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?

So you 'think' you found a few crumbs of weed in your rented house on which the deposit was not protected and you want to keep the deposit? Are you serious? Do you even have landlord insurance? Does the bank know if its on a mortgage? Gas checks?
You did your tenants a favour by asking them to leave, you are a pair of money grabbing cowboys!

Honestly I’m slack-jawed at the OP’s completely oblivious attitude to their legal obligations as a landlord.

@reallypuzzledoverthis indeed.

I would also like to know the answers to these questions.

This is literally nuts. How on earth can you be in tears about someone (maybe, but maybe not) having done weed? We had horrendous neighbours at one point - they had mental health issues and some of the things we saw were absolutely awful (prostitution, hard drug usage on the street e.g. injections, people attacking each other with hammers etc). The OP would have literally imploded. Where on earth do you live / what on earth do you experience day by day that you are so shocked by weed?! Do you live under a rock or something and never read the news? I hate weed but it's pretty commonly used and not exactly the devil's work in comparison to a lot of things out there.

You don't know if it's weed and if it is you don't know if it's illegal.

YABU

Is this the only illegal act you have carried out?
As others have mentioned there are a number of other legal requirements for landlords, you can't just do it informally.
If you were an actual landlord you would know this, particularly with more than one property.

What "ramifications" do you think you might now "face", OP?

Jesus its a bit of weed, not a meth lab. The police arent going to be busting down the doors for a bit of weed even if that is what it was.
The only illegal activity I can see from your posts is your own by failing to protect the deposit.
You are the criminal here OP, not your tenants.

But that's because they had 101 things to do, doesn't bode well for managing an Airbnb!

Unfortunately, the law doesn't care if you've been sitting on your bum for the past year or as you've said yourself you've had 101 things to do.

If you haven't lodged the other tenant's deposits in the deposit protection scheme, I don't care if the ones who have just left the property you have spent hours cleaning were smoking weed, it is you and your husband who are going to be the ones that the law things very poorly of and would leave yourselves open to being sued by your other tenants.

When I read your update, you mentioned that you were 'persuaded by the higher returns' - let's call a spade a spade here - you had dollar signs in your eyes when you thought of the higher yield from the same property. You're really not covering yourself in glory here, even if you do what is legally required of you to return the former tenant's deposit.

Oh, and one final question - have you or your husband put the deposits from your other tenants (as you mentioned you had a few rented properties) into the deposit protection scheme? Please can we get an answer on that.

You have acted illegally and they can claim from you 3 x the deposit amount if you didn’t secure the deposit in a government backed scheme within 30 days of receiving the funds & send the tenants a copy of the ‘prescribed information’.

It’s been the law for years and there’s absolutely no excuse that you ‘forgot’. The law was put in to protect tenants from unscrupulous landlords like you. I say this as a landlord of 20 years.

Pay the deposit back in full before the tenants realise.

I could be wrong but once the deposit gets refunded, the tenants WILL know it wasn't in a scheme as AFAIK it should come direct from TDS or whatever scheme it was in, not the LLs bank account via transfer

Actually that's a very good point. The OP had better be saving some money from her airbnb idea to cover the deposit and 3X multiple when the tenants realize 😂

You're being accused of illegality OP because you have, in fact, acted illegally. That is something which cannot be disputed, you have said on this thread that you both let the property "informally", yet you had a contract, and you took a deposit. You failed however to register that deposit with the appropriate protection scheme, so you have illegally let a property. I really don't understand why you're doubling down on your protests that the tenants have partaken in illegal behaviour, when you don't really know that, and you have actually definitely acted illegally. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, and you probably shouldn't be a landlord. Is failing to protect the deposit the only thing you've done that's illegal? What's the status of the gas safety certificate?

I wish there was a way to get a hold of them to let them know what absolute sharks their LLs were

If it was next to the kitchen sink @LivFG , I think it's more likely a few bits of dried basil they put in a spag bol or something.

Just forget about it.

OK bad choice of theirs to smoke weed. But it doesn't impact you, or your property. Just clean up what you've seen. I can't really understand the need for bleach/sterilisation. So keeping any deposit doesn't seem justified.

You have got them out anyway - so they won't be smoking weed in there anymore.

And if you're doing air bnb, how do you know the guests won't smoke weed? Me and DH walk our dog in the park every evening, quite late, and it always stinks of weed over the warmer months. It's a pretty standard area. Not rough, not posh. It doesn't impact you. Just get on with your own life, honestly.

Why is @LivFG refusing to understand she's committing a crime by failing to protect the deposit? The refund doesn't matter, the crime has already been committed by the incompetent landlords.

The daily mail headline will be hilarious. 'Illegal landlord weeps over imaginary plant'
🤣🤣🤣

OP people are not using Airbnb these days thanks to cleaning fees, booking fees etc etc. winter is coming and you might find that you gave up a steady stream of income for a bag of air.

@LivFG I'm not an expert on drugs but did you never try weed in your life? There's no reason it would be by a sink. It'd be more likely to be by the sofa/bed or something. But actual weed would probably have been smoked, you wouldn'tve found any residue (do you mean bits of dried herb?.) People don't waste their drugs.

OP give them their deposit back whilst clutching your pearls and chalk this up to experience. You broke the law by not protecting the deposit and now you're looking for a shitty reason to keep their money. Rogue landlord much?

Ok I have a solution.

Scrape up the residue and smoke it. If you feel all relaxed and fancy a snack, it's weed. You'll stop crying as you'll have been proved right but you won't care about the naughty tenants anymore.

If you don't feel anything, it's not weed. You'll stop crying because you'll know the tenants were actually nice people who just enjoy putting herbs in their food.

Win win

Plus if they'd been smoking weed in your house you'd know it would reek. Get a hold of yourself 😂

😅😅😅😅