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?

This is madness
why does the whole place now need bleached and sterilised? If it has been cleaned it is fine

what legal ramifications could you possibly face - no one is going to be prosecuted for anything. Even if the police had turned up whilst they lived there they would have likely received a caution and you would have known nothing about it

i get you feel like your trust has been abused but i think you are overreacting and blowing this out of proportion caused you are pissed at your DH about the air bnb plan

Any tax implications from your rental scam?

You just need to give the sides a wipe like your usual clean. Why do you think you can break the rules but no one else can? You can't even prove it's weed fgs

and do what they like and apparently it's okay?

Because the property was their home and you’re not the police.

It’s absolutely fuck all to do with landlords (and I am one) what tenants do in their home when it’s not damaging the building (which doing weed in the house isn’t) or breaching their tenancy (which doing weed in the house isn’t).

Its also highly amusing that someone who has broken the law in a serious way (and I bet multiple ways - LL’s who don’t bother protecting deposits often cut corners in other ways) is behaving so ridiculously dramatic over it.

Yeah you're just the unpaid skivvy really!

I was in tears earlier. It might not come across well, but this has all really shaken and upset me.

Surely doing anything illegal in the property would count as a breach of tenancy? Or you can just rent anything, start doing illegal activities, and that's okay now?

How can you be "pretty sure"?

If this is for real, the only proven illegal behaviour is yours. It is a criminal offence not to put a tenant's deposit in a deposit protection scheme as many pps have told you. If you don't return that money to the people you evicted then good luck if they pursue it's return. You can be fined. Bang go your Airbnb profits.

Why isn't the deposit in a scheme?

if you’re not a troll then you’re not cut out to be a landlord.

Nothing has happened to the building, no complaints have been made by neighbours, and you don’t even actually know 100% anything has happened.

Yet you and your husband absolutely have broken the law.

Keeping their deposit because you are offended/outraged is illegal. It also sounds like you have not conducted the tenancy legally so I would be very careful about what you stir up.

You sound bonkers OP and the only people who have provably acted unlawfully are you and your husband by failing to protect the deposit.

By the way I will shortly by suing my former landlord for 3 times my deposit. The funny thing is they tried to hold on to a few hundred quid of my deposit out of greed. Made me look into the matter further and realised they had breached their deposit obligations. They will now be sued for thousands.

Would be quite funny if you did keep it and ended up having to pay them three times their deposit back because they end up reporting your law breaking.

I live in California where Weed has been legal for ages. I don't partake, but pretty much everyone I know does. I can say with a fair amount of certainty that "Weed residue" on a sink is not a thing. "Weed residue" might hang out in a bong or a pipe, but frankly it's no more disgusting, and far easier to clean, than the stink of smoke lingering in the walls from cigarettes.

And if you need to clean "weed residue," white vinegar will be much more effective than bleach.

As @YetMoreNewBeginnings says theses tenants paid you (probably a huge proportion of their income) for your property to be their actual home, their place of comfort and safety and security, you have booted them out and probably left them in a desperate situation trying to find somewhere else to live and now want to withhold money for some absolute nonsense reason that you haven't even verified that offends your morals and will quite likely leave these people in a seriously difficult and possibly destitute situation by not giving money back they likely need desperately for a new home.

I think you are the moral outrage buying up affordable property because you are in a position of privilege and using it for greedy personal gain removing yet another property from the dire rental/ affordable home market

If this is even real, you will get everything you deserve trying to manage an air b and b

*spoiler alert- this couple and holiday renters will have had sex in your house, maybe all over the place 💅🏼

To quote the classic mumsnet advice - you don’t have a tenant problem you have a DH problem.

Maybe next time you post excitable stories in the early hours do a bit of research into the technicals first 😉

Some times they might have said swear words too and done big shits in the toilet.

To be honest .. you could attract many more weed users every week to an AirB&B establishment.
You might have to sterilise after each guest.

Long term renters you can vet very well. You have time to read through references etc. Once you have good tenents you can relax. With three or four different groups each week, some will abuse your home before you know that they are unworthy to stay in your Airb&B.

I would take a sample of the 'weed' in a plastic bag to the Police Station for testing. When it turns out not to be weed you can rest easy and calm down. It could be any herb.

Are you high?

So you didn't get round to protecting the deposit, and you don't do a proper clean between tenants. What else did you not get round to? A proper tenancy agreement? The relevant gas/fire/safety checks?

What if you found that a tenant had a young teenage child who had drunk alcohol on your premises (we all raided our parents drinks cupboards when we were 13!) Or fiddled their tax return? Or bent the truth on their insurance forms? Would you be up in the air about those illegal activities?

I don't think you're cut out to be a LL, either temperamentally or in terms of your views on how other people behave.

Oh and good luck with Air BnB if a little bit of possible weed residue causes you this much distress about the cleaning. My friend rents an Air BnB and once found frozen turd encased in a condom in the freezer. Gross!💩

Keep the deposit, this way they can go to small claims and you'll end up paying a few times more which I think you deserve for your 'informal' renting style.
Can't believe you didn't even protect the deposit and then want to keep it.
Deposit schemes exist to protect tenants from people like you.

Said with kindness, this is not a rational response. Is something else going on that is causing you anxiety? I live in a country where weed is legal and I have no idea what this “weed residue” is. Just clean it up and move on. As an owner of a guesthouse which sees hundreds of guests each year, I can say that it is not your place or your right to judge others. You are running a business, not running a church.

I'm Canadian and high right now. Weed residue is not a thing. On top of which it wouldn't be hanging around a kitchen sink.

That said between you and me a little bit of weed might do you some good. You have absolutely nothing to be stressed about.

Consider hiring a drug dog to search your rental when you do your monthly check. (with 24 hours in advance notice)
Or sniffer dogs could be used to check in each batch of AirB&B guests.

You owe the bond back.
It might not be weed. The removalists or real estate agents could have planted it there. It was found after the place was vacated. You have no evidence of wrong doing.

Wow. You are going to get your Arse handed to you.