Are you a sucker for a hard luck story?

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

At some point, every landlord falls for a tenant’s story of hard luck and woe.  Thankfully most tenants are straight-forward, pay rent on time and treat the property with respect as the home it was intended to be.  Unfortunately, there are always exceptions to the rule and now and then a landlord comes across a tenant they feel sorry for and wave the rules for them.

There are some really genuine tenants who through no fault of their own find themselves in need of a bit of help and a caring landlord will always be thanked and appreciated by caring tenants.  However there are always those tenants who are known as serial victims.  The problem with serial victims is they never take responsibility for their actions and will always have an excuse for bad behaviour.

One landlord in Liverpool earlier this year let a room to a 20-year-old woman, who told him, she’d been thrown out of her home by her drunken step-father and had nowhere to go.  Having a daughter the same age, he wavered the reference, credit check and deposit.  Not only did he provide her with a room in a lovely shared house with nurses and students, he helped her along by buying her some food and a travel pass to help her out getting to interviews.  After a month he’d still not received any rent, and was told by his tenant that the LHA was still sorting it out.  After 2 months he was beginning to get worried but every time he asked her, she had an excuse and applied some tears.  He was mortified when one of his tenants told him that she was disruptive, drunk at all hours with a number of questionable people regularly staying over and making noise and being offensive.  Eventually she absconded owing 12 weeks rent and taking some clothes and possessions of the other tenants with her, and leaving her room in disrepair.  The landlord had to repay the tenants back for their loss as he was not covered on his insurance.  When he reported the crime to the police, there was little they could do without a former address or details to go on.

Proper tenant referencing cannot be stressed enough, as some of these serial bad tenants can appear very plausible on first contact.  A respectable guarantor is always a safeguard.  If you’re not using a letting agency, ensure you use a professional company who thoroughly runs checks and applies all aspects of tenant referencing.

By
Madalena Penny