Attention Leeds Landlords

Tenancy Deposits

I am putting all Leeds landlords on alert, if you receive a property enquiry from Mr. ??????? D/O/B ?????? then please consider my situation very carefully; RLA rules preclude me from naming this person so if you want to know who it is, please email me and I will happily provide it for you.

Being an established landlord, I don’t expect to have to deal with a situation that I have dealt with today but you never stop learning!

I have had a tenant in a property, introduced by one of Leeds’ largest letting agents but managed by me. The tenant moved into the property in October and paid two months rent in advance. He was in full employment and previous to that he had been in the armed services, from the application form and credit score, everything appeared to be fine.

The tenant missed his December payment so we implemented our “arrears policy” which usually means calls to the tenants number, letters and visits, these were all done on a number of occasions. Unfortunately, the arrears have worsened to such an extent that eviction proceedings were instigated against him.

This morning I received a call from the Police to say that the property had been damaged and that I needed to visit it. The tenant has left the property, along with my oven, hob and sink, as well as the boiler being ripped from the wall! That’s bad enough but worse is that the water was left on and now there is a great deal of damage!
I am now investigating the initial tenancy application from the agents and subject to my findings I may pursue them for duty of care, but it depends on what they have on file by way of references.

The only way to beat scum like this is to stand together and blacklist them!