Hello,
One of my tenants has been difficult since moving in. Antisocial behaviour, noise complaints from direct neighbours, on multiple occasions, and now damage to the property with a smashed window and damage to the communal entrance gate.
He is also currently in arrears by £250 which he keeps promising to pay.
I have the call log to 101 registering the smashed window from my tenant in the below flat.
I have a complete log of all disturbances.
Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks.
Keep a written record of all the incidents and reports arrange an inspection visit (give 24h notice) and explain to tenant what you have been told, get their response and listen- there can be two sides to every story. Explain that anti social behaviour is a breach of the tenancy agreement and needs to stop. Send them a written note of the conversation.
Get quotes to repair the damage, explain to tenant this is not wear and tear but is their responsibility and charge the tenant. If they do not pay up you may have to claim from deposit when they leave.
Make your insurance company aware
As a backup consider what options you have to evict (with end of s21 that might be waiting till they are 3 months in arrears or moving in or selling the place or asb grounds - these are for severe asb including conviction (7b) or are discretionary (14)
Tables of Section 8 grounds of Renters' Rights Act • The Independent Landlord )
Good luck
keep a diary of disturbances with as much evidence as you can. Ask any neighbour willing to do the same. Contact your council and let them know you are doing this. Ask them how long their policies require before you (and/or neighbours - get as many people as possible) can submit a complaint to them with this evidence (might be 28 days or longer).
Look into grounds for evicting for antisocial behaviour
Get advice from a specialist solicitor or landlord organisation on whether you have enough for a section 8 ground 14 claim.
my advice is if that is your photo and name get them changed as this is a public forum which your tenant has access to
The OP is actually Kevin, and he’s completely bald and wears a patch over one eye. Pity him. You’d use a fake photo too.
There is nothing you can realistically and legally do except recover damages and arrears from the deposit if and when he leaves. I suspect serving notice with s8 will be a stressful waste of your time and money. My advice is not to worry too much about the noise and other ASB, it’s the neighbours’ problem not yours, they can report the situation to the council if they want. Just ring him and say there have been complaints about noise etc - but don’t accuse him of anything, just see what he says and if he agrees that he has been behaving badly ask him nicely to be more considerate. He is your tenant, you don’t want to get his back up. If the neighbours contact you ask them what they’d like you to do, they’ll soon realise that there is nothing you can do.
The real important thing is to see how you ended up with a problem tenant and whether you can avoid it happening in the future. He’s a sub-prime tenant, and no sensible landlord would want to take sub primes on.