Tenant from Hell= penniless and destroyed house

ChristmasBlies876

So what happened to the tenant, do u know where they are?

fairy_lights

This. Maybe the photos are just showing it in a bad light, but I haven't seen many rental properties with such shabby decor. It even looks rundown and unloved from the outside.

bupe

GwylimT wrote: »

First if you can't afford to maintain a property such as having a working boiler you should have taken policies out to recover repairs etc. Why have you only just considered it to be unsuitable not to have damp proofing, you were clearly happy for people to live like this before.

If a tenant, or anyone causes damage to your property it needs reporting to the police so you can gain a crime number, for some insurance policies this is a requirement for any payout.

Looking at the house you certainly don't need a new kitchen, you just need to replace one drawer front, if you're really that adamant that you must have a brand new kitchen just buy a set of new drawers and draw fronts.

Again with the heating system, it should have been insured, but if it isn't you don't need a complete replacement, just replace anything that is damaged beyond repair. I myself took a radiator off my own wall, I did then replace all of them, I just had me radiator re-piped.

You can do a redecorating job well but it doesn't have to cost the earth, something plain but not boring as unless you give tenants permission to paint it needs to match furniture etc. If you have a grubby carpet hire a carpet vac, it's worth a try as its far cheaper than repairing a carpet, and really it's something that should be done to carpets anyway.

Look on places like free cycle and preloved, my tenants struggled with the small fridge freezer I had provided, they now have a double door one with a water/ice dispenser for £150, when I bought it it was still on sale new for over £700.

A rental property is a business and like any businesses it will only be successful with both investment and hard work.

Go through each room and write down what realistically needs doing, not things you merely want, like the new kitchen. You need to split this into things you can do yourself, really the only things you can't do are large plumbing jobs or large electrical jobs.

Thank you, that is good re the lists, much more manageable that the long one we currently have. Freecycle is great and we do use it, will look up Preloved now!
Re the boiler, it was in working order and was in working order after the each yearly landlord safety check and we are checking the insurance now.
the house wasnt bought to let out, that just ended up happening so as said above, learning on the job so to speak.

bupe

fairy_lights wrote: »

This. Maybe the photos are just showing it in a bad light, but I haven't seen many rental properties with such shabby decor. It even looks rundown and unloved from the outside.

the tenant redecorated ... hence the purpose of this thread as its not lettable, it is for sale as we cannot afford all the refurbs. you are entitled to your opinion but we are very aware that it needs a lot of work.

Please constructive criticism is welcome only.

LandyAndy

Well it does look a dump and the EA's blurb is rubbish.:o

dacouch

G_M wrote: »

Yes.

The tenant was in occupation at the time the damage was done.

Even if there is some clause in the policy stating that tenant must be in occupation at the time of the claim, I'm pretty sure you could challange this as an unfair term. Clearly you insured in order to protect yourself from exactly this, so a hidden clause......

assuming of course your policy included malicious damage by tenants......

I would read the insurance policy carefully.
Push your cliam.
Follow their complaints procedure.
Appeal upwards to the FOS

For goodness sake! £15,000 and you are tamely accepting their word?!!!!

The only problem with claiming from the insurance (Assuming it's covered) is the damage has likely been done in multiple incidents.

If this is the case the Insurers will usually treat this as separate incidents (Claims) with an excess applicable for each event (I assume the excess is circa £300) so apart from that being a lot of excesses to fork out which will also eat into what the OP actually receives from the Insurer.

It also raises the possibility of if say it's four claims then four claims will be noted against her record. This would mean there's a strong chance the Insurers will not offer renewal of the cover and any other Insurers would be reluctant to offer cover. Although it should be possible to arrange cover at a considerable increase in premium and likely excluding malicious damage from future policies.

It may also make it difficult on their personal home insurance as the questions most home insurers ask about claims are likely to pick these up.

AdrianC

I am very baffled. The EA details do not seem to reflect the OP's tale of woe at all.

In addition, there appear to be two other houses for sale on the same street, cheaper. Neither are exactly heart-warming, but both are better marketed, and... cheaper.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/34828674
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47525545.html

Which suggests the reason the OP can't sell is... because it's overpriced. As ever. And there's a key in the original post - they "need" £x to clear the mortgage. Well, sorry, but that's not the putative buyer's problem.

Reduce the price, do some basic tidying, change agents, and try again.

kinger101

bupe wrote: »

thank you for your kind words, they are so welcome.
now please feel free to comment in other peoples threads as you are not so welcome in this one!

I already suggested chasing up the insurance again (assuming you can show tenants caused some damage). Considering some are restating the obvious (about negative equity) or suggesting legal action against former tenants who probably have no assets for damages, I think I've already suggested something positive at least.

My point about the state of the place is relevant should you wish to avoid this type of thing in the future. You're not going to get quality tenants with a carpet from the 1970s. What's the point in sugercoating stuff?

missile

A sad tale and one which should be read by would be think Buy to Let is easy money.

banwa

ognum wrote: »

You post creates more questions for me than answers. You tenat from hell has not created all the issues in the house, damp, new boiler, new floor boards cannot be due to the tenant can they.

My parents rented out a house; the repulsive tenants had stuffed cigarette butts into the loo overflow pipe (amongst many other disgusting things, including storing all their bin bags in the shed, we had to shovel out three foot of used nappies, food scraps etc etc), which caused water to run down the side of the house, causing damp throughout, meaning the kitchen needed to be replaced and the downstairs floorboards. There wasn't a part of the house they didn't wreck, wilfully or otherwise.