which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

So I have spent the weekend working with my younger brother. Repairing and decorating. He was unfortunate enough to have the evict non paying tenants and they trashed one of his flats in revenge.

He lets them fully furnished. inducing fridge/freezer, television, stereo bed, double bed, oven, washing machine, sofa, carpeted etc. His last tenant was there for 15 years and only left as he went into a home.

So the lot that had to go, paid their deposit and a month in advance and nothing. It cost him a fortune in solicitors to go against instinct and just physically remove them.

So their revenge is to trash the place. the tv is kicked in, washing machine ripped out and thrown down the stairs, oven is disgusting, half the bed base has disappeared, they have urinated on the lounge carpet and defecated on the sofa.

The stereo and video are missing.

So the bro looks in the wheely bin. Oh a cash converters slip for the stereo. off he pop the 200 yards and the manager is not interested.

Calls plod. Who are firstly more interested in what he is doing in his tenants flat. Why is he concerned about his tenants stereo, why has he been in his tenants bin.

Eventually he persuades them to go to cash convertors and he runs down to be there. The manager confirms the reciept, bro is asked to identify his tenants stereo. FFS it is not the tenants it is mine. Even better the receipt is not in the tenants name it is in his girl friends. So when he starts getting faffed about he demands the manager is arrested for receiving stolen goods.

Property is released, but the cop is still shirty about being in the tenants flat, eventually the sister in law arrives with copies of the solicitors letters, eviction order etc. and leaves happy, still saying he has no right to have gone through his tenants rubbish bin.

So anyone want a flat in Chorley town centre? recently refurbished, new furniture!

Still the ex tenant, his parents have a pub locally, so the bro knows where to find him eventually.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

God things like that really pee me off, I take it your bro has the deposit ?
The new scheme about deposits, doesn't the government hold them so in the event of a problem, they can award it to whoever is the most convincing ?

Squatters are the same, the fecking law is all on their side, I couldn't give a rats ass about the law, if someone was in MY home who I didn't want in there, then they wouldn't be, simple.

I've done repair work for landlords in this exact scenario, does put me off wanting to get into rentals.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

The Ex tenent sounds like a right pen is...
I hope you took photos of the place in a state of disrepair and the damage to washing machine and sofa, print them out and send them to his parents so they can be proud of their son!

Why do some folk feel the need to abuse other peoples property? I'm sorry but I just don't understand that kind of bs.

I hope it's not put him off letting.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

It won't put his off letting the place, he has it he has to do something with it. Like I said in the original post, the one before had been there 15 years so he must be doing something right.

I had a go at the bro about reference, but he said he was a young lad, first place and he knew the lads parents. turns out he parents were kicking him out for being a little ****

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

I would love to rent out my house when we move but there is so many stories like this it just doesnt seem worth the bother.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

Can he not take them to a small claims court or something?

I for one would certainly have turned up with some friends to help them pack ;)

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

Anything he won would get paid back at £5 a week for 50 years no doubt.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

I wouldn't turn down £13K :smt019 ;)

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

Sorry to here that Tim. I'd personally would be hand delivering the photos to the bar. Did the little s*** have a guarantor for the lease?

The copper does have a point, tenant or ex-tenent the landlord have no right to go through bins or look for personal details

Tim, tell him to tell the council the address that he is residing as they will want a word regarding unpaid council tax, as they will chase your bro for it.

waste of time mate. Cost more in fees to find the waster has no cash.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

As a tenant, the landlord has no rights going through his bins or flat etc ? I agree when theyre paying the rent, once the stop that so does their rights IMO.

Your bro will get nothing.

Personally I would find the guy and deal with him. I'd also find out what car he drives and slowly over time damage things that he can't claim for on insurance.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

If only you made the rules pal we then may live in a logical place, as it stands no such luck.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

Andy was only saying about the bin cos of personal details I think. But yeh, he's evicted, fair game to go through flat.

Can't understand people like this. Happens all the time unfortunately!

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

This sort of thing really gets my goat - WTF is wrong with some people?!! And WTF is wrong with the law that allows it?! :smt068

Von Teese had a similar problem a couple of years ago, and ended up gutting the house plus being a good few grand out of pocket.

