Possession order for abandonment

[theartfullodger]

Which please are those "several laws"?

[dazwalsh]

It is stomach churning that people can go through their lives in that way with no respect for other people or property, together with the backing of several laws which are balanced in their favour so all you can do is sit back and watch whilst a panfully slow system gets your property back.

Then they go and do the same thing again to another unsuspecting landlord.

We all have our nightmare tenant stories and I have a cracker for you.

One of my ex tenants broke into another one of my houses (the house next door) and caused significant damage by stealing the metal out of it, boiler, radiators etc and the place was left with water running through it for 3 days. He was caught by police and given a pathetic community service order and ordered to pay me £1200, which I receive at a pitiful £10 per month.

I then had to go through section 21 to get him out of the other house, and every day I would see this scumbag whilst I was putting the neighboring house back together again. I did LOTS of unnecessary banging at early hours of morning to make myself feel a bit better

He has since been rearrested and thrown in jail for further robbery of slate from a church roof!

[Wright76]

Good luck to you too and thank you all for advice given

[theartfullodger]

Sorry to hear that: Hopefully she will get her life back.

I've had "fun" with tenants: One lot decided to steal the carpets (not an issues as I had anyway planned to re-carpet throughout) and in doing so ripped the storage rads off the walls. And worse....

Hey ho, hope the next ones are better!

[Wright76]

Thanks artful. Unfortunately we have no chance of ever seeing that money again and it's not even worth trying. Her life is now so controlled by drugs she will never have anything.

We have the property back though and have learnt so much for future tenants. Now to get on with getting it in a suitable state to re let.

It needs an awful lot of work and we've now discovered huge dents and holes in walls that she's made and the whole place needs replastered. Damp has began in one Of the bedrooms, presumably because of the lack of gas in 8 month.

It's a sad state of affairs really. She was working when she took then tenancy and was no problem at all for the first year and half.

[theartfullodger]

Did the deed of surrender absolve her of the £2k & damage?

Hope things improve: Good luck!

[Wright76]

Just an update that our nightmare is over.

We changed the locks with permission of the council but were afraid the tenant would wait for a new tenant before claiming illegal eviction.

She did leave a lot of junk behind but made no contact and ignored our efforts to contact her.

Finally before applying for a possession order to be sure,we tried one last time to contact her. We offered her 100 pound cash to buy her bed (which will be going straight to the dump!)

She quickly responded accepting our offer 😂. She came to collect her money and we gave her a deed of surrender to sign before she was paid.

It was heartbreaking giving her anything since she owes over 2k and has left hundreds more in damage but was worth it to avoid worrying what she was up to and if she would come back.

[Wright76]

The diamond tiara made me giggle! Thank you again for your help.

[jpkeates]

I would contact the tenant (who will probably ignore you) confirming you have retaken possession and ask them to make arrangements to collect their belongings as after a fortnight you will dispose of them.
Make sure you have lots of photographs and videos - you don't want the tenant demanding their perfectly clean fridge and diamond tiara back.

I just wondered if it were a better defence to any future deposit penalty claim if we already had a ccj in place.

If you make a claim, the tenant can make a counter claim.
If the tenant makes a claim, you can try and counter claim.

Best thing to do is to get the place sorted, re rent it and move forwards.

[Wright76]

Your right jpkeates and we are resigned to never seeing that money.

I just wondered if it were a better defence to any future deposit penalty claim if we already had a ccj in place.

Anyway, to my next question!. She has left her fridge with its mouldy contents and I mean mouldy! Black mould and months old. Gross. I am aware we have to store the pieces of furniture she has left for a time but what on earth do we do with the fridge?!

It is not possible to simply clean it. It is absolutely vile and thick of mould. I have looked at the council environment dept website and can find no advice

[jpkeates]

The question is whether you have any chance of recovering any money at all.
If the tenant is on benefits, the chances are that you won't be able to recover anything.

This is one reason many landlords don't rent to people who pay using housing benefit.

[Wright76]

Very wise words! Thank you

[JK0]

My old man used to quote a proverb, which went: 'Don't trouble trouble, until trouble troubles you'. Therefore I wouldn't be stirring up tenant, as it may prompt her to try to think of a way out of it.

[Wright76]

Just to update. We gained entry to the flat to find what can only be described as vile!. Both our fridge and the tenants own fridge freezer were left with rotten food and milk obviously from months and months ago and thick mould has set in. The stench was unbelievable and neither will ever be able to be used again. Every single internal door has been punched through with further gaping holes and one door has been removed and disposed of entirely. The back door has had the cat flap kicked off.
She had left her bed wardrobe and drawers but the housing department have said we have enough evidence to assume surrender and change the locks.

We were hoping to obtain a Money order as part of possession proceedings for her rent arrears and now we have significant damage to add to that. As it seems a possession order is no longer required, can we attempt to claim our losses via county court?

It's not that we will ever see that money but we want to protect ourselves if she ever sees fit to claim a penalty for us not using deposit scheme.

Are we better waiting and counter claiming our losses which will exceed any penalty or will it look better for us if we obtain ccj in advance?

Thank you all for your help. The whole experience has been horrendous and I doubt we will ever house a benefit tenant again because of our experience.

[Moderator2]

Two related threads have been merged.