How a nightmare tenant taught me the importance of a good letting agent in Edinburgh
I have been renting my property for the last 20 years. And I’ll be honest that there was no single tenant from that time who has messed with me and forced me to question myself for managing my property myself. Things always moved smoothly, repairs were few, and life as a landlord was easy to bear. But this time, I was unlucky; everything had changed. This tenant was a real pain in the aaasss, I must say it was something else.
When I rented out my property to him, he gave me his introduction as a reputable worker in an MNC. And when I hear this, I think he will be a responsible guy for the property maintenance as well. But things were not according to my expectations.
Right from the very first day, he was not behaving well. And being a tenant, he did not understand his responsibilities. Rent was not on time. He was not taking care of the property, and the appliances and other accessories did not work as smoothly as they used to.
Once, he called in at midnight regarding a leaking tap, which was in reality not a big issue and could be resolved by the next morning. But he demanded to change that on the spot. And seriously, before that, there was hardly any chance that things were not working.
Right after one week of this, he messaged me regarding the refrigerator. He said that it is making a humming noise and wants to change it instantly. No doubt this can be repaired by an electrician. And, this did not stop here. After days, he again called me to say that the carpet in the living room should be replaced just because of a stain.
And whenever it was time for rent, he came up with a lot of excuses and procrastinated paying it until the next month. I was completely overwhelmed by his behaviour. He called me even in the middle of the night, with constant calls. I tried to explain things to him politely, but nothing was making any effect on them. It felt like he was deliberately making things more complicated.
After twenty years of dealing with tenants, I literally went mad. After a sleepless week full of worrying, I finally contacted a letting agent in Edinburgh called Umega and talked about my options. And oh, glad I was, as they were so sensitive towards my story. Indeed, they said this tenant was awkward to pursue. But nevertheless, they contacted my tenant on my behalf and immediately set out the boundary to contact them from now on and not to call me directly. Then they discussed with him and identified what the actual problems are. They also prioritize his requests, addressing the real problems first while managing minor complaints later.
Within a week, they sorted out all his concerns. When they asked about the concern about why he is not paying the rent on time, firstly, they asked in a polite way, and then they realised that he was deliberately damaging the stuff.
They didn’t expel him immediately. He was a tenant of mine for the next two months, also. The number of repairs was much higher than I have ever seen before. Then they told me that if I were to leave, they would help me to get rid of him.
Finally, after stabilizing the situation, they helped me initiate the legal process to end the tenancy with that ‘problematic’ tenant. Once the tenancy ended, they went further and found a reliable, responsible tenant to take over, managing all background checks, references, and agreements professionally. Since then, I have not tried to manage the property on my own because, after this episode, I no longer wanted to ever hear from another tenant complaining, no matter how genuine.