Anthea Lettings – Landlords and bad tenants

Landlords and bad tenants

Usually tenants are responsible people, who will treat you and your property with respect. But, it’s possible that you’ll encounter some tenant difficulty.  Whether that will be from tenants who are unable to pay the rent because of redundancy or relationship breakdown, or tenants that simply pay no heed to their responsibilities to you and your property. Here is our quick guide for you:

Firstly choose your tenants carefully

This sounds an obvious one, it’s so important to screen your tenants thoroughly before letting your property out. A good letting agent will always check a prospective tenant’s, credit rating, employment status and get references. At Anthea lettings we ensure we fully background check all tenants for you, and this is well documented for your perusal.

Make an inventory

A full inventory of your property before the tenancy begins is essential. Therefore you should look to take photos of the property that are dated, to establish the condition.  At Anthea lettings we offer an innovative inventory app for anyone to use, which is available to download on the app store, free of charge.  Please check out our website in the ‘Downloads’ section for our brochure and some further information.

Payment of rent

You should aim to have a written tenancy agreement in place. If your tenant doesn’t pay rent for a set period, you have the right to serve your tenant an eviction notice. You can also attempt to reclaim any unpaid rent as well through a county court.

Neglect and damage of the property

Damage caused by tenants is not uncommon. Whether by accident or on purpose, there will always be tenants who cause damages to your rental property and belongings. Your tenants have a level of responsibility to keep your property clean, and in good condition. Whilst you are responsible for most repairs, if damages are caused by the tenant, then you should be able to claim these back, if maintenance is required again you can make a deduction from the tenant’s damage deposit or ask them to pay for the cost of repair. The exception to this is for ‘fair wear and tear’ such as to carpets or other furnishings – you can’t charge the tenant for these. Wherever you propose to charge a tenant make sure you have proof that the damage was caused while the property was occupied by them (take photos), keep quotes to back you up if the tenant chooses to dispute the figure. If the damages are beyond ‘fair wear and tear’ and the tenant will not either repair this themselves or pay for the cost of repair, you are within your rights to serve an eviction notice to the tenant if you see fit to do so and retain the sum of money from their damage deposit to cover the cost of repair to the damages caused to your property.

Letting your property through Anthea lettings we will cover the costs and repair any damages that are caused by a tenant whilst in your property. Your property will always be returned to you in the same condition as we received it from you.