Tenant makes a mockery of AST agreement

My tenant left, refused to meet me for cheking out inventory as per AST 6.45 but left the keys in a deposit box. Wasted my 120 miles and four hours journey.
Did not cooperate to allow letting agent taking marketing pictures let alone viewings. Did not allow Selling Agent ( i am fed up and just want to sell) over for marketing pictures
messed around the freeholder investigating a ceiling dump patch with last minute cancelled appointments. Paid partial rent ( only until the living day) disputes cleaning bills, refused to provide forward address.
Legal advice tells me that AST is a civil matter and to enforce them I am to instruct a solictor and go through the court system which cost money and stressful time.
What am I to do? Can anybody suggest something?
Clearly tenants makes a mockery of these contracts.
Is there any point in signing them?
MyDeposit is largely a time consuming waste of trime (forgive the punt)
Tenants are always very nice when they move in but when they leave is always a big bitter stressful arguments over everything and I am so fed up with properties,
Perhaps I should just be happy he has gone?

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Dont waste your money. Some of those things theyre not obliged to do anyway.

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The rental market is good but for how long? Personally I’d forget about the tenant & what they owe, get it spruced up get the estate agent in & sell it’s becoming impossible for the private landlord to jump through all these hoops pay extra tax & certificates-take your money & run shows like Homes under the hammer it just aint that easy to rent out, all these people with property portfolios! of course their all registered with HMRC?? But not until they’re caught then comes the big fines for tax evasion- this countries a joke for anyone investing in property. Take your money & run to the nearest bank

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Agree with DaffyDucky, also if you live 120 miles away you cannot realistically manage the property and are reliant on Agents who are only interested in their own back pocket.
If your not an experience LL sell up and save the grief.

I live 60 miles but would be120 m round trip.
I might not be an experienced but have been a landlord with two properties for 10 years and self manage it for about 8.
I am now trying Lettingsupermaket who will manage it. 9.5% including legal assistance rent guarantee while letting a high street Agent trying to sell it.
Tenants are all a pain and the legislation let them getting away with everything

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You are much more likely to sell it and get a good price if you leave it empty. Most tenants will not be prepared to be accomodating for sales viewings. They are paying to use it as their home and they are entitled to quiet enjoyment of the property.

If it doesn’t sell then consider if you do need to rent it.

Hi Richard,
I am aware of that however I think I can convince them by offering money for each viewing.

Or you can slightly lower the rent. That’s what one LL has done, and T went for it.

Its not just the viewings. You will lose any buyer you find because it takes many months to evict a tenant.

You are right on that. However, is a studio flat and most likely to go a buyer who is an investor and would sppreciate to have a tenant in situ. Furthermore, it would take around 10/12 weeks to exchange contracts and tenant would have an AST with a 6 month break clause

Investors expect a 10-20% discount for buying an incumbered property and the potential to inherit compliance mistakes.

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David, you sent 3 comments on this topic.
None of which is positive. I would rather not having them.
Do yourself a favour. Cheer up

So when there is a comment you do not agree with ,you would rather not have them . ?You only want what pleases you? Do yourself a favour. Give up.

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I’m happy to not reply to your posts in future.

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Not really, thats is not the case. Just pointing out David is focusing solely on the negative side of this subject. As for giving up, I am more then happy to take that on board. Thanks

David, life is not just black or white. Your comment are more then welcome. It just would be nice if you could throw something positive in the mix

Franky3, I really dont need vacuous advice on my personality. Either take what you get and if its useful then great, or leave it. You were the one asking for advice.

i dont tend to meet tenants at the end anyway, it can easily turn nasty. it serves no purpose till place is empty anyway
yes Mydeposits are the worst of the three to insure your deposit, useless
realistically there is little you can do, that is the landlords lot i am afraid. sometimes they want a reference so just this week i clawed back a few hundred pounds simply because they needed a reference so they stomped up eventually for damages and cleaning to facilitate a reference.
the law is heavily in favour of the tenant these days and buy to let has so much legislation. tax relief is reduced and there is no allowance for inflation on capital gains. im selling up steadily now.
at least sunak realised a band C epc is unrealistic for many older properties. He seems a lot smarter than the last PM’s which is a glimmer of hope

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Same here. Don’t meet TT on checkout and do commend Sunak. He’s the first in the long time to make sense to me and somebody I actually agree with. A pleasant surprise.

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Check out the small claims court for solutions that money can provide. Simple, cheap, no risk of legal cost escalation

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