Of course everyone should have rights (and I know a fair few tenants who have been shaftet by landlords), but not when those rights are at the expense of others.

Tim, I hope your bro gets it all sorted out and rented out to someone decent again soon!

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

Very common this.Its because the law is so weak and slanted towards the tenant.The result is that landlords sometimes feel the need to resort to strongarm tactics and who can blame them?The other effect is that rents are far higher than they need to be because this sort of damage has to be recouped from someone.Cant get it from the scrote so the other tenants have to pay.It needs to be made a criminal matter to trash a rented property for starters.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

Thats was the point i was getting at.
The rest of the flat is fair game tho, as your clearing and collecting personal effects

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

Tim, probably don't need to tell you to change the locks.

I had similar a number of years ago - all the furniture nicked, couch had been set on fire :shock:, they'd cr*pped on the floor etc.

I changed one of the two door locks and mid-way through repairs I found out they had been trying to get back in with keys they'd kept. Presumably to re-trash the place. :toss:

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

When I was flat hunting, I was shown around a flat where this sort of thing had happened. The young lady who'd lived there had been wild and partying (though I'd imagine she wasn't Ke$ha) and had basically been kicked out of demolishing the place. There were no turds on the floor but it wasn't much better than that, and I wasn't too impressed with the estate agent for showing it to me in that state!

Later, when I did find a flat, one of the guys in a downstairs flat set the couch on fire (by mistake) and stank the whole house out, never mind the damage caused. Somehow, he wasn't chucked out.

So yes, plonkers, basically.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

Rent unfurnished, scrotes that move from place to place trashing as they go, generally don't have their own furniture, or can't afford to buy it.

Make the place look brand new, but using the cheapest of floor coverings (2.99 sq mtr foam backed carpet) and lots of bargain bucket magnolia paint, but then hike the rent and the security deposit up a bit. Scrotes don't care about the decor, and won't look at it 'cos it's more expensive than the crummy flat next door, but a tenant who is likely to look after it will be attracted by nice decor, and will be prepared to pay a bit more for a nice flat. It also gives you absolutely no argument when the tenant leaves as to what state the place was in if you can put "carpets - newly fitted in 2011" and "decor - freshly redecorated" on the inventory, and you haven't left much else behind to argue about if unfurnished.

Also, you can run a credit report on somebody online for just a few quid, if they pay their bills and watch that they don't borrow what they can't afford, it's a good indicator they will likely be a good tenant who pays the rent and looks after the place, much I suspect, like the old guy that lived there the last 15 years.

I'm in a rented house now, and all the gloss work has been washed down with an abrasive cream cleaner, and I've painted about half the house so far at my own expense (cheap magnolia is only £1 a litre, so each room costs a few quid and a few hours of my time) and it's looking a lot better than it was when we moved in, it's looking new again (6yr old house). I don't mind doing it because it's me that's getting the benefit of living in a nice environment. Scrotes don't give a ****, so as much as you can avoid it, don't rent to them.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

While I sympathize with you and your brothers situation I have to take exception to the title of this thread .

Now having been a tenant myself for many years I had to put up with all sorts from landlords. Those who didn't care and were just doing the bare minimum to those who ended up screwing me and my friends over.

The worse one let a perfectly good house go to ruin as she didn't care about it. Put absolute ****wits in who made a mess in the kitchen worse than the feral cats that would **** everywhere. Those who could not grasp the concept of closing doors as opposed to slamming them. She would sometimes not pay the phone bill that resulted in us being cut off, no phone line, no internet, no job for me. She then stopped paying the mortgage, which along with a couple of other reasons is why I'm currently homeless. To be honest though the bailiffs that would occasionally visit at unsociable hours for her should have been a warning sign.

I blame my self I shouldn't have stayed there so long, but for all the negatives living there gave me I did have some reasons to stay. But even after all of that I still tidied up and left the place in the same condition as when I moved in.

So what I am saying is that tenants were given rights to stop things like that happening, though as you might have realized it all counts for very little as pursuing anything like your rights usually isn't worth it. Tenants and landlords can be as bad as one another, but there is no need to tar them all with the same brush as I have had some very good ones as your brother has also had some good tenants as you wrote. Just sometimes you don't get lucky.

