the adults had their own rooms)! Also, never rent furnished and put the oil tank on the tenancy. You could insist on a down payment for the oil tank at the point of letting, to cover an estimate of 6 months use. But after that it's their job to refill and pay.

3 women and 8 kids ?
Do none of you landlords think of , you know, neighbours ?
I have the most horrible neighbour who rents . No idea who her landlord is or an agent . Seems its about the money with some (definitely seems to be with the landlord next door)

You e made rookies mistakes as anew landlord. You trusted prospective tenants when you had some uneasy feelings. You should have turned around then.

You trusted that the agency would act like legal representative for you. Agents only care to do the minimum they have to under the terms of your contract with them. They also often make mistakes. You should now know that Letting Agents are people you pay to do what you instruct them to do and by that, I mean specifically instruct and needing to check they are doing things by the law and as you wish them too. They are not legal advisors when tenants don't pay unless you sign up to an agreement that covers it.

You need to accept that you will need to oversee it all if you wish to minimise risk as much as possible. To start, you need to educate yourself fully as to your legal requirements as a landlord which are likely to be a lot more than what you think, and the rights of your tenants whether deemed fair or not.
.writing to those who write references was a pointless exercise. Decide if you want to turn the page and accept your financial loss, or whether you want to fight it whilst acknowledging this could also cost you yet more.

Don’t correspond with them . Follow them home ? Too far ? Pretend you’re a private detective 😂