Property I let has been sub-let and I'm upset!

Scooby_Man

Nenen wrote:

Why on earth didn't you get an independent interpreter of your own at that point???? For a few pounds in fees to a competent interpreter you could have saved a huge amount of money and angst!

BTW I know a Polish consultant doctor who lives with his wife and two children (both of whom are privately educated) in a large detached house.... how's that for confounding stereotypes?

Its always easy in hindsight, Madam.

In fact, the agent had an interpretter present when they did the viewing. All seemed kosher. When I tried to enlist the help of the interpretter through the agent, the agent didn't give a monkies.

I work with a polish guy who is about to be promoted to my grade (and I have been instrumental in supporting his promo), so I am not into the 'racial' [(c) Jade] thing.

Scooby_Man

Somerset wrote:

Scooby_Man

Can I ask you who the letting agents were ? I know you said previously they were a well known outfit. Also just out of curiousity, did you ever get sight of the references, credit checks, whatever. I realise they only 'found' your four original tenants but I'm curious whether they did the letting checks or were lazy. Personally I'd bite the bullet and repay the deposit if I seriously thought they'd come knocking at my door if I moved back in - it's not right but you are obviously fearful of repercussions. Best of luck whatever you decide.

Thanks Somerset. I will PM you the agents name - dont want to be the one who makes it public, although I am thinking of taking this matter further with them with the help of ARLA and NAEA, although I dont know how helpful that'll be.

Yes I have all the paperwork - credit checks etc. Agent said it was kosher (its just a wad of bank statements, references and passport details). Even so, those original tenants, except one, are no where in sight now.

peter999

Scooby_Man wrote:

...is the sight of these leggy Polish women who seem to always be walking around the coridoors.

What goes on there at night !!??
Ra, ra, ra. !! :rotfl:

peter999

Scooby_Man

I'm not sure although it did cross my mind that it was being used as a brothal or there were prostitues around. I don't want to be judgemental, but inituition doesn't quite place the women I saw/have seen there with the blokes dwelling in there at the time.

This is gonna drive me crazy.

I need a large drink. Speaking of which, when I did go around there the other day the bottle recycle bucket was full of about 300 Polski beer bottles - it did make me laugh the amount of alcohol these chaps get through.

peter999

Scooby_Man wrote:

I'm not sure although it did cross my mind that it was being used as a brothal or there were prostitues around. I don't want to be judgemental, but inituition doesn't quite place the women I saw/have seen there with the blokes dwelling in there at the time.

This is gonna drive me crazy.

I need a large drink. Speaking of which, when I did go around there the other day the bottle recycle bucket was full of about 300 Polski beer bottles - it did make me laugh the amount of alcohol these chaps get through.

Hope everything sorts itself out.

peter999

davef

BTman wrote:

I would worry more about getting them out than a deposit etc.
I bet they claim squatter's rights.

Another greedy LL bites the dust.

MWAA HAA HAA

Prat (I have much harsher words for you but cannot repeat then on here)

John_Pierpoint

Voyager2002 wrote:

I strongly object to the anti-immigrant remarks posted above. All kinds of people come to this country for a whole range of reasons, and many of them are fine.

It is interesting to see how different people on this crowded island seem to live in parallel universes.

There is nothing racist about this, the facts appear to be these:

Man lets out family home and discovers it has been converted into a hostel for migrant male building workers.

Have you ever lived in a hostel for migrant building workers ?
(I have: as you travel north up the A1 there is a big new junction at Ferrybridge near Leeds. There is a power station next to the river. I helped build it. We lived in three rows of hut accommodation and had a 5 X 8 cell each. On each door there was a priced inventory of every stick and fitting in the room. There were regular fights caused mainly by weekend excess alcohol, that could smash a cell to pieces. HOWEVER the landlord was also the employer and could deduct any damage from pay owing. Tenants regularly did a midnight flit for a variety of reasons. Sounds like these tattoed Poles are reasonable civilized in comparison with my neighbours from the British Isles of the 1960's)

Have you ever had a tenant do a flit leaving you with a sub-tenant/squatter?
(I have, and I'm not talking about tattoed building workers. I'm talking about
an old lady who died leaving her employee a care worker in situ. She was a foreigner, but spoke pretty good English. I'll let you guess which country she came from. At first I tried to be reasonable and said I would be getting some decorating work done and would then be selling the property, so feel free to stay on rent free for up to 3 months while you look for a new job. Guess what happened ! She appeared to make no effort to find a new job, started getting clever about letting the decorators into "her home". She would simply lock them out because their hours of work did not suit her.
After 3 months the house was ready to be sold and she dug in her heels and refused to allow the estate agents to send people to look at the house. The very final straw was shopping me to the local council on the theory that her council tax was somehow my responsibility !

