The Horror of Renting My Property
While I hate marring my delightful little wedding blog with this crap, so many people have asked about what's been going on with my property that I have rented out to two of the most awful tenants. While I am grateful they are not squatters, they have essentially bullied, harassed and caused me so much emotional and financial damage, I just had to write most of it down.
This isn't even the full story ......
From the outset, I have had to deal with endless damage to the property but as a landlord you have to pay for it yourself and not touch the deposit that is held in one of the government deposit schemes.
Whether you have a property manager or not, the landlord still has to approve all works and funds need to be paid on completion of the job immediately. Despite having insurance, there is always a deductible of course but they have, despite what they say, ways of wriggling out of paying out or expect only claims to be made after you have paid.
From the first week, the tenants somehow broke the door and the handle and all needed to be replaced. From never having a single handyman in the flat before when I lived there for 5 years, the toilet was broken and leaking several times over.
Despite the agreement showing that I did not want to provide a bed as the slats were loose and that it would be their responsibility to buy a new bed base they harassed me for months until I finally gave in and bought them new ones because I couldn’t deal with the stress especially since I had gone into hospital and wasn’t able to walk properly.
They complained about squirrels in the roof and despite getting roofers out and what not and them saying there is no hole and nothing they can do, I had to spend hundreds of pounds on pest control, despite there being no attic and no way of stopping squirrels scurrying around outside.
The pest control people even remarked that it is pointless as there is nothing stopping them go in and across the roof but I still, as a landlord, had to do something. They ended up cutting holes into my roof which now make the ceiling look uneven and despite the paintwork, look odd.
The boiler decided to keep freezing up and I took calls sometimes at midnight trying to help, despite them having an emergency line through the property managers to call. I responded to every call, text , email within 5-10 minutes, even if in the following incidences:
When I had just come out of hospital (after 5 hours returning to the hospital I was organising and responding to calls)
Before I was about to run a charity run – was about to run with my mum in a race and I was taking calls and texts.
When I had just finished a charity run (different day to above) – I had just finished a race where I sat down, took a drink of water and then had got a text and call from the tenants
However, they of course would not respond so quickly to taking my property or details for their deposit.
When the boiler reportedly broke down, I responded within 5 mins, if not immediately to all calls. I would all emergency npower boiler experts (those who are familiar with my property and under warranty with them) to go out at the earliest.
Even though appointments were booked immediately, I would still receive texts, calls, emails saying it wasn’t good enough and wasn’t soon enough. I had to respond, even though there was nothing I could add.
I shamefully cried down the phone to the npower several times just hoping there was anything they could do to get there earlier because of the harassment. They couldn’t – and because rightly – my property’s boiler wasn’t the only one in the world and they had other customers.
When the electricity went out, they called and texted me. I responded straight away but I told them to check with the neighbours to see if it’s a road wide thing / district thing. They were very angry with ME on the phone and saying how I owe them money for any food that goes off in the fridge from the electricity outage etc. I told them to check with the neighbours (like any adult would) and guess what?
It was a district thing and several roads were out of power.
They complained of flies in the flat, even though they had been living there for now about 9/10 months. They assumed and said that there was a dead squirrel in the roof and pest control should come in. Anyone who has lived anywhere other than halls of residence knows you get flies. When they die, you clean them up. However, they didn’t. They accumulated them and didn’t bother cleaning because they said it’s not their responsibility.
I cut short my own one weekend to visit my family to go to the flat to inspect and get in pest control. They didn’t bother hovering or cleaning. Despite complaining about the cleanliness of the flat when they moved in (everything was clean bar the skirting boards really when they checked in) they were living in filth. There were empty cartons all over the flat. There were dirty dishes everywhere.
The beautiful sash windows were encrusted with dirt from a solid year of neglect – nothing was clean. The bathroom was testament to this. The sealant round the bath was so eaten away with mould, it was irreparable. The bath was so filthy, it took nearly an hour just to clean the basin.
The floor was matted with hair, so much so that myself and my partner had to rip up the lino and replace it when they left. Same with the sealant.
However, despite all this, I was pressured and basically bullied through threats of taking it to a “higher level” to get in pest control. Pest control came over and I have a recording of him saying that it had nothing to do with anything “dying” and in his professional opinion there was so health hazard, there was nothing out of the ordinary for London, especially when its humid weather in London that share sewage systems etc.
