A woman from Gravesend has returned from a dream trip to South America to discover tenants have trashed her home in the interim. She is now facing financial ruin as the tenants refuse to move out and the letting agency has gone into liquidation.
Not In Safe Hands
Claire Deane went abroad for five years and left her two-bed terrace home in the care of a local letting agency. She mistakenly believed that her home would be in safe hands while she travelled the world, but sadly this was not the case at all. The small property was in immaculate condition before Ms Deane went abroad and she expected it to be in a similar state when she returned. Instead the property was filthy, there are holes in the walls, broken doors and windows, rubbish everywhere, and in the garden the weeds are waist high.
Claire said: “What started out five years ago as an adventure of a life time travelling in South America unfortunately ended with the sad realisation of how people can have such disrespect for other people’s possessions and complete lack of morals to allow this to happen.
“The tenants were due to move out on 29 August, so I was shocked to find the house in a complete state with them still living there.”
The rent has not been paid since the end of July, although the letting agency was able to collect the rent prior to this, and an assessment by another letting agent has indicated that Ms Deane will have to spend a lot of money to correct the damage.
Keep an Eye on Things
And the moral of this story is? Don’t leave your rental property in the hands of a letting agent without checking up on them periodically.