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?

You are being majorly unreasonable. Give them their deposit back

OP you don’t even know if it’s weed.

Meanwhile YOU have broken the law. Seeing as you’re so anti-law breaking are you not disgusted with yourself? Or are ‘middle class’ law breaks OK?

You’re funny! I needed the laugh.

What on earth are you talking about? Your property has not been "abused". You are being completely hysterical and strange. You don't even know if it is "weed residue" but even if it is, it's got precisely zero to do with you and has no legal implications for you whatsoever.

What does have legal implications is the fact that you have not put their deposit in a scheme (as you are legally required to do) and that you are planning to withhold a deposit for no reason whatsoever.

It's also disgraceful that you don't do a thorough clean between tenants. That's shameful.

You need to give them their full deposit back, give the house a proper clean, read up on the law and calm down!

Yes can you imagine just how much more weed is likely to be consumed in this property (or harder drugs, large amounts of alcohol etc) and how much more frequently it will need to be cleaned when it's being rented to an endless succession of complete randoms who don't have any long term interest in keeping it nice, rather than a couple of people who have been vetted, who work and look after it because it's their home and might possibly smoke the occasional spliff?

OP really hasn't thought this through.

I'd love to be a fly on their wall as the OP discovers the reality of what they turfed these people out of their home to do.

I was in tears earlier

LOL

get a grip.

Yes illegal activities are a breach of tenancy. But teaching the tenancy is never rewarded with deposit money. It’s not like you get a fiver per breach. All you can do is kick them out which you’ve already done .

The only law breaker is you - you’re a slum landlord and you’re a thief.

Personally I'd be giving their deposit back asap and trying very hard to keep them sweet. Otherwise you risk them challenging the lack of a proper deposit scheme - which could be a very costly aspect of your responsibilities that you've missed.

You are on the back foot here. In your shoes I'd keep that in mind and do whatever it takes to get the tenants moving on without hassle. Holding their deposit will not achieve that and is likely to really land you in hot (and expensive) water.

@LivFG It doesn’t matter what they did in the property, you didn’t protect the deposit. You broke the law first.

Trust me you’re not a good landlord. You didn’t protect your tenant’s deposit - it’s a 5 minute job and costs about £15 to do.You’re now trying to steal off them. You’re a terrible landlord.

Someone MAYBE smoking weed isn’t acceptable but it’s far more acceptable than stealing after you’ve already broken the law, which is what you’re trying to do

I think you need to familiarise yourself with letting regulations.

I really wish a law was brought in to ensure that landlords go on courses to understand the legalities of renting and how to treat tenants properly. It’s shocking that the OP as an experienced landlord doesn’t understand basic things like protecting a deposit and what action can actually be taken after a tenancy breach.

God are you okay mentally? This is a massive overreaction to something normal (and no I don't smoke it and never have)
You've turfed good tenants out out just so you can make more money and they've left it in good condition, give them their fucking deposit back!

Crying because someone might have smoked weed.

Wait until a stag or hen do book your airBnB and you find cocaine residue everywhere. What will you do then?

Typical scumbag the-law-doesn't-apply-to-ickle-me rogue landlord behaviour. Get a real job and stop trying to steal from people. Give them their deposit back and hand yourself over to the authorities.

Are you OK? You THINK could be a bit of weed? You don't want to "fund their lifestyle"? Seriously? It's not like you went in and found a load of herion filled needles. It's weed! It can legally prescribed here in the UK and is legal in general in several countries. Are you also going to ban alcohol consumption in your properties?

Yabu

Possibly the most unreasonable of any AIBU I’ve seen.

This! I don’t think you’re cut out for AirBnB- ing

It would be illegal for you to keep the deposit.

Assuming you are in England, it was illegal of you to accept a deposit for a rental property but not put it in the deposit protection scheme straight away.

If you keep the deposit, they will take you to court and they will win. You would also then get a large fine for not protecting the deposit in the scheme, and you would have to oay their legal costs and your own.

Any drug-taking they may or may not have been doing is a criminal issue, and thus a matter for the police, should you wish to involve them. However as there is insufficient proof (and even smoking weed at a police officer merely gets a verbal warning), there is zero point in reporting it to the police.

What you need to understand is that legally, any drug-taking they may have done in your property is irrelevant to their right to get the deposit back.

If I were you I would not want to go anywhere near the court.

Honestly, you need to reconsider renting your property out on Airbnb if you are this sensitive. Someone once organised an S&M weekend (as in a commercial endeavour where people paid to come and get dominated) at our airbnb. We knew because we found something with branding on it and looked up the ‘company’. Lots of pictures of people doing all sorts in our house 🤷‍♀️

It wasn’t the end of the world - nothing got damaged.

What until you find cocaine residue on any glass surfaces 🤣🤣 which I GUARANTEE will happen

Thanks for a very entertaining thread OP 👏 👍 😀

You’ve broken the law by not putting their deposit in a scheme.

grow up

I once rented my house out - for 6 months. I came back to kitchen cupboard doors missing, dried vomit on my daughters bedroom walls and a huge bucket of vomit on my patio. I was also made aware of god knows how many parties going on in my house. It was a complete and utter mess

Massive clean up, repaint and sorted my kitchen. Didn’t get a penny of the deposit though because the lettings agency didn’t submit the before pictures to the tenancy deposit scheme. Complete joke but not the end of the world

Just wait until you have some delightful tenants in! I would have been over the moon if all I’d come into my house to was a bit of ‘possible weed residue’ on one of my surfaces

That's not what a deposit is for and you have no way of knowing that they used it illegally. Also, I know you havent asked, but I think its immoral to kick out good tenants so you can rake in more money, should have waited until they wanted to end the tenancy. Shame on you