As for my situation, they took my landlords house, repossed it and are selling it for far less then she had it mortgaged for. They closed her business down as she stopped paying her suppliers there. Most likely with all the money she now owes they have bankrupted her. Just goes to show...

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

The First house we rented was repossessed, we moved in and 2 months later we received a letter telling us we had 28 days to get out.
Feel sorry for your brother but we have rented for 4 years now in three different properties, each time we have had to put down a nice deposit and first months rent most recent was "£1350 down before we even got the keys" and go through all sorts of credit checks and referencing.
One thing I wouldn't accept if I was a landlord is DSS payments.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

I won't accept DSS as I don't trust the letting agent to vet tenants properly. If I was meeting them myself (house is 400 miles away) I wouldn't have an issue with it. DSS does not automatically mean scrotes. Many single mothers or families with disabilities will be on DSS, but not working or not being able to work usually means they are not able to get a mortgage, so are looking for a home to live in the long term, so they are more likely to treat it as their own home as they know they have to live with any mess or damage they make. Once set up and all the applications are completed, the DSS play the rent direct to you, it's paid every month without fail, and it's on time. Payments are only subject to your tenant following the rules and not subject to their financial ups and downs. DSS isn't as bad an option as everyone thinks it is, so long as you choose the tenant carefully. I know a single mother who has lived in her current rented house on DSS for the last 15 years. Her son is about school leaving age now and has grown up in that house.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

Interesting to read the other side of the argument, I suppose you could say that if you have a bad landlord you can just walk away, but to be kicked out because of a bad landlord is different, I guess they screwed up on buy to let.

In my brothers case he owns the flats outright. If anything he owns the shops underneath and letting the upstairs flats is incidental to his real business.

My mate owns the 5 bed house over the road from me, he is letting that. After a bad tenant who scarpered without paying, he now has a good one, a bit of a mitherer who wants every minor job that he is quite capable of doing in a few minutes repairing immediately, but he pays on time, keeps it spotless and as such has not had a rent increase for two years because my mate would rather keep a good tenant than risk him giving notice and ending up with another bad tenant.

Sorry if the title annoyed you SH, yes tenants should have rights, but so should landlords.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

Yeah it doesn't automatically mean scrotes but I would rather have piece of mind.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

All depends on how secure the tenants job is anyway, he could be working today and on DSS a month after he signs the lease. Because of tenants rights, you can't get them out and the best course of action will be to let them stay and accept the DSS payments, and the delay not getting paid whilst the application goes through.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

Swings and roundabouts.
I'd Still go for the no DSS option. The house most probably isn't going to get wrecked by someone that's put down over 1000 cash has a job and has passed all the credit ratings and reference checks.

Rather than some so called single mum, who gets the DSS to pay the rent and has her non working boyfriend living their Scot free and messes the place up with his other non working pal's.

I know we shouldn't tar all with the same brush but in this day in age the latter is most likely imo.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

personally, I am a tennant and I must say my landlord is great, never gives us any bother or anything and simply lets us pay the rent. we're now officially out of the initial contract with him too so that's 2 months notice to be given however we've given him no reason for that and as a retirement option for him he wants us there.
Albeit we nearly ended up being a DSS tennant thaks to connaught he was happy with that as he knew that I would be actively persuing moving to a better job (which i did).

I agree that all tennants should have rights, however also agree that there needs to be a limit where the landlord is allowed to step in and take required action for non payments etc then all property and rights of the tennant are allowed to befall onto the landlord and the tennant is forcibly removed and must request personal effects back.
The courts should also stop the rubbish where people get 50p per weeek for the next 20 years to repay a judgement in teh case of criminal damage/theft (which lets face it, it is) and the tennant should be given harder punishments like jail terms.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

No apology necessary, I just wanted to help show you the other side of the fence. And judging by the following I think whats in this thread has done that:

Bad landlords, bad tenants. They give each other a bad name. And yes they really screwed up on buy to let.

Re: which idiot gave tenants rights?
 

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereven...-with-crow-bar

Don't upset this landlord!

Pete ;)