The trouble with tenants: landlady speaks out

Lynn Brown and her husband Richard estimate they obtained just two months of rent out of six months renting their property in Cresswell, claiming their flat was left ‘trashed’.
Mrs Brown, 52, said: “The woman who rented the flat didn’t stay in the flat; she gave it to her 17-year-old son and 21-year-old son, and then we couldn’t get them out.
“Apparently she’d done this twice before, and is now doing this somewhere else in the town.”
Mrs Brown says the trouble tenant pays the ‘minimum amount’ possible. She said: “She’ll pay a deposit she’ll get from the council, and she’ll get a month or so rent.
“But she doesn’t pay anything, and by the time that’s sorted you have to make them give two months’ notice.”
Mrs Brown and her husband pursued action to have the tenant removed, eventually ejected after six months on July 3.
But she said: “They’d trashed the flat and upset all the neighbours.
“We knew that it would be a mess because the police and anti-social were called every other day by the neighbours, and were constantly at the property.”
Assessing the damage, Mrs Brown notes that sashes were cut on the windows, all the doors were damaged, the bathroom was in a poor state, the kitchen had been flooded and was now mouldy, and there was a strong smell of drugs. Mrs Brown notes the woman offered no apology, but suggested setting up a direct debit to repay the money owed.
She said: “We’ve never allowed any local authority tenants before, but because my husband knew her he felt sorry for her sob story.”
And Mrs Brown added: “I just think it should be highlighted that there’s people going round doing this, because the poor person who’s now got her is going to get the same thing.
“The law is all for the tenants and not for the landlords.”