Tenants leave property in a disgusting state before f...

Breaking News

02 October 2018

9695 Reads
21 Comments

TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

Tenants leave property in a disgusting state before fleeing owing £1,700 rent

A landlord was handed a huge cleaning bill after his house was left in a horrific and disgusting state.

The landlord was shocked when he inspected the property after the tenants had moved out to find rubbish everywhere and bin bags piled up on furniture.

The tenants left rotten water in the bath, knocked electrical sockets out of the walls, and damaged the carpets ‘beyond repair’ at the house in Grimsby’s West Marsh area.

More than 50 bags of rubbish were removed from the house, which had been home to a family with young children.

The landlord, who wishes to be referred to only as Garry, said the tenants ‘ruined’ the kitchen, with many of the cupboard doors broken off their hinges, while the bathroom had also been left in a state of disrepair.

Aside from the problems discovered inside the house, there was also a huge pile of rubbish bags in the back garden.

Despite the appalling state of the house, the landlord managed to completely refurbish the property in just a week, after Nottingham Council contacted him about housing a family in need.

The council offered to provide the landlord with three months’ rent in advance so he could make the necessary repairs.

Aside from leave the property in a disgusting state, the tenants, who were receiving Universal Credit, left owing more than £1,700 in rent.

Anne, the property manager, said: “Since the introduction of Universal Credit we have had constant problems with tenants falling into rental arrears, the whole system just doesn't seem fit for purpose.

“Many times when a tenant goes onto the benefit system, there is no communication with us as landlords, and for the first few months we often get no rent paid.

“To try and fix this we have sent documents to tenants and the Department of Work and Pensions [DWP], providing them with the correct forms so that rent is paid directly to us, but we have just hit brick wall after brick wall while doing this.

“There are times that I have been hung up on by the DWP just for simply trying to chase up where one of our tenants’ rent is coming from.

“It is putting landlords off renting to people on benefits altogether, as we cannot afford to go without rents being paid.”

We're excited to announce that we're working on building a shiny new website for readers of Landlord Today! As part of this process, commenting on articles will be temporarily disabled. We look forward to sharing our new and improved Landlord Today website with you shortly!