Tenants trashed house & insurance not paying out

ecclesto

My tenants have moved out and left my house in a right state which needs to put right as below:-

Garage door needs replacing - dented and door handle/ lock broken and missing
House needs painting & decorating - the whole house has been painted in 2 shades of dark grey and 1 room in florescent pink with the ceiling and coving not being white as the other colours are all over it. They were allowed to re paint in neutral colours.
The outside of the house windows and Upvc need a thorough clean, not been touched since they moved in
New skirting boards in some areas as they must have had a dog which has chewed the boards - not allowed to keep pets
The garden is completely overgrown - needs a gardener to sort it out
Washer, dishwasher and fridge broken - the washer still has clothes in it and the tenancy agreement stipulated they had to repair any white goods.
My double oven/grill is so caked in grease and dirt you can't even see it has glass doors.
My Karndean flooring has grey paint all over and the upstairs bathroom has large stains due to a leak
They have left me with a 2 sofas, various large childrens toys and my broken aerial washing pole
My vertical blinds have got grey paint all over them, some are broken and some of the rails are coming off
The radiator on the landing has come off the bracket which is off the wall
They have broken some of my ceiling lights and left me with their lights and holes in the ceiling where they took mine down
There are lots of holes in the walls and very bad attempts at filing some of them in
My conservatory/patio door does not close or lock
Missing toilet seat
Broken meter cupboard door

There are lots of other faults but the above are the main ones

The loss adjuster came round last week and the result is the insurance will pay for a new garage door!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot believe this as I have a landlords insurance policy. They tell me that they will only cover malicious damage and the rest of the fault are down to wear and tear.
What absolute rubbish, they have left the place in such a state that surely the insurance should pay out. They have asked me to send them more photos of the blinds and Karndean to see if they will pay for those, very good of them but I am not holding my breath...
They are also telling me I will have to pay the excess of £100 for each claim ie £100 for the garage door, £100 for the blinds etc. I have emailed them stating that I am making 1 claim for the same house at the same time.
I live 130 miles away so not sure what to do next. I do have a friend who is a builder and he will be having a look to see how much it will cost to do the repairs.
I do have a deposit of a month but this will go nowhere near the cost of repairs.
Can the insurance firm be challenged with their reasoning or will I be fighting a losing cause?
If I go ahead and pay for the repairs now, I want to sell it as soon as possible, could I claim back off the insurance company if they back down on some of the repairs.
Is this worth taking to the insurance ombudsman?
Please any advice would be most welcome:eek:

davidmcn

Landlords' policies aren't meant to cover all the costs you might incur due to bad tenants. "Malicious damage" is deliberately trashing the place, not merely allowing the garden to grow or decorating in a colour you don't like. So you need to work out what of the things you've listed actually relate to an insured risk. You might want to get someone else to look at your policy if you don't understand what it covers (I agree that I'd expect the excess to be per claim rather than per item but depends what your policy says).

If they're not paying out what they're meant to then you can certainly challenge your insurers' decisions, go to ombudsman, employ your own loss adjuster, sue them in court etc.

G_M

My initial reactions:

ecclesto wrote: »

My tenants have moved out and left my house in a right state which needs to put right as below:-

Garage door needs replacing - dented and door handle/ lock broken and missing malicious damage - claim off tenants or insurance

House needs painting & decorating - the whole house has been painted in 2 shades of dark grey and 1 room in florescent pink with the ceiling and coving not being white as the other colours are all over it. They were allowed to re paint in neutral colours.
Not malicious damage - claim off tenants

The outside of the house windows and Upvc need a thorough clean, not been touched since they moved in
Not malicious damage - claim off tenants

New skirting boards in some areas as they must have had a dog which has chewed the boards - not allowed to keep pets
So tenants have repaired damage. Nothing to claim.

The garden is completely overgrown - needs a gardener to sort it out
Not malicious damage - claim off tenants

Washer, dishwasher and fridge broken - the washer still has clothes in it and the tenancy agreement stipulated they had to repair any white goods.
'Broken' as in deliberately damaged? Malicious damage - claim off tenants or insurance.

'Broken' as in stopped working? Not malicious damage - claim off tenants or repair yourself

My double oven/grill is so caked in grease and dirt you can't even see it has glass doors.
Not malicious damage - claim off tenants

My Karndean flooring has grey paint all over
If deliberate, malicious damage - claim off tenants or insurance
and the upstairs bathroom has large stains due to a leak
cause of leak?

They have left me with a 2 sofas, various large childrens toys and my broken aerial washing pole
Not malicious damage - contact tenants and request removal within 10 days or you will charge them for disposal costs

My vertical blinds have got grey paint all over them, some are broken and some of the rails are coming off
If deliberate, malicious damage - claim off tenants or insurance
If not, then not malicious damage - claim off tenants

The radiator on the landing has come off the bracket which is off the wall
Come off why/how?
If deliberate, malicious damage - claim off tenants or insurance
If not, then not malicious damage - wear & tear?

