Landlord suffers multiple injuries in violent tenant attack

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A Bournemouth landlord is recovering after being savagely beaten up by tenants outside his property.

Phil Nicolaou needed stitches to a head wound, suffered concussion, a fractured hand, cracked ribs and various cuts and bruises when the two young men laid into him with a baseball bat and plant pots as he attempted to change the locks.

Referencing checks

The first-time landlord admits he didn’t carry out the proper referencing checks after finding the tenant – a woman and her teenage and grown-up sons – on Gumtree, but explains that she initially paid her rent on time. Problems began last year when he advised her that he needed to put the £1,250 a month rent on the four-bedroom flat up by 10%, however when she protested, he paid back some of her deposit to absorb the extra cost.

Despite working – and renting a room to a foreign student – she began to withhold rent in January. In frustration, Nicolaou gave her notice in February and she stopped paying rent in March. “I tried to contact her but she blocked our numbers,” he tells LandlordZONE. “When we went round there, we found she had installed CCTV outside and changed the locks. We were verbally abused, so on our next visit, we planned to try and change the locks again.”

Tenants arrested

To partner Lauren’s horror, the woman’s teenage son and young foreign student set about Nicolaou with a heavy clay pot and bat and threatened him with a kitchen knife. He managed to stagger away without retaliating and after police arrived, the three tenants were arrested but released without charge. The couple were told it was difficult to convict minors and that they had provoked the attack by going to the house.

“We feel really angry and let down,” says Nicolaou. “We’ve asked Landlord Action to handle the eviction but know this could take months, while we are not getting the rent which we need to start legal action. I want to warn others that this particular family are very experienced and savvy when it comes to playing the system – I’m worried they’ll do this to someone else.” 

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