However, he still performed fumigation and said if anything does die (pest wise) over the next 5 days they will just drop dead and die. My partner and I still tried to do some cleaning for them because I was so sad to see my flat like that and thought they would stop being so aggressive.
Over the next few days I go calls and threats, despite taking all right courses of action and professionals saying its nothing. Recorded on voice on my phone and on email.
While we were also there, there were a number of shitty posters up on the walls – although the contract stipulated no posters or signs as it causes damage. And it did. Their shitty Trainspotting posters (which they claimed were collectibles yet stuck them up with blu tack and some NAILED INTO THE WALL) stained all the walls, pulled off some plaster from the lounge and bedroom and was generally ruined. There was no way in rectifying it other than redecorating.
After the fly incident, they said they wanted to leave early. As part of a contract they signed, it says they can go but they need to pay me the rent until the end of the tenancy and the letting agent fees which actually cost me £1000 in just letting fees alone.
They then came back with saying I should owe them for the time they spent out of the flat for flies (even though they didn’t clean up and it was their choice) and that I ripped their posters and therefore that should be like-for-like costs for the flat redecoration. They refused any payments.
They have been so awful, I said they can leave at the end of their rental month and no extra charges and just pay the bills and go.
Easy right? Considering they have stiffed me of thousands of pounds in lack of rent and repairs and now loss of rent.
As the landlord, I have no part in the check-out process. The property managers book an inventory clerk, inventory clerk arranges with the tenants a time and then proceed.
In this case, they were booked for 11 to check out on a certain day.
I took the day off from work (a holiday day) with all my cleaning gear to get the place in ship shape condition because from previous emails they clearly would not / will not / didn’t think it was their responsibility to clean. Even though they clearly lived in utter filth, they still clearly didn’t want to.
So I turn up, come out of the tube and I get an email from the property manager that the tenants “were not ready to leave.”
Any professional or non student or freaking adult knows that when you have a check out time and date, you have to have a vacant property and ready to hand the keys over. Right protocol right?
Despite being in the wrong and abusing the inventory clerk about them not being able to wait around, the inventory clerk still waited until 1130 to check them out. They still had so much to move and clearly would not be able to move out on time. So the inventory clerk had to reschedule and charge them a fee for rescheduling.
However, apparently the property manager was getting abuse and the tenants refused to pay and I was told I would be contacted. Even though this has nothing to do with me. They ended up only checking out / well dropping off their keys past 1300 – so I don’t know how they expected the person to wait for hours for them.
I waited around in the area and had to spend the day waiting and wasting a fully paid holiday day for this.
Subsequently, I only entered the property the next day when the inventory clerk came back in the evening, the day before.
It was awful. It was worse than when I left it and the report said same as check in. I actually had a bit of a cry. I hate crying and it getting to me but it was awful. I had to (like I said) take another holiday day off and scrub the place and rip up the bathroom sealant, bathroom floor and replace.
The flat had one solid year of neglect and it showed. The Blue tack marks were horrendous, there was screws screwed into the walls. Clearly some of the cupboards they didn’t clean for an entire year. Maybe just quick wipes of surfaces.
Anyways, I carried on, went back on the Sunday with my partner and we just redecorated and replaced everything. My futon mattress was gone but I KNEW that if I even bothered trying to claim any money back from them, despite it being my property and I wanted to sell it – I would be given abuse, stress and threats.
Well fast-forward to the inventory report and I knew they would have issues although it has already cost me hundreds in costs after they moved out, not just while they were there.
They fired back an awful email about how they are being victimised and how the futon is theirs as I said I didn’t want it. I have no more strength to deal with this anymore.
Honestly, I understand how older people or people with health dispositions end up having a heart attack or throwing themselves under a train.
I don’t mean that crassly, but there have been times when I don’t know if I have been able to cope as it has been relentless. Of course I’d never do anything like that but I have had to go and throw up in the toilets from stress and carry on with my life.
Anyways, even though I have said that they are having their full deposit back in receipt for final bill settlement evidence, they are still sending me emails about the cancellation inventory fee which has nothing to do with me. I reiterated and told them but again, all the stress gets piled onto me.
Again despite all this, I am returning their deposit as I simply cannot take the stress of all this. The disputes are so relentless that I cannot bear it.
Even when things are in black and white it has been horrendous and while I hate the principle of them “winning” financially and effectively despite them breaching contract and being in the wrong, I want them out of my life.
This isn’t even the full story.
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