This is the first time I have ever needed / wanted to take possession of a property but needs must now as the tenant is becoming a deliberate nuisance so any help / advice will be greatly appreciated.
The tenant has been in since March 2021 on AST basic as a sole occupier.
I have found out she was actually married last year and her Wife also lives there with 2 animals. None of these have been added to the tenancy.
What is very obvious now is that the tenant is claiming all different benefits including full housing benefit which I doubt she would be entitled to as the Wife actually works full time. The tenant said she’s in benefits for mental health problems
She had rent arrears last year which she has now cleared but did not stick to the agreed repayment plan.
My main issue is the amount of call outs we receive for repairs which are probably in the region of 15-20 in the last 16 months.
Some of them completely unnecessary and have been her own fault such as switching off the boiler and saying there was no hot water, not changing light bulbs and saying the electrics weren’t working, reporting no water when there was planned maintenance in the street etc.
we have also had to pay gas engineers to attend on a weekend for the smell of gas which clearly wasn’t there when they arrived.
My Husband is a property developer and does majority of the standard repairs himself (to a very high standard) but once he leaves, there is something else added to the list the next week and a lot of the time when he gets there it’s fine, he’s even been twice for the toilet chain not flushing properly!
He changed all the seals on the front door in the winter which they were happy with but then they want a new front door.
This same sort of thing month after month…
She reported a leak in the kitchen which she was adamant was coming from the pipe work and because she wouldn’t accept it wasn’t the pipe work we had to pay for a plumber to investigate it who confirmed the same - my husband actually found the leak coming from her washing machine which had a loose connection and showed her. So we agreed to pay for the labour costs of her changing the damages floor which she was happy with but 3 months later is now saying we have to pay the full amount of supply and fit.
There is also an overpowering smell of cannabis in the house which he has verbally told her twice to stop using in the property.
She told me in April that repairs couldn’t be done for a while due to a family death and I’ve heard nothing more until 2 weeks ago when her Wife is contacting me with a list of repairs they now have that they are going to get done themselves and invoice me for - so they’ve now withheld the rent.
I spent majority of yesterday in a text message argument with them flung over the same old stuff about repairs etc. They stated they were out of the country so I asked for access to the property which they denied and said someone else was staying there to look after the pets.
They then accused me of driving up and down the street trying to intimidate them which they said they had on CCTV as I was plotting something and this was impacting the tenants mental health! I was actually at work all day…. Ha ha
I’m the end I told her I would be looking to serve notice soon and she came back with the whole, I’ll see you in court etc as you are at fault for not doing repairs and are now trying to cover your tracks.
I’m currently 7 months pregnant and also have a disabled 4 year old so I really just want rid of her because she’s causing me unnecessary stress.
How do I get rid of her quickly and stress free if possible???
She’s is obviously a good liar and is already playing the mental health card.
The property is up to date with EPC, Gas and electricity certificates.
Deposit is in a protected scheme.
