4th November 2017
One last little horror story to end this Halloween season!!
A seemingly nice couple took a property, for the full asking rent, and passed the references with flying colours.
All set and ready for the move date, I informed the landlord of the cost of an inventory and check in at the property. “How much? There’s nothing in there, it is unfurnished” was the landlord’s response; despite me informing him of the importance of having such a document for deductions at the end of the tenancy, his attitude was “I’ll do it myself, it can`t be that hard”.
Now, this landlord kept his word, and conducted an inventory and check in on half of an A4 paper! I would imagine that the other half of this piece of paper had been used for his other property. The tenants moved in as planned and things went swimmingly. The rent came in on time and in full, apart from the landlord informing me that the tenants seemed to be reporting every little issue they found to him and making a mountain out of a mole hill. This was getting to him a little, yet despite this the tenancy continued for a further few months until the tenants gave notice to leave in one months’ time. After notice was given, the relationship between the landlord and tenant soured somewhat due to the tenants need to over dramatise every dripping tap or missing light bulb, and the landlord being pestered all times of the day and night by them, it came to the point that I had to relay messages between them as neither would take each other’s calls (not a standard part of the service but I’m always happy to help).
The landlord advised that the tenants should leave the property on the agreed date and hand the keys back to me at the office, and also asked if I could conduct a free of charge informal check out once the tenants had left (again not part of the standard service but it would only take me about 30 seconds considering I only had the half A4 page to go by. The day soon arrived when the tenants dropped the keys off to me, I grabbed my “in-depth inventory” and headed to the property. I then phoned the landlord to inform him that the tenants had left the property clean and tidy, and that everything that was listed on the inventory was in fact still there, however, he had forgotten to list a few keys areas of the property, which were now no longer at the property! The tenants had removed the:
Toilet, sink, bathtub, cooker, fridge, washing machine, and the kitchen itself – work tops, units, draws and the frame!
The landlord could not even make any claim from the deposit, as he left out these areas on the inventory (I resisted reminding him that I had advised him to get a professional inventory done).
This situation may not have been completely avoided, however, the landlord would have been able to make a claim to the deposit, and who knows the tenants may not have even done this, if there was a professional inventory and check in and out completed at the property.
Richard Bond
Lettings Manager
