You may have seen in the news lately that a Wimbledon based landlord has been fined over £20,000 for playing ‘dirty’ tricks on his tenants to encourage them to move out. This particular landlord intimidated his tenants by switching off water supplies, cutting electricity and even sealing up the letterboxes so they couldn’t receive any mail.
Of course, there are considerably better ways, and considerably more legal ways to deal with bad tenants. Here are a few suggestions.
Communication
The best thing you can possibly do if your tenants are playing up is to just let them know. Everyone has different ways of doing this and often people, without being deliberately offensive, are just a little inconsiderate. Loud parties, bad security habits and late rent payments can often be cleared up with a stern word of warning.
Insurance
If you do think you’re at risk from damages or late payments, the best thing you can do is get insured. Landlord Insurance is your basic, everyday damages cover and Rent Guarantee Insurance will help you out if you’re finding your payments coming in consistently late. Get covered and make sure you don’t suffer because of bad tenants.
Eviction
Finally, you might have no choice but to evict bad tenants. You need to beware of the protocols surrounding evictions and make sure you follow them to the letter; numerous times tenants with good legal support have found loopholes to get around evictions. Take on legal advice yourself and don’t mess around – if you need to evict someone then your decision has to be final and well supported.
Bad tenants happen to everyone occasionally; it’s not always a failure of your screening processes or your agent – different circumstances affect different people. Start off by getting well insured and talking about your issues to your tenants; if you still don’t get the proper response then you might need to think about eviction.
Either way – follow the laws and back yourself up properly.
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