To keep their deposit!!

[LivFG]

DH and I have a couple of properties we rent out. We have been renting to a young couple who always seemed like good tenants. We gave them notice a couple of months ago as we are going to start renting on AirBnB instead as DH thinks we will get more money (don't get me started).

Anyway, they moved out on Saturday and everything seemed fine. Today I went to get everything cleaned and I found (what I think to be) weed residue next to the sink. I'm Furious. I feel completely violated and uncomfortable being inside the property. I'm sick with worry that they have been using illegal drugs in my home and what the legal ramifications could be!!

Obviously we have their deposit. I was planning to refund it this week. After my discovery today, I now feel incredibly reluctant to make any sort of refund. The idea of supporting/funding their lifestyle makes me very uncomfortable. And they never would have been given permission to abuse my property in this way.

DH seems to think none of this is a problem and seems to completely miss the point - it isn't about cleaning it up - it's about the abuse of our trust.

AIBU?

🐠

I can totally understand you not liking or wanting to support their lifestyle choices, however this is definitely not a valid reason to withhold their deposit.

Your DH is also aware how an Airbnb will potentially produce many more problems than good, clean, reliable tenants ever will?

How long did it take you to scour the house, looking for any excuse to steal their deposit after you kicked them out?

Why on earth should it be cleaned from top to bottom? Weed is a plant, it’s not radioactive. Give them back their money and stop making moral judgements. Do you think your Airbnb guests won’t have the odd joint sometimes?

F

You have broken the law, OP. You didn’t protect the deposit.

you are the criminal. I hope they sue you.

You've got more money than sense (or decency)

A) give deposit back

B) make sure you sort it out legally for 2nd rented property

C) Enjoy the occasional hell that comes with air b'n'b! Welcome to your 19th nervous breakdown!

As do we. DH decorates the flat we rent out and a decorator does the house we rent.

And yes to PPs what they do in their home is their business UNLESS you have a clause in the contract that stipulates they can't do it.

You're trying to steal a deposit. And you're desperately trying to deflect that. You are acting illegally, you didn't protect the deposit and they have now have more of a claim against you then you ever did them. I hope they pursue it! You give landlords a bad name

If the deposit was not held correctly it's not there to protect against anything. You should return their money asap and hope they don't report you. Have you been reporting earnings to HMRC?

Tbh I'd judge you far more for being shitty landlords than I would them for some potential weed use you're not even sure about.

How do you know it’s weed? You seem fairly anti drugs? I’d check for lighting rigs and cameras being taken in if you’re going to do Air BnBs. You’d definitely need to sterilise after that.

I don’t think this is real.

If it is why isn’t the OP reading and absorbing the comments which are overwhelming in agreement?

Return the deposit, clean the property and grow up.

I hope you come back soon to tell us how the air bnb is going🤣🤣

Or smoke it and chill

This has to be a gigantic pile of horse shit. Otherwise this is a landlord of the lowest calibre

there absolutely needs to be regulation in this space, we can’t keep allowing the dregs of humanity making money by being so fucking greedy that they think that the deposit of others belongs to them or is theirs to make them feel better.

3/10.

My landlord tried to withhold my deposit. I sued him for not protecting it and got 3x the deposit back. HTH.

You have acted illegally by not putting their deposit in a protection scheme., which is a legal requirement . It is illegal to just pocket their deposit, keep it in your bank or spend it how you fancy and then try and not return it. I hope they sue the f out of YOU, you're the wrong uns.

And yeah, if this is true, I hope the place is absolutely trashed by air bnb-ers.

Even if you put a clause into a tenancy, it doesn’t make it enforceable.

I could put in that my tenants have to make me dinner every Tuesday, but no court is going to enforce that clause for me - I hate cooking so maybe I should try 😆

The Op is why decent landlords get shit on here. Too many LLs like them make people judge all LLs poorly.

Sorry OP, but are you being serious?
Property ‘has been abused’ and now needs to be bleached sterilised because you’ve found something that looks like ‘weed residue’ (but you wouldn’t have bothered with a deep clean otherwise)?
As others have said, God only knows how you’ll come with air bnb.

There are 2 unbelievably ironic points about this thread

1 - The OP has definitely broken the law by not protecting the deposit whereas the tenants only may have done so by having a bit of weed

2 - The OP is horrified by this potential abuse of her property but is about to Air B& B it when this kind of thing will be a regular occurrence

You have acted illegally by not putting the deposit in a protection scheme so I don't know why you think you have any sort of moral high ground

Oh FFS. I'm a well known pearl clutcher - been accused many times. Also a landlord and run some holiday lets. Please believe me when I advise, tell scream at you from the rooftops that short term tenants/holidaymakers will be far far less respectful of your property than long term tenants.

Clean the property, and it ought to be a thorough spring cleaned between tenants, repay the deposit and get on with it. Especially if they were reliable tenants who paid the rent on time. And next time, have a proper contract in place.

Fact OP, some people smoke marajuana, some people might have a ciggie indoors, an occasional tenant might charge male visitors for their services. You might find a used condom under the bed or a dirty sex toy at the back of the bedside table. Letting property for profit has hidden delights.

You'd need to clean it anyway.

I’m a ll. you’re being extremely unreasonable. You cannot keep a deposit because you don’t like their style of living.

(just read all your posts, OP you and your DH are renting illegally. Get yourself a good agent, find out all the facts about renting , rent responsibly AND get a rent insurance policy, that might have saved me £8000 several years ago when I started, and a whole lot of worry to boot)

if the place stinks and needs cleaning, or that area needs repairs or replacing that’s fine, charge them for the works.

the deposit company will side with them if you just state their way of living.

if the flats fine, return deposit and move on. Decent tenants are worth their weight in gold, as LL we are slated enough, don’t add unnecessary fuel to that fire.

If you believe this story, please go and turn your WiFi off for a bit.