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Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 7:30 am

I'm renovating a house, the previous tenant went awol a couple of weekends ago, and the owner wants it bought back to liveable again.

So I'm plastering the walls in the back bedroom, finish, start to move the trestles into the front room, when I look out the window, and there's a tow truck, and a car with 2 official looking guys in the MIB outfits. And the tow truck guy is hooking up to MY Pajero.

I casually saunter outside, (I could have beaten that Jamaican easily) and start a fairly heated discussion with the MIB and the tow truck driver along the lines of "what the **** is going on here??" and words to that effect.

I get a Court order flashed in front of my face for all of 10 seconds, with a verbal "We're Baliffs, and we can seize any property to cover the fines issued by the court"

So I park myself between the Pajero and the tow truck, the MIB start the peace keeping talk, "We have the right to seize any property we find here" and "If you want the Police involved, we will get them here, now walk away from the vehicle"

After a bit of the verbals, I finally get to see the Court Order, which is made out for the ex-tenant. As far as the MIB are concerned, it's the right address, the name doesn't matter, so we stalemated it out till the Police arrived.

They arrived with a bit of an attitude, I was told that if I didn't comply with the court order etc, I would be arrested etc. They finally did what I'd suggested to the Baliffs, to check out the house, for occupants, and also to check with my partner, we have 3 LARGE signs up with the Property Maintenance Co. name , ph, and logo,

Surprise surprise, the house is mostly gutted, they ran a check on my vehicle rego, it does belong to me, it took an hour and a half to convince them that no, I don't know the person they are looking for, no, I don't know where she is, and yes, I'm just working on the house since last week.

I wouldn't like to be the ex-tenant when they do find her, she has 3 arrest warrants out, 2 court orders for seizure of property, and by now, probably a few more things.

If I'd had a few less braincells I could have been a Baliff too Very Happy

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:44 am

So how're those walls looking?

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Wow
What if you hadnt noticed them?
Think they would have checked the registration out first

Years ago we had a similar situation with the previous owners of our place.
They hadnt paid a bill since they put it on the market and had curtains carpets washing machines delivered here for their new place.
We'll have to reposses the carpets and curtains we were told.
Please do says I showing them the dirty, holey stuff left behind. Saves me the cost of a skip
They declined
Didnt think much of the basin and wringer I was using to do our washing. ( I was fair chuffed it was an electric mangle )

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:45 am

Grrrrrr. Don't get me started on delinquent tenants. I spent a fortune tracking down a woman who not only sold, ie stole, most of the fixtures and fittings on the house she didn't pay any rent for ("my trustfund cheque is in the post") and did a runner the UK police were next to useless because although I knew where she was living (with her mother) they told me "there's nothing we can do about it. Privacy innit mate". I tried civil proceedings too with the same result.

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 11:06 am

Just think of how much work you could have gotten done in that time. Mad

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:46 pm

When I first met Mrs iMike, I moved in with her & rented out the house I had at the time. Made the mistake of following the agent's advice & letting to a DSS tenant (their argument was that the rent would be paid directly to me from the benefits agency, so there shouldn't be any problems with late/missing payments). All seemed OK for around 18 months & then the rent stopped. The agents were very cagey & said they'd 'look into it'. It took around 4 months for them to tell me that the tenant had been caught working & claiming benefit, so they'd immediately stopped paying the rent.

I got the tenant evicted without problems - the agent said that the house was left in good condition, so I decided to put it up for sale (Mrs iMike & I had married by this time). I got a call from the estate agent who said that the property was unsaleable in it's present condition! The place hadn't been trashed, but it was in a filthy state. The bedroom windows hadn't been opened since I moved out & there was mould & peeling wallpaper everywhere. Spent a couple of weekends decorating & making repairs & eventually sold it (though at a loss). Wouldn't do it again.

Quote:

the UK police were next to useless

Unfortunately, that seems to be the way of things generally. Couple of weeks ago some scrote put an air rifle pellet through our back bedroom window. Reported it to the police - we got a letter saying 'sorry you've been the victim of a crime' Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:58 pm

I was at a client's factory once, when the bailiffs turned up.

They said they wanted everyone to leave the premises immediately, so they could secure it with all the stock and assets inside. Much to the suprise of my clients, something snapped inside me, and I sat down and said 'make me leave the premises, and I'll have you for assault'.

The bailiffs were baffled by that one, even more so when I phoned the Police. Plod turned up, it turned out I knew one of them, I'd bought a car off him. They took the view, as I thought they would, that a civil matter was nothing to do with them, but no, these goons weren't allowed to pick me up and throw me out of the building if I didn't want to leave, that would be assault.

The argument dragged on for a long time. Every 20 minutes, over the bailff's shoulder I saw the firm's van leaving the loading bay, very heavily laden..... Cool

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 5:02 pm

Irish, that was a close escape. Shocked

You'd have had a much harder time, no doubt, trying to recover the van afterwards than preventing them taking it in the first place. As for the other tales of feckless tenants, you can only hope that karma bites them in the nads sooner or later. Rolling Eyes

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 5:19 pm

That just brought chills down my spine... Shocked

I just rented my new house (5 years old). But I let Liberty Property Management take care of the background check and management. Hopefully, we got some good tenants.

The house is still new because it was a weekend home. We couldn't sell because of the poor housing market now, so decided to rent it out.

I heard of many horror stories about tenants sabotaging the house before they leave. I hope justice land on them like a ton of bricks.

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 5:58 pm

When my brother was newly-married, his in-laws offered to sell them a rental property at a much-reduced price. When brother and wife arrived at the house to take possession, they discovered that the walls had been torn out and all the copper piping had been removed, along with every appliance and fixture. It cost them almost more to make the place livable than it had cost to buy it in the first place.

They still live in the house, although they have made additions an improvements over the past 35 years.

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:40 pm

@SirCumference

The walls are looking good, all the holes patched, all the rotten lining ripped out of the bathroom, and the floor replaced, the kitchen is gutted completely, there were mushrooms growing under the sink, pulling the carpet and lino up on Wednesday and sanding and polishing the floors, after the painting is finished.

Have to reline the bathroom, then full tile throughout with new bath and shower fittings, new kitchen to be installed, about another 2 weeks work without looking at the outside or the grounds.

I'm expecting to have more visits from the MIB though, I've learnt to park on the street now, it saves a bit of hassle Very Happy

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 7:02 pm

Irish:

Whilst I am sure it would not have been fun for you, suing the pants off them for taking your Van would have been fun for a barrister.

Parking on the street is probably a better idea at this point Smile

I'd also post no trespassing signs.

Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 12:14 am

To anyone thinking of becoming a landlord for whatever reason please don't be put off by the horror stories. My "tenant from hell" was a one off and I've have many others who have been as good as gold. One was a keen gardener and (competant) DIYer and he left the house in way better shape than when he moved in. If anything went wrong, eg dripping tap, broken window, leaking dishwasher, he'd fix them for free and only charge for the parts he bought. Another guy worked long hours including weekends, often overseas, and probably only slept there once or twice a week. He was in hotel management so I never really understood why he didn't just grab a room at work but he was happy to pay the rent so...

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 10:26 am

Irishemigrant, I hope you invoice the Baliffs for two hours at your top charge out rate!!!!

We have two rental houses, and we rent them at below market rents in order to get/keep the best tennants. One lady has been in one for 5 or 6 years.

We've just had a change of tennants in the other house, the guy who left worked for a ventilation company so he installed a kitchen fan venting to the outside from over the stove before he left because it was something he thought the house needed.

So not all tennants are from hell, there's some gddies out there.

(TOUCH WOOD)