They have broken some of my ceiling lights and left me with their lights and holes in the ceiling where they took mine down
Malicious damage - claim off tenants or insurance.

There are lots of holes in the walls and very bad attempts at filing some of them in
If deliberate damage then may be malicious damage - claim off tenants or insurance.
More likely damage caused by putting up pictures etc (so not malicious) - claim off tenants
My conservatory/patio door does not close or lock Why not? Sounds like landlord responsibility.
But if tenants deliberately damaged the door then malicious damage - claim off tenants or insurance.
Missing toilet seat Theft?
Broken meter cupboard door
if tenants deliberately damaged the door then malicious damage - claim off tenants or insurance.
if accidental damage, not malicious damage - claim off tenants
There are lots of other faults but the above are the main ones
cannot comment

The loss adjuster came round last week and the result is the insurance will pay for a new garage door!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot believe this as I have a landlords insurance policy. They tell me that they will only cover malicious damage and the rest of the fault are down to wear and tear.
You need a better understanding of 'malicious'.

What absolute rubbish, they have left the place in such a state that surely the insurance should pay out.
Hmmm.. Insurance companies are in the business of not paying out unless they have to.....
They have asked me to send them more photos of the blinds and Karndean to see if they will pay for those, very good of them but I am not holding my breath...
They are also telling me I will have to pay the excess of £100 for each claim ie £100 for the garage door, £100 for the blinds etc. I have emailed them stating that I am making 1 claim for the same house at the same time.
What does the policy document say?

I suspect that if you could show that all damage was deliberately caused in a single event (ie tenants spent the day breaking multiple items on purpose) this would be a single claim so single excess.
If each item was damaged at a seperate time, they would constitute seperate claims.

But I may be wrong

I live 130 miles away so not sure what to do next. I do have a friend who is a builder and he will be having a look to see how much it will cost to do the repairs.
get 3 writen quotes for all repairs/replacements. Irrespective of whether you claim off the tenants, or the insurance, you will need these.
I do have a deposit of a month but this will go nowhere near the cost of repairs.
You will need to sue.
Do you have the tenants' new address?
Can the insurance firm be challenged with their reasoning or will I be fighting a losing cause?
You can appeal/challange (see the policy document for how), but many f these items will not be covered.
If I go ahead and pay for the repairs now, I want to sell it as soon as possible, could I claim back off the insurance company if they back down on some of the repairs.
1st step whatever you do is 3 written quotes.
Is this worth taking to the insurance ombudsman?

You may get a bit more than currently being offered, but nothing like all that you are claiming.

phill99

I question whether some people should be landlords.

[Deleted User]

OK I'm going to ask what everyone else is asking.., not a single inspection in all the time they lived there? Surely worth a 300 mile trip - day out to visit old friends and family etc? Even a drive by would have indicated there were problems if garden over grown - or contact with ex friends and neighbours via phone even.

Guest101

G_M wrote: »

My initial reactions:

You may get a bit more than currently being offered, but nothing like all that you are claiming.

Thanks pal, saved me typing it out.

Only other point: how long were they there? A number of items may have exceeded their life span.

xylophone

I question whether some people should be landlords.

I question whether some people should be tenants!:eek:

ecclesto

I appreciate all your answers - I did let the house through an agency and YES they should have been more thorough in hindsight but I foolishly trusted them. I am shocked and horrified that people live like that and will not be letting it again. It seems to me like the insurance has won again but I am very bitter as this is the first time I have claimed and it is genuine.

FBaby

ecclesto, I had the same experience than yours with our first tenants. Pleasant enough people but when they left, we had a shock at the state they left the house in. Like you, I couldn't believe that people could live in such filth.

I did 6 monthly inspections but I hated them probably even more than the tenant as I felt it was a total intrusion into their personal life. I made the mistake of putting myself in their shoes and wondering how it would feel to have someone come into your house and demand to open your fridge/oven. As it was, I did notice that the place was a dirty but they would make an effort each time I went and then they would say they were intending on cleaning the carpet/sorting out the garden, which they would do to an extent and then it went right back to how it was before. Problem is, unless you inspect in a very scutinising way, you will miss things, like a window they'd broken but made sure to keep the curtain closed. It's all well to do regular inspections, but ultimately, all you can do as a result is to evict the tenants after the end of the fix term of you are not happy, otherwise, they are entitled to live like pigs if they so wish.

Ecclesto, it has nothing to do with your insurance. If landlords insured for this sort of damage, they would all be bust in no time. What you need to do is claim through the deposit (we got 90% of it back) and then either put it down to business loss or take them to court for the rest. You just need to make sure that you have a detailed and well organised claim though.

Next time, you might want to consider asking for 6 or 8 weeks deposit.

DaftyDuck

If you rented through an agency, and they failed to do inspections, what does your contract with them say?

csgohan4

I take it you couldn't claim from the deposits'?