Rogue landlords tend to hit the headlines on a regular basis, but in
this instance the tenant was at fault. One poor landlord has been
left with an almighty cleanup job after his tenants finally moved out
following a lengthy battle to have them evicted from his property.
Two-year eviction fight
The tenants (a single mother and her four children) had been living
in the rented property in Burton-on-Trent for two years.
Unfortunately, the mother (who was in receipt of Housing Benefit) had
not bothered paying her rent for nearly a year. Unsurprisingly, the
landlord soon lost patience and started eviction proceedings against
the family in a bid to reclaim his property.
Huge amount of mess
When the landlord finally got the keys to his property and went round
to inspect it, he was horrified at the state it was in. Mountains of
rubbish were strewn all over the garden, the beds had been broken and
there were piles of food detritus and rubbish in most of the rooms.
He estimates it will take at least £2k to clean up the mess and
repair the damage, so on top of the rent arrears and his solicitors
costs, he is now seriously out of pocket.
The court ordered the woman to pay back the rent arrears, but the
landlord’s solicitor has advised him he has no chance of ever seeing
his money again. Sadly this is not an isolated occurrence. It can
often take ages to evict problem tenants when they stop paying the
rent, and if the tenant is feeling vindictive, they are quite likely
to leave a huge mess behind when they finally vacate a property.
