A LANDLORD has shared shocking footage of the disgusting state that his property was left in after a bust-up with a long-term tenant.
The landlord, who wishes to remain anonymous, claims his tenant had been residing in the property in Preston, Lancashire, for over a decade but had missed a substantial amount of rent payments, forcing him to issue a two-month notice to leave.
The 56-year-old claims that he was then informed by a neighbour that the tenant ahnd her partner had rapidly vacated the property without informing him, leaving the home in a filthy state of disrepair.
Furthermore, the plumbing of the property had thawed in winter temperatures, resulting in burst pipes and a whopping £6,000 worth of damage.
Video shows the hallway of the property covered in remnants of strewn paper, binbags, empty beer boxes and shopping bags.
The camera pans to a bedroom on the right, in which lies a barely-visible blue mattress littered in piles of dirty clothes and cardboard boxes.
A rusted electrical appliance can also be seen tipped upside down on top of the heap of clothes, whilst shoe boxes and a laundry basket sit beside a large crack in the wall.-
The camera then shows the bedroom floor which is barely walkable due to an unidentified sticky floor residue and scattered shopping bags and boxes.
The landlord then takes the camera to the adjoining bathroom, which is covered in wires, papers, boxes and opened tins of paint unevenly towered on top of each other.
Black mould and damage can be seen on the collapsed ceiling, with chipped yellow paint and leaks dripping into a large green bucket. Boxes of John Smith and Budweiser sit idly next to it.
The landlord has now been left to take the tenant to court over the matter, claiming that he cannot afford the four figure expenses.
The landlord shared the footage in an post to social media last month, writing: “She said she had cleared all she could.
“When asked if she would like to come and get the rest I got a phone call of abuse.
“It seems she feels she is entitled to leave this because I asked her to pay her owed rent and took her to court to get her out.”
The post received dozens of likes and comments as many expressed their anger at seeing the state of the property.
Monika Mila said: “Omg, what will happen next? And they are being supported by the government, shame on them.”
Felicity Annita said: “Name her, she thinks she got away with it but not if she can’t rent again and not touched with a barge pole [by] any landlord.”
Susan Grayston said: “Think the government should protect us from this kind of tenant.”
Alison Parry said: “This is disgusting. Send her the clean-up bill, with the deep clean invoice, good luck.”
Speaking today, the landlord said: “I messaged my tenant at the back end of last year, saying that if she was going to miss a payment then please let me know so I could make arrangements to cover the mortgage payment as she had missed August’s payment but had repaid over the following months.
“She agreed but missed January. I contacted her and asked if she could pay and she said she didn’t have the money.
“I explained that it needed paid and asked her if she could seek help from other agencies or family as I needed the money to cover the mortgage. Her reply was ‘Get your family to pay it.’
“Despite numerous texts over the next few months, reminding her that she needed to pay something, she didn’t pay or offer to correct the shortcomings.
“Bearing in mind both she and her partner work full time and [now] have no children at home.
“So, when July was missed, I spoke to her saying I would like payment but if they weren’t going to pay, I would be forced to ask her to leave.
“She rang me and in an abusive tirade, she told me she wasn’t paying.
“I wrote a letter asking her to move out, offering her two months to find something else and I would forget about all owed rent.
“I explained if she could contact me to accept, it would avoid court action as I wanted to keep it from going to court.
“Nothing came after a month, so I served section eight [wherein the landlord can enter the property within 24 hours if it is deemed uninhabitable].”
He continued: “‘Neighbour rang late November to say they weren’t living in the house any more and had moved out in October. This was the case as she said she was living elsewhere when asked in court.
“The day before I was to gain possession, she rang to say there had been a burst in one of the pipes.
“As they weren’t living there they had turned the heating off, along came a cold snap and froze the pipes which burst and caused the ceiling to collapse and water to get everywhere.
“Plumbing was called and he turned off the stop tap, preventing more water damage. I attended the property at the court-appointed time and spoke to the tenant asking when they would be finished moving out as they were still emptying the house, and if they needed more time.
“She swore and threw the keys at me, which hit my car, at which point I left for another couple of hours, returning to find the house in a bit of a state.
“The pics only show a bedroom and utility room – the rest of the house is as bad. I dropped her a text asking when she would like to collect the rest of her property as she had left a few bits.
“The response was another abuse-laden rant. Why was it left like this?
“Some people are hoarders, some people don’t believe they need to respect other people’s property, some people are just vindictive, some don’t understand personal responsibility. My tenant, who knows?
“But I am left with a large bill for the removal of all their stuff, which I have to babysit for a month, then sort out and put aside anything which could be valuable, and contact them, telling them to come and collect or they go into storage until a time comes when they can be auctioned.
“[It] is a lot of hassle to go through when dealing with abusive tenants and the property they cannot be bothered to remove.”