We had an "interesting" discussion about how God decided these things and all things happened at their pe-ordinated time and then I handed her a eviction notice.)

Have you ever had to wait in the Q for a court order ? How long does it take in your part of the world ?

Fortunately I did not have to wait that long, because some 10 days later I was driving past and found the front door ajar - she had gone and not even shut the door properly. I could gain entry and start clearing up her mess.

==========================================================

I think the answer is going to be, give the deposit back if the house is left vacant, repaired and tidy. The excessive wear and tear and minor damage, caused by a tribe of builders living in it, will have to be put down to experience. It might be worth talking the situation over with the official tenant, who speaks english (?) if he can be found, but he has probably prospered from the extra 000's he has been making by subletting and lives in his own pad now? If you simply refuse to return the money after they have all left, you might start getting brick bats through the front window or a key run along your car paintwork.
Think of the deposit and compare it with your solicitors bill and the delays involved if you go down the legal route, it has become a bribe for getting your property back.

John

furndire

Scooby_Man wrote:

Its always easy in hindsight, Madam.

In fact, the agent had an interpretter present when they did the viewing. All seemed kosher. When I tried to enlist the help of the interpretter through the agent, the agent didn't give a monkies.

I work with a polish guy who is about to be promoted to my grade (and I have been instrumental in supporting his promo), so I am not into the 'racial' [(c) Jade] thing.

You could always ask your work mate if he will interpret for you ~ Introduce him as your friend

cheapskate101

Have you thought of hiring a pair of large bouncers to stand around and look tough when you go to visit your tenants? Introduce them as your relatives. Instruct them to say and do nothing.

May help your tenants to see the error of their ways..and work out cheaper.

Loretta

First of all the racial bit, if this was a polish family, husband wife and 2.4 children this problem would not have arisen. The fact that it was single men renting what sounds like a large house, from a country that happens to be poland but could have been anywhere, where some people know or Letting Agents should know from experience in their local area, that this situation would happen and the place would be used as a hostel and should have warned the Landlord that this was very likely so he could make an informed decision whether to let to these tenants or not. I believe that there is a letting agent near Crawley, near Gatwick airport, who will not let to airline staff because the same situation happens, I am sure that they are not all polish!

The other point is many people do no understand the difference between 2 contracts a landlord can have with a letting agent, one is the agents find a tenant does the credit check and references, sometimes collects the rent and usually arranges a 'check in' when the detailed inventory is gone through with the new tenants. The other arrangement is that the letting agent does full management of the property which means they deal with regular inspections, repairs etc. Many amateur landlords see the difference in the price and choose not to pay for management because it can be quite expensive. Even is the Landlord lives on the other side of the world and has no way of dealing with any problem within the property ie, a serious leak on Christmas Day etc they think that 'someone' maybe the fairies will deal with all this for free and many letting agents have a difficulty not getting drawn into this situation.

This Landlord seems to have decided to manage this property himself, whether he was in a situation to do so or not. Did he carry out regular inspections? there would be an arrangement on the tenancy agreement that the landlord had the right to inspect the property every 3 months or whatever on the, say, 15th of every 3rd month or would write and give 24 hours, 7 days whatever notice whatever was agreed between himself and the tenants, and would then expect to be let in or would let himself in to have a look round if the tenant was not available for the appointment. In the tenancy agreement it would almost definetly say that the locks must not be changed without the Landlord's permission, this is standard stuff.

How did the place get in such a state and the landlord have no idea who had been living there if he had been checking himself and acting like a professional landlord, which he should consider himself to be if he was accepting the rent and had chosen not to pay someone to manage the property for him. He really has only himself to blame and perhaps he should learn the hard way with this experience.

I am not a landlord or a tenant and I have never been involved in anyway with this situation but I hope I have reached an age where I have learnt about life and perhaps he will too