House trashed by tenants

gilp

Hi I am hoping for some advice specific to my situation and my legal rights.

I am a private landlord in Scotland and rented my flat out to a group of people for the last three years. For the first two there were no problems, they paid on time and I did annual inspections where all was well. The last inspection I did was June 2012, when one moved out and a new person moved in. The total deposit I held was one month's rent, £700.

This is a three bed flat, however I don't have an HMO Licence therefore could only rent it to two people, and I advertised the third bedroom as a study. It was fully furnished.

The tenants agreed to be present for an inspection before moving out, but when I went to the flat they had already left and the house was in a severely damaged state.

It required new carpets throughout due to burns and the fact that all carpets and soft furnishings were infested with larvae and beetles, clearly due to lots of food being dropped around. Almost all the furniture was damaged beyond repair (wood warped etc) and when I investigated further I realised that the washing machine had broken at some point (they did not inform me of this, I only realised when I tried to use it and it didn't drain) and they had clearly been prying the door of it open to empty it then hanging up soaking washing, causing mould to form all over the walls and damp to leach into the plaster. I have had to replaster, repaint and rewire the place.
They had installed a pay-as-you-go electricity meter without informing me, and the usual meter was boarded up. After many discussions with Scottish Hydro it seems there is a £1400 debt due to them from these tenants.
It became evident that the third bedroom was being used, and a lot of post has arrived for two people who were never on the tenancy agreements. I did open one or two letters which were things like GP registration documents so clearly they were living there.

I have kept their deposit, which one tenant (the one who was living there for the longer period) consented to. However the damage has cost me well above £3000 to repair, at a minimum.

Additionally, this flat is part of a listed building!!

Basically I would really like some advice on my rights with regard to demanding further money from them to pay for repairs. They have clearly broken the law by subletting in a non-HMO flat, as well as causing damage to a listed building. I have looked a lot online but can only find specific advice related to people in my position in England as opposed to Scotland. I realise I should probably have inspected more regularly, however I had thought annually was reasonable.

Thank you in advance!!

AlexMac

Sympathies. Someone else may be more familiar with the law in Scotland, but I suspect that in practice, it would be a waste of your time and energy to attempt recovery of costs via legal action in your equivalent of our small claims court, even if you can find your former tenants.

Looking more positively, over the last three years you've had over £25,000 in rent income, on an asset which I guess is worth £120-150k? More than you'd get from money in the Post-office, even after costs? And most landlords would assume at least 10% a year for repairs, renewals and redecorations of a rental flat, and sometimes, empty periods and consequent loss of rent and agents fees, possibly as oftern as every 6 months as tenants leave after an Assured shorthold.
I have spent over £5k in the past year on new doors and windows on one of my two properties because the freeholder determined this was needed, and accept this as inevitable, together with a £6k+ kitchen and bathroom refit on one in the past ten years and new boilers at £2k a pop on both in the past 5.

Better luck next time- if you can't do the usual reference checks yourself (past landlord, employer, bank, credit rating, inventory...) it might be worth paying an agent a few hundred to do this- it also helps get off on a businesslike footing.

So, a' the best fur yir future as a landlord

pmlindyloo

As already said you need to have evidence of an inventory completed and updated whenever the tenant changed. If you have not got this then seeking legal recompense will almost certainly be a non starter.

If you have this...........

You cannot claim new for old (betterment) and therefore you need to list the disrepair and factor in the age and condition of the carpets/furniture/painting etc.

Once you have a list of what are reasonable sums for the tenants to pay then deduct the deposit and see what you have left.

Is this worth suing over?

If you decide to sue (link here for small claims court in Scotland - http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/taking-action/small-claims) then first you might wish to send a letter to each tenant outlining their share of the costs. Offer a repayment plan. Threaten with court action.

Of course this is only possible if you have their forwarding addresses.

No chance I suppose that you had guarantors? (Might be worth thinking about for next time)

Personally I intensely dislike people 'getting away with things' so even if I decided not to go the legal route I would certainly be threatening to do so. You never know it might make them think in future.

I do agree that sometimes you have to 'take the hit' as a landlord but ignoring it totally wouldn't be my way!!!!!!!!!!