Jan

ANOTHER landlord’s good intentions turn to horror – made worse by evictions ban

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Another landlord has told how the evictions ban scuppered her plans to evict a nightmare tenant and left her home uninhabitable.

Jenny Darroch rented the property out through Bournemouth Council’s landlord incentive scheme in 2019 as she wanted to support social housing supply.

It was then let through agents Homes4Let, a business operated by East Boro Housing Trust, until March last year.

The scheme paid landlords up to £2,000 for offering their properties to social tenants. Darroch said Homes4Let failed to take references and damage was caused shortly after the tenants moved into the house in Northbourne, a northern suburb of the Dorset seaside town.

The Bournemouth Daily Echo reports that after spending thousands of pounds in legal costs, Darroch finally got the house back but was shocked to discover it was infested with flies and rats, had widespread water damage, and rubbish had been dumped throughout.

She now needs to spend tens of thousands of pounds to get the property back in a suitable condition and has vowed never to rent it out again.

Proper checks

Darroch told the Echo: “If the council want private landlords to let their properties out they should ensure the proper checks and precautions are done. Landlords are not all bad. I let the property out to try to do a good thing.”

During the tenancy, both she and the agents were unable to gain access to the property for safety reports to be completed and to carry out repairs, while the council’s housing enforcement team had threatened her with action. She finally served notice at the end of 2020 but the legal process was delayed due to Covid.

East Boro Housing Trust sold the Homes4Let agency last year and Whites of Bournemouth took on the role as agent of the property; Darroch said Whites had done all it could to support her. An East Boro Housing Trust spokesman said it was carrying out a review into the issue.

Read about another case of bad referencing that led to nightmare tenants.

Pic Credit: Bournemouth Echo.

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