Are there just as many rogue tenants as there are landlords?

roses

I have seen a lot of threads on here about landlords not fixing things/giving back deposits & very few about landlords who have problem tenants.



Perhaps I have been lucky in the past but I rented 3 places in the past 4 years & always got my deposit back in full at the end, the landlords always fixed things when they went wrong, I always cleaned regularly & fixed things I broke.

Yet there are so many threads on here about bad landlords not giving back deposits! Are good landlords hard to come by?

I have had friends complain that they didn't get back their deposits. But to be honest I usually side with the landlord because one particular friend was complaining that the landlord deducted for a mouldy bathroom (he didn't clean once in the 1 year he was there!), an iron mark he left on the new (but very cheap) carpet & he left LOTS of rubbish at the house in the living room when moving out.

Are good tenants also just as hard to come by?

roses

I already saw that website, it's quite extreme! Tenants who trash the place, don't pay their rent & won't leave!

It's makes it all seem so scary.

Barcode

Mixed experiences. I've been renting since I was 18.

Landlord No 1: Tried to withold £750 on the pretence we did not pay the last months rent. Faxed bank statements to prove otherwise. Then he said we did not cut the garden. Yes we did, we spent a whole day and took photos to prove it. Then he stalled saying it would be returned. Unless we threatened to go to the small claims court, we would never have seen it.

Landlord no 2: Fine, no problems. Wanted to increase the rent by a bit too much. We negotiated. But the flat was too small. Lived there for two years happily.

Landlord no 3: What a nightmare. Refused to fix the fire in the living room which we then discovered was emitting carbon monoxide (!). It was immediately disconnected. The shower kept breaking. She kept blaming us (for what? Turning it on?). The carpet was ANCIENT and consisted of floor tiles that kept moving when you walked on them. She then replaced them with the cheapest carpet imaginable and moaned when the furniture made noticeable marks (errr, her own fault for choosing something that was not designed to be sturdy). The back door remained cracked for two years despite repeated letters. The boiler had loads of mould in the cupboard and was at risk of FALLING THROUGH THE CEILING. The flush on the loo kept breaking. I could go on.

To top it all, she tried to increase the rent by £75 a MONTH. Yeah right, try fixing things first. At that point, we moved and thankfully this landlord is so much nicer. Last time I went past the old house, it was for sale, so I guess she could not make much money out of it.

And surprise, surprise, deposit problems are just starting.

Landlord no 4. Don't know yet. Moving next month. The flat is gorgeous, let's just hope the LL does not have the attitude that the deposit is a bonus on top of the rent like some others.

Guy_Montag

You only hear about problem landlords here & problem tenants on Landlord zone, it's the nature of help websites.

Meatballs

Just like there are plenty of posts to say how people have been poorly treated by Tesco/Asda/Anyshop etc when returning stuff. Yet the millions of other customers dont post to say how they have been fine.

Some landlords dont see themselves as providing a service for tenants they're just investing/making money.

Some tenants dont give a crap about anything unless they own it.

And then theres the large grey areas inbetween.

do_it_today!

Meatballs wrote: »

Some tenants dont give a crap about anything unless they own it.

And then theres the large grey areas inbetween.

this is true on two occasions where I have rented out my home the tenants had done the following

Kicked the front door in

left loads of rubbish and filthy

damaged furniture

sabotaged the front door....

Saying that I have also had issue when I bought my house with vendor not moving out at the stated time and again leaving loads of rubbish and kitchen absolutely filthy. I would never dream of doing the above either as tenant or vendor some people are just NASTY! :eek:

daisyroots_2

I've been letting property for over 10 years, and most of my tenants have been really decent, and I've been lucky enough to be able to return 100% deposits most of the time. Only once have I had to withhold the entire deposit, and the damage done that time grossly exceeded the deposit - a whole set of banisters had to be rebuilt... An interesting thing about that tenant - at the outset he asked if he could pay by cheque and not D/D as his ex wife was after him for maintenance for his kids. What possessed me, I don't know, but I said, sure, fine....but of course, if he'd cheat his own children, why worry about some landlord's old staircase ?

The new laws where the deposit is held by a third party are fine by me, I always do an Inventory anyway, and all other legal requirements, like CORGIs. Why ? Well, why not ? Life is more pleasant if you're on good terms with people - and that is what tenants are - people. I've learned from my one bad experience, and pay more attention now to the clues my tenants give about their characters.

wecanhelpu

I have been renting out properties for over 20 years and as you can imagine I've seen the best and worst.

The best ones pay their rent on time, keep the place tidy, carry out minor improvements and don't cause problems for their neighbours. These people I treat accordingly ie fixing any problems quickly and do everything I can to make their stay as comfortable as possible in the hope that they'll stay.

The worst ones, as mentioned already, take no care of the property and often leave under a cloud. These people invariably have their deposit withheld in order to pay for damage.
One tenant (a heroin addict) threw his girlfriend(also an addict) through the window of one of my flats(the window was closed) and then set fire to the place.
Luckily the commotion aroused the neighbours who called the police and fire brigade almost immediately, so they were able to put the fire out quickly.

needless to say I was not happy and evicted him straight away (but I didn't go through the courts;) )

RibAd

In the 7 years I've been renting as a student and a professional, I've had few major problems with landlords.

Most of the problems have been with housemates.

Things that have happened from front door being kicked in by housemate who wouldn't admit to it except this happened over Christmas as they were the only ones there...

housemate rented a tv for house and when moved never told the rental company who only found out about it when i enquired about renting a tv from them

random people nicking stuff

housemate (male) peeing all over the bathroom floor instead of in the loo....

housemates refusing to pay bills/licence/clean....

momre stuff has happened but think in some ways Ive been really lucky

Gorgeous_George

There are many more tenants than LLs. Therefore, it is likely that there are many more bad tenants than bad LLs.



GG