31^st Oct 2018

Upon leaving their rented house 'Rogue' tenants left it in an appaling state with destroyed furniture, rotting food discarded everywhere along with fifty bags of rubbish.

The distraught Grimsby landlord not only had a virtually destroyed house but was also owed £1,700 in unpaid rent. He discovered to his horror that rotten food and waste was left on the floors with a thick 'grime' covering the floors of the property, as well as cupboard doors ripped away from their hinges. The tenants had also ruined the kitchen, doors in the house were broken, carpets ruined that had to be destroyed and plug sockets ripped off walls.

However the 'Thug' tenants also left another parting gift of a huge mound of waste bags displayed openly in the garden.

The landlord and his property manager Anne felt that because of the appaling state of the property, it has put them off of renting their properties to tenants receiving housing benefit. The landlord has endured a history of people on Universal Credit not paying rent.

In spite of the terrible state of the property the landlord managed to completely repair the house after Nottingham Council contacted him and the property manager to ask them for help to house a family in extremely dire straits.

Anne said: "After we found the house in such an awful condition, we were steadfast against ever renting to people on housing benefits or renting through the local authority. But then Nottingham Council contacted us, explaining that they were in urgent need of some help to house a desperate family. At first we were apprehensive, but the council offered to provide us with three months' rent in advance so we could make the necessary repairs. We ended up giving the house a complete make-over, with a new kitchen, carpets, paint, electrics and doors. If this never happened then we would still be struggling to have the house repaired, as the lack of rent and sheer amount of damage would have left us out severely out of pocket."

The landlord has also had to endure many serious problems with rogue tenants in Grimsby. One property was ruined by a group of squatters who lit a fire in the kitchen and another tenant had to be evicted for owing thousands of pounds in rent.

Anne added: "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, 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."


News Archive »