The need for thorough tenant referencing has been highlighted again.
Recently, we acted for a landlady (who wishes to remain unnamed) based in North London whose references – carried out by her former agent – did not flag up a bad tenant.
Unfortunately, our landlady did not get away with it and it has taken almost 6 months for us to successfully remove the tenant from the property.
The tenant paid two month’s rent upfront. After this, no rent was paid. Instead, the tenant went about making changes to the property without the prior consent of the landlord.
Evicting on this ground is difficult because the case will rest on the discretion of a Judge. For this reason, we pursued the matter under Section 8 (rent arrears, which is mandatory grounds for eviction).
We have now successfully regained possession of the property. However, the ordeal had serious effects on our landlady, leaving her with £7,000 worth of rent arrears. It meant that she was unable to keep up with her mortgage and eventually ended up losing her home. Further, our landlady subsequently suffered from clinical depression and had to be signed off work due to all of the stress it caused her.
Looking at this case, we can highlight a few key points in the hope that other landlords will not fall in the same way:
1. Although the agent was responsible for the tenant referencing, landlords must ensure that this is done properly. Read this for more tips on tenant referencing.
2. The tenancy agreement did not have a break clause. This is partly the fault of the agent, too. However, the landlord must assume responsibility for this.
3. Always use an accredited agent. Look for ARLA, RICS, NAEA, The Property Ombudsman, etc. These agents tend to have higher standards.
If you are not an experienced landlord/landlady, using an experienced agent is a must – there really is no substitute.
We’ll leave you with a quote from our landlady:
“This has affected every element of my life leaving me with clinical depression and being subsequently signed off work. I have learnt from my mistakes but I cannot stress enough to other landlords, the importance of carrying out thorough referencing checks, meeting with the person face-to-face and taking out insurance to protect yourself, so that if the worst happens, you are covered.”
